Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead take me way back to my careless years working at the HMV Megastore in downtown Montreal, when I was living in a huge appartment with three other friends; throwing parties every couple of days. It was pretty much an open house and there was constantly people coming and going, sometimes people we didn't even know. A huge mess, great friendships, tensions and loads of fun. There was always music playing in one room or another and from my room, chances are you could hear some Blonde Redhead being played between two Pixies songs. On minimum wage, you had to pick and choose carefully which CDs you were going to buy and you usually went with artists that stuck pretty close to what you were already listening to; there wasn't much room to be adventurous. Working in a music store helped however since we could always listen to albums before buying. So being a huge Sonic Youth fan at the time, Blonde Redhead seemed like a sensible addition to my collection (which was maybe 25 to 30 CDs back then). I purchased their first eponymous album and although I wasn't hooked immediately, I did really enjoy a number of songs on it enough to play it on a regular basis (especially Girl Boy which I literally had on "repeat" for hours on end, coming up with scenarios in my head to go along with the song).
The trio (composed of the italian twins Amadeo and Simone Pace - who both momentarily lived in Montreal when younger! - and japanese singer Kazu Makino) have often been accused of copying the whole Sonic Youth sound: feedback and atonal guitar riffs sculpted into artsy, emotional pop tunes. Indeed, the early albums do have many similarities and I simply considered them as "really good" imitators. However, this reputation would slowly die out as new albums were released and their sound became more and more personal, reaching it's peak with the career-affirming Melody Of Certain Damaged Lemons and it's subsequent albums. The trio had at this point smoothed out the rough edges of their sound and added a healthy dose of shoegazing melancholia (My Bloody Valentine comes to mind - but there's no emulating going on here!) and even a certain Gainsbourg-esque inclination to the formula. The music immediately shifted from harsh and pretentious to absolutely mesmerizing and gorgeous. That is not to say that the early albums pale in comparison, I do prefer the later works, but the Blonde Redhead "charm" can be found throughout their entire career although it has been conveyed in a different ways from album to album.
Misery Is A ButterflyLabel: 4AD Release: 2004 Format: CD Cat. no: CAD 2409CD |
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23Label: 4AD Release: 2007 Format: CD Cat. no: CAD 2717CD |
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