David Byrne & St. Vincent
Country of origin:
U.S.
Type of music generally:
Beautiful & fierce, evocative/eclectic, alternative pop
Status:
Debut release, Love This Giant (2012)
See also:
Wikipedia's page for Love This Giant
Comparisons:
Björk, solo work by David Byrne and St. Vincent
Covers/own material:
Own
General comments:
This is a likely one-off collaboration between the intrepid David Byrne of solo, collaborative, and Talking Heads fame and new, edgy alternative pop artist, St. Vincent (AKA Annie Clark).
Comments about live performance:
The best concert I saw this year! (valrichardson@igc.org)
Recommended first album:
Love This Giant is their first project as a duo
Recordings:
Love This Giant (2012)
Love This Giant
Release info:
2012—4AD/Todo Mundo—6 52637 32312 2
Availability:
Wide
Ecto priority:
Highly recommended
Group members:
David Byrne—vocals, guitars; percussion programming (6, 7, 11); omnichord (9)
Annie Clark (St. Vincent)—vocals, guitars; synth bass (4, 5, 7, 10); piano (3)
Guest artists:
John Congleton—all drum programming; synth (7)
Paul Frazier—bass (1, 12)
Anthony LaMarca—drums (1)
Mauro Refosco—snare (6); timpani (7); surdo (9)
Evan Smith—clarinet, flute (1, 5)
Jack Bashkow—saxophone (1, 3-10); clarinet (9)
Tom Timko—saxophone (1, 3-5, 7-10); clarinet (9)
Steve Elson—saxophone (1-8, 10); bass clarinet (9)
Lenny Pickett—saxophone (2)
Alex Foster—saxophone (2)
Stan Harrison—saxophone (2)
Ron Blake—saxophone (2)
Bob Magnuson—saxophone (6)
Cochemea Gastelum—saxophone (11)
Stuart Bogie (Antibalas)—saxophone (11)
Ian Hendrickson-Smith (Dap-Kings)—saxophone (11)
Martín Perna (Antibalas)—saxophone (11)
Earl Gardner—trumpet (2)
Jonathan Powell—trumpet (2)
Ravi Best—trumpet (2)
Kelly Pratt—trumpet (3, 9)
Gareth Flowers—trumpet (3-10, 12)
Mike Gurfield—trumpet (3-10, 12)
Dominic Derasse—trumpet (3, 6, 8)
Josh Frank—trumpet (4, 5, 7, 10, 12)
David Guy (Dap-Kings)—trumpet (11)
Jordan McLean (Antibalas)—trumpet (11)
Chris Komer—French horn (1, 3-5, 7, 9, 10, 12)
Jacquelyn Adams—French horn (1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12)
Eric Davis—French horn (1, 3-5, 7-10, 12)
R.J. Kelley—French horn (3, 8, 9, 13)
Lawrence Di Bello—French horn (6)
Patrick Milando—French horn (6)
Rachel Drehmann—French horn (6, 8)
Steve Turre—trombone (2)
Ryan Keberle—trombone (2)
Ozzie Melendez—trombone (2)
Brian Mahany—trombone (3-5, 7-10, 12)
Mike Seltzer—trombone (4, 12)
William Lang—trombone (3, 6)
Kenneth Finn—trombone (5-10); euphonium (3)
Aaron Johnson (Antibalas)—trombone (11)
Michael Williams—trombone (11)
Jeff Caswell—bass trombone (4-10, 12)
Marcus Rojas—tuba (2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 12)
Randy Andos—tuba (2)
Kyle Turner—tuba (3, 6)
Bob Stewart—tuba (11)
Tom Hutchinson—euphonium (3)
Produced by:
David Byrne & Annie Clark
Comments:
This album was a little bit of a sleeper for me. At first it seemed weird but intriguing, and I thought it worked well for certain moods. Then I just suddenly got it, and I've really loved it since. Definitely one of the most interesting albums I’ve heard in years. I can hear some bits of her (compared to her first two albums) and some bits of him (compared to his Here Lives Love collaboration with Fatboy Slim and a bunch of mostly female artists) and actually a lot of Björk. Especially in some of the horn arrangements. Though a lot of this is funkier. (JoAnn Whetsell)
Thanks to JoAnn Whetsell for work on this entry.
