leslie feist sports the kind of bangs so fierce i begin to wish away my blonde ringlets and dream of long, straight dark tresses and blunted fringe but not even a weekend with a hairstylist could engineer me those killer cheekbones and from where we stood behind the mixing desk last night, feist’s low slung guitar nonchalance and laid back canadian stage presence channeled patti smith at her flirtiest or joni mitchell at her most confident. much as i hate lazy comparisons about female singer songwriters (and no, i probably won’t get through this without mentioning chan marshall either) the fact remains that its rare to see that delicate rock/folk/indie/electronica head-dress worn by a chick and easy to understand how all the stripey shirted, beardy blogger boys go weak at the knees in her presence.

since my darling companion and i might possibly have spent an evening earlier this year learning the dance sequence from the 1, 2, 3, 4 video we were well prepared for some formation dancing and well timed hand claps which we managed to bust out without spilling our cans of red stripe over the assembled throng of kids with delicately tousled barnets and unkempt facial hair. but feist was polite, enthusiastic and humble when faced with what must be yet another room full of vaguely familiar looking hipsters and hangers-on. opening her set with an stomping electric version of ‘when i was a young girl’, splitting the room into an alphabetical register so we could all harmonise the opening of let it die, chiming and chirupping through tracks from her freshman lp and the divine reminder the set whizzed by. and all the time i was left in wonder at her voice, sultry and light, gravelly, fragile and sweet. all of the dextrous melody of joni mitchell without the abrasive top end warbling, louche and seductive without being seedy or needy.

she’s back in town in september, playing larger venues across the uk and i’d urge you to go see her. in the meantime (while i wait for maurice fulton to remix my man my moon) here’s a little something which ties in with our love and admiration for all things wes anderson (see jak’s post below) to the lady of the day. here’s feist covering the kink’s ‘nothing in this world can stop me worryin’ bout that girl’ a track which appears to deliciously satisfying effect in rushmore.

feist - nothing in this world can stop me worryin’ ’bout that girl (live)