there was a big bill callahan feature in pitchfork yesterday: http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9261-bill-callahan/
― marcos, Friday, 15 November 2013 14:35 (ten years ago) link
seeing this dude tonight! (Still haven't heard the new album)
― mario chalmers of ilx (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 15 November 2013 16:03 (ten years ago) link
apparently he's been playing "white light / white heat" ??!!!
― tylerw, Friday, 15 November 2013 16:04 (ten years ago) link
also, i'm going to hold off on listening to this til after I see him next week, but - http://www.npr.org/event/music/245037681/bill-callahan-live-in-concert
― tylerw, Friday, 15 November 2013 16:05 (ten years ago) link
he played white light/white heat at the fun fun fun fest in austin last week, haven't heard about other dates tho
― marcos, Friday, 15 November 2013 16:55 (ten years ago) link
friend said he did it in pioneertown, ca a few nights ago too... not even sure if i can imagine it?
― tylerw, Friday, 15 November 2013 16:56 (ten years ago) link
oh cool! feel like there's always been a pretty significant VU influence in his work tho
also, maybe it was in the teenage spaceship thread, but there was a lot of talk recently about his increased level of exposure now, more critical awareness, etc. i feel like part of the reason is that bill is more actively promoting himself now? doing more interviews, the documentary, special concerts, etc.
― marcos, Friday, 15 November 2013 16:58 (ten years ago) link
i mean, in addition to making somewhat more accessible music
he certainly seems less scary these days. i interviewed dan bejar a million years ago, and he was talking about how much he loved smog, but he said something like "i feel like you have to be some kind of sociopath to write those lyrics." which is interesting -- i probably agreed at the time, but his recent work is kind of making me re-assess the vibe of the smog years.
― tylerw, Friday, 15 November 2013 17:01 (ten years ago) link
Speaking of bejar, I saw him solo acoustic the other day and he was surprisingly talkative. He maybe said 3 words the previous times I saw him
― Heez, Friday, 15 November 2013 17:33 (ten years ago) link
re: the pitchfork piece, would it be so terrible for music publications to impose a ratio of direct-artist-quotation to thoughtful-author-musing in interviews? i am totally psyched to hear about the contents of that borrowed apartment & how much the guy gets a kick out of teenage spaceship & how bill is famously a prickly & laconic interview subject although lately is not so much & in this instance & in fact generally now by large is actually not, but it sucks to have a ~career spanning retrospective~ that has like four lines of direct introspectiveness
hyped to hear about the hexxxx/smog show tyler, report back at length
― love mike love (ko komo) (schlump), Friday, 15 November 2013 20:12 (ten years ago) link
totally. missed the last hex denver show, shamefully.
― tylerw, Friday, 15 November 2013 20:57 (ten years ago) link
ha ya i wasnt sure why it went into so much detail about like... an apartment that wasnt even his... and never mentioned even where he actually lives?
― socki (s1ocki), Friday, 15 November 2013 20:58 (ten years ago) link
The Spin article was way better.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Friday, 15 November 2013 21:04 (ten years ago) link
yea totally. i like that writer (mark richardson) but less so in his formal writing for pitchfork. much prefer his informal stuff on his blog. i also feel like the p4k article didn't tell me anything new at all, either about callahan himself or even novel or thoughtful takes on his music.
would it be so terrible for music publications to impose a ratio of direct-artist-quotation to thoughtful-author-musing in interviews?
otm. so disappointing when i see an "interview" that is like 80% the writer talking about the artist and 20% the artist talking.
― marcos, Friday, 15 November 2013 21:59 (ten years ago) link
been listening to Fred Neil and Silver Jews with drinks. I don't think my gf enjoys this kind of thing. I'm that dude with imaginary gurus, dragging his gf along for the ride tonight.
― mario chalmers of ilx (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 16 November 2013 02:26 (ten years ago) link
she dragged me to cold war kids tbf
― mario chalmers of ilx (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 16 November 2013 02:27 (ten years ago) link
I once filled in for a guitarist in a rap/reggae band opening for some dude from "slightly stupid" and some dude had dragged his gf like 200 miles to see said dude
― mario chalmers of ilx (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 16 November 2013 02:30 (ten years ago) link
Opened with white light/white heat. Followed with javelin. Good show! Picked up dream river.
― mario chalmers of ilx (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 16 November 2013 07:46 (ten years ago) link
Had no idea ilxor some dude was either in or into Slightly Stoopid.
― JACK SQUAT about these Charlie Nobodies (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Saturday, 16 November 2013 21:27 (ten years ago) link
I didn't expect this:http://adamcarolla.com/bill-callahan-and-robert-patrick-lewis/
― Mike Dixn, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:14 (ten years ago) link
He did CBB too
― you are kind, I am (waterface), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:17 (ten years ago) link
show in Denver this week was excellent -- opened with white light white heat w/ neil hagerty shredding behind him. all of the dream river stuff sounded great, but the highlight for me was the lonnnnnnng "one fine morning," which felt like one of those epic van morrison tracks. worst part of the evening was that I arrived just before 9pm to learn that the howling hex had already played! embarrassing, since i think i'm the only howling hex fan in denver. 9pm though! I wouldn't have been able to make it down earlier if i had known...
