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‘Cannabis’: Take a big hit of Slim Twig’s Serge Gainsbourg cover for 420 Day


 
I’ve been fairly unabashed in my praise of Toronto-born rocker Slim Twig. Two of my very most favorite albums of the the past two years are his creative handiworks, A Hound At The Hem and its worthy follow-up Thank You For Stickin’ With Twig, both out in America on DFA Records. And so without any further preamble—you can read my past ruminations on Slim Twig here and here—it’s my great pleasure today, here on the sacred herbal holiday of 420 Day to debut this video for Mr. Twig’s slinky, smoky cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s ode to “Cannabis.”
 

Slim Twig goes casual at the bowling alley

Cannabis” comes from the soundtrack to a 1970 French film of the same name which actually stars Gainsbourg as well, portraying a hitman for the mafia who falls in love with Jane Birkin, the daughter of an ambassador. The original number was performed and written by Gainsbourg and orchestrated by his future Melody Nelson collaborator Jean-Claude Vannier. Cannabis, which was amusingly retitled French Intrigue for the puritanical US market, was uploaded in its entirety to YouTube. It’s in French, with no English subtitles, but you still get to see Serge as a gun-toting, rabbit-fur coat-wearing badass causing mayhem, smoking a lot of cigarettes and je t’aiming Jane Birkin as often as possible.

DFA have set up a special Weedtransfer site for legally purchasing “Cannabis” in digital or physical formats.

“In a scene like this, you get a contact-high!”
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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04.20.2016
11:33 am
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Attention rock snobs: Slim Twig has made the second best album of 2015*
09.15.2015
05:36 pm
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*At least according to me.

Toronto-based musician/actor Slim Twig (real name Max Turnbull) has been compared by critics to Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Suicide and David Bowie. The Quietus compared him to Scott Walker and I personally added Iggy Pop, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson to the list. His 2012 album A Hound At The Hem, which only got wilder release last year on DFA records, was one of 2014’s toppermost of the poppermost musical highlights for me. I played the fucking shit out of the insanely catchy single “All This Wanting” and still do.

Last year, writing about the album, I noted the press release described A Hound At The Hem as a concept album loosely inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and as “an echo-like response to Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier’s Histoire de Melody Nelson.”

As I then opined “It takes balls to claim—or even imply—something like that!” Which is true, it absolutely does. Delightfully so.

And now Twig—a ringer for a young David Lochary—is back with a new album that sounds absolutely nothing like his previous album. This one, titled Thank You For Stickin’ With Twig is a sonic melange of T.Rex, Nine Inch Nails, David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World album, Bongwater, maybe The Residents and that very specific sound that Jimmy Page was into around the time of Presence. There’s also a playful Zappa-esque element to the proceedings. Not one song sounds anything like another.

To my jaded ears, this guy is the real fucking deal. Again, I have just played this new album non-fuckin-stop since I got it. And now you can hear it , too, here’s Thank You For Stickin’ With Twig in its entirety, introduced by the artist:
 

 
More Slim Twig after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.15.2015
05:36 pm
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Meet Slim Twig: He’s been compared to Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, David Bowie, even Elvis
11.17.2014
06:56 pm
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Although I’m fairly firmly of the opinion that no man under the age of 40 should sport facial hair—a beard is earned, a reward for getting old, a mask for covering the years up, even—I didn’t let that sour me on Slim Twig. He’s got too much talent for that.

Slim Twig is the stage name of Toronto-born actor/musician Max Turnbull. He’s been putting out scads of under-the-radar releases since 2005. In September, DFA Records re-released his 2012 album A Hound at the Hem and it’s very fucking good.

Mind you, there’s a difference between “very fucking good” and great, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want young Mr. Twig to get a big head. He seems destined for greatness, though, I’ll give him that. A Hound At The Hem, which was recorded in 2010 and first put out independently before this new DFA Records release, is an album that should be heard. I haven’t heard an album this strong by a new artist since… since a long time ago.

The press release describes A Hound At The Hem as a concept album loosely inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita and as “an echo-like response to Serge Gainsbourg and Jean-Claude Vannier’s Histoire de Melody Nelson.”

It takes balls to claim—or even imply—something like that!

He’s also been compared in print to Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Suicide and David Bowie.

Not to mention Scott Walker by The Quietus:

“. . . a wholly satisfactory solution for those [Scott] Walker fans who find themselves torn between the full-bodied melodrama of his earliest solo work and the often impenetrable soundscapes of the post-Climate Of Hunter years. It’s this balance of accessibility and experimentation that makes Hound - and indeed Twig himself - such an intriguing prospect. For every chunk of Zombies-esque pop-psych riffage, there’s a muffled hip-hop beat buried deep in the mix; for every elegant orchestral flourish, there’s a vocal that sounds like it’s been dubbed in Lee Perry’s echo chamber.”

Even the King of rock and roll:

“[Slim Twig’s music is]...what might happen if you left a bunch of Elvis Presley LPs on a radiator, smashed them to bits with a hammer and re-assembled them for play on a turntable. In a word, otherworldly.”

Considering his age—he’s 26—Slim Twig’s got plenty of room to grow as an artist, but still, if you’re going to be compared to anyone, I reckon he’s in pretty good company with the aforementioned. I’d add Iggy Pop, John Lennon and Harry Nilsson to the list for this one, the insanely catchy single “All This Wanting.” I played this song once and couldn’t get it out of my head for the entire weekend. It’s been on repeat around here at the Dangerous Minds office:
 

 
More from Slim Twig after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Richard Metzger
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11.17.2014
06:56 pm
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