December 3! I couldn't possibly be more excited.
― whiter than... this? (Ówen P.), Monday, 24 September 2012 03:07 (8 months ago) Permalink
Pretty sure the last one has pipped "Scott 3" as my fave at this point, so... bring on the "Bish Bosch" already!
― mr.raffles, Monday, 24 September 2012 03:16 (8 months ago) Permalink
yay!
― Dominique, Monday, 24 September 2012 04:40 (8 months ago) Permalink
― wood grain, chestnut / cody, CHESNUTT (Whiney G. Weingarten), Monday, 24 September 2012 06:18 (8 months ago) Permalink
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Monday, 24 September 2012 11:47 (8 months ago) Permalink
― a great poke for Jet Set Willy (snoball), Monday, 24 September 2012 11:50 (8 months ago) Permalink
Please that be the cover.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 24 September 2012 11:53 (8 months ago) Permalink
Greatest album title since Kish Kash.
― controversial cabaret roommate (Nicole), Monday, 24 September 2012 12:10 (8 months ago) Permalink
― a great poke for Jet Set Willy (snoball), Monday, 24 September 2012 12:12 (8 months ago) Permalink
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Monday, 24 September 2012 12:43 (8 months ago) Permalink
― a great poke for Jet Set Willy (snoball), Monday, 24 September 2012 12:46 (8 months ago) Permalink
― a great poke for Jet Set Willy (snoball), Monday, 24 September 2012 12:48 (8 months ago) Permalink
― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Monday, 24 September 2012 13:00 (8 months ago) Permalink
― willem, Monday, 24 September 2012 13:03 (8 months ago) Permalink
― mike t-diva, Monday, 24 September 2012 13:32 (8 months ago) Permalink
The winner.
(got any crisps?)
― Mark G, Monday, 24 September 2012 13:33 (8 months ago) Permalink
― whiter than... this? (Ówen P.), Monday, 24 September 2012 13:42 (8 months ago) Permalink
Posh Bosch
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Monday, 24 September 2012 15:00 (8 months ago) Permalink
Do we reckon on this one that he'll be punchign washing machines instead of pig carcasses, then?
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 24 September 2012 15:07 (8 months ago) Permalink
Sounds on the record include machetes, finger snaps, rams horns and BJ Cole on Hawaiian pedal steel.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Monday, 24 September 2012 15:08 (8 months ago) Permalink
'sandwiches, baguettes and tortilla wraps' i hate these places
― human centipede hz (thomp), Monday, 24 September 2012 15:11 (8 months ago) Permalink
be glad they don't add 'paninis and ciabattas' i guess
all those different ways of wrapping up the same unimaginative boring fillings
― syntax evasion (Noodle Vague), Monday, 24 September 2012 15:13 (8 months ago) Permalink
hang on, that could be an ILM thread
neti pot, kumbyana, um...
― Mark G, Monday, 24 September 2012 15:13 (8 months ago) Permalink
And we have website:
http://www.bishbosch.com/
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2012 15:59 (8 months ago) Permalink
I love stuff like this:
For an example of Scott’s unorthodox songwriting techniques, take the album’s centrepiece, the twenty minute ‘SDSS1416 + 13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)’. The title contains two brown dwarves: one, the coldest sub-stellar body in the universe discovered so far; the other, Zercon, was a real-life Moorish jester at the fifth century court of Attila the Hun.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 24 September 2012 16:00 (8 months ago) Permalink
yesssssssss
― free-range chicken pox (Matt P), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:01 (8 months ago) Permalink
i am soooooooooooo excited for this
― free-range chicken pox (Matt P), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:02 (8 months ago) Permalink
Fuck me at that song title.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:05 (8 months ago) Permalink
waow that description has me mad with want.
