Palace Music - Arise Therefore

Palace Music – Arise Therefore
Drag City, 1996
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007
Price: $9

I'd really like to know the percentage of records I own that Steve Albini has produced or mixed or engineered. I bet it's something like 5%. I feel like I end up mentioning his name a lot in these write-ups. Anyway, he's pretty versatile. Sure, he can do noise rock like nobody's business but as we've seen with Joanna Newsom's Ys he can do the serene shit too. This record sounds fucking fantastic, and I really haven't ever listened to it. That makes me a dumbass, because this is one of the best Will Oldham records I've heard. It's got “A Sucker's Evening,” which is referenced in Jeffrey Lewis' “Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror.” The reference is something like “Even though he did hold my hands and fuck me like Will sings on 'A Sucker's Evening.'” The corresponding line is: “Make a noise, crack a glass/ I'll hold his arms, you fuck him/ Fuck him with something/ The fuck—he deserves it.” There's something really twisted and kind of funny about that. Fucking the fuck, etc. It's a weird song, kind of creepy with the looping guitar bit playing in the background with little else. The title track is one of my favorite Oldham songs I've ever heard. It's got the same looping guitar lilt as “A Sucker's Evening” but it's much more uplifting, less dark and creepy, brighter. Like the kind of brightness he wouldn't really get to again until Lie Down in the Light. Well, just that song. The rest is pretty somber, but ultimately lovely despite featuring some of his weirdest lyrics. Maybe not weird, but creepy. I mean, one of the songs is titled “You Have Cum in Your Hair and Your Dick is Hanging Out.” The record features piano/organ work by Squirrel Bait/Gastr Del Sol's David Grubbs, which is pretty rad. Well, I just think it's rad because I really like band family trees. How Oldham is tied to the Squirrel Bait/Slint boys because they're both from Louisville and how Oldham took the cover photograph for Spiderland etc, etc. Geek shit. I keep saying over and over “This record is so good” and Jenny, who is a much bigger Will Oldham fan than I, agrees. Man, this record IS fucking good. No frills or strings or hidden fees, just some straight up Oldham playin' the creepy uncle who sings the most beautiful songs. Just reading the thank you list is enough to prove this record is legit. It features David Berman, Bill Callahan, and David Pajo to name a few. Good company.

Here's the Jeff Lewis video. It's great.

Palace Music - Viva Last Blues

Palace Music – Viva Last Blues
Drag City, 1995
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2006
Price: $6

“If I could fuck a mountain/ Lord I would fuck a mountain,” Oldham sings on “The Mountain Low.” Hell yes. That was my introduction to Will Oldham. Viva Last Blues showed up even before I See A Darkness or any of the other Bonnie “Prince” Billy albums. I got it in the dorms freshman year, and this song was always a favorite of mine. There's lots of talk of fucking things on this record. Death, mountains, men, women, who knows. They all gets fucked. Though this record is best known for the sublime “New Partner,” my favorite song (tied with “The Mountain Low”) is “Work Hard/Play Hard,” the Neil Young-esque rocker. Actually, listening to “New Partner” again is making me think that's the monster jam here. Oldham rarely ever lets himself be that fragile. Usually he's too busy bein' weird. I'm sorry I mention Oldham's weirdness so much, but I think it's just what I think when I see a picture of him in red long johns or the occasional creepy smile. He's mellowed in the past few years, and I like his sense of humor but ultimately if you sing about fucking mountains, you have to admit your are a little weird. I say the same thing about Drakkar Sauna. They're weird, there's no way around it, but they're fucking great. BUT IN A GOOD WAY. Anyway, people love this album apparently. It's pretty good, pretty damn fine. I like Arise Therefore better though.

Please watch this. It's self-explanatory. Just watch it, and your life will become much better:

Palace Brothers - There is No One What Will Take Care Of You

Palace Brothers – There is No One What Will Take Care of You
Drag City, 1993
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007
Price: $7

It is amazing how many Will Oldham records I own. I have like, 7 of them and I don't even really listen to Will Oldham that much. Regardless, they're all pretty fucking good and deserve more play. This is his first, released under the Palace Brothers moniker. This is a little more ramshackle than most Oldham records, and though produced by Steve Albini, it sounds a little off. Regardless, it's still pretty fucking good. It's got some pretty excellent jams on it, too. Such as “Idle Hands are the Devil's Playthings” and “(I Was Drunk at the) Pulpit.” He's from Kentucky, so the Appalachian Folk thing comes pretty naturally, but Oldham's always done an excellent job of running it through his own filter. He's always been a folk singer, but on his own terms. His own, weirdass terms. This record definitely has some Woody Guthrie in it, though, which is absent from the rest of his releases (Peep “Pulpit”). He sounds raw here, yet ready to become the creepy uncle of indie rock.

