Yippee Kay Yay... Mother Falcon?
February 23, 2015 7:44 AM   Subscribe

Mother Falcon is an orchestral rock act with a flexible crew of a dozen-plus multi-instrumentalists. Mother Falcon got its name when its founder misheard a sanitized version of Bruce Willis' famous battle cry from Die Hard. Mother Falcon plays tiny desks at NPR, SXSW, and is getting some prominent press for its photography as well. Their lush, bouyant sound, alternately serene (Marfa, Sanctuary) and feisty (Marigold, Dirty Summer) might justify the kind of hubris they must have needed to reimagine Radiohead.

Mother Falcon is making the cello cool, or at least it's trying to.

“Something that Nick always says, which I love, is that when he reflects back on high school, he wants a guy walking down the hallway with a cello on his back to be as cool as the QB of the football game. There’s no reason why that can’t be true.”

I came across them while surfing through the "Tiny Desk Concert" channel on my Roku and was an instant fan. I, at least, find the cello to be cool.
posted by cross_impact (12 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ha. I think this is the first time I have seen a friend's project mentioned in a post.
Good to see them.
posted by Seamus at 7:47 AM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


Mother Falcon got its name when its founder misheard a sanitized version of Bruce Willis' famous battle cry from Die Hard.

One of these days I want to see a compilation of all the sanitized versions of swear words that end up in network TV and airline versions of movies. I especially loved watching a version of Pulp Fiction that had Samuel L. Jackson say "Mother Hubbard" for the M-F bomb. There was also an airplane version of Sideways that I think replaced "assh0le" with "Ashcroft," a reference to Dubya's attorney general at the time.
posted by jonp72 at 7:49 AM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


So, they usually do a kids show at the end of SXSW with Peelander-Z and some other bands, but it doesn't seem to be happening this year. That makes me sad.
posted by Seamus at 8:02 AM on February 23, 2015


Nope. Something like it is happening.
Just not at Springdale Farms this year.
So, if you have kids or like weirdness and want to see Mother Falcon, here's a free show.
Mad Tiger Festival
It's on the Sunday at the end of SXSW if you are in town.
posted by Seamus at 8:06 AM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


In the TV version of The Big Lebowski, "This is what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass!" becomes "This is what happens when you meet a stranger in the alps!"

Also, Sam Jackson's character in Snakes on a Plane was sick and tired of "these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane".
posted by brundlefly at 8:23 AM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


Mother Falcon got its name when its founder misheard a sanitized version of Bruce Willis' famous battle cry from Die Hard.

One of these days I want to see a compilation of all the sanitized versions of swear words that end up in network TV and airline versions of movies.


"You see what happens, Larry? THIS is what happens when you find a stranger in the alps!"
posted by Going To Maine at 8:26 AM on February 23, 2015 [2 favorites]


I warned all my friends about stranger danger when we lived in Switzerland. I don't think anyone got the joke and thought I was just being paranoid. Oh well, I guess I was out of my element.
posted by a halcyon day at 8:47 AM on February 23, 2015


Mother Falcon are such a great group of people. They put on a music camp that my kids go to every year that is amazing. They are some of the most real, genuine, down to earth and talented people I have ever met.

...And seeing their performance of Ok Computer live at the scottish rite theater was mind blowing awesome...
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:55 AM on February 23, 2015 [1 favorite]


I dug this group the first time I heard them, at some random free concert here in ATX. And my interest in them has led to me seeking out and enjoying other orchestral indie bands and artists who rock the muhfuggin cello.

But I never thought I'd see the day where MF covered Radiohead, bringing two things I dig together in such a lovely way. Thanks for the post, cross_impact.
posted by lord_wolf at 9:55 AM on February 23, 2015


I always thought it was Mr. Falcon.

This is really good - not only are they quite good (and refreshing), but as a former classically-trained but "unconventional" bass player who fell HARD from music school (I've posted about it before - mostly crushed idealism and too much rigidity,) the Mother Falcon Music Lab in particular makes my heart ache in a good way, and it makes me yearn for my early music days.

It's really funny - Many of my peers feel like we are in a period of musical stagnation as a culture, which I couldn't disagree with more. There's more out there than there has ever been, and more support for it than there has ever been as well - It's just not in the "traditional" places we found music. This - the music, as well as the lab - is an excellent example of something that I feel can thrive in the modern day in ways that would be much more difficult before.
posted by MysticMCJ at 11:26 AM on February 23, 2015


This is interesting. My partner loves MF, as an austinite around their age. I saw them in NYC about a year and a half back and thought they were good. Super sweet seeming folks with nice songs. I was excited to see what the leaders do in a few years after honing their orchestration and song writing chops a bit more. About to listen, but I think this will qualify as stepping up their orchestration game.
posted by lownote at 11:29 AM on February 23, 2015



Personally, I think they're messing with the wrong melon farmers.
 
posted by Herodios at 7:12 PM on February 23, 2015


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