Ian Sweet – Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl
Last fall, IAN SWEET – the project of NYC-based musician Jilian Medford – released SUCKER via Polyvinyl.
Today, she follows with a massive cover of Broken Social Scene’s “Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl.”
Although the track opens with muted percussion and murmuring vocals, Medford’s signature voice soon swells, bolstered by arena-sized guitar and glowing synth. As drums crash around throughout the chorus, they thump in your chest, reflecting Medford’s urgency.
Medford says on the cover: “Broken Social Scene’s music has always felt like the equivalent of a hug, and I think at some point everyone has to have *that* moment with ‘Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl.’ Or maybe you have it more than once. This song hits different for me now than it did when I was actually 17, and I imagine it’ll hit a little different each year I get further away from that version of myself. It so poignantly nails the difficulty of trying to exist within the moment of being a teenager while you’re simultaneously looking towards the inevitable transitions looming on the horizon. You want to cry.. and you should cry.
Simply put: It. Fucking. Crushes.
And even though covering someone else’s work is weird and strange and almost always feels like perhaps it shouldn’t be done, I’m willing to say effusively that I never want to escape this song. With this small act, perhaps now I can’t! The original is essential, other covers have taken it to amazing places as well, and now I’ve recorded my version hoping a few more people will get to shout the lyrics at the top of their lungs and FEEL FUCKING INCREDIBLE doing so. Here’s hoping a thousand more artists do the same and that this song just never dies.”
IAN SWEET Tour Dates
Fri. May 3 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress %
Sat. May 4 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern %
Fri. May 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ Brain Dead Studios
Sat. May 11 – San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel %
Thu. May 16 – Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom %
Sat. May 18 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox %
Thu. May 30 – Boston, MA @ Royale Boston #
Sat. June 1 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground #
Mon. June 10 – Richmond, VT @ Broadberry Theatre #
Wed. June 12 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West #
Sun. June 16 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club #
Tue. June 18 – Morgantown, WV @ 123 Pleasant Street #
Wed. June 19 – Buffalo, NY @ Electric City #
Fri. June 21 – Portland, ME @ Portland House of Music #
Sat. June 22 – Catskill, NY @ Glen Falls House #
Sun. Oct. 13 – Berlin, DE @ Prachtwerk
Mon. Oct. 14 – Brussels, BE @ Le Botanique
Tue. Oct. 15 – Paris, FR @ Supersonic
Wed. Oct. 16 – Rotterdam, NL @ Left of the Dial
Tue. Oct. 22 – London, UK @ The Lexington
%= w/ Caroline Rose
#= w/ Nation of Language
#ian_sweeeeet