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(A+B+C+D+E+F+G+H+I+J+K+L+M+N)+O=$1877

I really feel like I could write some sort of critical analysis on Okkervil River, but it would take too much time. Writing those entries even got to be a pain in the ass because I just want to gab and gab and gab and then go off topic. Anyway, we have a lull until RST, which will be insane. Excited for a lot of stuff coming up! A couple of Palace/Palace Brothers records I never listened to, so there's that. Halloween is getting closer and Jenny and I have our fingers crossed that we'll get trick or treaters so I can not only have my Misfits record playing the whole time, but to also indulge in dad-like activities. Other activities I've been partaking in that are very dad-like are taking the dog on long walks, cooking meals that are very simple and hearty, preparing myself to yearn for the days when it's dad's turn to cook because his food is so bomb ass. Not like Jenny's pregnant or anything like that, but sine I've moved to the southern side of Tennessee to this quiet little neighborhood with lovely trees and fewer parties, I've been feeling more like a grown up. Other things that make me feel grown up are trying to figure out how to pay the rent, going to the grocery store and buying things that are not junk, and making coffee with the french press thing because it's more fun despite being incredibly wasteful.

I've been listening to the Dark Was the Night compilation from earlier this year and it is really, really good and eclectic. I'm half tempted to pick it up if this library job thing pans out (although the way my life works, I probably can't even get a job that I've already held and know EXACTLY how to do and am very efficient at). After I pay the rent, of course. It's a little hit or miss, but it's got some really incredible jams on it. The Bon Iver track, "Brackett, WI," could possibly be amongst my top 2 favorite Bon Iver tunes. The National's "So Far Around the Bend" is also fantastic, as is Bryce Dessner's collaboration w/ Antony, "I Was Young When I Left Home." I even like the Kevin Drew track "Love vs. Porn" and I absolutely hated his solo record and have a hard time understanding why people are gaga over Broken Social Scene. On the other hand, the Spoon track is godawful, the Sufjan Stevens song is overlong and borders on unlistenable (ok, that might be a little drastic). The Buck 65 song that uses the Sufjan backing track is also lame and if they wanted a token rapper, they shoulda got someone rad like Cadence Weapon or Busdriver (although this might just be my opinion that the amount of white rappers getting popular indicates another genre takeover ala Rock N Roll). The Grizzly Bear track is pretty good, but pretty boring, but I've been having a hard time with them lately, given that I feel like Veckatimest has been overrated because all the people giving it the most glowing reviews contributed to the hype surrounding it. BUT, it's mostly pretty great. The Decemberists song is the best thing they've done in a long time, and the new stuff from Yeasayer and Yo La Tengo sounds damn good. Not to mention the Dirty Projectors/David Byrne collaboration, which is also rad.

Last thing, back to Halloween, my mom gave me a big bucket of candy when I went home for dinner on Sunday (partly to get out of Lawrence, mostly because I am still a little boy). Geez mom. You know what happened? I ate half the bucket already. As if I weren't feeling enough like a fatty, there are scattered wrappers everywhere. It's all my favorite candy, too, which is how she traps me. Mike and Ikes, Starbursts, Skittles, York Peppermint Patties, and flavored Tootsie Rolls. It's pure evil. Although the York Peppermint Patties have ORANGE filling and are shaped like pumpkins, which is rad.



Oh goddamnit. You know what happened? As I was taking this I realized I had another Kit Kat left. I THOUGHT I HAD EATEN IT, so guess what i'm doing right now. Yep, just ate it. So good. They're orange too! Anyway, Halloween makes me act like a fat kid and hopefully this Halloween I'll get to be not only a fat kid, but a drunk kid too. I basically quit drinking a month or two ago, first as a means of saving money then later as a means of not continuing down a path towards alcoholism and not ingesting all those calories, etc. And it's been part of my "Ian be a fucking adult" program, but man, Halloween, gonna cut loose! Hopefully...just need a good costume. Really wanna be Sherman from Peabody & Sherman but afraid it'll be too cold. Jenny's gonna be an owl, I think. I wanna be the boy from the Tootsie Pop commercial but he's so non-descript! Let me know if you think of anything that compliments on owl

Jim O'Rourke - Eureka

Jim O'Rourke – Eureka
Drag City, 1999
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007
Price: $8

I love this record just as much as Bad Timing. Somehow, I've only now noticed that there was a poster hidden in the sleeve! It features a young boy, standing bareass naked in a field before a pair of numchucks, a red bicycle, and the upper half of Bruce Lee in the clouds. It's pretty insane looking. I love it. I love the art for this one too. It features a fat, balding cartoon man fellating himself with a stuffed bunny. Wilco's Glenn Kotchke (though this was before he joined Wilco) plays drums on this record, and he's a pretty excellent drummer so all the percussion here is way good. Unlike Bad Timing, Eureka is much more song oriented. That is, there are 8 tracks instead of 4 and most of them have vocals. Musically, though, it's not that much different from Bad Timing. There's lots of minimalistic guitar fingerpicking stuff, but the tunes are more melody based. It tapers off a little at the end but for the most part it's a super solid listen and a record that tends to get a lot of play when I want something that's good but not going to be too distracting. That's a compliment, by the way.

