Sunday, January 23rd, 2011

"Waitin' For A Superman"

Iron & Wine cover The Flaming Lips

Image via YetiYetiAesthetically speaking, you don’t get much further removed than Iron & Wine and The Flaming Lips. The former being essentially a solo project for Sam Beam specializing in beautifully intimate homespun folk, and the latter being unabashed musical weirdos who delight in somehow delivering out-there artistic experiments in (mostly) accessible pop packages.

One point where they do intersect, however, is “Waitin’ For A Superman” from the Flaming Lips’ 1999 masterpiece The Soft Bulletin. It finds The Lips at their most stately and heartfelt and thus translates perfectly to the Iron & Wine delivery, as happened circa 2003 when Beam added his interpretation of it to his live sets. It’s interesting that of the two recordings I have of it – one captured live at the Amstel Festival in Amsterdam and the other a presumably home studio effort that appeared with the second issue of Yeti – that the live one has the higher audio fidelity, not to mention the added bonus of a little bit of cursing from Mr. Beam.

The new Iron & Wine record Kiss Each Other Clean will be out on Tuesday; 17 Dots and NPR have interviews and NPR ups the ante with a Tiny Desk Concert. The Flaming Lips have ambitions to release a new song every month in 2011 among other experiments and collaborations – Wayne Coyne maps them out for Spin.

MP3: Iron & Wine – “Waitin’ For A Superman”
MP3: Iron & Wine – “Waitin’ For A Superman” (live)
Video: The Flaming Lips – “Waitin’ For A Superman” (live on Jools Holland)

By : Frank Yang at 10:04 am
Category: Chromewaves Radio

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  1. 1/23/11 10:53 am

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  2. 1/23/11 4:23 pm

     Bernard Yin says:

    This is a great look inside the mind of Iron & Wine!

    Here’s a chance to see them “live”: Iron & Wine will be performing live at Amoeba Music Hollywood on Monday, January 24th at 7PM PST in celebration of Kiss Each Other Clean. This show will also be streamed live at: http://bit.ly/gchV6Y for those who can’t be there.

    Fans can pre-purchase the new album starting at 5pm on 1/24 and receive a limited-edition Iron & Wine “Live at Amoeba” poster (while they last). Signing after the performance is limited to the first 100 purchasers.

    Oh and let me not forget to mention another free Iron & Wine MP3 here: http://bit.ly/eUQEnr

    Bernard

  3. 2/21/11 9:12 pm

     Geoff says:

    Is there still a way to get the non-live version of this song? It’s marvelous.

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