Everything's Meant To Be Broken
November 13, 2020 5:19 AM   Subscribe

It started with an offhanded joke on Instagram by Austin from the band Loud Letters — what would it sound like if Phoebe Bridgers had written the song "Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls. Bridgers herself conditionally promised to make it happen, and after some notable pressure being applied, we now have an answer. A gorgeous cover of that song from that Nic Cage/Meg Ryan movie and a duet between Bridgers and Maggie Rogers, available on Bandcamp for 24 hours as a fundraiser for Stacey Abrams' Fair Fight organization. Good job, internet!
posted by Maaik (31 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
That's a beautiful cover. Buying for the cause! (The OG song always seems like an incel anthem to me, though.)
posted by erattacorrige at 5:42 AM on November 13, 2020


A question: As Fair Fight only accepts donations from US citizens and green card holders, does this mean that revenue from purchases by non-US citizens has to be quarantined and diverted elsewhere, or is this (and the Four Seasons Total Landscaping T-shirt posted some threads ago) a loophole allowing non-Americans to donate?
posted by acb at 5:45 AM on November 13, 2020


I'm not familiar with the original song but this sounds great. (How many projects can Bridgers be involved with?)
posted by octothorpe at 5:47 AM on November 13, 2020


> ...does this mean that revenue from purchases by non-US citizens has to be quarantined and diverted elsewhere, or is this a loophole allowing non-Americans to donate?

I think that technically you're purchasing something from somebody who is promising to donate an amount of money equivalent to the proceeds. In which case the donation is actually made by the vendor, not you.
posted by at by at 5:55 AM on November 13, 2020 [5 favorites]


This is better than the original (and I have a soft spot for the Goo-Goo Dolls!). Knowing it helps Stacey Abrahms makes it twice as nice.

Cool to see artists leveraging their influence in a politically strategic way to improve the world.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:58 AM on November 13, 2020


From what I understand it, any sort of quid pro quo is legally out of the question: if I offered to buy my American friends drinks in return for donating to a campaign, I would be breaking the law (as would they if they cooperated). Wouldn't this also be likely to catch such campaigns?
posted by acb at 6:00 AM on November 13, 2020


For what it's worth, when I made the purchase I did not have to provide any of the data that is required for US political contributions, like affirmation of citizenship or job details. It was just a normal purchase flow.
posted by sockshaveholes at 6:01 AM on November 13, 2020 [3 favorites]


acb, I suppose the distinction is that Fair Fight is an organization made to combat voter suppression and is not a candidate for office. It's not a campaign donation.
posted by Maaik at 6:10 AM on November 13, 2020 [2 favorites]


Though they do not accept direct donations from non-US citizens on their website, so I assumed that they were legally prohibited from doing so.
posted by acb at 6:14 AM on November 13, 2020


God, I love BandCamp. They take your money, pay the artists making music, give you music you can play anywhere and just don't otherwise screw you or anyone else around. They're just about the Platonic Ideal Internet Company, and they're one of the major reasons we're in the middle of this incredible golden age of music right now.
posted by mhoye at 6:25 AM on November 13, 2020 [19 favorites]


This is lovely. Thank you.
posted by gauche at 6:25 AM on November 13, 2020


Another good Bandcamp post! I've gotten some great music over the past few months of MeFi Bandcamp posts...Garages, Deep Sea Diver, this. Keep 'em coming!
posted by snwod at 6:33 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


Phoebe is great. Should live concerts ever be a thing that happens again, I recommend you check out one of her shows.
posted by HiddenInput at 7:06 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'm not familiar with the original song

You are a lucky, lucky person.

I pretty much hate this song, but this is a gorgeous cover.
posted by thivaia at 7:08 AM on November 13, 2020 [4 favorites]


This is absolutely wonderful all around, but by god do I fucking hate that milk picture
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:10 AM on November 13, 2020 [9 favorites]


This is so great. She is so great.

I am positive that the Better Oblivion record she did with Conor Oberst was done 100% for friendship and love of music. But I also bet her manager had to be thinking "This is going to introduce her to a lot of aging people" and it totally worked, because I was only vaguely familiar with her before that and now I'm a huge fan who rarely lets a day go by without listening to at least one of her projects. I doubt I am the only one.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:36 AM on November 13, 2020 [3 favorites]


I found out about her via Lucy Dacus and boy genius but then went to see her and Oberst in BOCC in a club last year. There were a few olds like me but the crowd seemed to be about 90% young folks.
posted by octothorpe at 9:25 AM on November 13, 2020


