“Butterfly Knife” is one of those songs so intense that, however much you might appreciate it, you occasionally finding yourself wish you could un-hear. There’s something about Erika M. Anderson’s voice as she sketches out the rough details of a troubled teen — affectless and somehow removed, observing the proceedings as might a ghost — that belies the gravity of her subject. Classmates say the high school goth will never go through with the suicide whose previous attempts are recorded in knife scars on the arms. A few years later, she — he? — goes through with it: “Only God can make it right / In the desert underneath the light, it’s / Twenty kisses with a butterfly knife.” In this live performance recorded for Austria’s FM4, EMA and her backing band add a piano, some vocal fuzz and a variety of other effects, drawing out the song to epic length. A worthy live performance of one of the year’s most indelible songs.
Pop Intellectuals
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Byline on Grantland. I am seriously giddy. Click, read and listen to my Songs of the Week if you are so inclined.
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“Nobody comes out and says Skrillex-as-Unabomber or Skrillex-sans-fun because Skrillex is uncool.”—
Robert Christgau, from his review of Death...
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Okkervil River to play Sycamore Land Trust benefit at Upland Brewing Co. August 31st
We teamed with Upland Brewing Co. to brin Okkervil...
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zoya:
In other Skrillex news, here’s Hype Machine RTing Skrillex RTing Ellie Goulding RTing the Hype Machine chart robot.
