That summer pushed the band to its artistic breaking point. Vernon had recently finished a pretty-but-pained solo EP called Hazeltons, while other members of the group seemed intent on heading into even stranger territory. Those shows were some of my favorite musical experiences ever but, for the musicians that had staged them, they made the polarities within DeYarmond Edison abundantly clear.
During those shows, they experimented with Steve Reich phase pieces, Naked City spazz bursts, and, most famously, a falsetto coo that, two years later, made Vernon famous as Bon Iver. I liked their songs, but I especially liked their sounds: From Vernon's rich guitar tone and deep-set voice to Phil Cook's tasteful keyboard playing, they sounded like an almost-great band still in search of exactly what it wanted to say.ĭuring its year as a unit in Raleigh, the band pushed its limits by writing its most unconventional songs (see: "Epoch") and planning a four-show residency in the same art gallery where I'd first seen them play.
He was singing some song- probably about love- in front of an audience that was listening rather intently.īut back in late 2005, the crowd was small, the venue was an art gallery, and the current Bon Iver frontman was leading DeYarmond Edison, the quartet with which he'd relocated from Eau Claire, Wis., to Raleigh, N.C., several months before. DeYarmond was a rustic folk-rock band that took chances. When I was first introduced to Justin Vernon, it was a scene in one sense familiar to those who have seen Bon Iver in the last four years.
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