Ezra Furman covers Vampire Weekend

A wildly intelligent, phenomenal live performer and deft lyricist, Ezra Furman is currently touring the UK, playing Newcastle tonight before End of the Road this weekend, and a headline show at London’s O2 Brixton Academy on Thursday 4th. Today, he’s shared a very special cover of Vampire Weekend’s “Unbelievers”.  It might seem an odd choice, but Furman sensed a punk band buried in Vampire Weekend:

“With Ivy League cunning they realized there were more interesting and profitable directions to go with their music. But the punk instincts still shine through in many of their songs. I heard “Unbelievers” as a punk song almost immediately, adventurous production and orchestral touches notwithstanding. It takes one to know one. In the midst of our recent ambitious and inventive music, I started to get a strong urge to reconnect with my high-tempo voice shredding punk roots. Covering this song was a perfect gateway from one to the other. Plus, no matter how deep in love I am with Judaism, there is a never-ending supply of religious alienation and rage in me. Felt good to spill some more of that out.”

Crossing between love, gender, sexuality and religion, and singing in solidarity with the innocent, persecuted, oppressed and threatened; Ezra Furman provides a soundtrack for the current fear and loathing in America like no other.

Ezra Furman released his seminal album Transangelic Exodus on Bella Union earlier this year. His seventh album was a landmark for the American singer-songwriter: “Not a concept record, but almost a novel, or a cluster of stories on a theme, a combination of fiction and a half-true memoir,” according to its author. “A personal companion for a paranoid road trip. A queer outlaw saga.” Perfect for an artist always on the move, always evolving.