The Broken Bells, aka Danger Mouse and Shins’ frontman James Mercer, stopped by SIRIUS Radio for a live performance of “The Ghost Inside.” There’s not much to say about this performance other than it’s a must watch – yup – it’s THAT good. Check it out below.
I knew Broken Bells had put out a sweet deluxe package, but those pictures on the band’s Web site just didn’t do it justice.
Warning, the Broken Bells unboxing may cause credit cards to levitate, uncontrollable drooling and possible tremors. Thanks to Perfect Porridge for posting on Facebook and thanks to Danger Mouse and James Mercer for knowing how to throw it down.
Read our past Broken Bells Coverage:
Music Video: Broken Bells – The High Road
Shins’ Frontman James Mercer and Danger Mouse Team Up Again for Broken Bells Project
As we commented on back in December, James Mercer and Danger Mouse had joined forces to put out a record under the name Broken Bells. The Shin’s frontman and ne’er-do-wrong artist and producer released the first single, “The High Road,” shortly thereafter and, now, we’ve got a video for the song.
The music video was directed by Sophie Muller, who jumped into the medium back in the 80′s, doing a ton of work for the Eurythmics. Since then, she’s directed music videos for everyone from Sophie B. Hawkins to The Kills to Pink.
For Broken Bells, she opted for a darker look and feel – literally.
We’ve been following the rumors and all the cryptic rumblings in the blogosphere about Dark Night of the Soul, but that’s all there really was chatter. We knew Danger Mouse, the genius behind The Grey Album and one part of Gnarls Barkley, had teamed up with Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous for this mysterious project. We heard that Danger Mouse is in an on-going dispute with EMI so that this project might never see the light of day.
But what we didn’t know was that there was an unusual twist — David Lynch’s involvement in the project. Well, thanks to a faithful reader who was scrolling through NPR, we’ve now put all the pieces together.
According to NPR, the album’s songs were written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse in conjunction with the all-star roster of singers featured. If you’ve been following the online fodder, you’re probably well aware that the album was initally going to be packaged with a book of photos taken by David Lynch, but thanks to Danger Mouse’s dispute with EMI the music may never (officially) be released.
But why would that stop music fans from finding ways to get the music? And why would that stop two of the more creative brains in the game from getting the music out somehow? Well, it wouldn’t, especially not in this day in age. So, while you can visit the official Dark Night of the Soul website to order the book with a blank, recordable CD-R, you’ll actually have to visit NPR to hear the full album in its entirety. Gotta love the internets, folks! Btw, if you have this album – hook us up…
So what does it sound like? It’s beautiful, haunting, dark, and brilliant all at the same time. You can’t help but get swept up into it – not to mention the roster of contributors in: James Mercer (The Shins), Julian Casablancas (The Strokes), Suzanne Vega, Iggy Pop and more. It’s worth the visit to NPR.
[via NPR and RT reader "F to the T" < -- thanks, man.]
Update: DL it now – get it while you can!! [Link removed]
