BIBJ Playlist of the 2000s entry #14: Wolves (Act I and II) by Bon Iver

Two minutes and 54 seconds into this track, one of the most personally captivating musical snapshots I've ever heard takes place.

This moment takes place within an album about which the back story has become indie folklore.  And indeed, it's pretty much impossible to hear a Bon Iver song without picturing the interior of that snow-covered Wisconsin cabin in your mind's eye.  It feels cold and lonely and necessary.  The remoteness and solitude embeds itself within every moment of the album's 37 minutes, and captures a soul-crushing intimacy that previously hadn't been pulled off since Elliott Smith died.  It is relentlessly authentic and raw in its magic.

Until that moment, 2:54 seconds into "Wolves."

BIBJ Playlist of the 2000s entry #75: Blood Bank by Bon Iver

Full Details of the BIBJ Millennial Playlist Hullabaloo are available here. Today's entry is #75: Blood Bank by Bon Iver (2009)



Bon Iver - Blood Bank (mp3)

Imagine this is your scenario. You’ve endured two nearly simultaneous break-ups: your relationship and your band. You move from North Carolina to a cabin in the remote woods of Wisconsin. You spend the winter searching for an escape, and in the process record an album it’s unlikely anyone will hear. But people do hear it. Lots of people. In fact, the blogosphere blows up with person tripping over one another trying to come up with new ways to call the album a masterpiece. The STORY of making the album is inseparable from the album itself. So as a songwriter, how on earth do you go about following that up?

You write a song based on an episode of “Northern Exposure.”

Musically, Blood Bank would fit perfectly with any song on Bon Iver’s debut LP. What’s different is there’s actually a cohesive storytelling in the lyrics. While much of the LP’s intrigue came from poetic non-sequiturs, (“Only love is all maroon / Lapping lakes like leery loons.” Come again?) here Justin Vernon is pretty straight forward with his story. And the moral of that story is “The Blood Bank: It’s the new singles bar! Make a love connection while watching prospective suitors get tested for disease before your eyes!”

Bad Idea Show Review: Bon Iver at Lakeshore Theater

photo via Flickr

On Thursday evening in Chicago, you could pay $10.50 to see a first run movie (Superhero Movie, anyone?) or, for 50 cents less, see Bon Iver perform at the Lakeshore Theater. While I cannot weigh in one way or another on the quality of Leatherheads, I can tell you that option 2 was clearly the winner.

Bon Iver is the end result of Justin Vernon spending three months alone in a Wisconsin cabin. When he emerged, he had created "For Emma, Forever Ago," an album that draws influences from the melancholy subdued pop of Elliott Smith or Nick Drake, combined with the falsetto vocals of Jeff Buckley or TV on the Radio. Thursday evening, Bon Iver played the album in sequential order (impressively armed with a different guitar for each song.) The vocal harmonies soared throughout a theater otherwise rendered completely silent. The silence magnified the spaces inbetween the vocal phrasings or strumming patterns. It created an atmosphere where you didn't want to move a muscle - you were simply locked in the moment. Powerful stuff indeed.

The entire album is streaming free online and is thus far my favorite album I've heard this year. And it's well worth the price of whatever other movie is playing this weekend