Alesund is so gorgeous.
― streetball technician in the flesh (Spottie_Ottie_Dope), Monday, 8 August 2011 21:04 (twelve years ago) link
lol at song titles for next record due out in May:
I Know It’s Pathetic But That Was The Greatest Night Of My LifeSunshine In ChicagoThe Moderately Talented Yet Attractive Young Woman vs. The Exceptionally Talented Yet Not So Attractive Middle Aged ManThat Bird Has A Broken WingElaineThe WineryYoung LoveSong For Richard CollopyAmong The LeavesRed PoisonTrack Number 8Not Much Rhymes With Everything’s Awesome At All TimesKing FishLonely MountainUK BluesUK Blues 2Black Kite
so what do you guys think of the desertshore record?? i like it. it's like "old ramon" but less lugubrious
― dell (del), Saturday, 11 February 2012 16:01 (twelve years ago) link
Those titles read like an article in The Onion!
Lugubrious, good word that. Saying something from Mark Kozelak is "less lugubrious" is like saying knife wounds hurt less than gunshot wounds, though.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 11 February 2012 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
yeah. turtle pond and mercy are not exactly "party songs"
― dell (del), Saturday, 11 February 2012 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
i think (hope) kozelek is taking the piss with those titles -- or at least the three longest ones
― mookieproof, Saturday, 11 February 2012 23:33 (twelve years ago) link
Skip to 5:40 to hear / watch Sunshine In Chicago...
http://www.southernsouls.ca/mark-kozelek/
"Sunshine in Chicago makes me feel pretty sad / My band played here a lot in the nineties when we had / lots of female fans and fuck they all were cute / now I just sign posters for guys in tennis shoes"
― Super Receptor (Barnaby, Hardly), Sunday, 12 February 2012 00:37 (twelve years ago) link
http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/8845-mark-kozelek/
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 23 May 2012 23:56 (eleven years ago) link
This one might be something else from grumpy ol' Mark.
― Mule, Friday, 25 May 2012 20:42 (eleven years ago) link
sounds like the record AFTER this one might be all time great
― Iago Galdston, Friday, 25 May 2012 21:01 (eleven years ago) link
I'd like to hear the full-band again sometime, but it seems he has to grow tired of the nylon strings first. Song weren't bad, but I'm only semi-excited for this one, though I'm a big fan.
― Mule, Friday, 25 May 2012 21:07 (eleven years ago) link
i like this album a whole lot, certainly more than admiral fells promises; the immediacy and almost tossed-off-edness of the lyrics is a nice change. it's a much more eitzel-like record (long song titles, more tongue in cheek).
― akm, Friday, 25 May 2012 21:48 (eleven years ago) link
out today. some creepy lyrics!
― caek, Tuesday, 29 May 2012 15:22 (eleven years ago) link
what about the new one, "among the leaves"? the cover art is horrid but the samples sound good.
― it's the distortion, stupid! (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 7 June 2013 15:45 (ten years ago) link
it's pretty okay. mark kozelek getting more literally creepy in his lyrics was a development i could've done without
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, 7 June 2013 15:50 (ten years ago) link
I love it. "Young Love" was one of my favorite songs of the year.
― Evan, Friday, 7 June 2013 15:51 (ten years ago) link
I dig it. It's definitely a change from his previous stuff... At least lyrically. He's much more matter of fact, self-deprecating and just plain assholish but it ends up being affecting as an album. Esp if you couple it w his new one w jimmy Lavalle
― Heez, Friday, 7 June 2013 15:54 (ten years ago) link
Loving thishttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHH-pAYaMEI
― tarping, Friday, 17 January 2014 18:56 (ten years ago) link
Lovely stuff.
― djh, Friday, 17 January 2014 20:11 (ten years ago) link
normally i'm not a fan of lyrics that read like you've flipped open someone's daily-diary. a lot of teenpop lyrics read like this; it's okay, but i kinda think it's a little "artless," maybe? but mark kozelek absolutely, positively does this lyrical-style right.
― Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, 17 January 2014 20:13 (ten years ago) link
lol i really really can't follow him down this road unfortunately, though i love the sax solo
his voice has deteriorated terribly
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, 17 January 2014 20:15 (ten years ago) link
i can dig the destroyer-style arrangement, but i'm not into the rapping that he's doing or whatever. maybe i'm boring but i prefer serious koz to the post-admiral fell promises goofy koz.
― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Friday, 17 January 2014 20:30 (ten years ago) link
he's pretty goofy on old ramon but it's a goofy i can get with
― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Friday, 17 January 2014 20:51 (ten years ago) link
more songs about your cat
He has a knack for punctuating his new, more relaxed style with really devastating lines and songs here and there - or merging the style with super depressing vignettes (see Perils From the Sea).
― Simon H., Friday, 17 January 2014 22:11 (ten years ago) link
Overall, I agree with monotony but I do enjoy this style too.
But yeah, it's like he became so fascinated with the serious guitar virtuoso/Andres Segovia and intricate/delicate melody approach on Admiral Fell Promises that he burnt himself out and has been doing something with an opposite vibe and approach since then.
And while I do enjoy this stuff so much (and it is often WAY more captivating live) either way, when I come back to AFP I'm knocked off my feet in comparison.
― Evan, Friday, 17 January 2014 23:25 (ten years ago) link
Yup, this is pretty far from the stunning brilliance of the first Sun Kil Moon album. Props for following his muse and all...
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 18 January 2014 01:40 (ten years ago) link
what is wrong with yall this shit owns
― adam, Saturday, 18 January 2014 01:53 (ten years ago) link
It's great! It just is much less great than the AFP style to me.
― Evan, Saturday, 18 January 2014 01:58 (ten years ago) link
(Just noticed, having ordered from Caldo Verde for the 2 disc version and bonus live album, that Amazon are claiming to be stocking the limited 2-disc version in the UK, for a tenner anyway).
― djh, Thursday, 30 January 2014 18:20 (ten years ago) link
i still hate nils cline
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 30 January 2014 18:49 (ten years ago) link
and nels lofgren too
― doug watson, Thursday, 30 January 2014 20:00 (ten years ago) link
For an admitted fanboy of RHP, I had a fairly pronounced dropoff with Koz circa the first SKM record. Sadly, this doesn't restore much interest for me.
― doug watson, Thursday, 30 January 2014 20:03 (ten years ago) link
somehow the wonder of life prevails
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 30 January 2014 20:05 (ten years ago) link
Admiral Fell Promises may be a top 3 favorite album ever (so far) for me. Young Love was my favorite song off of the last one, which is arguably closest to AFP. I'm sure I'll enjoy the new one a lot but I don't think it'll compare ultimately.
― Evan, Thursday, 30 January 2014 20:06 (ten years ago) link
he doesn't practice as much as nils cline.
― djh, Thursday, 30 January 2014 21:10 (ten years ago) link
lmao what the heck
this kind of rules though
― ciderpress, Friday, 31 January 2014 00:45 (ten years ago) link
oh, c'mon. he's awesome, especially when deployed as the secret-weapon in someone's pop or rock act (e.g., wilco and, on their last album, the equally-awesome tinariwen).
― Daniel, Esq 2, Friday, 31 January 2014 00:51 (ten years ago) link
I don't think it was intended as a personal attack, rather just a (misspelled) lyrical reference.
― doug watson, Friday, 31 January 2014 13:24 (ten years ago) link
i can play circles around jay farrar
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 31 January 2014 13:56 (ten years ago) link
I don't know, I think this is his best album by a distance. Songwriting is just incredible. So much detail to get lost in. Anyone know how much of his writing is based on actual people vs. invented characters?
― Position Position, Friday, 31 January 2014 15:23 (ten years ago) link
this article makes it sound like a lot of it comes from actual people
― Heez, Friday, 31 January 2014 15:38 (ten years ago) link
It's a bit inconsistent but some of it is utterly devastating (perhaps helped along by a hard-going week at work and a bottle of red). Found the bit about 4ad's Ivo strangely emotional for some reason.
