Pssst: MNDR fpp
August 16, 2011 9:09 PM   Subscribe

Singer, knob twiddler and bass player MNDR has had a great year, especially considering that she hasn’t even finished her first full-length solo recording yet. MNDR is best known in the pop world so far for her collaboration with Mark Ronson and Q-tip on Bang Bang Bang, a song that plays with the french children’s song alouette with a double entendre squeezed out of the consonants in “plucking feathers.”

MNDR* has released her own songs such as Fade to Black, I Go Away, C.L.U.B., and Cut Me Out (with a video shot with real time kinect-based effects).

She writes her own songs, and is deeply nerdy regarding electronic gear and studio production to get the sounds she wants. This reputation as a gear head once landed her an awkward interview with Duran Duran member Nick Rhodes who hardly lets her get a word in edgewise.

Amanda, who has professed a childhood love of Bjork and the Sugarcubes, has a “Sugarcubes” of her own in her past. The band Triangle, which she formed with Brian Tester in St. Paul, Minnesota in the late 1990s before moving to Oakland, California, indexes how the boundaries between indie rock, electronic dance music and mainstream pop have shifted in the last decade. In Triangle’s songs, you can hear much of the experimentation with old and new electronics that still makes up her sound, but you can also find acoustic and electric guitars in the mix, and a somewhat lower-fi laptop pop aesthetic than she is now aiming for. Some songs worth checking out from around 2000-2002 include The Results, Two Claps, and Wood. Triangle toured with the Shins, among other notable bands, and was even featured on the James Mercer-curated stage at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival.

Two closing factoids: MNDR grew up on a farm in North Dakota, and she once recorded a duet with Har Mar Superstar (although this video is a different HMS song without her).

*Amanda Warner with lots of letters sucked out
posted by umbú (12 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
i saw her a year ago live. I think she opened for YACHT and it was awesome. No one knew who she was, but everyone was singing along to 'I Go Away' almost immediately. Whew.
posted by Corduroy at 9:14 PM on August 16, 2011


nice to start seeing synthesizers featured prominently in music videos again.
posted by mexican at 9:20 PM on August 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


I'm really impressed by her song writing ability, in terms of beats and hooks and arranging and vocals, etc... But the production is a bit too low fi to me... to many presets and the mastering is kind of poor... it lacks punch... reminds me of early calvin harris or tiga though, she definitely has tons of potential..
posted by empath at 9:28 PM on August 16, 2011


Oh this one! I saw her open for Massive Attack. I wasn't at all sure what she was doing, but she was clearly doing it very enthusiastically, and I decided I liked it.
posted by feckless at 9:37 PM on August 16, 2011


her collaboration with Mark Ronson and Q-tip on Bang Bang Bang

Best pop song of the last 10 years, fact fans.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:21 AM on August 17, 2011 [3 favorites]


anybody got a link that works on Earth?
posted by Vetinari at 1:23 AM on August 17, 2011


Heh, I was considering using Bang Bang Bang as a hook to make a post about Q-Tip guest appearances through the years. Great song, that, and what a couple of wonderful artists Ronson managed to wheel into that song.

Does this work, Vetinari? Mind you, I had no problem with the post's link, and I'm in Iceland. Oh, and this is the extended version of the video, not the TV-ready one in the post.
posted by Kattullus at 4:29 AM on August 17, 2011


Kattullus, you should still do the Q-tip post. I think it would work well next to this one. I don't know his other collaborations, but I'm curious.
posted by umbú at 4:58 AM on August 17, 2011


I thought this was a post about the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and their resumption of services after the July government shut-down. Apparently not: the only vocals in their outstanding magazine are bird songs.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:49 AM on August 17, 2011 [2 favorites]


i like this
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:08 AM on August 17, 2011


I'm really impressed by her song writing ability, in terms of beats and hooks and arranging and vocals, etc... But the production is a bit too low fi to me... to many presets and the mastering is kind of poor

I'm only familiar with Bang Bang Bang -- did she produce that one? Cuz presets or no, that shit is hot.
posted by Hoopo at 10:52 AM on August 17, 2011


Mark Ronson did.
posted by empath at 12:12 PM on August 17, 2011


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