don't bear around the bush. are you implying theres a leak?
― nostormo, Saturday, 14 September 2013 18:36 (ten years ago) link
it's out there
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 14 September 2013 18:40 (ten years ago) link
the production sounds fucking awesome.
so rich and full of details
― nostormo, Saturday, 14 September 2013 18:43 (ten years ago) link
whoever plays electric guitar for Bill is... really incredible. guy's a painter. unsurprisingly, this is great. "rich production" OTM. so much neat stuff going on here. seems like he's gotten a lot wordier too. not a bad thing at all.
looking forward to spending a lot of time with this.
― circa1916, Saturday, 14 September 2013 19:51 (ten years ago) link
i think it's Matt Kinsey
― nostormo, Saturday, 14 September 2013 19:57 (ten years ago) link
"seems like he's gotten a lot wordier too. not a bad thing at all."
not sure about that yet
― nostormo, Saturday, 14 September 2013 19:59 (ten years ago) link
Something to be said for the distant "man of few but potent words" persona he owned. I do feel a bit overwhelmed. Just too much to take in and not enough time to ruminate on it.
― circa1916, Saturday, 14 September 2013 20:13 (ten years ago) link
you mean in the 20 minutes since you downloaded it?
― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, 14 September 2013 20:15 (ten years ago) link
sorta like destroyer, who emulates the hell out of bill
xpost
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 14 September 2013 20:16 (ten years ago) link
Har. Lyrically, there's just a lot coming at you. But, yeah, FIRST IMPRESSIONS and all.
xp
― circa1916, Saturday, 14 September 2013 20:20 (ten years ago) link
apples and ornagesxpost
― nostormo, Saturday, 14 September 2013 20:20 (ten years ago) link
destroyer:smog :: bowie:bolan
― reggie (qualmsley), Saturday, 14 September 2013 20:45 (ten years ago) link
gee imagine how good the actual release will sound
― nerve_pylon, Saturday, 14 September 2013 21:56 (ten years ago) link
if i won't fall in love with the record it might stay as an imaginative thing, yeah:
first impression and all - songs sounds kinda samey, melody wise.
the production is great.
― nostormo, Saturday, 14 September 2013 22:06 (ten years ago) link
well the only words I said today are "beer" and "thank you"
― Number None, Saturday, 14 September 2013 23:59 (ten years ago) link
BTW, before any gets too accusatory about people hearing this before the 'street date' (lol), my vinyl copy came today - a few days early.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Sunday, 15 September 2013 01:11 (ten years ago) link
how dare you shake what's under the tree
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Sunday, 15 September 2013 01:12 (ten years ago) link
No drag city spotify ;_;
― 6 Tuesdays on every Tuesday. This is called dumpy pants. (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:06 (ten years ago) link
Just bought new QOTSA bc spotifyBut I guess this behavior is atypical?
― 6 Tuesdays on every Tuesday. This is called dumpy pants. (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:09 (ten years ago) link
So far liking this more than Apocalypse which, while perfectly fine, I didn't really connect with. Also, I'm totally purchasing this come Tuesday, so sorry Bill and co. about being too excited to wait.
This does feel like maybe a new era for him. More naked and open, less obfuscating, guarded, mysterious. He's ready to talk. That grantland piece making a deal about phone interviews makes some sense. Definitely saw this happening in the Apocalypse doc, which is something I couldn't imagine him being comfortable with some years ago.
― circa1916, Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:16 (ten years ago) link
Also, this doesn't really register as too same-y. No more than his other records anyway.
― circa1916, Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:22 (ten years ago) link
what is the general consensus of woke on a whale heart ? i remember reading that it came off as to vague/oblique (lyrically), but i thought it was a sublime record. interest dropped off w/eagle, but sort of rekindled w/apocalypse and seeing him live.. his 'wordiness' gets tiresome. thought the production on woke was insanely good.
― braunld (Lowell N. Behold'n), Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:28 (ten years ago) link
Whaleheart left almost no impression on me. Was pretty disappointed with it at the time, but I need to revisit. Been some years. "A River..." and "...Eagle" stand to me as the highlights, but there's certainly no consensus.
― circa1916, Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:35 (ten years ago) link
I agree with that even if there is no consensus.
― 6 Tuesdays on every Tuesday. This is called dumpy pants. (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:37 (ten years ago) link
whaleheart is great, is ageing great. just so much energy in like day, footprints, diamond dancer, & there's something almost upsetters-ish about the compression of instruments & violins & marching drums into this synthetic trample. what a fun record to play.
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Sunday, 15 September 2013 02:49 (ten years ago) link
My initial resistance to Whaleheart might have been because it was so much lighter and bouncier. Just wasn't what I wanted and expected from Smog/Callahan at the time.
Always like when he gets a little meta like Teenage Spaceship (a teenage Smog sewn to the sky, etc.) or this from Eagle:
"I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again."
