So it turns out that Cold War Kids’ Nathan Willett and Matt Maust have a side project with We Barbarians’ Nathan Warketin! They even have a debut LP ‘Is Exotic Bait’ out soon, on July 8th via Frenchkiss Records, and a free residency at the Satellite this month. This Monday, I got the chance to see French Style Furs – that’s their moniker – and totally enjoyed a high-energy show with trumpet, sax and multicolor-hair back-up singers.
What I didn’t know at the time was the inspiration behind the project, a surely unexpected one: a large book of poems written by monk Thomas Merton, who is considered as one of the great spiritual thinkers of the 20th century. I immediately got these two brainy quotes from the Trappist monk: ‘Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time’, and ‘We do not exist for ourselves’, but he wrote much more than simple inspirational quotes, and this new project took a totally original direction thanks to Willett’s fascination for the mystic, who wrote on social justice, pacifism and Eastern Religions.
However, there was nothing close to Buddhism about their performance at the Satellite. First, there was Nathan Willett’s CWK trademark voice, Matt Maust’s jumping-around bass-playing and overall a high-energy set, full of dynamic and uplifting songs, vocal harmonies, pounding drums, percussion, and soulful sax and trumpets. The set was very diverse, they opened it with ‘All the Way Down’, a song with a wild and chaotic energy, as well as a sort of danger floating on a devilish bouncy rhythm of carnival — still haven’t found the monk in this one — ‘World in My Bloodstream’, with its shouted vocals, had the same blasting urgency, while ‘Miami U R About 2 B Surprised’ was a completely different beast, a throbbing dark meditation on keys with an almost Nick Cave vibe. Full of soul, ‘Turn or Burn’ had some gospelic ambition over a poppy melody and ‘Clairvaux Prison’ sounded like a spiritual,…they followed this one with a cover, ‘Night Clubbing’, because there is just a fine line between Iggy Pop and a Trappist monk. Just listen to Solitary Life’, a David-Byrne-sounding tune which seems to combine monastery life and party.
There was an exuberant feeling during the whole set, with a large place kept for Willett’s soulful vocals and Maust’s bass line constantly moving around. More and more of people and instruments got on stage, it was chaos and all-movements with a spontaneous spirit, whereas the horn section and the purple-green hair of the girls were bringing a weird festive feel. Obviously,the Satellite was packed, probably partially because of CWK’s fame – although this new project is a complete different inspiration – probably because it was already their third show and people had noticed the energy that some bleak poetry can bring when artistically paired with great music.
Setlist
All the Way Down
Ambassadors of General Electric
(World in My) Bloodstream
Turn or Burn
Miami U R About 2 B Surprised
Man the Master
3 Friends
Clairvaux Prison
Night Clubbing
Solitary Life
More pictures of the show here.
