While our tech people are determining if that is the most post-title-characters in Stereogum history, set aside a few minutes and enjoy the spectacle: Feist and friends, on Letterman, doing “1234.” Leslie sounds better than she did on Conan and all, and if you’d never heard her before last night you probably would’ve “ooh”ed” and “aah”ed at her voice, but seeing as you’ve sang along to “1234″ countless times, it’s really just a trip to see Ed Droste, Chris Bear/Taylor, Dan Rossen, Carl (and Christy!) Newman, Kevin Drew, and Nicole Atkins, alongside our dudes in the National and Feist’s Reminder cover photographer (thin blonde to your right of Kevin Drew) — all wearing white, with those crazy, sparkly colored bangles. Dave doesn’t quite know what to make of the indie all-star choir, and they certainly get no introduction. So, guess it’s our little secret, internet.
Oddly enough, after a friend coaxed one of us out for a drink or two on the LES, we ran into Chris Bear on Avenue A above Houston, wearing white-on-white. Weird and rather cultish, we thought, but hey no judgments — how you dress offstage is cool with us. The bar we wound up at, though, was the unofficial after-Letterman hang: only about 15 people in the room, but that included Carl & Christy Newman, Scott and Bryan from the National, Nicole Atkins and, soon enough, the Grizzly gang et al. Had to bail after a few minutes; just didn’t feel like we fit in without the white-on-white, ya know? And we swear, it had absolutely nothing to do with the on-the-spot epiphany that we are painfully awkward and uncool. Seriously. Hear we missed group sing alongs and, most likely, witnessing a few unsuspecting patrons’ minds blown.
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the day “indie rock” jumped the shark….
the ‘We are the World’ of douchebags. Seriously.
How can you watch that and not smile? That was great!
Why couldn’t they all do that during Revenge of the Bookeaters? I paid $50 to see something like that happen…
Nat, I think a lot of us feel the same as you. I can understand not doing “1234″ the same way (keep some surprise), but why not have them all shake a tambourine on a Spoon song? Something? Regardless, interesting to see all those folks I’m used to seeing in separate pictures all together on the Letterman stage. Not mindblowing, just weird and pretty cool.
You have to admit, the music world has changed over the last couple of years. This is far removed from the days of ’80s and ’90 ‘Rock Stars’ that wouldn’t even think of ruining their reputation by sharing a stage with anyone. How many Mick Jaggers do you think would sing uncredited in a backup choir in support of someone else?
Granted the performance wasn’t amazing, and it wasn’t even a massive milestone, but it is a symbol of a much greater, cooperative, and fun music world.
I like it. Keep it up.
i agree, zayin. i think these guys have love creative love beaming and its fantastic to see.
i think its super fun to watch and the performance is much better than the conan appearance. i love it
is there a little Newman on the way???
I’m with Sarah on this one. This was a great version of 1234!
Seriously Letterman is Obsolete… when do we get the upgrade?
Pretty sure that was Aaron from the National was there too.
there will be no slagging of david letterman please. he’s king and still light years better than everyone on late night TV, save maybe conan. even then, in their respective primes, david pwns. even now, it’s close. that is all.
Letterman is amazing! I love ol’ Dave like a friendly mildly-drunk grandpa!
Jumped the shark? ‘We are the world’ of douchebags? well i can’t disagree totally. but it should be noted, leave it to snarky, indie music snobs (self included) to be the first ones to trash the reigning Indie girl and the Broken Pornographers Grizzly National collective posse.
how someone could hate on this is beyond my comprehension..
i like Feist but the reason she sounded better last night was because she was totally lip-syncing. if you pay enough attention it was quite obvious. still a fun clip though.
she wasn’t lip syncing , trust me on that one.
yeesh, there are some black-hearts hanging around this site. lighten up. Really? Getting on TV and inviting your friends is classified as “jumping the shark?” God forbid good, talented, hardworking people succeed in the music business.
if you think that was lip-synching you are an actual idiot. actually.
If you find yourself hating on this clip, you should go find a new hobby, because it is clear to the world that you have no joy in your heart.
Yeah, if you pay close attention in the beginning David is lipsyncing too. Oh wait… it’s a YouTube video, nevermind.
thanks for posting this! i dvr’d it last night but it cut off after the first few lines…
i need sequined arm-warmers. now.
wait, what am i saying?
having a bunch of indie snobs use the phrase “jumping the shark” is totally jumping the shark…um, wait a minute…
this is great! it’s fun – how can you be jaded to the point to not like fun?!
