tUnE-yArDs is the Future is Now

It doesn’t even matter if I’m on the team or not you guys, you need to get on team tUnE-yArDs, like right now.

Merrill Garbus (along with superstar bassist/multi-instrumentalist Nate Brenner and various intermittent musical co-conspirators) is tUnE-yArDs, a Montreal-to-Oakland-based musical genius who has been slowly blowing up over the last few years or so, and is poised to become the next hugest most amazingly superlative talentbomb your earpieces have ever experienced.

I am intensely, hugely, debilitatingly fangirl-obsessed with Merrill Garbus and have been ever since I first saw her performing her original operatic puppetshow oeuvre, Fat Girl Opera, in a Montreal basement years ago. You may have noticed the badass “Bizness” tshirt Ashley Reed rocks in the premiere episode of Unicorn Plan-it; that’s Merrill right there. Well. Monday night she was on Jimmy Fallon playing with the FUCKING ROOTS. She’s so good you won’t be able to stop talking about her from the moment you hear her until the moment you next hear her. I’m serious, ask anyone I know; I will not fucking shut up about this woman. And you won’t be able to, either.

 

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bcw

bcw has written 15 articles for us.

26 Comments

  1. Merrill Garbus is mesmerizing. The video for Bizness is amazing I can’t even say how much.
    Also I love her haircut

  2. Autostraddle! Quit creepin on my browser history. At work. I mean I’m flattered, but still.

    Merrill.

  3. She is a Smith Alum! And so fucking friendlyyyyy. Back when I was booking shows for WOZQ (Smith radio station) we tried to make something work (For free because she is so lovely) and she was just the bomb.
    go smith college

  4. The TuNeyArDs are my bizzzzznessssss. I heart Merrill’s ‘stache, name, hairdid, style and her BEATS!

    My constant jam.

  5. “we’re sorry, currently our video library can only be streamed within the United States”

    fffuuuuuuuu

  6. I love you. Thank you for bringing this to me, I only wish it had been earlier.

    For some reason, I get an odd, slight Dirty Projectors feel when listening to this. Not saying they sound the same, but they’re just somehow reminiscent of each other.

    • she toured with the dirty projectors last year or the year before. totally smashed it at the bowery. stole the whole show.

    • I TOTALLY get the Dirty Projectors vibe. She might be like a female David Longstreth (but probably less of an asshole).

    • Yes this was the first musical ally she reminded me of, too — makes sense that they’ve worked together. I’ve only gotten into her in the past few months but it’s some of the most exciting new music going on right now I think.

  7. these guys are ridiculously talented!

    im still kicking myself for missing them (for free) the other weekend!

  8. Confirmed Merrill fanperson.

    Powa is probs sexiest song in the history of ever.

    “Baby bring me home to bed, I need you to press me down before my body flies away from me.” I mean, whaaaat? Unf.

  9. so… is there a youtube link to this vid, coz it says I have to be in the States to watch this and Im not….

  10. This is the most hipstery thing that has probably ever graced basic cable.

    And I love it. So much cool going on. I just recently got into tUnE-yArDs (and I already hate typing that name out), and this is the first live video I’ve seen of them performing, and I dig them even more now.

  11. i love this album! killa, gangsta and doorstep have been so stuck in my head that somehow when i wake up in the morning, it’s the first thing on my mind.

  12. she is amazing and/but the music vid for bizness makes me incredibly nervous, in a i want to sit in a stark white room and be clean and indulge in ocd habits kind of way

  13. AGREE WHOLE-HEARTEDLY!!! I can do everything to it – I can run to it, go to sleep to it, wake up to it, have sex to it, shower to it…

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