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

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)

oh woah the mickey newbury record that song is from is TOTAL lost classic, great tune.

summer in the southeast is a great crazy horse record too! rowdy!

I hope this is better than the tortoise collaboration, that shit was dire

u dire

hi dire

Everything's covered pretty extensively upthread - i'd just like to add that I Called You Back from the wonderful "The Letting Go" might just be one of the single most gut-wrenching tracks he's released.

oh man, "West Palm Beach"

Which version? Think I probably prefer the original EP version, but at times it's a toss up. Haven't really enjoyed anything he's done since Ease Down the Road (haven't heard those covers tho), but back in the day, he cd kill me with pretty much everything he'd done.

West Palm Beach/Gulf Shores is one of the best singles of the 90's.

Gulf Shores has its own thread, with some recent discussion of how great both Gulf Shores and West Palm Beach are.

^^^^ agree with all this west palm beach love <3

Difficult to choose between the two IMO.

Agree, is this 7" one that was released at the same time as The Mountain EP? Cos that had And End To Travelling as well, they all seemed to fit together so well. That 'tally ho' bit at the end of that song - so mournful.

"West Palm Beach" is maybe tied with "Let's Start a Family" as my favourite Will Oldham song.

It's the backing vocals on "Gulf Shores" that bring it to true greatness.

something is up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR20Fel4vIg

Interesting. Also, tasteless.

I can't believe there wasn't any talk on ILX about the Bonnie / Cairo Gang LP that came out on Drag City this year. Wow. Maybe everyone (by which, I mean his fans .. don't waste yr time haters) is just tired of the guy. He is nothing if not prolific. But this album is super great. And the live show, with a full band, makes the songs take off ten times more. Incredible.

I was a die hard Oldham fan from the first 7" up through I See a Darkness. I had EVERYTHING. I don't know what happened but after I See a Darkness (which I thought was his best!), he just fell off my radar. I don't know why I had such a drastic switch-up. I also stopped listening to all the old stuff and even now I only have a few of the records still. Lately I've felt like I need to re-buy all of it, and delve into the post-Darkness material.

I did get Lie Down in the Light recently. I like it. It's totally solid from beginning to end, though nothing knocks me off my feet the way, say, "Gulf Shores" or "Riding" or "Ohio River Boat Song" or the whole Hope EP or "New Partner" or a whole bunch of other songs do.

Scott, I've done the same exact thing with various artists before myself. i.e. become superfan, get everything, at a certain point -- start to completely ignore.

actually, now that I think about it that is kinda what I did w/ Oldham ... altho I was never "superfan". but I did generally keep up a little with his work, but around the early part of the decade I kinda dropped off, it was too much. Bought Beware when it came out last year, on a whim .. "let's see where he's at" .. really enjoyed it!

bought this new Cairo Gang thing and have been completely blown away. Up there w/ Rangda for album of the year for me. but the live show is even better

The live show where he sings a capella with no amplification and just Emmett Kelly on guitar to a room of like 200 people kind of sold the album for me.

I'm beginning to suspect I never really liked this guy.

For nostalgic reasons, I just put on Viva Lost Blues, and holy christ, is the guitar player on this awful! I mean, it sorta does add to the overall feel of the album (which Ive just decided is probably his best, most consistent full length, though like many of you I stopped paying attention many years ago), but shit, sounds like Jandek in places. So many 'bad' notes! I know the book on this album is that everyone was under rehearsed, but I guess I never realized to what degree. A headphone listen reveals that some of these musicians were probably sorta just making it up as they went along. Again, not a judgment on the album - if anything, it holds up very well.

Side 2 of that record is a fucking beast btw.