Shows

I recently bought my ticket to Outside Lands, the premier Northern-California music event which is hosted in Berkeley’s enchanting People’s Park…wait…I meant to say San Francisco’s gorgeous Golden Gate Park. The festival is cheaper than Coachella, the weather’s going to be nicer, and even though Kanye West isn’t performing it’s well worth it. To get myself, those Metrojolt fans who are also going, and those still thinking about getting a ticket super stoked about this special experience, I’m starting an exploration into the artists performing at the festival. I’ll be choosing big names, unknowns, and in-betweens to expose naked (in the musical, non-figurative sense) for our readers.

Beirut, named obscurely after the capital of Lebanon, is the brainchild of one (New)-Mexican native Zachary Condon. A high school dropout, Condon went on a Euro-trip of sorts to visit his cousin (whereabouts in Europe, Wikipedia doesn’t offer). There, he acquired a taste for Balkan folk music. When we returned to New Mexico, he recorded Gulag Orkestar almost all by himself. He played the uke, the “flugelhom,” and trumpet, in addition to vocals on this first LP. The album is a mind-blowing experience for me, because it blends all of these world sounds I’ve never heard before with indie and electronic tropes. And then there are these eerily beautiful and soothing vocals by Zackary, which I can’t understand. He sings in French at select moments, which I really like, since I speak it fluently and can understand those parts better than the English lyrics. But French is a nice language to listen to anyways, so non-French speakers probably dig it too.

Now, the question I ask myself is what Beirut is like live. There are obvious constraints to playing the uke, trumpet, and weird Balkan instrument AND singing simultaneously (without the singing, it’s doable), so Zackary’s gonna need backup. We shall see. Until then, enjoy this nice assortment of tracks, with a fun mashup by Hood Internet:

Elephant Gun – Beirut

Scenic World – Beirut

Transatlantique – Beirut

Postcards From Italy – Beirut

Nantes – Beirut

Save Me Concubine (Ghostface Killah vs Beirut) – Beirut