The Knife//Got 2 Let U, We Share Our Mother's Health, You Make Me Like Charity

Friends, I’ve been slacking. Things have been A LITTLE crazy and so I’ve been a little unreliable about getting you your OSSs (no post tomorrow, thanks to a conference that will keep me from being at a computer). Shit. I feel bad about it. But I want to make amends with not one, not two, but THREE sweet ass songs from one sweet ass group, Sweden’s favorite masked brother-and-sister duo, The Knife.

Ali and Ange brought me The Knife, and I will always think of them when I listen to their songs. As I am gearing up to go visit those two incredible moms, I think of them even more. I believe it all started with this awesome video back in Ann Arbor. I thought it was cool, but I wasn’t that impressed until I finally got the whole Deep Cuts album, which kind of blew me away. I remember sitting in the back back of Ange’s car, driving around Chicago, blasting this thing; the weird vox-effects making me feel engaged, if disturbed and the bass permanently damaging my hearing in a way that reminded me of the joy of BEING ALIVE!...Pondering just who exactly was singing under all that pitch-manipulation...Wondering if that was a bad translation or did they really mean to say that?!...Yelling “HUH!” (see “Got 2 Let U”). Yes!

The Knife is cool because they hate playing ball with the mainstream music machine and the media. They are mostly photographed in masks and rarely play concerts. They also have a record label, Rabid Records, which releases a slew of awesome Swedish music, including the truly lovely Jenny Wilson (featured on "You Take My Breath Away" off Deep Cuts).

Also, it strikes me (especially when listening on headphones) that The Knife has formulated a way to almost bottle certain emotions, specifically a disturbing mix of human joy and despair which flows freely in the music. Almost like a sonic car crash, it's kind of shocking, adrenaline-pumping and transfixing to behold.

This first song might be slightly relevant to certain aspects the last few days; take it as you will…



Got 2 Let U.mp3

We Share Our Mother's Health.mp3

You Make Me Like Charity.mp3

I got to got to let you down
But in an hour I will change my mind.
I got to got to let you down
But in an hour I will change my mind.
It taste like magic to me,
Making mistakes and be forgiven easily.