― djh, Saturday, 1 February 2014 02:27 (ten years ago) link
Man, brothers just tears my heart out
― the Norwegians are leaving! (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 1 February 2014 03:31 (ten years ago) link
Ian Cohen forcing me to order that vinyl (whenever it becomes available) even more promptly. That stuff sells out quick enough as it is.
― Evan, Monday, 3 February 2014 13:12 (ten years ago) link
In case you don't know what I mean: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/18860-sun-kil-moon-benji/
― Evan, Monday, 3 February 2014 13:59 (ten years ago) link
solid lol, from the interview
I can see how some of these incidents would sound odd, to say, a British journalist, or someone who is very young, or sheltered...
― Simon H., Monday, 3 February 2014 18:07 (ten years ago) link
awesome
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Sunday, March 23, 2008 7:02 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
y'mean the new one, or just in general?
― dell, Sunday, March 23, 2008 8:18 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
i meant in general
― i have the new brutal HOOS if you want it (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Monday, 3 February 2014 18:36 (ten years ago) link
Still true.
― Evan, Monday, 3 February 2014 18:38 (ten years ago) link
this is good but perils from the sea was much more in my wheelhouse songwriting-wise so it feels a bit of a comedown from that
― ciderpress, Monday, 3 February 2014 20:50 (ten years ago) link
Have you checked out the Kozelek/Desertshore album?
― Evan, Monday, 3 February 2014 21:01 (ten years ago) link
i did see a video clip of him attempting to do an RHP song at an SKM show in Europe a few weeks ago and he didn't remember anhy of the words. the band though was able to play it. I was surprised he even attempted it.
I dunno, he releases stuff on his own now and it seems to sell consistently enough that he's not rethinking his approach to what he puts out. I've stopped buying it and I stopped seeing him live, but obv other people don't, so it's not like he has a label saying "LOL WTF OMG NO"
― akm, Friday, 9 November 2018 20:45 (five years ago) link
That confirms its an imposter! Real Mark went missing in 2013.
― Evan, Friday, 9 November 2018 20:50 (five years ago) link
ok lol at the gurgling noises on 'linda blair'
what's funny is that it suddenly dawned on me that he would do it, just before he started doing it. i'm only a minute and a half in. and also, i can just tell he's going to do it again. this song is almost 12 minutes long!
― Karl Malone, Friday, 9 November 2018 20:53 (five years ago) link
loooooool it's happening again.
I got a lot of love for you, all you people here in Warsaw, PolandIf I gotta be honest, there's only one thing I’ll tell you that I don't love at allIt's the music of Steely Dan, it makes my skin crawl
ok a line has been crossed, fuck you MK
― Karl Malone, Friday, 9 November 2018 20:59 (five years ago) link
Oh man This Is Not Possible was on my Spotify list today, it’s just horrendous. There is no case to be made for it whatsoever on any level.
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Sunday, 11 November 2018 02:39 (five years ago) link
so is he trolling or just losing it?
― rip van wanko, Sunday, 11 November 2018 02:54 (five years ago) link
Even the most die hard Kozelek fan I'm friends with hates it
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Sunday, 11 November 2018 03:08 (five years ago) link
this is very possible
― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Sunday, 11 November 2018 05:15 (five years ago) link
why did he write a song called "The Moderately Talented Yet Attractive Young Woman vs. The Exceptionally Talented Yet Not So Attractive Middle Aged Man"
― niels, Sunday, 11 November 2018 12:22 (five years ago) link
that was one of his last good songs
― akm, Sunday, 11 November 2018 17:42 (five years ago) link
haha, well I'm surprised
I really like the Benji album, as did a bunch of lurkers iirc
― niels, Sunday, 11 November 2018 22:11 (five years ago) link
I liked 'Benji' too; I like 'Perils from the Sea' even more. Pretty much everything I've heard since has been appalling.
