Rolling Nels Cline Thread

I started a catch-all Nels thread about 5 years ago but it never really took off: Nels Cline - S&D, C or D, etc.

but I felt like starting a new one, since I was just browsing around eMusic and found that he had just released a new album called Coward, and it is AWESOME so far. it's just him playing solo, overdubbing himself with multiple guitars, which is something I've always wanted an album of, and it's got a new version of one of my favorite songs of his ever, "The Divine Homegirl" (which originally appeared on the Nels Cline Trio's Ground.

and the news page on his site has been updated for the first time in a while, and lists a whole bunch of interesting projects on the horizon (new Mike Watt/Black Gang record, live record w/ Jon Brion, an acoustic guitar trio called The Acoustic Guitar Trio): http://www.nelscline.com/news.html

huh i didn't know he still did stuff with watt.

jon brion? ewwwww

And he's still in Wilco, right? They're releasing a new disc this year, I think.

Is Coward relatively accessible? I love Cline's guitar playing, but it's sometimes hard for me to get into his solo stuff ("interesting" as I know it is).

well I don't think he's recorded with Watt in a long time, this new record is kind of a 'reunion' of the Black Gang, imo Contemplating The Engine Room is a stone classic so if it's even half as good I'm excited.

obviously Jon Brion's produced a lot of corny artists (and some good ones) but he's a talented guy and his solo improv shows are supposed to be cool so i imagine him teaming up with NC having interesting results.

xpost yeah, still in Wilco. and Coward is fairly accessible as far as his stuff goes, lots of acoustic stuff with more written melodies, and even the more weird/abstract parts are kind of pretty and not really abrasive.

He was on Watt's Ball-hog or Tugboat? (1995) and Contemplating the Engine Room (1997)

yeah i saw him w/watt but watt was WASTED and nels tried to kill him with atonal guitar blasts

yeah brion might be fine i just...you know...have icky associations w/that dude

(yeah i mean he STILL did stuff w/watt obv)

fwiw, i interviewed him a little while back. he was lots of fun to talk to, that q&a could have been 3 times as long. i need to get the new one.

(and just fyi, that's a retyped replica of the original article, which while i appreciate the blogger's enthusiasm, the typos i swear are his not mine.)

Cline seems like he'd be totally levelheaded and straightforward. Is that how he seemed to you?

yeah. i mean, he's sort of a weirdo, obviously, but a down-to-earth weirdo who finds his own weirdness amusing. and mostly seemed really happy and surprised to have been able to make a career out of what he does. my favorite quote in there is "once the music starts I’m kind of like a little moron in the sandbox. It’s just a situation where everything’s okay once there’s sound around me."

Yeah, he comes off pretty humble and self-deprecating in my limited experience (a couple of times that I've seen him live at smaller gigs, I pretty much couldn't stop myself from walking up to him and basically going "THANK YOU FOR PLAYING A SHOW ON THE EAST COAST BESIDES NEW YORK!" and striking up a brief conversation). He's a pretty engaging writer, too, his Watt tour diaries were always good and the Coward liner notes on his site are great to read while listening to the album: http://www.nelscline.com/coward.html

great interview, btw, tipsy.

thanks. and whoa, this coward album is great. exactly the kind of thing i've wanted to hear from him. only been through it once, but it's about to go on heavy rotation.

just bumping this thread because coward is really by far my favorite album of the year so far, and is guaranteed to be at least one of my faves by the end of it and i think all kinds of people might like it if they got their hands on it -- more than most jazz/avant/solo instrumental stuff. it's really a something-for-everyone record, you got your drones, your pretty tunes, your abstract excursions, your rockers. it's hugely accessible for something so quirky and personal. here's a nice review of it by my friend lee.

i did get the alex cline album too, that's pretty cool. love the ensemble.

ditto!

Mike Watt's about to tour with Dinosaur and I believe he's playing the upcomng album (er, 'opera') he recorded with Nels but w/ a different band.

