Will Oldham/Palace/Bonnie Prince Billie: S&D

not me

Everything he does comes off like some sort of ironic, unfunny in-joke.

I couldn't feel more opposed to a single opinion. He has written (not just the words, but the singing, the choices of instrumentation, intonation, the choice of players, etc.) some of the most beautiful, open and honest accounts of varied human experience I have ever heard. I hear very little irony in his lyrics, and when it is there it seems very intentional. Obviously no two people will have the same listening experience, but I've never encountered this particularly opinion about Oldham's work. Different strokes.

See also: everyone on Drag City

" I hear very little irony in his lyrics,"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mPn21H3PC4

i thnink i'm gonna sell all my oldham records except for days in the wake, which i still return to occasionally.

lol there's loads of irony in a lot of his stuff but I think he swings the other way into super-serious confessionalism just as often (I don't think there are a lot of jokes on I See A Darkness, for example, altho there are a couple). this ambiguity is part of his appeal.

Saw him in October in a tiny bar with Emmett Kelley and the rest.

i went to see him in concert at an art museum theater and it was pack tho, he still has lots of fans i think

― there was usic in the cafes at night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, November 28, 2010 12:32 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

The live albums Summer in the Southeast and Is It The Sea? are arguably the greatest things he's released IMO. However, nothing will ever touch Viva Last Blues for that early ramshackle vibe. I find him, by far, the best and most consistent English songwriter of the modern era that I can think of. It's plainly outrageous that hasn't been anointed the contemporary Dylan/Young/pick-your-favorite, that failure of a critical consensus more than a lot of others reveals the bankruptcy of modern mainstream music criticism IMO.

― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Monday, November 29, 2010 11:05 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

otm re: summer in the southeast. is 'is it the sea?' that live thing he did in scotland? cuz that rules. i dunno, i stan for oldham pretty hard, and in lol college would've made the claim that he was one of the best living songwriters in america, but i'm not as willing to go that far lately. like, i love the dude, and he has written some v v good songs, but he's not the best (our very own aero is better imo).

i mostly tapered off after Master And Everyone (live albums aside), and have struggled a bit to love his newest stuff as much as, say, Darkness or viva last blues. that being said, i think i'm gonna listen to oldham for the rest of the night now, thx guys

lol there's loads of irony in a lot of his stuff but I think he swings the other way into super-serious confessionalism just as often (I don't think there are a lot of jokes on I See A Darkness, for example, altho there are a couple). this ambiguity is part of his appeal.

― a big influence on me in a non-stabbing non-killing way (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, December 1, 2010 5:54 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

see, i've always read his confessionalism as being firmly tongue in cheek, should you decide its getting too creepy. it's almost goth, you know? yes, we're being serious, yes this is weird, but there's an understanding that there's a safeword or something and if you want to be amused by the darkness, you can, no one's gonna call you out for ruining the creepy vibe or w/e. if that makes sense?

I don't know why I mostly got off the bus after I See a Darkness - that album's great, I love a lot of what went before and what I've heard from after was not bad by any means. I think in some ways it got to feel like a chore to keep up with him, and I felt like I've kinda already gotten as much out of his schtick as I could, sorta like Beck. Like, his boundaries are pretty well defined now, I'm not sure what he could possibly do that would surprise/engage me again.

xp

i never really got off the bus at any point, i just can't keep up with all his releases. reading this makes me want to get those live LPs, though.

cf bill callahan, who ~kinda~ mines a similar vein of quirky macabre american gothic. i'm not nearly as familiar with smog, but what i have heard, and liked, is oldham but with a much smoother voice and a firmer handle on concrete imagery

xp beck comparison is a good one, actually---i abandoned that dude for the same reasons you did. also, lol, in high school i would've called HIM america's best living songwriter. ~suicides~

dude, omar, summer in the southeast is a fucking JAM.

also, if you want recordings of the show mississippi and i saw at the walker, lemme know and i can REDACTED

i would love to get a [mod edit] of that show if you can [mod edit] it my way via ilmessage

~standby~

-_-

one of the things i like about his later work is how much better of a singer he is now, people don't really talk about that but he must've put some work into voice lessons or something along the line.

man gbx

i was just thinking about his cover of "the world's greatest" by r.kelly at that show and how awesome it was.

dude he went from being kinda terrible to being legitimately v v good.

that was teh second set! i only made the first :-/

also omar check your whatever

i liken his early singing talent's roughness is akin to something like Libba Cotton's, not sure how blasphemous that is or if I can get away with comparing 2 such talents to each other, but hey, no worries brah.

(ie, not terrible unless you listen exclusively to broadway musicals and autotuned paedo-pop)

i will not be lumped in with musical theater enthusiasts and poptimists, thank u v much

gonna DL these as soon as i get home, thx homes

more comin

ok mississippi, i just listened to the world's greatest again and it's awesome

With Dylan, you need an annotated bibliography. Scholars can hold annual symposiums on single verses.

cool thx dad

if anybody wd be cool enough to slip me an ILXmessage too I would dance with glee? but no worries if it's a chore

I was an die hard Oldham fan from the first 7" up through I See a Darkness. I had EVERYTHING SEVERAL THINGS. I don't know what happened but after I See a Darkness (which I thought was his best!), he just fell off my radar.

― scott pgwp (pgwp), Saturday, October 2, 2010 9:42 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

adjusted

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCen9gOTmD4

aslo he sings on this, which is rad and of instructional value regarding bears (dangers of)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG2PL2zO034

I still think Superwolf is amazing, I feel like I listen to it far more than I See a Darkness.

I can't listen to I See a Darkness much nowadays, I know the layer of joeks is there but it's too close to home plus a bit dirgy imo, wd far rather play Ease On from that era.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmDbO4zgzvE

attn NV

thx :D

i really liked lie down in the light

superwolf might be my overall fav thing he's done

superwolf def has some of my all time favorite tracks on it, for sure

thx for sending those tunes over, gbx. no worries on the rest of it *`~unless you have a moment to spare someday~*

first palace bros singles/rarities comp (lost blues) works for me as his most solid work.

beck comparison is a good one

I think these two guys were at about the same point musically circa '93 and Beck may have even bit Oldham a bit.

also, have always admired how willing and able he is to continuously reformat and reimagine his old stuff. i've only seen him live twice (Walker last year, Boston...seven years ago?), but those shows and the live albums are seriously impressive imo. like, when i saw him in boston (@middle east), it was on the heels of Master And Everyone, so i went in expecting a pretty hushed affair. instead, he came out in eyeliner, and blazed thru the whole album, in order, front to back, wild and electric. lyrics and basic tunes aside, it was a complete transformation, and completely awesome. then he played old shit by request, all of it different from the 'originals.'

i honestly can't think of many other contemporary artists (instrumentalists aside) that play it so fast and loose with their stuff.

cf the lol strokes concert i went to a few months later which was mechanically faithful to the album. it was like someone hit shuffle on itunes.

and n/p omar, i'll see about getting the second set up later today.

gbx hook me up?

i honestly can't think of many other contemporary artists (instrumentalists aside) that play it so fast and loose with their stuff.

― BIG MUFFIN (gbx), Thursday, December 2, 2010 12:03 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

dylan is the only one i can think of

yeah, that's who i was thinking of, too. was trying, and failing, to think of anyone else.

Prince (live at least)

really? prince did pretty standard version, like a little more jammed out but still basically the song, the 2 times i saw him

i mean, last time i saw dylan it took me 2 verses to figure out he was doing "tangled up in blue" fer chrissakes