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