I like me Nels, seen him in a number of different contexts over the years, with Watt, with Carla B., etc. One of the most thrilling concert moments I've ever seen was when Watt did a full runthrough of Contemplating the Engine Room in Costa Mesa a short while after its release and Nels hit the solo in "Liberty Calls."

sup kshighway

some new releases f/ Nels: apparently he plays on 3 tracks on the new record from Carla Bozulich's Evangelista that's coming in October, last one was killer some i'm looking forward to that. he played on the new album by Amy Hobish but listening to some tracks on MySpace right now I'm not really into this stuff.

it's kinda driving me nuts that the Mike Watt/Black Gang album, My Shubun No Hi, has seemingly been in the can now for over a year and there is no indication anywhere if it being released anytime soon

While I've checked out a bit of Nels's solo and collaborative work outside of Wilco, most of what I know about him centers around his work with Tweedy & co. I first saw him live with the band in late 2004, not too long after he joined. I've seen Wilco in concert twice since, and all three times I've seen them Nels has been the obvious focal point on stage. If you're facing the band, he's always off towards the right fiddling with pedals and playing as intensely as he possibly can. The most noticeable aspect of his stage presence is how physically, viscerally expressive he is. His entire body is caught up in the work of playing guitar.

The strangest thing to me about the addition of Nels to Wilco is that the music has gotten much more tame since he joined. After falling in love with A ghost is born, which was one of the first indie rock records I ever heard, and then becoming more familiar with Nels and the band's back catalogue and history, I really thought they were going to release something more experimental next. When I heard Sky Blue Sky, I was very disappointed, and I still am, although I can appreciate it now as long as I treat it for what it is: one of the band's minor works, a flawed, sad, and underwhelming thing with two outstanding songs, "Impossible Germany" and "On And On And On," and ten others that don't stand out at all. Wilco (the album) is a much better record, and one that I'll listen to much more as time passes, but it really is a "Whitman sampler of the different aspects and obsessions of Wilco," as Tweedy called it. You have the Neu! motorik thing they did on "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" on "Bull Black Nova," the obvious "I'm A Wheel"/"Monday"/"Can't Stand It" rocker tune ("Wilco (the song)"), the unassuming acoustic number "Solitaire," which recalls "Dash 7," "Far, Far Away," "Radio Cure," "Muzzle of Bees," and most of SBS. The whole record really is a summation of their career.

I agree with those who claim that Wilco is not a particularly difficult band, but I still think they have a more experimental post-A ghost is born record in them, and I'm hoping it will come, but after reading interviews with Tweedy and following the band for years, I feel like it's increasingly unlikely. Wilco is primarily a vehicle for Tweedy's creativity, and although things seem to be more stable for the band now insofar as the lineup is concerned -- no one has been fired in five years, and everyone including Tweedy (see the new Rolling Stone interview) seems to feel good about the band as a unit -- I don't think he will ever be in a place where he'd want to make another Yankee Hotel Foxtrot/A ghost is born pseudoexperimental record again. I doubt Nels will get to do any truly radical work in Wilco. (The most "radical" things he does on the new record, which are not "radical" at all, really, are these strange little backwards-guitar solos at the end of "One Wing" and "Everlasting Everything" and some feedback-soaked guitar work at the end of "Bull Black Nova.")

When I was even more of a Wilco stan four years ago, I discovered a great section of Nels's website called Tech Talk where he spends some time discussing the technical details of guitar pedals, amplifiers, etc.

It's still up, apparently: http://www.nelscline.com/tech.html

I'm pretty sure Nels maintains his own website. It's worth browsing around. Dude's a fantastic writer.

Nels Cline Singers playing two nights here in SF next week. Looking forward to that.

When I heard Sky Blue Sky, I was very disappointed, and I still am

Still love this record, largely because of Cline. Still realize I'm in the extreme minority.

I need to hear that last Evangelista album, I really love his work with the Geraldine Fibbers.

New Evangelista is amazing. All of them are, actually.

I saw the Nels Cline trio many years ago--well before he joined the Fibbers. I got to see Ethyl Meatplow too. Been a fan of these good folks ever since and enjoyed many incarnations of each.

the first Nels Cline Singers album, "Instrumentals", is really good.

I feel I need to hear the Coltrane tribute one

I'm pretty sure Nels maintains his own website. It's worth browsing around. Dude's a fantastic writer.

