 Bon Iver is a band founded in 2007 by American indie folk singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. The band further consists of Michael Noyce,Sean Carey, and Matthew McCaughan. Vernon independently released Bon Iver's debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago in July 2007, the majority of which was recorded while spending three months in a remote cabin in Northwestern Wisconsin. The name, Bon Iver, is a play on the French phrase "bon hiver", meaning good winter, and pronounced 'bon-eevair'. Justin Vernon is joined live by Sean Carey (drums, vocals, piano), Michael Noyce (vocals, baritone guitar, guitar) and Matthew McCaughan (bass, drums, vocals). Noyce was Vernon's guitar student during high school. Carey approached Vernon during one of the first Bon Iver shows telling him he could play and sing all the songs after which the two played a number of them together.[2] McCaughan and Vernon met while on tour with indie-rock band The Rosebuds in May 2007. Because of the large amounts of vocal harmony on the songs of For Emma, Forever Ago, Vernon was concerned that there would not be enough voices to duplicate the sound of the songs on the album in a live setting. To compensate for this problem in early performances, Vernon passed out lyrics for some songs to the audience to sing along to. In an interview with Pitchfork, Vernon described this dilemma. "I don't want to be the guy with an acoustic guitar singing songs, because that's boring for the most part. The song actually needs 80–500 people singing or whatever the vibe is of that room, it needs that fight".[2] Bon Iver performed at Lollapalooza 2009. Bon Iver has also performed at Austin City Limits Music Festival, Bonnaroo, Glastonbury, Øyafestivalen, Way Out West and Sasquatch!, among others. After the breakup of the band DeYarmond Edison, a relationship, and bout with mononucleosis,[3] Vernon left Raleigh, North Carolina, and moved back to Wisconsin to spend the oncoming winter months at his father's cabin in the state's northwoods. According to Vernon, it was during this time that the "Bon Iver" moniker first entered his mind; while bedridden with mononucleosis, he began watching the television series Northern Exposure on DVD. One episode depicts a group of citizens in Alaska, where the show is set, emerging from their homes into the first snowfall of the winter and wishing one another a "bon hiver" (French for "good winter"). This was initially transcribed by Vernon as "boniverre"; however, when he learned of its proper French spelling, he elected not to use it, deciding "hiver" reminded him too much of "liver", the site of his illness at the time.[4] Vernon did not intend to write or record any music during the time but rather to recuperate from the events of the previous year. Eventually a record began to evolve during this cathartic time of isolation.[5] He had recently finished helping the band The Rosebuds do some recording and had with him some basic recording gear when he made his move to the cabin. Vernon played all the instruments during recording and each song was heavily edited with a large number of overdubs. Vernon wrote the lyrics for the album by recording a word-less melody and listening to the recording over and over while writing words according to the sound of the syllables of the melody.[6] In an interview, Vernon said: "Words like 'decision' and 'intention' aren't words that float in my head because I just went", Vernon explains. "I left North Carolina and went up there because I didn't know where else to go and I knew that I wanted to be alone and I knew that I wanted to be where it was cold".[7] In another interview, Vernon describes what he used to record the album: "I had a very light set-up, a basic small recording set-up: a Shure SM57 and an old Silvertone guitar. I had my brother drop off his old drums... some other small things – things I would make or find lying around."[8] The record was almost not released and was originally intended as a group of demos to be sent out to labels and potentially rerecorded. But after getting very encouraging reactions from a number of his friends, Vernon decided to release the songs himself in their present state.[6]After significant positive reception, helped by word of mouth and its popularity throughout the blogosphere, Vernon decided to sign to the indie label Jagjaguwar which subsequently gave the album a proper release.[9] Vernon has said that he will continue to make albums without engineers and producers because he is capable of doing it all himself.[10] Since being released by Jagjaguwar on February 19, 2008, For Emma, Forever Ago has garnered critical acclaim.[11] The album was released in the UK and Europe by iconic indie label 4AD on May 12, 2008.[12] When released in the UK, For Emma, Forever Ago received 5/5 and "Album of the Month" reviews in both Mojo andUncut magazines. It was the seventh highest rated album of 2008 on review-aggregator site Metacritic, with accolades from publications including The Village Voice, The Hartford Courantand The A.V. Club.[13] Pitchfork Media gave the album 29th place in its "The Top 200 Albums of 2000s" list, while Stereogum placed the album at 11 on its "Best Album of the '00s" list.[14][15] The digital download track "Skinny Love" was selected to be iTunes (UK) single of the week and was available for free during that time, as well as being featured as the track of the day on National Public Radio. Bon Iver was ranked number 8 on Last.fm's most listened to new music of 2008.[16] Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago was ranked number 29 in Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2008. In an interview, Vernon said: "I'm really humbled by everything and am keeping things in perspective."[17] On May 19, 2008, "Blindsided" and "Flume" were featured in The CW series One Tree Hill.[1] On October 6, 2008, "Skinny Love" was featured in the NBC series Chuck (season 2, episode 3[18]).[19] On December 11, 2008, Bon Iver performed "Skinny Love" on the Late Show with David Letterman.[20] On January 26, 2009, "Skinny Love" was announced at #21 by Australian national radio station Triple J in the annual Hottest 100 countdown of the previous year's best songs.[21] In July 2009, "Skinny Love" was announced at #92 in Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time countdown.[22] Additionally, the track "Flume" has been used by the BBC to advertise their Jimmy McGovern-penned drama series The Street; the song "Creature Fear" was used in a 2009 episode of the NBC series Chuck (season 2, episode 21) and the track "Blood Bank" was used in another Chuck episode (season 2, episode 18);[23] the track "Skinny Love" was featured in another episode of Chuck (season 2, episode 3), as well as in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy; "The Wolves (Act I and II)" was used in the first season of The United States of Tara; "Re:Stacks" was featured in the Fox drama House, M.D.; and "Woods" was used in the eighth episode of Skins' third season and appeared on the Season 3 soundtrack.[24] In 2009 Bon Iver, along with St. Vincent, contributed the song "Rosyln" to the New Moon soundtrack.[25] Bon Iver also contributed "Brackett, WI" to the AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization. In 2010 Bon Iver collaborated with Kanye West on the track "Lost In the World". The track begins with a sample of the Bon Iver track "Woods". He also contributed vocals to the West track "Monster". Both tracks are featured on West's album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.[26] |
Bon Iver, Skinny Love Lyrics
Bon Iver - Brackett, WI Lyrics An easy swing had it's time shouldered |
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