By showing up on the Rolling Stone cover in a Cramps shirt and giving that amazingly twitchy and gothed-out Grammys performance, Lorde only confirmed what we already knew: She’s an intense, awkward, real teenager who’s somehow invaded pop culture, a rare respite from the gleaming charm-schooled facsimiles we’ve come to expect. After her big Grammys night, Lorde returned home to New Zealand and gave more reasons to like her. First, she took out a full-page ad in the New Zealand Herald, using it to send a handwritten thank-you letter to her entire homeland. Then, in her performance at the Laneway Sideshow in Auckland’s Silo Park tonight, she debuted covers of James Blake’s “Retrograde” and Son Lux’s “Easy,” and she also brought back her version of the Replacements’ “Swingin’ Party.” Read the letter and check out fan-made videos of those Blake and Son Lux covers below.

(via Daily Mail)

I was definitely not this cool when I was 17. If I’d suddenly stumbled into global pop stardom, I’d be taking out full-page ads to make fun of my dad’s mustache and covering the Mighty Mighty Bosstones.

In other news, the Hairpin has responded to “Lorde age truthers” by obtaining the singer’s birth certificate (for $17.02)…