8-3-11 - "Perth" ~ Bon Iver

In honor of several of my friends who trekked to various locales over the past few days to catch Bon Iver in concert, here's the epic leadoff track from the recent self-titled release.  I wasn't able to make one of the shows, but NPR did the world a solid by streaming last night's DC show live and leaving it up for us schmucks who missed it to catch later.  Definitely worth your time, some evening when you can just sit back and soak it in.


The song features rolling percussion, reminiscent of a drum corps from the Civil War, muted horns creating a surreal sensation, and of course, Justin Vernon's soaring falsetto.  Lyrically, it's pretty cryptic, yet beautiful.  Vernon said in a recent interview that the song was inspired by the happenstance of working with a close friend of Heath Ledger's when the actor died, and the town from which Ledger had come.  The emotions of loss and the conceptualizing of a town form the foundation for the rest of this amazing album...

"in a mother, out a moth
furling forests for the soft
gotta know been led aloft..."
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EDIT 8-6-11: my friend Jake, who attended the DC show on Monday, posted a video of this song from the show!  Check it out on Youtube (embedding not so much working right now)