― tylerw, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 15:49 (ten years ago) link
this got mojo album of the year btw, which is surprising. i love smog but ive yet to hear the guys solo records yet
― subaltern 8 (Michael B), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 16:31 (ten years ago) link
they are all solo records, really
also does anything else think the big extended cover of percy mayfield's "please send me someone to love" they've been doing on (every stop on?) this tour is kind of a mess? for one thing, bill cannot sell those lyrics at all. i mean, obviously it's kind of purposely a mess, almost a piss-taking thing where callahan "solos" on a blues number. but for that reason it's not much fun to listen to. i was kind of psyched when I heard he was doing this cover on the tour, b/c i'm a huge percy mayfield fan, but i was way disappointed.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 27 November 2013 22:14 (ten years ago) link
i mean the earliest smog stuff is literally solo.
yeah, the idea of the "please send me someone to love" cover was better than its actuality...
― tylerw, Wednesday, 27 November 2013 22:17 (ten years ago) link
well i think a lot of specialness of the original is in mayfield's delivery and while bill has many strengths as a singer he just can't pull it off with the same emotional dexterity. he should probably stay away from songs in the R&B tradition, it just reveals his limitations.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, 28 November 2013 08:53 (ten years ago) link
it's a mix of despondency and wry humor, and the way mayfield goes up and down his register, bill just can't compete. dig:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqg_h51y4cI
it's a nice gesture, though. i sometimes worry i'm the only one under 60 that remembers and loves that sort of postwar R&B.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, 28 November 2013 08:56 (ten years ago) link
i do worry that in a decade or two my enthusiasm for this stuff will be like people in the 1960s who dug turn-of-the-century record artists like nora bayes, i.e. totally marginal and weird.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, 28 November 2013 08:57 (ten years ago) link
well then i've got some bad news for ya, buddy
― j., Thursday, 28 November 2013 14:56 (ten years ago) link
lol http://www.dragcity.com/products/have-fun-with-god
― marcos, Friday, 6 December 2013 16:30 (ten years ago) link
hmmm, i didn't listen to that dub single, was it good?
― tylerw, Friday, 6 December 2013 16:31 (ten years ago) link
eh
― marcos, Friday, 6 December 2013 16:40 (ten years ago) link
it was kinda cool to hear but i didn't feel like it was totally worth revisiting
― marcos, Friday, 6 December 2013 16:41 (ten years ago) link
x-post a few posts up
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, November 28, 2013 8:56 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
A few of us do...But I understand the feeling
― curmudgeon, Friday, 6 December 2013 16:43 (ten years ago) link
will buy this for the sleeve
http://exclaim.ca/images/bill21.jpg
― love mike love (ko komo) (schlump), Friday, 6 December 2013 18:09 (ten years ago) link
ha that owns
― gbx, Friday, 6 December 2013 18:28 (ten years ago) link
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18866-bill-callahan-have-fun-with-god/
― j., Thursday, 23 January 2014 06:25 (ten years ago) link
can someone shed some light on "I've got limitations/like Marvin Gaye"?
Thank christ "Sing" doesn't have a flute murdering it. Great song.
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Friday, 14 February 2014 22:20 (ten years ago) link
http://www.freep.com/article/20131009/ENT04/310090011/
― the Norwegians are leaving! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 14 February 2014 22:32 (ten years ago) link
http://rock.rapgenius.com/Bill-callahan-the-sing-lyrics#note-2415360
― the Norwegians are leaving! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 14 February 2014 22:33 (ten years ago) link
detroit free press my ass, stupid paywall
― an enormous bolus of flatulence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Friday, 14 February 2014 22:48 (ten years ago) link
here ya go:
http://permanentsmile.tumblr.com/post/63760595214/bill-talks-songwriting-guitar-greatness-and-marvin
― the Norwegians are leaving! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 14 February 2014 22:58 (ten years ago) link
thanks Sufjan. i figured it was something like that but thought it may be a specific lyrical reference.
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Friday, 14 February 2014 23:12 (ten years ago) link
np. Since my partner would prefer not to hear Bill playing in our small apartment, side A of this record has become my every morning ritual. "The Sing" really is awesome, but I don't mind the flute on other tracks. I'm not sure that I prefer the flute, but I don't mind it.
― the Norwegians are leaving! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 14 February 2014 23:20 (ten years ago) link
love the flute
― tylerw, Friday, 14 February 2014 23:21 (ten years ago) link
sufjan how attached are you to this partner
― j., Friday, 14 February 2014 23:34 (ten years ago) link
haha, very! I even enjoy a bit of music disagreement, though.
― the Norwegians are leaving! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 14 February 2014 23:43 (ten years ago) link
what's her Bill beef?
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Friday, 14 February 2014 23:48 (ten years ago) link