LIFE SOUNDTRACK: Grimes – Weregild
Grimes at Grasslands March 2012
LIFE SOUNDTRACK: Grimes – Weregild
Grimes just announced her new album Art Angels and is now all over the place in the Internet and other media. From all we know, Grimes is still Claire Boucher’s one-woman show, although she surly has some help to manage her ever-growing operations.
Claire is a true inspiration to me, somebody who took her talent and determination to grow into a superstar without compromises. I’ve read and heard many interviews with hear and was worried that her candor and her willingness to take risk will crush her at some point. It didn’t happen and she’s now bigger than ever, even after only publishing two new songs in over three and a half years.
I heard my first Grimes song on the now defunct blog dailybeatz in May 2011 and I remember thinking “What the hell is that?” But I found her first two home-made albums Geidi Primes and Halfaxa on whatever streaming service I was using at that time and couldn’t stop listening. As weird as her music and vocal layering was, there was something in her songs that made them great.
Weregild was my immediate favorite track on Halfaxa. It is weird and catchy at the same time: you can already feel that she’s up to something here. Something big.
Coincidentally she opened for Lykke Li shortly after and we had tickets for the sold out show at Webster Hall. I was curious how she could play her music live and alone, but she pulled it off. The early Grimes shows may have been hit or miss in technical perfection, but they were always a hit in the passion and energy she brought to stage. My personal highlight was her performance at the by now almost legendary Yours Truly and Gorilla vs Bear CMJ showcase at the tiny Shea Stadium in Bushwick. It was riddled with technical problems and in fact she broke it off at some time, but it was raw and true (and the music wasn’t so bad in the end).
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