Copenhagen indie rock quartet, ONBC, recently introduced their new covers EP with a fine rendition of Billy Bragg's A New England. The EP is now out in its entirety through Crunchy Frog, featuring tracks originally by R.E.M., Trille, Bill Ryder-Jones, and a great version of Yo La Tengo's Shadows, from their 1997 landmark, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One.
ONBC's take appears slowed down and a bit more fragile than the original, with the band showcasing their reverence and respect for the song, as they do with all the other tracks on Forty Thousand Tears. The band was absolutely deliberate in their choice of songs that require more attention, instead of going with easier and more popular choices.
”There’s gold, silver and precious stones in display counters of fine stores, lit from all sides. The happiness one can harvest from acquiring such shiny things is fleeting. In cardboard boxes in damp cellars, village markets, or stone beaches that have never seen a sunbather... that’s where you might find true treasure. Unpolished, hard to spot. Finding something like that is a permanent source of joy,” the band's statement reads.
“The analogy isn’t perfect, but that’s what it’s felt like for us to choose and interpret the songs we now share in our modest display counter. We found them in the back catalogues of the fantastic artists we love to explore. They aren’t immediate hits but tracks that require time and attention. We’ve smelted, cast and polished to give the songs a new life in our own way,
“We hope to encourage others to look in the cardboard boxes in the cellars of their favourite artists back catalogues, and in this way challenge Spotify’s hit algorithm a little.”
Shadows comes attached to a moody video created by Rune Mielonen Grassov.
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