Future Islands - Seasons (Waiting On You) (Official Video) 2014 + (BadBadNotGood Reinterpretation) 2014

[Celerity]

Label: 4AD – AD 3406
Format: Vinyl, 7", Single, Limited Edition, 45 RPM
Country: US
Released: 4 Feb 2014
Genre: Rock, Pop
Style: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Synth-pop









Future Islands, BadBadNotGood – Seasons (Waiting On You) (BadBadNotGood Reinterpretation) 2014

Label: 4AD – EAD3432S
Format: File, AAC, Single, Stereo
Country: USA, Canada & Europe
Released: 2014
Genre: Jazz, Pop




My mind has been blown by Future Islands on Letterman

Watching the Baltimore band on Letterman made me realise just how rare it is to find a singer who has created an entirely unique onstage persona

https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/mar/07/my-mind-has-been-blown-by-future-islands-on-letterman



Up until today I’d always ignored Future Islands on the grounds that any band with a name as derivative and Pitchfork-y as Future Islands was unlikely to make original sounding music. What a fool I’ve been! My ignorance was admonished just now by a colleague (the Observer Food Monthly’s Gareth Grundy, no less) who told me by the hotbed of creativity that is the Guardian tea point that I must listen to their recent performance on Letterman immediately (he further seized my attention with the phrase “Like Pere Ubu’s David Thomas fronting New Order ... they’re obviously quite weird people”).

I did as instructed. Then I watched it again. Then again. I’ve seen it five times on repeat now and am currently cursing myself for writing this blogpost rather than simply sitting back to watch it again (I’m not alone in my addiction, several sites have picked up on the performance’s strange powers this week already).

Television performances by bands are routinely uneventful, but this? This is utterly compelling. First there’s the way they look, or should I say the way frontman Samuel T. Herring looks: built like Henry Rollins but with a face that searches the audience, pleading for some kind of empathy or understanding of his plight. Then there’s the dancing: a hip-swivelling affair that could have come straight from Wigan Casino. The two things seem unlikely bedfellows and that’s before Herring begins singing, his voice often soulful and powerful, yet with the tendency to erupt into a throaty howl reminiscent of death metal.

The eye contact. The sincere chest thumping. The limbo dancing right at the end, which comes straight after that stomach-churning, guttural roar. The whole thing is strangely unsettling, incredibly moving and brave enough to risk teetering to the very brink of out-and-out hilarity without quite falling off the edge. In doing so it left me reeling and wondering why other singers don’t put this much effort into carving out a stage persona that’s truly their own.

snip

Future Islands Performs "Seasons (Waiting On You)" | Letterman