Sunday Music Spotlight - Feist

Canadian songstress Leslie Feist’s career has run the musical gamut from old-school jazz singer to killer bitch rapper. It started in a high school punk band called the Placebos, which did well enough to open for The Ramones. She toured with them for five years, until her voice gave out and she had to quit. Her voice troubles gave her a reason to learn guitar, and she returned to music as the guitar player for By Divine Right. When that had run it’s course she lived and recorded with vulgar female rapper Peaches (under the pseudonym Bitch Lap-Lap, given to her by Peaches). After that she moved on to recording and touring with Broken Social Scene. Finally she’s turned her full attention to a solo career, where her music reflects the journey she took to get there.

In her solo career she records under the pseudonym Feist, which makes it seem like she used the same pseudonym generator that M. Ward did. Her first release under the moniker was 1999’s Monarch (Lay Down Your Jeweled Head), made while she was still with By Divine Right. She didn’t get back to solo recording until 2004’s Let it Die, an excellent album that began to show the depth of her musical abilities. She builds on that depth in her most recent effort, this year’s The Reminder.

Feist - Sea Lion Woman

This track reminds me of Nina Simone’s classic “Sinnerman”, with it’s handclaps and jazz-tinged vocals. Also because it is a reinterpretation of a Nina Simone song, “See-Line Woman” (no idea why the title changed). Gotta love the way the backing vocals set the mood here. This song is destined to live on mixes of all types for a long, long time.

Feist - My Moon My Man

I love how the piano bassline gives the music a plodding feel while Feist’s vocals seem to float over the top.

Finally, here she is performing “1 2 3 4″ on Conan:

Links:
Buy The Reminder at Amazon
Official Site
Feist on MySpace
Wikipedia