Jim O'Rourke - Bad Timing

Jim O'Rourke – Bad Timing
Drag City, 1997
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2006
Price: $9

Two acoustic guitar-based instrumental records in a row! This one, however, is one of my most-played. I don't know why, but once I bought this I ended up listening to it every night before bed. I guess because it's really relaxing. At the same time, what O'Rourke (of mixing other people's records, Sonic Youth, and making Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot totally rad fame) is doing here is deceptively experimental. This doesn't really sound like anything else. There are four tracks and they're all about ten minutes long, and they never seem to get old. I'll listen to this record over and over because it not only helps me concentrate on stuff (I listened to it persistently when I needed to do homework) but it's just plain fucking good. My interest was first piqued when I read that Jeff Tweedy would listen to this constantly while driving around and smoking cigarettes on little breaks from recording YHF. I didn't know what to expect from this, given that O'Rourke is known for being a fucking weirdo. With his music, that is. I mean, I got a CD at KJ as assistant Music Director that featured him with Carlos Giffoni and Merzbow and it was a really abrasive hour long noise track. And then there's this. It's serene and organic. It builds and ebbs and flows. It seems like this is O'Rourke showing everyone that he's not only a fantastic guitarist, but that he can make more traditional music in addition to his experimental stuff. His latest record, The Visitor, is like a return to Bad Timing. It's one long 40 minute track and it's mostly based around acoustic guitar. And it's really good. Go figure.

Will Oldham - Ode Music

Will Oldham – Ode Music
Drag City, 2000
Acquired: Lawrence Antique Mall, Used, 2007
Price: $5

This is Oldham's soundtrack to Kelly Reichardt's film Ode. Kelly Reichardt is pretty awesome. She's responsible for the quiet, yet excellent Old Joy, which stars Oldham, and more recently Wendy and Lucy, which was one of my favorite films of 2008. So good. She's great, and has her own style. Very quiet, very meditative, very beautiful. Yeah. These are all acoustic instrumentals and they're great for background music. Another cool thing about this record is that the cover was painted by film director Todd Haynes, who has done such rad shit as Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven, and I'm Not There. Basically, this record has a lot of rad stuff going for it. The back even has a little note that says “All instrumental or 'silent' music,” which is kind of funny. The songs are all repetitive, but not in a bad way. It's actually quite relaxing. It feels like film music!

Okkervil River - The Stand Ins

Okkervil River – The Stand Ins
Jagjaguar, 2008
Acquired: Love Garden, New, 2008
Price: $14

I think I like this one as much as The Stage Names now. At first I thought the songs were a little non-descript but then they grew on me. Really, this record is all about the lyrical themes that Sheff brought up on The Stage Names, and how Sheff explores these and actually writes some better songs. Lyrically, “On Tour With Zykos” is one of his best songs ever. It's a story told from a groupie's point of view, her life, her job, the boring shit she does unless some touring band is in town, and it creates a sympathetic character of her. She's attractive, constantly getting hit on by guys but can't make a real connection with anyone in her town. She might connect with the guys in the bands, but they've gotta hit the road the next morning so it doesn't matter. She resigns herself to staying in, smoking pot and watching TV movies. They tell her she matters but she knows they don't mean it. “Starry Stairs” is the second song Sheff has written about porn star Savannah and it's so much better than the maudlin “Savannah Says.” It's actually one of my favorite songs on the record. Originally released as a B-side for The Stage Names, here they add sleighbells and make it sort of a Christmas song. It's quite like “On Tour with Zykos,” in that it's about a woman who gets attention from dudes but it's always the wrong kind of attention. The attention she gets isn't for her, but her persona, and ultimately it's about her balancing the two until she can't. The end of her story, which isn't in the song, is that she's in a car accident and her face is ruined. Instead of calling for help she commits suicide, as her persona has become who she is. It's like a greek myth...with porn. There are more characters here. “Lost Coastlines” feels like a send off for Jonathan Meiburg, who announced he was leaving the band after this record to focus on Shearwater. It's a duet between he and Sheff and it's fantastic. “Singer Songwriter” is the song I always wanted to hear about how these seemingly boring songwriters are able to record records. The answer: They've got rich parents. “And you're quick to betray with one well-turned-out wave of your hand, that you come from wealth,” he sings. We've seen it all before. Again, it's a song about constructing a persona. This guy can have whatever he wants and he wants to be a singer songwriter so ok, he can do that. He can act the part. He can buy the right records and buy the right books, he can make himself cool because he can afford to construct himself as someone who is cool. It's about people who are really fucking pretentious, basically, without having anything to be pretentious about. The songs here are more subtle, melody wise, but the writing is better.