I like Feist but the reason she sounded better last night was because she was completely oblivious to her own shark-jumping. if you pay enough attention it was quite obvious. still a fun clip though.
Nice post!
Zayin_451
Mick Jagger singing uncredited back up to someone else (check: 2:35ish): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLxTpsIVzzo
i jump sharks while using phrases like “hipster”
This is a great song to either warm up to or cool down to. It makes me really want to move!
*cough*
I’m gonna go to the side of the snark on this one. At least when M Ward played with a bunch of ppl, everyone was DOING something. This looks like an excuse to be cutesy as all get out and it’s not working, mainly because I think Feist is just a slightly more interesting version of Dido (remember her?) and so doesn’t need to twee-hipsterize her music up even more. /snark
But yeah, it’s nice to see them all together, I’ll give it that.
jdubs, you jumped the shark calling “hipster” a phrase – it’s a word!
I didn’t like that at all. Lameness. And I like Feist, but that was truly – as someone so perfectly put it – “indie rock” jumping the shark. “We Are The World” of douchebags indeed. Fuck it.
some of you assholes say “indie” like its a bad thing. If I have to see a group of musicians get together for a song, I much rather have it be people with talent than a bunch of overexposed top 40 fuckfaces. Then again if something feels like it is “too cool” the good people of Stereogum will automatically make it out to be a bad thing.
Can somebody explain to me what’s so offensive about this?
i suppose some people would just rather see the inside of their own ass than a talented musician bringing bandmates/tourmates/friends on stage for a tv performance.
remember when feist was on interscope?
that was so indie.
by the way, this was awesome. it’s all about community, folks.
Look out, Feist, the Polyphonic Spree are behind you! :-0
so, am i totally lame if i caught feist on letterman randomly last night and thought that it was great? and that she was so lucky that her incredibly talented friends decided to help her out one night on national television? and everyone probably had an awesome time?
if only i was a cool indie-rock snob like everyone else and didn’t realize how terribly cliché it was. dammit…
Not everyone is hating on this remember.
I thought it was absolutely cool, I don’t have a problem with her musician friends mucking about with her on stage. If you think it’s a little lame and goofy, maybe it is, but it isn’t the decline of western civilisation.
It didn’t fuck up the song, and I think the music is all that matters. Or is the music itself the least of the hard-core hipsters concerns?
Uh, not to bear this out longer than it already is, but notice that the people who disliked the perf didn’t go around name-calling any of the people who did like it. Chillax. It either worked for you or it didn’t.
does anyone else share my friendly letterman-as-grandpa feelings?
The kind of grandpa you never visit or talk to? It’s hard to watch Letterman these days – the whole show feels Grandpa-like. There was a time, about 20 years ago and on another network, when the Letterman show was great – but now even Leno seems like the sharper of two.
There also was a time not long ago when it was relatively easy to find an .avi or .mov file of a Letterman/Conan/Leno music performance. Now it seems that YouTube has sucked up all that bandwidth. I prefer saving my music vids and watching them on a decent-sized screen window.
“sparkly colored bangles”?
So you saw all of these people in a bar after the show and didn’t think to get some after thoughts on their performance. If it wasn’t for bloggers like you these people would be doing roofing and daycare. Grow a pair and start interacting with the world, don’t be such an observer.
damn my hipster word using phrase calling shark jumping scenester indie rocking shoe gazing ass! rub my chest and call me harry!
i’ve heard that Letterman is like, really cold and kind of mean to his guests and staff backstage. like, everyone is afraid to even look him in the eye. still, he can still bring the laughs way better than Leno. Conan still pwns both of them though.
as for the performance, it was merely good. her performance on Conan was a lot better, i thought. still got mad love for Feist though (as well as all the people behind her in the stupid arm socks).
Wow, her singing was better on this one than conan…
but I think I actually liked the choir better on conan! maybe those choir people should have their own indie rock bands with stupid names… hehe
These massive indie rock collaborations happen all the time. Calm down, people. Stop treating this like it was the best or worst thing in music history.
I really enjoyed this. I just love Feist.
I can’t see what people like about Feist. I’ve seen her live twice, tried to get into her albums, and just can’t get into her.
Same with most of this modern day indie music. Wheres teh rock gone to? Bring back balls to the wall rock and roll please.
<3
Damon Hill
“How many Mick Jaggers do you think would sing uncredited in a backup choir in support of someone else?”
Listen to “You Are So Vain” by Carly Simon…that is Jagger singing uncredited backup…..
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