Late night Feists of fury

Posted August 28th, 2007 by logan

In the modern era, if Cream was the first super group, Traveling Wilburys at least the best staffed and Damn Yankees and/or the cunts on MTV’s Mission: Man Band tied for the absolute worstest sounding rubbish since the dawn of recorded time (spoiler alert: John B. from Color Me Badd has gained more weight than Matthew Sweet – and big surprise – become an alcoholic in the process) then the most promising since The Good, The Bad and The Queen has to be the all-indie, all-the-time ensemble that backed up erstwhile Peaches and Gonzales hype grrl Leslie Feist last night on Letterman. And even though she doesn’t care too much for that newfangled Internets thang, Mme. Feist’s cup still oozeth over with 31+ flavors of hipster cred after this performance:

Let’s face it. You could never bring Jennifer Herrema, M.I.A. or even Lily Allen to a Labor Day picnic with the folks. Jenny would end up mainlining the potato salad with your kid sister, and M.I.A. would talk about both politics and religion. And now that her visa’s about as good as your ticket to see The Cure next month, pudgy little Lily wouldn’t even make it pass Customs. But rustic sex pot Les is the kind of broad you could bring home to mom. And when she asks you if you’ve seen that new Volkswagen commercial with the Wilco tune in it, you can smile politely and say “Yes mother I have, but you might like this new song by my friend here called ‘1234’ even better.” Since mommy dearest hasn’t seen you since you last came home for that Morrissey concert, she’d gladly entertain your suggestion only to tell you that it’s cribbed a riff from the theme to “New York, New York.”

And since she’s got to be at Talbot’s tomorrow morning by 7:30AM to help unload a new shipment of cardigans or some shit like that, your poor mother probably fell asleep during Dave’s monologue last night. Too bad. Feist was joined by a heavenly host of Arts cherubim and Crafts seraphim that included (big breath): boyfriend Kevin Drew and his partner from Broken Social Scene Brendan Canning, both Devendorf brothers and the bassist from the National, best Mates of State Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel, The New Pornos’ “Hot” Carl Newman, Neptune City’s own Nicole Atkins, four Grizzly Bears from Brooklyn…and a partridge in a pear tree. As you can see, it was quite possibly the largest gathering of awkwardly clapping white folks since Fleetwood Mac played the Clinton inauguration. Towards the end there, even Paul Shaffer’s lackeys got in on the fray.

Need further proof that even the most jaded scenester has basic cable? Okkervil River is playing on Conan O’Brien tonight.

Tags: video

4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 K // Aug 28, 2007 at 9:17 pm

    wow. I read about this all-star indiegasmic event on several blogs today, but your post, pure gold.

    Points for the use of Mme., as well.

  • 2 Logan Young // Aug 29, 2007 at 12:32 am

    It was a pretty awesome event to behold. I just happened to be channel-surfing at the time – kinda serendipitous.

  • 3 bigcitysheep // Aug 29, 2007 at 8:10 pm

    The last time I saw Feist on late night TV, she covered a song by Ron Sexsmith, whom I adore. And now this?!? Hella cool. I may have to rethink my opinion of her.

    Speaking of hella cool, Okkervil River rocked Conan. 😉

  • 4 Logan Young // Aug 29, 2007 at 11:49 pm

    Did you catch her on Jimmy Kimmel’s bus tour – it’s well worth the time:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPCm4NxjEsA