Off-kilter, skittering drums booming like a wounded elephant. Wordless ‘oohs’ and bird-like singing layered until your head might explode. A menacing, brilliantly awkward bass line lurking in the background. And Merrill Garbus’ acidic words: “I’m not your fantasy flesh that fits you like a tight glove.” A harsh indictment of sexual objectification, “Real Live Flesh” catches you off guard. It’s in your face, spare and glaring. It leaves you nowhere to hide.
In the five years since recording the live version of “Real Live Flesh,” below, tUnE-yArDs has gone on to bring her weird brand of pop music to adoring crowds the world over. While the project started as a solo endeavor, featuring Garbus playing ukulele and drums with her face painted and howling like Nina Simone on Halloween, she has added, in various incarnations, bass, saxophones, backup singers, a second drummer and synthesizers. Political messages and themes of social injustice are still a huge part of her music (her 2011 album whokill was originally titled Women Who Kill), and on this year’s Nikki Nack she belts “I come from the land of slaves / Let’s go Redskins, let’s go Braves!” Beneath the countless instruments that tUnE-yArDs brings to her maximalist recordings, the poignancy of her words can be lost in the melee of noise.
When tUnE-yArDs returns to the Fox Theater for a much-anticipated hometown show this Thursday with Cibo Matto, expect a party; the euphoric over-the-top surges of sound and syncopated, belted voices. You may not hear the sparse brutality of old songs like “Real Live Flesh,” but that doesn’t mean the message isn’t still there. You may just have to listen a little harder.
Watch tUnE-yArDs play “Real Live Flesh” below.
