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

i'm not kidding.

What should I buy next?

a) Ease On Down The Road
b) The Lost Blues comp
c) Arise, Therefore
d) Not these ones you nut
d) Bugger it, get them all

BTW, I no longer have the indie guilt referred to up thread. I drowned it in the bath tub last week, most satisfying.

PLUS the "one with the birds"/"take however long you want" single.

piers are you looking for a oldham cd to buy next? i'd recommend "i see a darkness" and then probably one of the two "lost blues" comps and then "days in the wake". "master and everyone" is better than "ease down the road," i think, though both are good. i actually find latterday oldham more interesting than earlier oldham even if the records haven't been perfect.

Arise, Therefore is good so far, but only first listen. Based on what you said I think I'd go with the two lost blues comps and maybe days in the wake. Jess also posted a pretty good S&D way upthread including the first Palace album. He has a fun, if bewildering, back catalog to explore eh?

i have this theory in which i see a darkness is real late at night and ease on down the road is the morning after.

well, that makes me feel like a boring old professor, thanks ("yes, mr. amateurist, we've this one already").

that's not a very evolved theory.

I'm having trouble with BPB sings Greatest Palace Muscic.

I am finding this completely frustrating, since I am obsessed with his "Brokedown Palace" cover, and the other songs are similarly blowing my mind.

Does anyone have an actual copy of this e.p.? Is it available anywhere? Goddamn it, it's amazing.

The Oldham/Tweaker song from that single is surprisingly good (Happy Child). Otherwise, I think Viva Last Blues is probably his strongest release. I also like most of the stuff on the Palace Music disc and the cover of "In My Mind"

xpost. The first album is great!

He's playing a secret show here near SF in a week and a half.

So does anyone have the Brightblack split? I am desperate for those tracks.

Although (and big surprise) - AC/DC is such the clear winner here:

http://users.bart.nl/~ljmeijer/oldham/lyrics/balls.htm

"and my balls are always bouncing
my ballroom always full
and everybody cums and cums again"

vs Oldham's

"we could be eating pudding
but we'd rather place our balls
in their mouths when they are eating"

As mentioned, he's a very unique personality that somehow defies the rich boy charlatan role he could've easily fallen into. As a lyricist he's particularly interesting, simultaneously arcane, profane, and abstractly eloquent. Musically, he rarely repeats himself, making him confounding and exciting in equal measure. If his new single Cursed Sleep is any indication, expect his new album to be heavily orchestrated (swelling strings) with r&b/soul-inspired vocals (see his live cover R. Kelly's Ignition for reference).

His discography is intimidating, so I'll give a rundown of what you might want to start out with.

1) I See a Darkness - easily Oldham's most accessible and some would say best. Bleak yet very listenable.

2) Lost Blues and Other Songs - the perfect introduction to Palace era Oldham, contains nearly all of his classic singles. Essential.

3) Ease Down the Road - a great companion piece to I See a Darkness. A bit bouncier, the lyrical bent favors sex over death this time around.

Here's a little rundown of the rest of his more prominent releases, in roughly chronological order.

1) 'There is no-one, What will take care of you' - his first LP, very ramshackle and primitive (in a charming way of course).

2) 'Days in the Wake' - sparse and lo-fi, sounds like it was recorded on a boom box. Just Oldham and a guitar for the most part.

3) 'Viva Last Blues' - probably the best Palace LP. Rocking in a woozy, drunken kinda way. Solid Albini production.

4) 'Arise, Therefore' - Dirge-like, methodical, repetitive. Some use of the drum machine. A few songs remind me of Smog honestly. As evidenced by the thread, it's a fairly divisive album.

5) 'Joya' - No real explicitly defining characteristics. Sounds like an Oldham record. It's a solid release, nonetheless.

6) Guarapero: Lost Blues 2 - A collection of rarities. Very hit or miss, as would be expected.

---- entering Bonnie Prince Billy era ----

I've already mentioned I See a Darkness and Ease Down the Road, so i'll give them a pass.

1) Master & Everyone - very gentle, front porch, hushed-whisper acoustic album. It's all very pretty, lead off track 'The Way' is particularly stunning.

2) Sings Greatest Palace Music - Incredibly divisive album. Sees Oldham revisiting some classic Palace songs with glossy Nashville production. Very bizarre to say the least.

3) Superwolf - Skeletal and guitar driven. 'Spindly' seems like an appropriate adjective. Matt Sweeney provides a great backdrop for Oldham's vocals.

4) Summer in the Southeast - A fairly rocking live collection. Oldham reworks a lot of older songs to interesting effect.

5) The Brave and the Bold - Oldham teams up with Tortoise for a covers album. This didn't work for me at all, two great tastes that do not taste great together. His covers of Elton John's 'Daniel' and Springsteen's 'Thunder Road' are the only memorable cuts.

-----

Well, that about covers the big ones. Jump in.

I, personally, love it so much that it no longer bothers me when it comes on after I've forgotten it's in there. Even my wife, who so rarely likes anything I do, just accepts it as beautiful wallpaper. It's so damn tasty in so many ways.

I've been enjoying Joya a lot lately - Oldham's last couple of releases have been a bit saccharine for my taste, and I stopped listening to him for a while, so it's nice to remember what the Oldham I was originally taken in by sounded like.

Search: Ask Forgiveness EP (Nov 20th)

1. I Came Here to Hear the Music (Mickey Newbury cover)
2. I’ve Seen It All (Björk cover)
3. Am I Demon (Danzig cover)
4. My Life (Phil Ochs cover)
5. I’m Loving the Street (Will Oldham original)
6. The Way I Am (Mekons / Merle Haggard / Sonny Throckmorton cover)
7. Cycles (Frank Sinatra cover, written by Gayle Caldwell)
8. The World’s Greatest (R. Kelly cover)