{"id":11924,"date":"2014-07-06T13:12:29","date_gmt":"2014-07-06T18:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bostonsurvivalguide.net\/wordpress\/?p=11924"},"modified":"2015-01-17T13:53:35","modified_gmt":"2015-01-17T18:53:35","slug":"french-style-furs-is-exotic-bait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bostonsurvivalguide.net\/wordpress\/2014\/07\/french-style-furs-is-exotic-bait\/","title":{"rendered":"French Style Furs: Is Exotic Bait"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A slightly abridged version can be seen on Ryan’s Smashing Life<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What do two indie rock bands from New York and Long Beach, a Trappist monk, poet, social activist and mystic, and a furrier’s in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn have in common? Seemingly nothing whatsoever, and yet when they came together early last year, there was an inspirational spark, a perfect storm, and something quite, well, mystical happened.<\/p>\n

The musical discovery of French Style Furs<\/a><\/strong> began when Nathan Willett and Matt Maust of Cold War Kids<\/a><\/strong> met with We Barbarians<\/a><\/strong>‘ Nathan Warkentin for brief recording sessions. Willett came to them inspired by the spiritual journey and writings of Thomas Merton<\/a><\/strong>. They worked on ideas that became the basic tracks for this debut. Moving between Brooklyn and Los Angeles, they fleshed out the songs with the help of friends. These contributions include vocals from Haley Dekle (Dirty Projectors), Zina and Marika Dahlin; percussion from Stephen Hodges (David Lynch, Tom Waits) and horns from Wyndham Boylan-Garnett and Nick Kinsey (Elvis Perkins in Dearland). They worked with Nick Launay, who produced albums by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, David Byrne and PiL.<\/p>\n

Thomas Merton (1915-1968), writer, Trappist monk, poet, social activist, mystic \u2013 and now songwriter in a rock band \u2013 penned more than 70 books and many reviews and essays. He traveled the world in search of silence and solitude, and became a student of various cultures and religions traditions which included Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sufism and Taoism. In his dual desire for inner quiet and world peace, he met with important spiritual leaders such as the Dalai Lama, and shared his vision in essays, novels, devotional writings, poetry and autobiographies, while living the cloistered life of a monk. I’ll bet he never would have guessed that his poetry would be sung with such heartfelt conviction in an indie rock song, and that his words would be flashed across the screen in a video on YouTube.<\/p>\n