I've been meaning to write about Beirut for a while, but I always keep pushing it back for whatever reasons. I know, I know. A million people have already hyped this band last year and I'm late late late, but I don't care. Like I've said before, there's no timetable to this page, I just do whatever whenever. So yeah...my friend, Vanessa, turned me onto the debut album, "Gulag Orkestar", sometime last year. I was kinda put off by it at first listen, but I tried again and the melodies slowly found their way into my brain. I really like the whole old school European sound he uses. Apparently some people make a big deal over authenticity...meaning it can't be good if it's from a 19 year old in New Mexico as opposed to actual musicians from the Balkans and whatnot. Whatever, he's making the music he wants to make, and it's different from most indie bands you run into these days.The one really cool thing, I think, is the cover of the album. I don't know how true this is (because I haven't really seen anything on it), but Vanessa said the guy found the photograph in-between the pages of a book in a library in Germany. I think it's a pretty cool photo, kinda like a slice of life moment in time thing.
It is written in the booklet that the front and back photos were found in a library in Leipzig, torn out of a book. The original photographer was unknown to the creators of the album while it was recorded, but has since been discovered to be Sergey Chilikov.
In any case, this track, "Elephant Gun", is actually from Beirut's follow-up EP, "Lon Gisland". I love the opening line, "If I was young, I'd flee this town, I'd bury my dreams underground". It just hits me perfectly, I can't explain it, it's just a great song. You can check out other tracks on Beirut's myspace page and on the official site.
Beirut > Elephant Gun
