Mitski: 'I Want You' SXSW 2016 | NPR MUSIC FRONT ROW

We have the benefit of hindsight when it comes to 1950s and '60s pop music. Songs about motorcycle crashes and broken hearts sound quaint now, but the sweet harmonies and four-on-the-floor beats reflected real anxieties of teens and twentysomethings. Mitski Miyawaki — who records under her first name — makes music that looks to that era, both in style and substance. The 25-year-old Brooklyn songwriter channels the "pop" reflection of everyday trauma. This is realness, often riddled with feedback, but more often sung in quiet and determined desperation.

This is why when she played our SXSW showcase, you could be forgiven in thinking that her songs about loss, heartbreak, aimlessness and identity carry a dark weight. Largely culling from 2014's Bury Me At Makeout Creek, Mitski's set was spare in its instrumentation, but cavernous in emotion. "Townie," the particularly doomy "I Don't Smoke" and the feedback-squealing closer "Drunk Walk Home" derailed into fuzz and wild vocal acrobatics, while "First Love" felt like a bedroom confessional.

But Mitski also performed two songs from the forthcoming Puberty 2, a record that opens up her sonic and lyrical palette. "Once More to See You," getting a first taste here, is like something out of a cloudy dream, with a space between guitar notes that's deliberate, yet disorienting. Mitski lets her voice breathe through the pauses like a lounge singer left alone in a velvet room. When she spoke with NPR about "Your Best American Girl," she said, "I am half Japanese, and it came from wanting to just fit into this very American person's life and simply not being able to." In Austin, it's a scorcher, riddled with sludgy distortion and crashing cymbals as if someone set off fireworks just above the stage. -- LARS GOTRICH

CREDITS
Producers: Saidah Blount, Mito Habe-Evans, Otis Hart; Technical Director: Josh Rogosin; Director: Mito Habe-Evans; Videographers: Nickolai Hammar, Katie Hayes Luke, Cameron Robert, A.J. Wilhelm, Lizzie Chen; Editor: Niki Walker; Audio: Timothy Powell/Metro Mobile; Assistant Audio Engineer: Loretta Rae; Production Assistants: Erin Conlon, Nathan Gaar; Editors: Niki Walker, Kara Frame. Photography: Adam Kissick. Special Thanks: SXSW, Stubb's BBQ; Executive Producer: Anya Grundmann.

Support for NPR Music comes from Blue Microphone.

[mattiapetta]

this is actually better than the studio version...

[huh-vthk]

Her lives are always filled with so much emotion, tops the studio versions

[btcxwxy]

1:35 is my favourite bit. She sounds so much more raw than in the studio version.

[anshuuu]

I cant believe I have listened this song for more than 5 years and this is the first time I am watching this

[saumyasunidhi]

the 5 people who disliked this, I just wanna talk

[subra]

Thank you Mitski for expressing what I can't even express for myself.

[anshuuu]

The one dislike I want to talk to you for 10 minutes.

[aemeou]

Está versión me agarró, me batió contra el piso, me rompió 5 costillas y me arrancó el corazón del pecho. Que canción más espectacular

[skibiditoiletfan]

the moment she struck the chord between floor and you’re is actually godly

[henryjaramillomusic]

11k views and no dislikes, just like it should be

[verdaderacaradebebedexdina]

Ya no se que vergas hacer, me encanta esta canción, sobretodo está versión, los audífonos no son suficientes, debo tragarme la canción o algo

[chrystalsouls]

If everything works out I’m seeing her in September

[sam-ygqt]

i can't believe i'm just seeing this oh my god she's so amazing

[miHoLoverse]

0:39 that little ding right there does it for me. Without it, I can't listen to the song. I patiently wait for the ding every single time I listen to this song.

[animationtrash]

I feel like this version has so much more emotion than the studio version. Mitski is love, Mitski is life.

[artemisfolk]

I would never be able to see this live bc the emotional grief this gives me

[rekosbrotherishot]

ME DA PIEL DE GALLINA ESCUCHAR ESTO TE JURO QUE LA VOZ DE MITSKI ES ANGELICA ES SIMPLEMENTE

[_hualian]

I want you
I hold one card
That I can't use
But I want you

You're coming back
And it's the end of the world
We're starting over
And I love you darling
And I am done, dear

You're in the house
And I am here in the car
'Cause I just need a quiet place
Where I can scream
How I love you

I found you
I found the door
But when I stepped through
There was no floor

You're coming back
And it's the end of the world
We're starting over
And I love you darling
And I am done, dear

You're in the house
And I am here in the car
'Cause I just need a quiet place
Where I can scream
How I love you

I want you
I want you

[hailie]

this version is so perfect in every single way imaginable

[COSMICGODDESS-rx]

BUT WHEN STEPPED THROUUUUGH THERE WAS YOU'RE AND IT'S THE THE WE'RE STARTING OVER AND I LOVE YOU DARLING AND I AM DONE YOU'RE IN THE HOUSE AND I AM IN THE CAR I JUST NEED A QUIET PLACE WHERE I CAN SCREAM HOW I I