Jim O'Rourke S/D

People hate his production, which I don't understand. You listen to something like that Sam Prekop solo album & it's impossible to imagine that it could be recorded and mixed better. I like his production style because its based on simplicity and he always gets the balance right.

What did he do on that Tortoise track?

• "Eureka" off of Eureka
• "There's Hell in Hello, But More in Goodbye" off Bad Timing
• "The Seasons Reverse" off Gastr Del Sol's Camofleur (with David Grubbs, Jon McEntire, Markus Popp, and Rob Mazurek.)
• "Fall Breaks and Back to Winter (Spring Breaks and Back to Winter)" off Smiling Pets
• "Not Sport, Martial Art" off Halfway To A Threeway
• "Rockon" from _Kim's Bedroom_ book/CD

he did two remixes for Tortoise, don't think either of them were related to "djed" (which he was not involved with)... ???

but first, i'm going to aquarius (notorious for hatin' on grubbs) right now and buying his new album. Watch out Cole, you're a wanted man.

Search When in Vanitas by Brise-Glace in which he pulls apart rock band jams and puts them back together in the most surprising and unpredictable ways. Halfway to a Threeway, if only because the lyrics complete tear apart what you think you're supposed to hear from the music. And Rien by Faust, which i consider to be an O'Rourke album for some reason. And Slow Motion where you can't work out which sounds some from his guitar and which come from Muller's drum kit. I could go on forever...

I'm also very fond of his production on pretty much everything, but especially Melt-Banana's _Scratch or Stitch_.

Also worth tracking down: the Brise-Glace and Yona-Kit records (Yona- Kit's "Twa Corbies" is rather a mind-blower).

yeah cause it IS. it doesnt make it as a faust album, thats for def.

Brise-Glace: disembodied noises that remind me sometimes of Metal Machine Music; great for driving through the desert--makes things grow from the highway!

and Happy Days: a beautiful hurdy gurdy thang!

Check out this site for more O'Rourke than you can shake a stick at: http://tisue.net/orourke/

Here's a few other 'classics' that haven't been mentioned so far:

*'Terminal Pharmacy' - v. minimal, composed electro-acoustic alb on Tzadik. See also: Gastr Del Sol's 'Harp Factory on Lake Street', a 20min orchestral piece, beautifully packaged by Table of the Elements.

*'Happy Days' - Overwhelming hurdy-gurdy drone rec, with acoustic gtr frills. On Fahey's Revenant label.

*'Remove the Need' - live 'treated' guitar improvs - one of his best early(ish) albs. On Extreme.

*'Xylophonen Virtuosen' - improv alb recorded w/ reeds player Mats Gustaffson. O'Rourke plays gtr and 'junk' - issued by Derek Bailey's Incus label.

*'Where the Sea Breaks its Back' - Soundtrack to the film 'Dutch Harbor', feat. O'Rourke, Grubbs, Will Oldham, Fred Lonberg-Holm and others under the 'Boxhead Ensemble' banner. V. atmospheric and drifty.

*'The Magic Sound of Fenno'berg' - Live laptop improvs from O'Rourke, Fennesz and Pita. Issued by Mego, who also brought out 'I'm Happy...' (prob. one of O'Rourke's strongest 'non-song' albs...)

It is a good listen.

The music is primarily an itchy glichy take on Steve Reich stylized minimal rolling-arpeggio music except the last piece which has a slow dreamy sound. The synthesis textures that O’Rourke uses sound buzzy and brittle, a real digital sound that adds some interesting textural depth to the music. The pieces never get stuck into one static mode and are constantly evolving with quite a bit of dynamic range. It is has much more melodic and harmonic content than alot of other similar music of this type like Oval or some of the other more "ambient" clicks and cuts musicians.

I liked the album enough that I'd like to check out some more of O'Rourke's other music.

I quite like that scratchy slinky-across-cement guitar sound on Bad Timing. I suspect it's quite deliberate.

does he have a tweeter? would follow.

I sort of think Jim an idiot for not making Insignificance2 and I'm doubting he ever will

yeah what an idiot for not repeating himself

I really wish Jim O'Rourke would come back to America, release more albums, play more concerts, produce more albums and generally be involved in the music scene more. I love him so.

We've chased him from the country and industry both? Awesome.

15 years on, that party snub still smarts.

HA

I never even spoke to the man. But just having watched him and heard other stories about him, the guy clearly takes himself very seriously. My favorite moment from the trip i met him was when he went to the big record store in town. One of the clerks, not realizing who he was, saw a CD of his sitting on the counter and flicked the thing onto the floor in mock disgust -- sending Jim O racing after it in horror, as if someone had just stepped on his pet newt.

Caring about the results of his labour makes him such a wanker.