― kshighway, Monday, August 24, 2009 11:54 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Yeah he does, and he is! Only thing about the website that bugs me is that he hasn't updated the discog page since he launched it in '05, which is a shame because it's so hard to keep up with all his stuff. I need to pick through Wilco's recent records and find the stuff where Nels is showcased more, all I really know I like is "Impossible Germany," which is just gorgeous and one of my favorite things he's done the last few years. Is the alternate version of that song that was released as a B-side recently worth seeking out?

Stereogum has a stream of "Unlikely Japan". I can't find where I read it now, but I'm pretty sure "Unlikely Japan" is from 2003-era A ghost is born sessions, so Nels isn't on it. It certainly sounds much more like it's a post-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot A ghost is born track than, say, something from Sky Blue Sky.

For other Wilco tunes where Nels's work is in the forefront, see: "Ashes of American Flags" from Kicking Television and "One Wing" from Wilco (the album) and, to a lesser extent, "Bull Black Nova" and the end of "Everlasting Everything," both from that same record.

As I said though, he's just kind of another guitar part or lap steel part on a lot of these songs. Not that that's bad, but it is what it is.

That's certainly not the case on Impossible Germany.

I love hearing him play lap steel, though, the stuff he did on Carla Bozulich's Red Headed Stranger cover album and the Geraldine Fibbers' Butch is great. In fact those are probably 2 records that'd be good to check out if you want to hear Nels play in the context of a band w/ a singer. (xpost)

No, it's definitely not, Daniel.

OK, lap steel: "Sky Blue Sky" and "Leave You Like You Found Me" (I think...) from Sky Blue Sky and "Deeper Down" and "Solitaire" from Wilco (the album).

There's also a little one of those backwards guitar solo things at the end of "You and I" from Wilco (the album) and some neat guitar work on "You Are My Face" and "Walken" from Sky Blue Sky.

If I like Nels's work more when he's in "Impossible Germany" and/or experimental noise-stuff mode rather than jazz mode, what stuff from his back catalogue should I look into?

hmm good question -- i might have to make you a mix!

i never browsed his website before, thanks for the tip. apparently they recorded Instrumentals in just 15 hours, sort of depressing really considering how great it is...

from what i've heard of Destroy All Nels Cline it falls under both experimental noise-stuff mode and jazz mode, so maybe check that one out, kshighway? anyway, some dude, i'll be up for a copy of that mix if it happens

yeah Destroy All Nels Cline is great, very high up on my list of fav Nels releases of this decade

If I like Nels's work more when he's in "Impossible Germany" and/or experimental noise-stuff mode rather than jazz mode, what stuff from his back catalogue should I look into?

Have you listened to the new Cline disc? It isn't like Impossible Germany, but it (a) has some rock tendencies (one song is a tribute to a Sonic Youth guitarist) and (b) it's in the experimental noise-stuff mode, I think. Others here -- more knowledgeable than me -- can confirm.

Yeah Coward was the impetus for this thread and is awesome, although YMMV if you'd rather hear him w/ a band than just in that kind of solo context. I think my favorite record from him as a songwriter/bandleader is the Nels Cline Trio's Ground, which has a really good balance of harder rock, noise, jazz and ballads.

Immolation/Immersion, with saxophonist Wally Shoup and drummer Chris Corsano is awesome free jazz/improv. Absolutely ferocious opening salvo gives way to intense but quite varied excursions.

I have a mostly unlistened to copy of Coward in my bedroom right now! Will pull it out and come back here with thoughts.

sonderangerbot, I'll check out Destroy All Nels Cline, also.

Guess this doesn't really fit the "not jazz" bill, but the record of Interstellar Space covers w/Gregg Bendian is pretty fire..

The first time I really met Nels (had seen quite a few gigs by that time) was at a Scarnella show. We had a friendly argument about Yes vs Sabbath. He thinks Sabbath is garbage.

Insanity.

Saw Nels the other week at the Sky Saxon tribute show. He was easily the most 'out of place' performer, given who else did perform, but I liked his set for that reason.

Am I alone in loving Draw Breath? (Haven't heard the new one or many of the others that are mentioned here.)

I wouldn't say I love it but I definitely wouldn't turn my nose up at it. "Squirrel Of God" is aces.

The Coward samples on iTunes sound good. Will I be losing much (in sound quality) if I download from iTunes instead of buying a CD? It's $4 cheaper and I don't have to wait. I'd buy a CD if it sounds a lot better though.

