Friday Music: Bradford Cox, Deerhunter, Atlas Sound

Kay is self-described as “I’m a thirtysomething disabled feminist. Overeducated, underemployed.” One of the best blogs. We are featuring her Friday Music column. Last week she uncovered Antony and the Johnsons the hot group from across the Atlantic.

“I’ve always been a leader of awkward people,” Bradford Cox says in Rolling Stone. Cox, lead singer (and also guitarist, keyboardist and player of various other stuff) of Atlanta band Deerhunter and solo-project Atlas Sound, is a musician whose personal appearance, live stageshow presentation, music media critiques and band song lyrics all bubble over with a freakshow differentness developed from the experience of adolescent illness and disability. Cox has said as much himself.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wpc1lhFfMA]

Cox was born with the genetic connective tissue disorder Marfan Syndrome. He’s 6’4″ and so shockingly thin that his appearance has relentlessly been the relentless subject of music reviewers commentary. And he’s turned that around and used it for dramatic effect with about as much ease as possible. In an interview with Rodney Carmichael at Creative Loafing, Cox says:

“I hate my body just as much as everybody else comments on it or hates it, you know. I mean, I think most people [hate their bodies]. . . . [Marfan Syndrome] affects your personality, because a lot of your personality is a product of your self-image.”
But he also says, (and I so love this):

Kay has written a well researched story …read the rest of the story