Remember The Unicorns? According to the most absurd interview I've ever read, they were once called "The Best Band in the World" by Vice Magazine. The Montreal-based "three-headed beast", was made up of Alden Penner (Clues), Jamie Thompson (Islands), and Nicholas Thorburn (Islands). They sounded a lot like this:
After the 2004 break up and eventual success of their side projects, the band that brought you such spiritually moving songs "Do the Knife Fight" ('blood type a, blood type b / doesn't matter cause his bloods on me') has (2/3) returned with a new project: Hidden Words.
"In the interim years, Alden had experienced a spiritual reawakening as a member of the Bahá'í Faith. Upon immersing himself in its scriptural tradition, he recognized an implicit musicality to the Writings and began composing melodies that would elucidate this lyricism. It seemed only natural to include his friend and collaborator Jamie in this experiment."
The songs are adapted from the original text of the holy Bahá'í text, the Báb, which, as Sean of Said the Gramophone cleverly pointed out, kind of makes them a Báb cover-band. Here's the best part - the result is not only beautiful, its actually kind of fun. It's still a little hard for me to take the Tallest Band In The World (see ^ linked interview) seriously, but the more I hear the more it grows on me and I am certainly looking forward to the release of their first album due out this Spring. In addition to Alden and Penner and Thompson (Thorburn is not involved), Hidden Words includes Eric and James Farr (Honeyman and the Brothers Farr), Neah Kelly, and Marie-Claire Saindon.
"Free Thyself from the Fetters of This World"
See the Hidden Words Facebook Page and Blog for translations of lyrics, original text, and more information. I also highly recommend this great write up in Jeune Street.
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