Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros: It’s ok to feel good!
October 21, 2009 · Print This Article
No doubt Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros have got their hands on the best happy pills ever to exist!
One listen to the songs that make up their debut album, Up From Below, is enough to convince anyone of this. The 10-piece band from Los Angeles, lead by Alex Ebert, developed after Ebert suffered a break-up leading to a stint that landed him in Alcoholics Anonymous and sleeping on an air mattress in a tiny apartment with no phone or internet. It was here that Ebert, former dance-rock frontman of Ima Robot, began to develop a messiah-like character named Edward Sharpe that was sent to Earth to heal and save humankind. Apparently, Sharpe could never get very far because he fell in love with a girl around every corner.
Not far from fiction, Ebert soon met and fell in love with Jade Castrinos, who began to provide vocals and percussion to Ebert’s love and death-themed ditties. The two adorned in white, barefoot, and happy-in-love embarked on a white bus to tour the country with their musical comrades as Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. Their live shows exude a 60’s free love spirit, with the band dancing, swaying, and smiling to the freedom-inspiring melodies being emitted through their massive stage collection of musicians.
The group sings and plays soulfully about the desert, dreams, death, and love, love, love. “Janglin” reminds us that “laws are for Dummies,” and that our institutions are dead. Ebert touches on new age themes of conscience and healing and waking up from sleep in more than one of their masterpieces. Biblical references are also prominent in many of Ebert’s work, including “Up from Below,” “Come in Please,” and “Kisses over Babylon.” The recent single, “Home” is an anthem to the spirit of what matters to Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and is more infectious than the swine flu! “Home” carries the feel of Mickey and Silvia’s “Love is Strange,” with its he and she reciprocations. The band pulls off the happy love-train in a totally believable way…you just know they can’t be faking that joyous ruckus! And, because Ebert credits their sound to a persistent endeavor to connect with inner-child musical impulses, their happiness becomes that much more believable.
The debut album, Up from Below, is available now on iTunes and at amazon.com. Check their website for current information on their cross-country tour, and if you live in our headquarters of Atlanta, head out to Athens, November 11, 2009 to see them at The 40 Watt.
www.edwardsharpeandthemagneticzeros.com
www.myspace.com/edwardsharpe
Nadia Lelutiu
Related posts:
very nice article, i love this band they are too cheerful to deny! thanks and keep up the good work!