Listen: Original Bradford Cox song made way to new Deerhunter album

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Ben Eberbaugh, A rockin' tribute

[Art and track list for Ben Eberbaugh: A Rockin' Tribute]

With the leak of Deerhunter's Microcastle, Allen Roizman has sent us some old Bradford Cox gems from back in the day, (slightly prior to when Deerhunter became Trent Reznor's touring buddy), at least one of which is a precursor tracks to a song on the new Deerhunter album. That's right. A half-decade old version of a song on Microcastle.

Says Roizman:

In 2003, I went to see Tilly and the Wall and got a comp that was a tribute to the late bassist of the Black Lips which had on it, among other things, an early b-side from The Black Lips, as well as “Miracles of Youth,” a short track from a mysterious Atlanta boy named Bradford Cox, which, immediately after hearing it, completely shattered my mind's ability to listen to music the same way again, as I'm sure he's done to many other people since then.

I've since gathered up various home recordings, which I collected off of the notownsound site as well as Mr. Cox's MySpace page.

“Cover Me Slowly” is a messy four-minute meditation with an identical vocal motif to Microcastle's minute-long “Intro” that slowly undresses itself rhythmically. Roizman heard Microcastle's sonic roots in the aforementioned “Miracles of Youth” as well as “People Never Know”. You can decide for yourself on those two tracks.

Bradford Cox, “Cover Me Slowly”

Microcastle's “Intro”

Bradford Cox, “People Never Know”

Bradford Cox, “Miracles of Youth”