Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)

I'm interviewing Bejar soon. Any questions you guys want asked?

which one looool???

Why are you so obsessed with MELODY?! Oops, wrong thread, sorry!

so apparently the laziest river instrumental stuff wasnt written by bejar but by one of the band members? or so ive been told, not that i can find anything about it on the internet

ok its ted bois

maybe everyone know that? now i want to hear a ted bois album

That extra side [a suite entitled “The Laziest River”] was recorded independently of all the other songs on Kaputt. The piano player in Destroyer [Ted Bois], doesn’t actually play on [the CD version of] Kaputt. He took all the photos, and he did the artwork for the two Destroyer EPs before the album, but he’s not playing because there’s no piano on the record. But yeah, he pretty much composed that 20-minute side in its entirety and recorded it, and it’s really kind of a feat. I mean, I’m really really into it. I sing on it a little bit, in the middle.

http://endhits.portlandmercury.com/endhits/archives/2011/03/18/extended-qanda-with-dan-bejar-of-destroyer

that song rules

yeah its the best thing ive heard all year

love that song, didnt realise dan bejar had nothin to do w/ it. good work ted

If you read the liner notes from the vinyl edition you would know that The Laziest River was mainly written by Ted Bois.

yeah, assholes, next time read the liner notes from the vinyl edition

wwwhat if i dont have a record player??

what if its super expensive for me to get the vinyl edition in the stupid uk

then you don't get to know stuff dumbass

you think its this same ted bois? http://www.ecuad.ca/people/profile/14513

tempted to email him and ask if hes going to do more of that sick tangerine dream/michael shrieve shit

well he is drinking in his picture, which means he must be cool, so... probably is him?

he looks like busy p in that pic

is it this same ted dibiase?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eV7PCieEPI

whoa gross accidentally posted the 'new intro'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cDWPvhiPWg
there we go

see
this
band
live

--tyler 'scratch' perry (diamonddavie85)

really? did you go to a show? details!

Had tix last night, could't go. Curious, since I've never liked him live before. But then, I haven't liked his other albums very much, either.

Hilarious that "The Laziest River" was mostly written by the piano player. Perhaps explains why the track's not on the album. And why the piano player's not on the album, perhaps!

Oh I guess I missed the show as well. Guess I'll catch him at Pitchfork.

ooh he's coming here in two weeks!

Heavier thoughts lurk under Destroyer's glittering sheen

By Althea Legaspi, Special to the Tribune
8:12 a.m. CDT, March 30, 2011

review of Chicago show

Dan Bejar, whose solo project is Destroyer, didn't look like a typical commanding frontman during Destroyer's sold-out performance at Lincoln Hall on Tuesday. Spending most of his time onstage either rocking back and forth to the rhythms with eyes closed, crouched low during instrumental passages, or with his back or side turned to the audience (with an occasional meek bow), Bejar would've looked more the part of unassuming poet were it not for the seven talented, energetic musicians orbiting him. Bejar's reticent stage presence, however, also served the material well, adding to the enigmatic quality of Destroyer.

Bejar has run the genre gamut through the course of his career, which also includes band membership in The New Pornographers and Swan Lake. From folk and psychedelia to glam and pop, his songwriting is buoyed by an instinctual quirkiness and clever, if sometimes oblique, lyrics. For his ninth solo project, "Kaputt," from which Destroyer culled most of Tuesday's set, he changed styles up once again, touching on jazzy smooth rock with shimmery, synth-driven '80s pop. Add to this Bejar's affinity for juxtaposing such comfortable, familiar musical backdrops to more cerebral lyrical themes — alienation and disillusionment among them — and the material was steeped in modern times.

Being subversive was part of Destroyer's charm. As artful, romantic and sultry as "Blue Eyes" was, with its flirting sax and trumpet and soulful male-female vocal interplay, it suggested myriad other thoughts: its creator standing on his own island ("I write poetry for myself"), media mocking and references to other's songs. What sounded breezily carefree on the surface didn't often have such attractive underpinnings.

That was a thread throughout: Beneath the appealing musical sheen, something else, perhaps more dire, was percolating. The encore "Bay of Pigs," an epic, multi-part composition, traversed so much territory lyrically and musically, it was forgivable that Bejar referred to lyric sheets. Bathed in atmospherics with New Age beginnings, the opus grew in scope, incorporating flute, discofied dance beats and rock. Destroyer's show proved enjoyable whether skimming the easy-listening surface, or delving deeper.

really? did you go to a show? details!

yea i went to the chicago show and it was excellent. it's basically kaputt on tour which is exactly what i was looking for. some people ive talked to who've been destroyer fans for years were disappointed by the lack of non-kaputt songs, however

the band was excellent: very tight but they let loose just at the right times. sax and trumpet player stole the show imo

no non-kaputt songs at all? or just very few?

(btw before this conversation goes any further I would like to propose the acronym "NKS" for "non-kaputt song(s)")

2 NKS songs which my destroyer fan friend (DFF?) described as the most kaputty songs in his back catalogue. they were both excellent

destroy friends forever

now I really wanna know what 2 songs are the kaputtiest

my dff said one of the songs was from his first album o__O

friend of mine was at that show. said it kinda killed the mood when Bejar whipped out the lyric sheet to sing from haha

http://twitpic.com/4fde2z

i fully approve of this phenomenon

uk date at heaven announced today! kind of sad i never saw the straight up rock version, tbh, but still happy at the idea of seeing this

Ha, I was supposed to review that show for the Trib, but I handed it over to Althea for a confluence of reasons.

aagh this show was so good!!

i didn't care abt the lyrics sheet - the lyrics are so much like poetry that forgetting some of them seems inevitable imo. anyway, dan is so great who cares.
they did a few older songs too = happiness. esp '3000 flowers', which i love love love

yeah this was great

though I was slightly disappointed that he didn't kaputtify his older songs more than he did

everything from kaputt was incredible. highlights were (unsurprisingly) suicide demo for kara walker, song for america and bay of pigs

totally. ooh and i picked up the vinyl too and it sounds straight up beautifullll

holy moly! uk date! so stoked! don't think he's played here before has he?

he said last night that he's never even visited the UK, outside of Heathrow and that one-off at ATP in 2008ish?

last night's montreal show was WONDERFUL. by far the best Destroyer gig i've ever seen. the music is just so beautiful, everything big and catchy and dancing. dan's as aloof as ever, staring into the middle distance, but man the band is tight and so weirdly charismatic. AMAAAAZING Kaputtified covers of "it's gonna take an airplane", "painter in my pocket" and at least one more.

and BAY OF PIGS as encore!

hate myself for not going

bought tickets this morning

gf thinks kaputt is cheesy (break uppable imo) so basically she doesn't get one

nice

what's fair is fair.

i will be attending tonight's show at the Middle East.

oh man, didn't even know he was coming to town tonight. i've been missing out on all the cool shows this year. have fun!

wish it was somewhere else though. sound @ Middle East will butcher the dulcet tones of Kaputt. mark my words.

rip

So how was Destroyer at Webster Hall last night?