TGIF! Let's Have Some DEATH: Murder Ballad - Das Hoboerotica

Das Hoboerotica are a Nebraska based cello/accordion duo made up of Rachel West and Lenna Pierce. 

Before we get to the music it must be said: Rachel and Lenna are amazing at names. Their band is called Das Hoboerotica. Their first album is called So Long Succors. Their second album is called Feminine Hyjinx. They've won naming things, and congratulations are in order. So, for today's TGIF! Let's Have Some DEATH we are featuring the aptly named murder ballad 'Murder Ballad.'

The song creates an entire story out of spare and dusty parts, and it's immensely affecting. The lo-fi recording techniques render the lyrics a bit hard to catch, but it doesn't matter. When I hear this song I see the body of a woman lying in an underground station as a busking band echoes across from another tunnel. It's not the sound of a death, but what you hear after you die. This is all getting very grim, but the point is I get all of this and more from a piece of music where you can barely understand a word. It evokes an entire film out of its soundscape.

Also that last accordion screech scares the absolute hell out of me EVERY time. Even when I know it's coming. It will still scare the absolute hell out of you now, even though I've told you it's coming. Thank you Das Hoboerotica for reminding us of our own mortality, lulling us into a deathly lullaby, and then making us jump out of our skins in the final hour.