The High Road

Today's Song: The High Road by Broken Bells

There once was a young aspiring musician from White Plains, New York named Brian Burton, better known by his stage name Danger Mouse. He wanted to be a rapper. In pursuit of his dreams, he moved to London, got signed by Lex Records off a demo, and made an album. It didn't do very well. Critical reception was generally good, but as is often the case it didn't pan out when it came to record sales. It wasn't until he remixed The Beatles with Jay-Z, originally as a joke for friends, that he made a name for himself.


Danger Mouse took The Beatles' LP "The Beatles" (known more commonly as "The White Album"), fused it with Jay-Z's "The Black Album" and made what he called "The Grey Album." It spread like wildfire as an internet download, perhaps helped in part by the controversy of possible infringement on EMI's copyright of Beatles material. (Jay-Z released stems from his album online for the sole purpose that others could remix it). But I like to think that it had more to do with it being freaking awesome. Some called it revolutionary: a new milestone in mashup music. But whether you liked it or not, the fact remains that with this one album Danger Mouse finally garnered significant attention - a healthy dose of both praise and respect.


He then moved on to form popular group Gnarls Barkley with singer Cee-Lo Green, maintaining his role as more of a producer. Their hit single Crazy reached numbers 2 and 1 on US and UK billboard charts, respectively. When that group had run its course, which turned out to be a few years and two albums worth, he started a new project. This is the one I'm writing to tell you about. Question: What do you get when you take the vibey, lackadaisically hovering vocals of James Mercer, singer from The Shins, and merge it with the genius sound production of a guy who can mix The Beatles with Jay-Z and make it sound good? 


Ladies; gentlemen. . . I submit to you Broken Bells.