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January 6, 2009

Iron & Wine Offers Jay Leno His "Flightless Bird, American Mouth"

thumbnail icon: Iron & Wine Offers Jay Leno His "Flightless Bird, American Mouth"

Last January we saw Sam Beam perform "Flightless Bird, American Mouth" by his lonesome. A year later, he's reprising The Shepherd's Dog closer on Leno with band in tow. If you haven't seen Twilight it might seem strange that he's making the Late Night rounds for an album that came out in the Fall of 2007, but beyond teenage vampire movies, the song's take on the loss of innocence/an idealized America, materialism and fat cats devouring flightless birds is all the more chilling amid the dust of our fucked economy and feels like the better reason to be singing this particular song. You can watch it at Hulu.

Posted at 2:06 PM by brandon in
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20 Comments

In tote? srsly? get your idioms right.

Posted by: Liam at 01/06/09 2:16 PM | Reply
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brandon

totes

Posted by: brandon profile link in reply to Liam's comment at 01/06/09 2:31 PM | Reply
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what a dirty, talentless hippie.

Posted by: bbs82 at 01/06/09 2:28 PM | Reply
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The imagery stricken up by Iron & Wine's music is doing for music what Kerouac did for novels.

Posted by: Martin at 01/06/09 2:57 PM | Reply
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so you're saying his the imagery in his lyrics causes disease?

Posted by: zeppo in reply to Martin's comment at 01/06/09 7:28 PM | Reply
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i love sam beam. i am huge fan of nearly all his work, but sonically, i cannot enjoy this song. the lyrics are great, but i find the composition so lazy and dull. i know there are probably a ton of people that disagree with me and think this song is beautiful with its soaring falsettos, but i guess i find beauty in other sam songs like "carousel" "on your wings" and "the trapeze swinger"

Posted by: pat at 01/06/09 3:17 PM | Reply
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Zach Galifianakis?

Posted by: Los at 01/06/09 3:24 PM | Reply
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Great song. Too bad Twilight kind of ruined it for me. But, I think it's an appropriate time to play the song on Leno.

Posted by: IMABBALLPLAYER profile link at 01/06/09 3:35 PM | Reply
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yeah I totally thought that was zach galifianakis

Posted by: Elise at 01/06/09 4:35 PM | Reply
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Off topic: I'm kind of in awe that Stereogum hasn't mentioned that No One Does it Like You opened the Gossip Girl episode last night. "Who cares", you may say - but it delighted my juvenille heart.

Posted by: Z at 01/06/09 5:28 PM | Reply
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Scott

I noticed it!. Also: Empire of the Sun was used on The City last night.

Posted by: Scott profile link in reply to Z's comment at 01/06/09 5:33 PM | Reply
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amrit

Don't be in awe, it was mentioned off-hand in today's Dan Deacon post!

Posted by: amrit profile link in reply to Z's comment at 01/06/09 5:51 PM | Reply
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Opps! So it is; that's what I get for skipping Dan Deacon posts. Thanks for pointing it out =)

Posted by: Z in reply to amrit's comment at 01/07/09 12:44 AM | Reply
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No shame in skipping a Dan Deacon post. Maybe if we all did it, he'd go away.

Posted by: Boogie Man in reply to Z's comment at 01/07/09 9:46 AM | Reply
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Make it more interesting. Say, like mash it up with JayZ. I can't believe he cut beautiful hair. I knew it...once the farm boy came across them city folk, they'd change his ways.

Posted by: chewy at 01/06/09 6:09 PM | Reply
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Still wondering why he's on a soundtrack for a movie like that(alongside paramore, cringe). I hope they don't play this song in the movie at a super cheesy moment.

Posted by: Benjfier profile link at 01/06/09 6:23 PM | Reply
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actually whoever picked the music for he movie did a great job by putting each song in the perfect situation.

Posted by: e in reply to Benjfier's comment at 01/06/09 7:18 PM | Reply
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I actually like Paramore.

Posted by: IMABBALLPLAYER profile link in reply to Benjfier's comment at 01/06/09 8:18 PM | Reply
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When has anything from the Tonight Show ever been timely?

Posted by: Dave at 01/08/09 2:01 AM | Reply
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Sam Beam is a sister fucker.

Posted by: Ben G at 01/09/09 11:04 AM | Reply
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