Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros: “Here Comes”

MORE AND FREE: https://castleqwayr.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/edward-sharpe-the-magnetic-zeroes-free-concert/

This is PART 1 of a 12-Part feature-length movie musical. The opening footage is of singer Alex Ebert’s father chanting in Monument Valley – shot by his mother. Desert Song is about Alex’s reckoning with the middle name his father secretly wrote on his birth certificate – a Native American name which means ‘Devil’ or ‘Demon’. The debut album from Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, “Up From Below”, will be available on July 14th in the US and July 13th in the UK.

The debut EP, “Here Comes”, is available now on iTunes

DIRECTED BY: Benjamin Kutsko and Cory Marrero

LABEL: Community Music/Fairfax Recordings – US : Rough Trade – UK
DP: David Myrick
EDITED BY: Alex Ebert and Brandon Driscoll-Luttringer
VFX: Benjamin Kutsko and Casey Allen
WARDROBE BY: Cassandra Kellogg and Amanny Ahmad
MAKEUP: Sarai Fiszel

NPR.org, July 10, 2009 – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros‘ appeal defies documentation, let alone description. On paper, the group doesn’t sound instantly appealing — a hippie version of Arcade Fire with 10 members and a dreadlocked, frequently shirtless frontman? — but it’s not much easier to capture its appeal on a silver disc or a digital file.

See the band live, though, and it’s another story: The group is absolutely beloved in the L.A. press right now, which has everything to do with the fact that L.A. is where the group has been playing concerts. A madly joyous clatter, the Magnetic Zeros’ sound radiates the feverish intensity of a revival show, but with a loving relationship at its center: Singers Edward Sharpe (a.k.a. Alex Ebert) and Jade Castrinos sing to each other with the winning warmth of Johnny and June Carter Cash, and that counts for a lot.

The band’s short recording career — its full-length debut, Up From Below, just came out — has been spottier, albeit aided by a series of adventurous videos. Confined to a studio, Sharpe and company can’t help but seem flattened out by comparison, yet “Home” still does a lovely job of conveying the whimsical affection at the group’s core.

Once listeners get past the occasional bit of cornpone, a giant dose of good-heartedness kicks in: The couplet “Alabama, Arkansas / I do love my ma and pa” may be a groaner, until Castrinos adds, “Not the way that I do love you.” As the song grows more clamorous and kind, it gets catchier, too, building to a freewheeling celebration rooted in unmistakable affection. It sounds terrific here, but when it’s blown out in 360-degree live performance, “Home” is enough to make even the tiniest heart grow three sizes.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106465335