Wednesday, August 18th 2010
News: Janelle Monáe
Watch An Exclusive Live Acoustic Performance By Ms. Janelle Monáe
As you can see with all these Paramore ads all over the place, we’ve been totally selling out. We barely even need to listen to music these days, we can just dial it in from our yacht while collecting checks for being the voice of a generation, brought to you by Honda. This weekend we visited our very good friends in the corporate sponsored VIP Chase Freedom Lounge at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco, which, like the proletariat maelstrom frothing outside of its tall gates, featured some live music.
No, but seriously, after checking out Janelle Monáe’s amazing performance early on the second day of the fest, we headed over to the cushy Chase Freedom Lounge to set our camera up for a private acoustic set we did not want to miss. Here it is, for you, in its entirety.
It was a short, intimate performance which featured two songs from her 2007 EP Metropolis: Suite 1, and a haunting, powerful version of Cold War that sent chills through the 100 or so spines in attendance (while the spineless sell-outs raised their eyebrows).
Sincerely, Jane:
Smile:
Cold War:
If you haven’t yet checked out The ArchAndroid, do yourself a big favor and read our in-depth review and/or drop the $7.92. It’s hard to believe such a mature album is only this artist’s first full-length. We don’t throw this kind of smarmy crystal ball hype around carelessly, but Monáe has a bright future ahead, and it’s only going to get harder and harder to see her up close and intimate as everyone else out there catches on.
By the by, on our YouTube channel you can check out a bootleg-ass video we shot of Janelle performing Faster, plugged-in on the Sutro stage.
Stay tuned for our full coverage of Outside Lands 2010, hopefully coming sometime today. We shot a lot of photos and video and it was a hell of a long drive back to our day jobs (we don’t really have a yacht), but we’ve been working on it. There were many surprises; Several bands I personally could have given less than half a doodoo about indisputably delivered face to face. It was worth enduring the myriad pungent scents of hippie.
Pretty sure i’ll be coming back to this page a lot. That Cold War performance is too powerful to not be witnessed at least once a week.
Doodoo? This entire thing reads like you’re on drugs. But the performances were freakin’ amazing.
i was and am on one drug. its street name is sleep deprivation.
Uh, this performance of Cold War is one of the best things I’ve ever seen. For real.
Yea, thanks for this, they are kinda special. Deeply appreciate the ups, thanks guys.
Did she start crying during cold war? Really good performance. I still can’t get a handle on how damn good that album is, absolutely head and shoulders above every other piece of music released this year.
Yes, she did.