Bon Iver

A fairly recent musical find for me was a band called Bon Iver, an intentionally misspelled version of the French for 'Good Winter' but pronounced the same. It was started by Justin Vernon, an American guy with an interesting story: 

It wasn't planned. The goal was to hibernate. Vernon moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around the land. This solitary time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus. The days slowly evolved into nights filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song.

This first album was For Emma, For Ever Ago, recorded in the cabin. It's very raw, unprocessed, even poor quality recording compared to conventional studio music. It's also very good. He has since gathered a band, gone on tour, and just released a new EP a couple of weeks ago, Blood Bank. I would very much recommend a listen. There's a lot of free (and legally so) recordings available online for listening and download:

• Click the album covers below for information and a free download from each album.
• Live recordings of four tracks from For Emma at MySpace Transmissions.
• Live recordings of four tracks at Daytrotter Sessions.
• Videos of small gigs in Paris: Part I and Part II.

For Emma, Forever Ago

Blood Bank