"if it sounded"

Coward is only $8.99 on Amazon MP3, fwiw: http://www.amazon.com/Coward/dp/B001R64H8W

Quality on iTunes & Amazon MP3 is 256 kbps, which is not as high quality as a CD but is usually good enough for most people's purposes. If I were you, I'd buy the CD if you want a hard copy or want a digital copy that's better quality than the mainstream digital stores are offering.

I've pretty much just given up on MP3 stores, though, because I've discovered I can find most CDs cheaply priced locally or on Amazon.

It's about $4 or $5 more for the CD on Amazon.

This is exciting. I love Rova. Cline played an intense solo on this project BTW: http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Ascension-Rova-Orkestra/dp/B0007XT7QI

Nels making some all-too-rare East coast appearances starting tonight:

http://www.nelscline.com/calendar.html

07/06 NYC | Le Poisson Rouge
The Nels Cline Singers
2 shows: 7pm, 9:30pm

07/07 Philadelphia, PA | Johnny Brenda's
The Nels Cline Singers
8pm

07/08 Washington, DC | Black Cat
The Nels Cline Singers
8pm

07/13-18 NYC | The Village Vanguard
Jenny Scheinman's Mischief and Mayhem

07/19 NYC | The Stone
Nels Cline "Stone Seminar #29"
Nels speaks about music, guitars and life
7-9pm / $20 / All Ages

08/15 North Adams, MA | Solid Sound Festival
The Nels Cline Singers

I'm only going to the D.C. show but that Stone Seminar thing sounds awesome

needs to come to Boston imo

you mean you're not gonna drive a couple hours away for that last date which appears to be a festival headlined by Wilco?

if I had the extra money and more enthusiasm than I currently have ATM for music, I probably totally would

I probably should just go anyway but \(O_O)/

yeah i can empathize. you have to realize how much you're disappointing the whole of ILM by not going to a festival curated by Wilco in your own state, though. xp

yo, it's ksh

Nels says Wilco's starting their own label:

I don't know the name of it. Jeff [Tweedy] was basically not wanting to be on a record label for a while-- he didn't renew his contract with Nonesuch-- so we're striking out on our own, our own label.

http://www.nelscline.com/images/dirtybaby-news-cover.jpg

the new Nels album Dirty Baby came out last week and I've only just started listening to it but it seems like it's gonna be a real doozy -- double album with a ton of interesting backing players, the whole backstory is explained on nelscline.com so i won't get into it here.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61ukRrxOfTL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

also out in the last month or so is the self-titled debut from Floored By Four, which is Nels, Mike Watt, Dougie Browne and Yuka Honda. it's 4 tracks/40 minutes and is only 4 bucks on Amazon MP3! awesome record, really digging this ensemble. this has really been a banner year for Nels between these albums and Initiate, and I still haven't checked out the album with Rova or some of his other sideman things.

oh and I also meant to mention in that post, I reviewed the SIngers D.C. show over the summer and it was awesome: http://blogs.citypaper.com/noise/index.php/2010/07/six-string-superhero-the-nels-cline-singers-at-the-black-cat-july-8/

FYI, in case you missed this info on the Low thread: Nels is playing on their next album.

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=4792941&blogId=539853661

oh cool. Nels hadn't mentioned it on his site and I don't really follow Low so I had no idea, but I could totally see that being an awesome combination.

i need to buy some of this stuff, for real

― http://bit.ly/Bfu2p (ksh), Friday, May 7, 2010 9:42 AM (5 months ago)

one of my favorite things about having a subscription to eMusic is every few months i scroll down the new releases and see something Nels Cline-related and can be like hey awesome and grab it right away. i didn't even know about Dirty Baby until this morning.

Floored By Four is Mike Watt (Minutemen, the Stooges) on bass and vocals, Nels Cline (Wilco) on guitar, Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto) on keyboard, bass, and glockenspiel, and Dougie Bowne on drums.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14936-floored-by-four/

wait, some dude posted about this months ago . . . i guess this is just a "late" review then

and glockenspiel

the Nels Cline Singers and the Rova Saxophone Quartet just did a few dates together playing cuts from their 2010 collaborative album -- last night's show in Baltimore was awesome. i also just learned, looking over wikipedia entry, that apparently Nels and Yuka Honda got married in November. that's so awesome, congrats to them!