― circa1916, Sunday, 15 September 2013 04:24 (ten years ago) link
i guess his metaphors are more "readable" now, much of the time
but i think that's been true since (at least) supper
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 15 September 2013 04:49 (ten years ago) link
but one thing i like about bill's lyrics is that they have these kind of confounding / amusing shifts between metaphor and blank description. you know-- the plane is a relationship. wait, it's a plane. no, it's a relationship.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 15 September 2013 04:51 (ten years ago) link
also the capo'd (?) guitar on this is giving me mid-1970s joni mitchell feelings. has he been listening to hejira lately?
i predict he will make a kind of lite-folk instrumental EP by 2016
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 15 September 2013 04:54 (ten years ago) link
or start scat singing
You just used the 'H' word - I am now officially very, very, very psyched.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Sunday, 15 September 2013 05:37 (ten years ago) link
well, it's not like the whole thing sounds like hejira--just a few touches here and there.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 15 September 2013 23:12 (ten years ago) link
but you will probably like it anyway, b/c it's good
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 15 September 2013 23:13 (ten years ago) link
I've never disliked anything Callahan's done, so I'm sure I will like it, but a Hejira reference is like catnip to me
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Sunday, 15 September 2013 23:31 (ten years ago) link
whoever plays electric guitar for Bill is... really incredible. guy's a painter. unsurprisingly, this is great.
yea matt kinsey is amazing. he's a totally essential part of why apocalypse is the great album that it is. i haven't heard the new one yet (i can wait two days for it, jesus guys) but i'm super excited he's on it.
― marcos, Monday, 16 September 2013 13:51 (ten years ago) link
also, whaleheart seems like a minor album of all the ones he's put out since supper but i still like it a lot. there's some great stuff on there, it's upbeat and a lot of fun. "sycamore" is a great bill song by any measure. i like the production throughout -- "the wheel" has kind of a cool gospel feel to it, "a man needs" kind of has this sun records classic country feel
― marcos, Monday, 16 September 2013 13:55 (ten years ago) link
Just found the album on Youtube...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr_cDKNxby8
― Barnaby, Hardly, Monday, 16 September 2013 14:36 (ten years ago) link
crucial whaleheart alt take, https://soundcloud.com/fonsessions/honeymoon-child-bill-callahan
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Monday, 16 September 2013 14:47 (ten years ago) link
awesome! that almost sounds like it could fit on the second half of supper
― marcos, Monday, 16 September 2013 14:57 (ten years ago) link
just put in that really fluid-y supper guitar sound and you have something really mellow like "anniversary"
― marcos, Monday, 16 September 2013 14:58 (ten years ago) link
whaleheart is easily my least fave of the "bill callahan" albums. it was extra disappointing bc i'm a huge royal trux fan and neil michael hagerty produced it, but the production is part of the problem with that album. agree that 'sycamore' is a great song though.
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 16 September 2013 14:59 (ten years ago) link
a donald sutherland interview comes on the truck radio
― reggie (qualmsley), Monday, 16 September 2013 15:46 (ten years ago) link
screw u n/a
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Monday, 16 September 2013 16:42 (ten years ago) link
A few very random thoughts on first pass:
Bill's records always sound so damn good. And it isn't like he's using the same engineers and producers and studios all the time. In fact, unless I missed it, there's no producer credit on this record at all, just one for the engineer and one for the mastering guy. Which makes me think Bill is the guy responsible for the sound on these albums, which makes me appreciate him even more.
His voice has never sounded better or more expressive than it does on this record. Folks who criticize Bill for being a passionless singer should hear this one.
The consistency of sounds here - the claves, the chorus-effected guitar, the fiddle, the flute, even the Wurlitzer - really makes this album more than the sum of its parts. It's an album you're not going to want to hear in spurts; I think if you pull this out, you're listening to the whole thing.
I hear the Joni influence amateurist mentions upthread, especially on songs like "Seagull," which is so light and breezy in that sophisticated 70s way, but I also hear some Julie Driscoll in the melodies, the way Bill sings these sort of tricky melodies over these really airy, spacious arrangements.
This album could have been called More Songs About Eagles and Rivers. Elemental themes are such a consistent preoccupation at this point, it's as if Bill invented them. Not a criticism, just an observation.
"Javelin Unlanding" is so terrific. And I really love the Wurlitzer on "Ride My Arrow."
I told you they were random thoughts. Anyway, this record is great.
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Monday, 16 September 2013 20:15 (ten years ago) link
really enjoyed your random thoughts jimmywine. still haven't heard this one (i'll pick it up today) but i do know that bill produced almost all of his albums. jim o'rourke did a couple in the late nineties but since "dongs of sevotion" i think it's all bill.
― marcos, Tuesday, 17 September 2013 13:22 (ten years ago) link
http://www.spin.com/articles/bill-callahan-dream-river-interview-apocalypse-documentary/
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 14:32 (ten years ago) link
xp Thanks, marcos! And yeah, I'm not sure why I never realized that before, but it makes perfect sense. The drastic change in production style may be the thing that makes WOAW, produced by Hagerty, a lot more difficult for some folks to connect with than other BC albums.
BNM today on Pitchfork, and a good, well-written review by Lindsey Zoladz. Only surprising thing was no mention of "Javelin Unlanding!"
― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Tuesday, 17 September 2013 14:36 (ten years ago) link
the spin article is great
i wasn't crazy about the pitchfork review, too much focus on wryness and chuckling
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 14:42 (ten years ago) link
this is a really lovely article, the sense of the landscape throughout is so dreamy
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Tuesday, 17 September 2013 14:42 (ten years ago) link