― Steve Reich In The Afternoon (Against The 80s), Sunday, 11 November 2018 22:21 (five years ago) link
I remember liking benji when it was released
― F# A# (∞), Monday, 12 November 2018 02:17 (five years ago) link
Benji and Perils both good. Bridgers cover even better.
― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 12 November 2018 03:42 (five years ago) link
Kozelek & Desertshore is my favorite of the albums he did in his new style before totally going off the deep end.
― Evan, Monday, 12 November 2018 04:46 (five years ago) link
The weirdest thing here (having only listened to Linda Blair) is how intricate and interesting the music in the background is. It's baffling that that level of musicianship has that vocal and those lyrics. How must those musicians feel?
― brokenshire (jed_), Monday, 12 November 2018 05:09 (five years ago) link
To be honest the last song I loved was "Katy Song". After that everything he released got paler and paler. The collab with Desertshore was the last thing I purchased but only listened to once.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Monday, 12 November 2018 19:24 (five years ago) link
How must those musicians feel?
He's been working with the same folks a lot and they're probably very happy for the steady studio work.
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Monday, 12 November 2018 19:30 (five years ago) link
half of the sun kil moon albums are pretty good. I'd still be having a good time. sometimes feels like he's in the "Everybody's Rockin'" phase of a Neil Young trajectory, but where rockabilly is modest mouse and the asshole record executive is himself. if he has a Weld or Harvest Moon later, the sum of his output will still be amazing? I think?
― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 12 November 2018 19:48 (five years ago) link
Benji is Tonight's the Night, and aerosol can explosions are the heroin btw.
― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 12 November 2018 19:50 (five years ago) link
he's a million miles awayfrom that beer-commercial guitar day
― for i, sock in enumerate (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 12 November 2018 19:51 (five years ago) link
pic.twitter.com/CsOOGMopiz— Ryley walker (@ryleywalker) November 12, 2018
― diamonddave85 (diamonddave85), Monday, 12 November 2018 20:21 (five years ago) link
the 'Fork finally gives up, a couple releases after most of the rest of us:
Kozelek isn’t the only songwriter who has had success with this mode of exhibitionist expression, of course, where the tiniest detail or circumstance plucked from day-to-day activity can offer an unexpected insight about life, loss, or emotion at large. After the death of his wife, Geneviève Castrée, Phil Elverum turned the act of taking out the day’s garbage into a moment of quiet desolation—and a jolting reminder as to why he had to keep going. Last year, Julie Byrne used the image of crossing the western United States to express a core of existential restlessness. Vivid songwriting, whether hip-hop or country, can hinge on these lived-in details. But during This Is My Dinner, Kozelek treats his songs like status updates on a Facebook account he again tells us he does not have. You often hear about bands leaving room for the singer, building up the lyrics rather than blocking them out. In this case, you wish that Kozelek had left any space at all for what sounds like a subtle, sophisticated backing crew, anchored by the expressive drumming of the Dirty Three’s Jim White. But, no: This is about Kozelek.Recent themes return—Kozelek’s travels of Portugal and Norway, his anxiety over mass shootings, his subservience to his moods, how he understands pain better than the rest of us, his issues with his dad, how much meaning he extracts from boxers. What’s different here, though, is just how much we learn about Kozelek’s former virility and how losing it seems more bitter than sweet. He tells us about the time a promoter called him indie rock’s Wilt Chamberlain, the basketball star who claims to have slept with 20,000 women. He tries to dazzle with bygone tales of all the ménages à trois he’s had in Copenhagen and how he just doesn’t need them anymore. He vividly recounts escaping down frigid Oslo streets after a fan’s boyfriend caught her giving him a handjob and sucking his thumb. “When you’re in your 20s, in my opinion, nothing should be off limits,” Kozelek, 51, sings. Listening to This Is My Dinner is like going to a 25-year-high-school reunion and sitting beside the sad, divorced, and bloated former jock who tells you a dozen times about his game-winning touchdown at homecoming, then winks every time a pretty classmate walks by.