One of the promotional tools for this record was the band getting their friends (from other bands) to cover songs on The Stand Ins, effectively standing in for the band and making everything oh so meta. Lawrencian Jordan Geiger (of Hospital Ships/ Minus Story) does a version of "Bruce Wayne Campbell," the last song on the record. I like to think that Sheff and Geiger first met that time I saw Minus Story open for Okkervil River in 2003. Geiger later sang on their song "A Favor" from the Sleep to Wake Up Songs EP. So this is cool.

Okkervil River - The Stage Names

Okkervil River – The Stage Names
Jagjaguar, 2007
Acquired: Love Garden, New, 2007
Price: $14

If Black Sheep Boy is where Okkervil River figured out the perfect formula for their music, The Stage Names is where they perfect it. This is a masterpiece. Will Sheff's songwriting is at its absolute best, the melodies are catchier, the textures richer, etc. Everything is improved. On top of that, it's loaded with pop culture and music references (which I love). Just look at “Plus Ones.” In anyone else's hands this might come off as hokey or perhaps snooty. Perhaps “look at how clever I am, I took a bunch of songs with numbers in the titles and added one.” It never seems like that, it feels really heartfelt, and it's at the same time amusing and very affecting. Like John Darnielle, Sheff is a master in the art of the story song. The songs here often focus on specific characters. Dudes in bands, poets, and porn stars. Whatever it may be, he's got a knack for writing from someone else's perspective. Actually, what I just said is a trait for any decent writer. He's someone who will probably end up publishing a novel or something, and I will gladly read it because he's excellent. Easily one of my top 5 favorite songwriters. This isn't a perfect record, not like Black Sheep Boy was, but it's a better record, if that makes any sense. The only flaw I find is “Savannah Smiles,” which is pretty much a drag and has never grown on me and I wish they'd replaced it with say, “On Tour With Zykos,” which was later released on The Stand Ins. That song achieves the really quiet sadness just right, where as “Savannah Smiles” is a song I usually skip. It's sappy, maudlin, and yeah, a drag mostly. But the rest of the songs make up for it and then some. It's emotionally devastating, powerful enough to make one weak at the knees. Where Black Sheep Boy stewed in misery, The Stage Names is rather defiant. The songs are almost always jaunty and upbeat and tend to occasionally kick a little ass in a classic rock and roll style. And when Sheff & Co. bring it down a notch, on tunes like “A Girl in Port” and “Title Track,” they totally kill it, bringing out the most powerful stuff of the record (with the exception of “Savannah Smiles”). I can't really tell if Okkervil River has plateaued yet. I keep thinking they have and they keep putting out better records.

Here's the really good video for "Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe."

Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy

Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy
Jagjaguar, 2005
Acquired: Love Garden, New, 2007
Price: $14

This is another super important record for the year of 2008. Like Dear You and The Meadowlands, this record was used to sum up my life to the moment, most importantly the misery. Will Sheff based the album around a Tim Hardin song of the same name, and creates a character out of the black sheep boy. I never really pieced together the whole story, just the sad parts. However, this is pretty much a perfecta album. Every song works and on top of that, every song is excellent. It's completely cohesive and represents another step forward for Okkervil River. I think this is where they really plateau. It's peppered with a couple of jaunty, upbeat rockers (“Black,” “The Latest Toughs,” the title track) which are just enough to balance the slow sad songs. These, along with the high points of “For Real” and “So Come Back, I am Waiting” are where the ever bottled up Sheff lets loose. He has great restraint over his voice on the slower songs but when he finally gets to let loose, it's something of an emotional triumph. If you can call that kind of pain and misery a triumph. I remember seeing Okkervil River at the Jackpot when they were touring in support of this record and noticed Sheff walking around the venue on his cell phone for a good thirty minutes before they were to go on. When he got up on stage he announced that the woman he loved had just told him she never wanted to see him again and proceeded to bleed on stage. Well, pretty much. It was an amazing show, the best time I've ever seen them. Actually, that's a lie. Second best. The best was at SXSW 2008 with them playing to 500-1000 people at Stubbs, their last show with guitarist Brian Cassidy. That one was intense. But anyway, I've listened to this record a bunch of times, more than most records in my collection. I'd put side-two on before bed a lot, waiting for the three songs at the very end of the record that make up one of the saddest collections of songs I've ever heard. “Song of our So-Called Friend” laments, “So Come Back, I am Waiting” spills everything on the floor and pleads for someone to come back home, “A Glow” is a conclusion finally reached after years of pain. Etc. It's a record full of pain, and basically it's perfect if you're feeling miserable.