Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Burnin' for You

The latest entry in the Burn to Shine series is out, and this time the house-burnin' is taking place in the musical hotbed of Portland, OR. For those unfamiliar, Burn to Shine is being produced by Fugazi's Brendan Canty. They travel from town to town, finding doomed houses, assembling a lineup from the local music scene, and shooting the acts doing a single song each in the living room before the whole thing is burned down.

The new edition features such luminaries as The Decemberists, Quasi, and The Thermals, but the highlight for this blog is Mirah, doing an as yet undetermined song. Mirah has long been one of the most underappreciated songwriters we've got, mixing chops, intimacy, eclectic, inventive arrangements, a coy sexy-as-all-get-out voice and most of all, teriffic songs.

K Records is also reporting on an an exciting new Mirah release, Joyride:Remixes, due November 21. Who's involved?

The remix chewing up and spitting out is accomplished by folks close up and far away, including Khaela Maricich (the Blow), Phil Elverum (Mt. Eerie), Guy Sigsworth (has remixed Madonna, Bjork and etc.), screamclub, Jona Bechtolt(YACHT) and Melanie Valera (Tender Forever). For the vinyl-loving, it fits nicely on a double album. The music is hot, sweet and teeming with rhythmic divinity. Turn it up and dance it off.

The first track to come out, which K kindly makes available as a free download, is hooliganship's remix of C'mon Miracle highlight "The Light". On the original, an unadorned voice/guitar verse erupts into a rollicking distorted-drum-machine chorus. The remix takes what makes the chorus great and expands it to song-length, beefing things up with fuller beats and fat casio lines.

MP3: Mirah - The Light (remixed by hooliganship - from Joyride: Remixes)
MP3: Mirah - Cold Cold Water
MP3: Mirah - Sweepstakes Prize

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