This is starting out to be a very Feisty week for us.  First, the multi-talented femme simply slayed Sunday night on the From the Basement broadcast (check back for that video–not to be missed).  And we’ve been off the grid and have been playing catch-up with the world.  We just discovered that Feist is dabbling deliciously in the world of heavy metal.  We’ll admit that metal isn’t the first genre we reach for in the morning (or at night) for listening pleasure.  While we grew up on the thrash of ’70s punk music from NYC, London and LaLaLand (in that chronological order), we nonetheless have not given metal much mental bandwidth.  Historically, the rare lyrical intelligence (a primary driver for us) in metal, coupled with the seeming (we admit ignorance, ye metal experts) monotony of the sound has pushed us away. Ya gotta give credit to Leslie Feist and Mastadon.  In combo, they’ve made a great argument for the possibilities of the genre.

As a part of this year’s Record Store Day celebration, Feist and Mastadon collaborated on a split seven-inch record, with Feist covering Mastodon’s Black Tongue and Mastodon covering Feist’s A Commotion.  Now both tracks are available digitally.  In addition to the digital release, an interactive video has been put together for A Commotion that shows Feist in full metal mode and enables users to slide a bar back and forth to choose between the original Feistian version (full to the left) and the Mastodon cover (full to the right), and all parts in between.  We recommend splitting the difference and setting the bar in the middle.

Check out immediately below that interactive version, followed by the just-released official video for the Mastodon version.  And then check out at the very bottom Feist’s hair-raising version of A Commotion as performed this year at Bonnaroo.  Brava and bravo!