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August 26, 2008

Bon Iver Covers Okkervil River

thumbnail icon: Bon Iver Covers Okkervil River

Another one from The Stand Ins Sessions. Chapter Four brings us Justin Vernon, wearing a shirt with sleeves for the first time all summer, applying the upper reaches of his internet-famous falsetto to Okkervil River's "Blue Tulip." Like the others we've posted (Carl Newman's "Lost Coastlines" with Will Sheff, and David Vandervelde's "Singer Songwriter," if you're keeping score), it comes sans band. As For Emma fans can attest, though, Bon Iver is particularly well suited to coming sans band. (However he is joined on some late accompanying vocals by roadmates Mike Noyce and Sean Carey, who fill out the typical live Iver lineup.) Justin starts with Will's melody up an octave, keeping it in his head voice throughout, substituting the original's swing in favor of the yearning folk makeover you'd probably expect him to. (It's pretty much as lovely as you expect, too).

The Stand Ins is out 9/9 via Jagjaguwar. Bon Iver's For Emma came out forever ago, also on Jag.

Posted at 2:54 PM by amrit in
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12 Comments

Rockin' the Collections of Colonies of Bees shirt - nice!

Posted by: uwmryan at 08/26/08 3:31 PM  | Reply
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wouldn't that be chapter 3???

Posted by: D.D.D.Dave at 08/26/08 3:57 PM  | Reply
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Actually "Blue Tulip"'s the fourth proper track on the album. Chapter Three was a cover of "Starry Stairs" by Jack Ladder:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZvLs4b8Uqo

Posted by: amrit profile link  in reply to D.D.D.Dave's comment at 08/26/08 4:14 PM  | Reply
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I gotta say I'm only half onboard with the rural American trend (Dodos, yay! Fleet Foxes, meh) and so it goes for, uhm, For Emma. But I saw BI last night (troubadour) and they were fairly spectacular. (The guitar player kid musta been 14 what?)

Posted by: porter at 08/26/08 4:44 PM  | Reply
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Seriously - how old is that kid? And...this is just beautiful.

Posted by: Sheila  in reply to porter's comment at 08/26/08 5:17 PM  | Reply
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The kid is 20 years old. Bon Iver mentioned it at the show here in Wlliamsburg a few weeks back.

Posted by: pants at 08/26/08 5:24 PM  | Reply
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the dodos, yes! leaders of the pack, but still relatively under the surface, that will change

this guy not bad, but can't understand a damn word, can't hit high notes either, solid guitar player

Posted by: loui at 08/26/08 8:09 PM  | Reply
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I like that Shawn is reading Dwell magazine. Listening to Collections of Colonies of Bees? reading Dwell? What a bunch of yuppies.

Posted by: Tom at 08/26/08 8:43 PM  | Reply
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wow, this is immensely better than the original. bon iver is pretty incredible. took a pretty bland song and made it heart-breaking. nice.

Posted by: christian at 08/27/08 1:22 AM  | Reply
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damn. this guy IS priceless. weird how he can perform this song so enchantingly eventhough it looks like he is sitting in some doctors waiting room.
Cool stuff Bon Iver dudes!

Posted by: rudeboy profile link at 08/27/08 2:40 AM  | Reply
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mike noyce (the guitar player in question) just turned 21, and much drink was had.
also, this is great.

Posted by: andy p at 08/27/08 3:02 AM  | Reply
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bon iver is so good.

Posted by: man at 08/27/08 10:05 AM  | Reply
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