Fetch the Bolt Cutters

If the bass player looks familiar to you, that's Sebastian Steinberg of the 90s band Soul Coughing.

Update:  Hey, New Yorker - if you don't want people cross-posting your videos, don't fucking upload them with embed links, for christ sake!

Fiona Apple

Is it too soon to declare Fetch The Bolt Cutters the album of the year?

I've read a lot of reviews of this album, virtually every one of them good, but no one has yet made the comparison that I find the most obvious.

While her voice is completely different, I'm reminded of Rain Dogs-era Tom Waits.  The cross between Americana-influenced folk, rock, jazz and blues, the handmade percussion, the endlessly inventive song structures all evoke memories of 1980s Waits.  

I'd love to hear them collaborate on something.

Just when we thought it wasn't possible to love Fiona Apple more than we already do, she comes out with the definitive protest song for the 2017 Women's March on Washington.

Fiona Apple

We here at MDW have always loved Fiona Apple, but now with this performance, at a benefit concert for Standing Rock, we love her that much more.

Be sure to watch to the very end.

Grimes

Grimes at The Earl, November 30, 2011

Since everyone else seems to be doing their end-of-year, best-of posts for 2012, I'll just mention that my favorite video of the year may very well be Grimes' intentionally over-the-top Genesis, possibly for the song itself, or for the extended ambient introduction, her avant subversion of the pop genre, or the video's lampooning of every video cliche of 2012, from Fiona Apple's octopus wig to MIA's crazy car rides.

Grimes came through Atlanta this year, on a Monday, naturally, when I couldn't see her, but I was able to catch her set at The Earl during Rocktober 2011, where she performed solo but for a single dancer, Duffy, who worked the crowd.

For completeness' sake, here are Fiona Apple's octopus wig and MIA's crazy car rides: