omfg Look at these Hippies!

EDWARD SHARPE AND THE MAGNETIC ZEROS

Here's a non-electro music post that shows a live performance of the ten piece (almost entirely) acoustic band of LA-based hippie folksters doing their original Musical ballads. Gotta hand it to the band Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros- it takes a lot of effort to pull that off without the net of a studio recording, and they do it well at the NPR setting. The energy of the group, especially the lead chick-singer, is inspiring (or discomforting, depending on your point of view). 

Of course, just because they look like hippies doesn't mean they are; the lead singer used to lead the jerk-punk band Ima Robot. I, for one, can forgive them and appreciate the art as it now is.

from Paste Magazine "After breaking up with his girlfriend, moving out of his house, and joining Alcoholics Anonymous, Alex Ebert began work on a story about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe. According to Ebert, Sharpe "was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind...but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love." Ebert later met singer Jade Castrinos in Los Angeles. In the summer of 2009, as Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Ebert and Castrinos toured the country with a group of fellow musicians in a big white school bus.

Like a crazed mix of Krishnas, von Trapps and musical merry pranksters, the dozen or so bandmates sing in a co-ed chorus about 40-day-long dreams, desert visions, the man from Galilee and their desire to heal you and set your spirit free. At the center is Ebert, laughing and dancing and shaking like he has that same covenant with God." - Richard Parks (Paste)

Their 2009 album is called Up From Below
~Markos!