I actually stumbled onto her via her cover of McCarthy Trenching's Christmas Song which is so dark and heartbreaking that it quickly became my very favorite sad old-man Christmas song ever. I've been listening to her on Spotify and had no idea that she did a record with Connor Oberst. Thanks DirtyOldTown for pointing it out!
posted by heyitsgogi at 9:46 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


LOVED IT

Now please do "Name", with

If you could hide beside me
Maybe for a while
And I won't tell no one your name
And I won't tell 'em your name


as the counterpoint to the "Iris" lyric:

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

posted by Caxton1476 at 10:15 AM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


if I offered to buy my American friends drinks in return for donating to a campaign, I would be breaking the law

The Bandcamp page says, "Proceeds from this track will benefit Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight." It does not say, "money received from purchase of this track will be directly donated to Fair Fight." I suspect the difference is enough to provide the necessary wiggle room.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 10:57 AM on November 13, 2020


Absolutely gorgeous cover and such a fun, funny internet-typical story of how it came to be.

I will confess that even though I absolutely do know who Phoebe Bridgers is, when I first saw this post, I thought it was about Phoebe Waller-Bridge, whose cover of Iris I would also like to hear.
posted by merriment at 11:44 AM on November 13, 2020 [4 favorites]


If you watch the Selling Right Now ticker on the front page of Bandcamp, every third sale or so is of this song. Phoebe and Maggie are going to be making a huge donation after this.

God, I love BandCamp. They take your money, pay the artists making music, give you music you can play anywhere and just don't otherwise screw you or anyone else around. They're just about the Platonic Ideal Internet Company, and they're one of the major reasons we're in the middle of this incredible golden age of music right now.

Absolutely. The best and also apparently give the biggest cut of the share to the artists of any online platform (and did even before Bandcamp Fridays started in March). Though be sure to actually download your purchases, especially one-day things like this because once they aren't for sale on the platform any more they are removed from your library as well.

Also: Friday December 4th is probably going to the last Bandcamp Friday so make your wishlists now and buy on that day (except buy the Phoebe track today)!
posted by urbanlenny at 12:19 PM on November 13, 2020 [2 favorites]


Friday December 4th is probably going to the last Bandcamp Friday

s/probably/possibly/

Given that the Rona is far from over, I would not be surprised if they extended it for another 3-6 months. Unless, of course, nobody's buying anything at other times and they're bleeding money unsustainably, though I gather that's not the case.
posted by acb at 1:13 PM on November 13, 2020


Oh, that’s lovely. It’s a totally different song. I love the original too, honestly, but it’s so fun to see how different musicians can really make a song their own.

I also do not like the milk photo.
posted by obfuscation at 2:17 PM on November 13, 2020 [1 favorite]


Ooh someone got a screenshot of the Selling Right Now ticker displaying all Iris. I realise this COULD be photoshopped but I also saw a 7/8 Iris earlier.
posted by urbanlenny at 2:39 PM on November 13, 2020 [2 favorites]


I never thought much of this song until I heard Iron Horse's version, which still makes me cry every time I hear it. So, sure, give me more good versions to add variety to my heart punches.

(The original film, Der Himmel über Berlin, is also heart wrenchingly beautiful, you know, if things have you feeling too chipper lately.)
posted by seraphine at 3:48 PM on November 13, 2020 [2 favorites]


Even better than the 8/8 banner (which I did manage to grab a screencap of, so it's real!) is the amount of people who are paying more than asking - three, five, ten dollars at a time.

I caught an 8/8 when I first started looking at the banner but of course it just scrolled off, and then I had to spend another 5 minutes watching it.)

This is a beautiful cover, and the backstory is great. Thanks for sharing it.
posted by invokeuse at 7:22 PM on November 13, 2020


And they're now challenging major music companies to match their donation. So retweet this to the major music company of your choice.
posted by MrVisible at 7:33 PM on November 13, 2020


(The OG song always seems like an incel anthem to me, though.)
I can see how it can come across that way, but this comment got me wondering if there are any torch songs sung by men that don't carry this sort of baggage now.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 9:47 AM on November 14, 2020


Maggie posted earlier on Twitter that they made 46,935 sales and raised $173,703.59 USD. The song was priced at minimum $1 USD, so that averages out an average sale price of $3.70. Impressive!

Only the 2019-20 donation/expenditure income for Fair Fight is available online, but if they were donate that under one name during that fiscal year, they would have been the ninth largest donor (whoa Bloomberg).
posted by urbanlenny at 8:46 PM on November 19, 2020


Oh and that also means that, with there being 86400 seconds in a day, the song sold every 1.84 seconds.
posted by urbanlenny at 8:48 PM on November 19, 2020


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