Top Tracks of the '00s: The Funeral

Song: The Funeral
Artist: Band of Horses
Album: Everything All the Time
Year: 2006


The Funeral, Band of Horses' blazing anthem off their 2006 album Everything All the Time, starts off like the opposite of a lullaby, hushed and reverent. It has the feel of coming up out of a dream or a fever. Then the band kicks up the wattage, and the brooding lyrics are set off by fierce, defiant, clear-eyed chords and rhythms that peal away any layer of self-pity you might expect from a song with lyrics like "For every occasion, I'll be ready for a funeral."

We spent the second part of our anniversary night at the squeaky-clean Club Nokia in the new L.A. Live complex, swimming in Band of Horses' soaring wall of sound. Sure enough, they played "The Funeral" toward the end of their set of dense, ecstatic songs.

I love Band of Horses' albums, but Bridwell's high, lean, not-too-gritty but not-too-pretty voice is better live, and so is the band: They don't dilute their sound with as much reverb as they do on the albums, and you hear more of their musicality: the Southern rock DNA they share with My Morning Jacket (Band of Horses was formed in Seattle but is now based in Bridwell's native South Carolina), and the folk and indie rock intensity of Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, and alt-country rockers like Uncle Tupelo.

With their skinny, bearded indie look, Band of Horses looks like a cross between a Wes Anderson cast and a bunch of haggard Civil War veterans. In the middle of their set, they treated us to some new songs off the album they're currently recording. We loved a new song featuring band member Ryan Monroe's lead vocals and keyboards, thick with harmonizing that would make Fleet Foxes smile (come to think of it, Monroe looks like he could be a Fleet Fox himself). And another new song even made me think of my favorite band from Minnesota, the late, great Jayhawks.