There's nothing wrong with repeating yourself when you nailed the formula perfectly (re: insignificance). He could still tweek it to make it different

I just bloody love that album and have been dying for more of it

ps. If you can find the myspace of The Grifters there's a cool pic of kid o'rourke in their profile pics

so uh, walmart commercial?

say wha?
(btw, i finally ordered the Visitor! It's the item of the wk over at dragcity.com. $8, free shipping)

'women of the world take over' is used in a walmart commercial

I am actually for selling out 99.99% of the time, but that .01 is reserved for walmart

so ivor cutler is second hand shilling for walmart? from beyond the grave? crazy times, man. crazy times.

no you see jim o'rourke did a version of that song and then walmart used that version and handed jim o'rourke a briefcase w/ million dollar bills inside

oh yeah, i know, but wouldn't cutler's estate have to give permission too?

no lyrics are in the commercial, just the intro, so prolly not

actually I haven't heard the original, is the intro the same?

i mean, o'rourke's version is pretty different, but the melody is pretty much the same.

xpost

the ivor cutler versh is pretty diff - just him on harmonium iirc - produced by david toop and steve beresford (o'rourke changes some of the lyrics too, avoiding cutler's thatcher referecnes)

someone wrote by that picture that Jim was Codeine's sound guy

just gave two organs a listen for the first time in a few years, lovelier than i remembered it being. what's he up to now anyway?

putting out tons of improv records. if you dig fushitsusha, definitely check out imikuzushi with keiji haino and oren ambarchi.

anyone heard the old news archive electronic stuff he's putting out on mego? standouts?

anyone heard the old news archive electronic stuff he's putting out on mego? standouts?

The first one (Old News #5), second one is one long piece, nice but non-melodical. Old News #7 is pretty diverse, but my fav. is #5. Side A and D are fantastic. Also 'Indeed' with Oren Ambarchi.

hah, just checked the shelves and I actually own #5 but never spun it. whoops. will definitely remedy that and check out indeed as well. thanks!

http://www.dragcity.com/news/2016-03-24-finally-see-jim-o-rourke-live-in-concert

the animated jim o'rourke, shakin', quaking

oops, wrong thread

great videos, thanks for the link. good to see Glenn Kotche playing with Jim. aw, looks like Jim's having fun, too.

https://steamroom.bandcamp.com/album/steamroom-31

finally delving into these Steamroom recordings, now that I've got a phone (perfect)

anybody have some favorites/recommends?

I'm enjoying the soundtrack he did for the Creeping Garden.

https://steamroom.bandcamp.com/album/steamroom-35

We've been O'Rourking in this thread mostly fyi, where the soundtrack was covered, too.

I had kind of forgotten Simple Songs for a while. It's a masterful record.

"The man's an artist. He's committed to his craft."

love how everything in the song drops out for that sick guitar lead bend

Yeah, it rules. And the lyrics are also hilarious.

A lot of great production/arrangement moments all over the record, e.g. on the first track the way the drums start ping-ponging around the mix on "I am friends with so many/of the dead already"

Simple Songs is great but still my least favorite of the Drag City records. In the 6 years between The Visitor and SS, word was Jim's follow-up would be a sequel of sorts to Eureka, in the same way that The Visitor is paired with Bad Timing. but Simple Songs resembles Insignificance more, and I wouldn't say it pales in comparison, but... it's much more muted, less urgent than Insignificance. Maybe because Insignificance was written, recorded, and mixed in a week (!!).

the song "Insignificance" is my favorite of his besides "Not Sport, Marital Art" - there's that false ending followed by those drum rolls, always gets me. One of the most well-produced & mixed songs I've ever heard.

It does pale in comparison compared to Insignificance tbh. That's because Insignificance is one of the best records ever made.

otm. I saw LOVE LIZA for the first time last month and it left me on the floor. my god, what a movie. what an incredible use of "Halfway to a Threeway" in that first shot of PSH huffing gas.

Yeah Insignificance is amazing, but this one is still up there for me. Visitor and Bad Timing are the lowest on the list for me, they're fine but I get a little bored listening to them.

Do you listen to his out stuff at all (i.e. 90% of his recordings)? I find a lot of it hard to get into. The fact that he can bang out these incredible rock records when he wants to and then just spend most of his time doing that almost makes me feel like an inferior being, like I must not get it.

Still need to see that! Was kind of... cautious about how the song was used? Good to read it played out well.

Do you listen to his out stuff at all (i.e. 90% of his recordings)? I find a lot of it hard to get into. The fact that he can bang out these incredible rock records when he wants to and then just spend most of his time doing that almost makes me feel like an inferior being, like I must not get it.

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Thursday, October 19, 2017 5:56 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bit more nuanced about it but I totally get where you're coming from and largely agrree. I listen to Significance, Eureka etc and the EPS a lot, but I do also love his more experimental records. "I'm Happy, And I'm Singing" is a masterpiece, I think. It's doing something no other record does (despite the many lp's trying to do the same). His Steamroom releases are solid, but they are released at such a relentless pace it's hard to really get attached to them, for me personally.