Recent themes return—Kozelek’s travels of Portugal and Norway, his anxiety over mass shootings, his subservience to his moods, how he understands pain better than the rest of us, his issues with his dad, how much meaning he extracts from boxers. What’s different here, though, is just how much we learn about Kozelek’s former virility and how losing it seems more bitter than sweet. He tells us about the time a promoter called him indie rock’s Wilt Chamberlain, the basketball star who claims to have slept with 20,000 women. He tries to dazzle with bygone tales of all the ménages à trois he’s had in Copenhagen and how he just doesn’t need them anymore. He vividly recounts escaping down frigid Oslo streets after a fan’s boyfriend caught her giving him a handjob and sucking his thumb. “When you’re in your 20s, in my opinion, nothing should be off limits,” Kozelek, 51, sings. Listening to This Is My Dinner is like going to a 25-year-high-school reunion and sitting beside the sad, divorced, and bloated former jock who tells you a dozen times about his game-winning touchdown at homecoming, then winks every time a pretty classmate walks by.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/sun-kil-moon-this-is-my-dinner/
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 10:11 (five years ago) link
haha, nice one
― niels, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 10:19 (five years ago) link
Really liking the demos/live disc of Red House Painters - Retrospective. "Waterkill" is great and I'll have to listen to other demos on youtube to see if they should have included any other unreleased songs.
Hope I find another band that either equals or tops pre-Ocean Beach RHP for this kind of sad music.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 February 2019 12:16 (five years ago) link
A+ seagull singing on live version of "Mistress".
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 February 2019 15:32 (five years ago) link
Idk what’s with that falsetto voice he used to do. He doesn’t realize how much it sounds like that or a cat. Like you might think he’s doing a silly muppet voice on purpose but it appears he was always dead serious.
― Evan, Saturday, 9 February 2019 15:40 (five years ago) link
It works for me.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 February 2019 16:37 (five years ago) link
I'm not necessarily always put off by it, it's just so odd to me because if anyone else did it faithfully they'd sound like they're making fun of it.
But his singing voice was always weird. Especially by the time he got to the SKM phase, his voice sounds perpetually like he's got a jawbreaker in his cheek when he sings/talks. Or like he's extremely congested? I don't know; it's clearly outside of his control. It could be that it was less of a thing in the earlier RHP days because at that time his style was to really enunciate everything. I probably wrote this exact post at some point upthread.
― Evan, Saturday, 9 February 2019 17:22 (five years ago) link
I'm just glad to have opened this thread and not found that he has said/done something stupid.
― djh, Saturday, 9 February 2019 17:57 (five years ago) link
Is he on social media?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 9 February 2019 20:41 (five years ago) link
No, thank christ
― bhad bundy (Simon H.), Saturday, 9 February 2019 20:42 (five years ago) link
counterpoint: if he was on social media he'd have probably put all his bullshit there instead
― imago, Saturday, 9 February 2019 21:20 (five years ago) link
he doesn't write songs anymore he writes feeds
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 9 February 2019 21:43 (five years ago) link
"thanks but i would've preferred this with no music and as a twitter thread"
― jolene club remix (BradNelson), Saturday, 9 February 2019 21:44 (five years ago) link
"Funhouse" is just so gutting
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 23 February 2019 22:44 (five years ago) link
― djh, Saturday, February 9, 2019 5:57 PM (two weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
^ otm
― john. a resident of evanston. (john. a resident of chicago.), Sunday, 24 February 2019 05:11 (five years ago) link
Early demo "The Bridge" sounds so much like "Cemetery Gates" by Smiths. I've read that Kozelek really didn't know much alternative/college rock back then but maybe the other members did.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 30 March 2019 17:14 (five years ago) link
I've been playing "Carry Me, Ohio" from "Ghosts of the Great Highway" on Youtube a lot recently. Sort of amazed that I don't own it. I must have been in a really bad mood (or listening to Kompakt) the year it was released.
― djh, Monday, 3 February 2020 21:48 (four years ago) link
there's a good alt version on the reissue bonus disc
― zuck zuck lucify (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 3 February 2020 21:58 (four years ago) link