Initiate may be the best album I've heard in a while! All the best things about his other work I'm familiar with comes together with a little more groove. The live versions of some of the Draw Breath and Coward material are actually more energetic and effetive than the studio versions, especially "Thurston County".

we went to see wilco in the tempodrom in berlin last night. there was this guitar player who did some amazing things with his instrument. besides some otherworldly lap-steel playing where the steel guitar almost sounded like a theremin he used lots of reverb and echo effects. at the end of several songs he seemed to shred his guitar, played the strings with a speed which seemed to be faster tha sonic speed, his body moved like he was electrocuted, very weird. he had a four to five minute solo on one song where he melded melody, rhythm and improvisation in a unique way. absolutely gorgeous. as i found out later, the name of the guy is nels cline and he is 55 years old. from far away he looked like less than 40.

awesome! i always wonder if people are REALLY getting turned onto nels and recognizing his talent if they're exposed to him via wilco, but i guess they are, at least sometimes.

I've been listening to Macroscope a lot on Deezer. It might be my aoty so far. It doesn't necessarily break new ground for Cline but everything comes together really well: beautiful solos, psychedelic noise, a noisy garage rock tribute even. I think he might be one of the best living electric players. These reviews seem to sum it up:
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-nels-cline-singers-macroscope-by-matt-marshall.php#.VCtHyildWe0
http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2014/04/the-nels-cline-singers-macroscope-review.html

It might be my aoty so far.

Not a judgment I usually make based on Deezer to be clear. Also, I'm listening to Tanya Tagaq's Animism for the first time now so this statement may def be subject to change.

I'm very fond of Macroscope.

The record he did with Medeski, Martin & Wood is even better than ´Macroscope' (which is good).

That's Woodstock Sessions?

This Bimhuis gig by the Singers from last month is leaving blisters on my eardrums, fucking great.
https://www.mixcloud.com/bimhuis/nels-cline-singers-15-03-2015/

60th birthday today. For some reason I thought he was a lot younger.

yeah he was already in his 40s when he joined the Fibbers!

i haven't heard much from him lately besides the White Out w/ Nels Cline album but that was good and noisy

Crüt tipped me off to that one the other day with his 2015 albums list -- really love it.

can't wait to check this one out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=penuNbYSK6E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHVGzKSOSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDHVGzKSOSA

I'm about 15 minutes in (it's on Spotify) and it's really beautiful. I listened to a bunch of Cline the other day and started listening to this, but wasn't in the mood for beautiful so set it aside for later.

that bilt looks beautiful

From the DowntownMusicGallery newsletter:

Over the past couple of decades, Nels has led a
variety of bands/projects for labels: Enja, Cryptogramophone and Mack
Avenue. His current band, the Nels Cline Singers, has evolved from record
to record and will be recording a John Zorn Masada Book Three session later
this year.

I think this has been announced for some time now, but I hope it will come out soon...

Wow, this sounds so gorgeous and lush, and I'm only listening on earbuds so looking forward to hearing it on something fuller.

I'm usually a bit disin-clined towards this 'un, but his latest 4-tet including Lage is rather good.

nels cline has really big hands

even great wealth can't buy you really big hands in the US, it seems.

some are born to big hands, others have big hands thrust upon them, but no-one achieves big hands

makes u think

This latest Cline 4-tet is decent but, for me the latest Dan Weiss project Starebaby is much more "out there".

Marquee Moon feel to this: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/04/the-nels-cline-4-full-session.html

We've talked about it a bit on the jazz thread. Predictably, I'm a fan.

I've seen and enjoyed Nels in a bunch of different settings, but one of my favorites was at this year's Big Ears with Jenny Scheinman's Mischief & Mayhem. It was the two of them plus Todd Sickafoose on bass and Scott Amendola on drums, and they were just rollicking. Four equals all having a good time impressing each other on stage. One reason I love Nels is that he so clearly loves playing, there's always this little-kid glee in what he does.

xp
You heard the latest Dan Weiss Sund4r? The band includes Craig Taborn + Matt Mitchell, and it's an excellent lp as well.

That's the one with Monder on guitar? It's definitely on my list.

yeah that's the one, Starebaby.

This is what I like, yeah.