I don't find it hard to get into. It's the staying with them that is hard, for me.

of the experimental records, I really love Tamper, Terminal Pharmacy, It Takes Time to Do Nothing, and The Ground Below Above Our Heads. and of course there's his bandcamp, with nearly 40 STEAMROOM releases, which are generally drone / squiggly noises / feedback. i've only dipped into those, really don't know where to start. what i've heard i've loved. great music for working/writing https://steamroom.bandcamp.com

Still need to see that! Was kind of... cautious about how the song was used? Good to read it played out well.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Thursday, October 19, 2017 1:58 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Better than I could've ever imagined. "Good Times" & "Through the Night Softly" are in there as well, along with some instrumental Eureka-esque work. very Bacharach. there's a great scene towards the beginning when PSH goes to a tropical resort & there's a Jim piece playing that's just full on Bacharach, complete with "ba! ba-ba-ba! ba-ba ba ba-ba!"'s

I've enjoyed some of them but usually because they are collaborations with someone else I like more in that context, e.g. Oren Ambarchi.

Don't sleep on 'I'm Happy and I'm Singing and a 1,2,3,4', it's amazing (on Mego).

xp Good stuff about the film, Flappy. Reassuring :)

oh yeah, "Ghost Ship in a Storm" and "Movie on the Way Down" are featured as well. the use of the latter is equally stunning. so glad they used the verse- "There's that word again.... 'pride'."

xxxp yeah! I love the recent one he did with Fennesz, It's Hard For Me To Say I’m Sorry.

Christ, half of his song discog is used! Must and will watch now :D

Yeah, that one with Fennesz is great, too.

Actually I think "Happy Days" is in there, to

too*

I've not even heard of the film. Will look it up for sure. Movie on the Way Down destroys me - even knowing O'Rourke, and knowing it's supposed to be arch and affectless.

Co-sign Happy and I'm Singing and Terminal Pharmacy.

The drummer on Simple Songs, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, does some very cool out percussion stuff, including with O'Rourke

love that shard of expecting to fly on fenn O' berg's first one

found this sweet performance of a John Fahey song from 2010

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oct22hX_9Ao

Listening to the Peel Session for the first time in a while: it's superb.

http://sweetblahg.tumblr.com/post/118719014488/jim-orourke-1999-peel-session

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcqV-fVVeFs

Yes! I was so happy to discover that session whenever it was uploaded to YouTube a few years ago. So great to have an alternate version of "Halfway to a Threeway," super bright & uptempo. Gloriously double-tracked vocals. Nice pairing with the somber version on the EP.

also, after years of searching and wondering, I finally picked up my guitar and figured out "Not Sport, Marital Art." not completely yet, but I got the main riff, I felt like a fucking god. it was amazing. it's in Open A by the way. once I finish figuring it out I'll tab it out

"Fast Car" (33:14) Live in Japan, 9/16/2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJWxkYu8WgU

Yeah that performance is great. It sounds like a loop of the original recording w/ laptop

A new seven inch with Langham Research Center. A new Steamroom release as well, and after hearing some of this work, these Steamwork releases make a lot more sense to me. Decided to buy the "Sleep like its winter" digitally, and sounds great as a .wav file.

the steamroom stuff is so good. just flip on the serge and let that motherfucker hum for an hour i will happily shell out $7

50th bday mini-festival:

1/11 (FRI) Enduring 50 Years of Jim O’Rourke – DAY ONE
Live: Akira Sakata Big Band featuring: Akira Sakata, Daisuke Fujiwara, Samuel Dunscombe, Jim O’Rourke, Giovanni di Domenico, Darin Gray, Joe Talia, and more!

1/12 (SAT) Enduring 50 Years of Jim O’Rourke – DAY TWO
Live: Peter Rehberg | Jim O’Rourke | and more!

1/13 (SUN) Enduring 50 Years of Jim O’Rourke – DAY THREE
Live: “Plays Paul Motian” Jim O’Rourke, Marty Holoubek, Joe Talia, Daisuke Fujiwara & more! | Jim O’Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi, Joe Talia trio

http://super-deluxe.com/events/20190111/

(scroll down for english translation)

Wow, shocked he's playing live again - in one of the interviews promoting Sleep Like It's Winter earlier this year, he said he'd never do it again and was having a panic attack during the whole full band Simple Songs show in Japan. Great news.

the name of the festival is hilarious

ugh wish i had known about this earlier, i would probably fly out for that

A show was announced at Oto in Feb, too. Presumably footage of this?

Some (new) Bandcamp-releases:

MMXX - 07 : IN ALL DUE DEFERENCE - Jim O'Rourke

APOLLO HOUSE by JIM O'ROURKE, solo guitar, 1993

Live at Mandako in Kumamoto - Eiko Ishibashi / Jim O'Rourke

Live in Hokutoshi - Eiko Ishibashi / Jim O'Rourke

Cylene Suisse redux - François J. Bonnet & Stephen F. O’Malley (Side A assembled by Jim O'Rourke)

Treatments by Giovanni Di Domenico with Eiko Ishibashi, Jim O’Rourke, Joe Talia, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto

Announced: Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi - Each Side Has a Depth of 5 Seconds... (LP)

From the Steamroom Twitter feed:

５月​(​May）by akira sakata & jim o'rourke

Sakuraza by Jim O'Rourke & Elliott Sharp

Wrong link for the Sharp collab, should be this one.