Every generation needs their rock and roll eccentrics. These characters, your Mark E. Smiths and your Frank Zappa's for example, seem to exist outside the context of hype and cool and trends while simultaneously defining those things in the eyes of the public. They’re not part of movements because they
are movements - definitive archetypes of their own with legions of loyal followers who think that most of the other slop that comes out of the general underground is crap. If we’ve got one of these, it simply has to be Bradford Cox. He’s got all the hallmarks - Just take a look at this performance with his band Deerhunter on Jimmy Fallon the other night. First thing’s first - he’s wearing a wig. For those of you unfamiliar with Brad, that’s not his regular hair. He’s playing a character, Connie Lungpin, a regular slice of early-'70s Bowie androgyny if I ever saw one, except that Bowie put on characters to fit these vague narratives he drew over his records. As far as we know, Connie is completely purposeless. I would like to also note that Cox (Lungpin) seems to be missing two fingers, apparently a ‘tribute’ to his father, who lost several fingers in a sawing accident. Hm.
