Watch IDLES’ boisterous performance of ‘Gift Horse’ on ‘Fallon’
IDLES have given a boisterous performance of ‘Gift Horse’ on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon – watch the footage below.
The Bristol band dropped the song in January, and it serves as latest teaser from their upcoming album ‘TANGK’. Their fifth LP is set for release on February 16 via Partisan Records – so far, the band have also shared LCD Soundsystem-collaboration ‘Dancer‘ and ‘Grace‘.
Now, the band have performed ‘Gift Horse’ for Jimmy Fallon. Previously, frontman Joe Talbot said of the song: “Look at us go! Music and movement for you and yours. Be bold and ride us like the disco donkeys we are.” You can hear him hollering the song’s distinctive chorus during the Fallon performance: ‘Look at him gooooo!’
The band also gave a shoutout to the late J Dilla, production pioneer and Detroit hip-hop legend, by calling him “the king”. Dilla’s birthday (February 7) was the day before their performance; he died on February 10, 2006 due to cardiac arrest.
Figures such as Questlove praised IDLES for honouring Dilla during their performance/ “Idles took names and mollywhooped us something crazy today,” he wrote on Instagram. “All the while giving respect to Dilla. Man they were ferocious today on Fallon Tonight. Happy Birthday Dilla!” Watch the raucous show below:
In an interview with NME, IDLES spoke about recruiting LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Nancy Whang to provide vocals for ‘Dancer’: “If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
“By that point we’d been touring with them for a few weeks and knew they were lovely human beings,” he told NME. “They took time out of their day off and took us to their studio. They were really accommodating and lovely, so hard-working, patient and awesome. They’re sick.”
He also revealed that ‘Dancer’ was emblematic of ‘TANGK’ and its “infectious” energy: “When I started this album, I said to Bowen: ‘I want to make people dance, I want people to feel the love that I need in my life, I want to make people move, I want our music to be infectious again – and I want it to be infectious in a way that makes people feel, not think. I want to feel part of something electric again’.”
‘TANGK’ will be the follow-up to IDLES’ 2021 album ‘CRAWLER’, which NME gave four stars: “On their first three albums, IDLES instructed others to interrogate their feelings and live their lives being as emotionally open as possible. With ‘CRAWLER’ they take their own advice, adding a whole new dimension to an already beloved band. This appears a stepping stone in the band’s evolution, rather than the finishing line.”
In other news, IDLES have just been announced as part of End Of The Road this year – discover the full lineup here.
The post Watch IDLES’ boisterous performance of ‘Gift Horse’ on ‘Fallon’ appeared first on NME.
Alex Rigotti
NME