― Lewis Apparition (Jon Lewis), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:07 (8 months ago) Permalink
Not totally comfortable here with a Moorish jester being called a 'brown dwarf'
― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:17 (8 months ago) Permalink
loool r u serious
― free-range chicken pox (Matt P), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:18 (8 months ago) Permalink
I guess? Haven't read the whole press release though, so maybe I'm misinterpreting what it's saying
― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:22 (8 months ago) Permalink
that is so much like a thing a person would write if they were trying to send up the sort of thing he does
― human centipede hz (thomp), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:23 (8 months ago) Permalink
on the other hand so do neutral uninflected descriptions of a lot of the things he does
Dude has a sense of humour
― whiter than... this? (Ówen P.), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:25 (8 months ago) Permalink
― a great poke for Jet Set Willy (snoball), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:33 (8 months ago) Permalink
Hehe, I love it when people like Whiney think they deserve an award for pre-emptively not liking something.
goldstar.gif
― some white dude (Turangalila), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:37 (8 months ago) Permalink
anyway I love this “I was thinking about making the title refer to a mythological, all-encompassing, giant woman artist.” Scott Walker
― some white dude (Turangalila), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:39 (8 months ago) Permalink
His gooniness is its own reward
― whiter than... this? (Ówen P.), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:58 (8 months ago) Permalink
― human centipede hz (thomp), Monday, September 24, 2012 9:23 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
<3
― free-range chicken pox (Matt P), Monday, 24 September 2012 16:59 (8 months ago) Permalink
Great - really can't wait for this. His last two albums have been unofficial late night Christmas soundtracks for me over the last few years, so this is perfect timing really
― This Is... The Police (dog latin), Monday, 24 September 2012 17:02 (8 months ago) Permalink
I can't wait for Scott's take on "Paranoia paranoia everybody's coming to get me!"
― Mark G, Monday, 24 September 2012 17:43 (8 months ago) Permalink
Hieronymous Bosch' "Garden of Earthly Delights" - I called it :-)
― willem, Monday, 24 September 2012 18:48 (8 months ago) Permalink
Yes though the lovely thing is he imagines this 50FT Queenie version of Hieronymus.
― some white dude (Turangalila), Monday, 24 September 2012 18:49 (8 months ago) Permalink
‘SDSS1416 + 13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)’
humina humina humina
― Hadrian VIII, Monday, 24 September 2012 19:21 (8 months ago) Permalink
Sterzing was a total bolthole.
― Hadrian VIII, Monday, 24 September 2012 19:27 (8 months ago) Permalink
incredible titles!
Corps De Blah 'See You Don't Bump His Head'
!!!
― jed_, Monday, 24 September 2012 20:11 (8 months ago) Permalink
I've had to give Bish Bosch a bit of a rest. I listened to it non-stop over Christmas week but I think, like The Drift, it's not an album that's supposed to be listened to every day.
I did put Epizootics! on a mixtape for a car journey at the weekend, and watching the country road unwind into darkening mist was just incredible.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Monday, 14 January 2013 10:16 (5 months ago) Permalink
I do think The Drift is ahead/better than BischBosch, mainly probably because it came before it, but BB seems like "more of the same" in some ways.
― Mark G, Monday, 14 January 2013 11:27 (5 months ago) Permalink
Bish Bosch is an easier listen, in all. There's a humorous fourth-wall feeling going on throughout it where the listener gets let in on the whole construction of the composition, which at once draws me in but also stops me feeling completely enveloped by it. Somehow certain elements of The Drift have taken on new meaning in the context of Bish Bosch - the "WHAT'S UP DUCK?" bit was always ludicrous and terrifying, but now I understand Walker's not really doing it with as straight a face as I once thought. There's a very warm, human element to BB that has always been rather guarded throughout his career.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Monday, 14 January 2013 11:45 (5 months ago) Permalink
If you can bear Stuart Maconie then the Radio 6 interview was fun, Scott was in good form
― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Monday, 14 January 2013 13:00 (5 months ago) Permalink
... on good form.
― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Monday, 14 January 2013 13:03 (5 months ago) Permalink
.. under good form.
― Mark G, Monday, 14 January 2013 13:29 (5 months ago) Permalink
GREATEST THING EVER
http://soundcloud.com/adam-buxton/scott-walker-covers-scream
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 09:50 (4 months ago) Permalink
Anyone got any ideas about deciphering the lyrics? I want to know what all the 'XI V I I X I' bits are referring to on Zercon for example. It seems Scott revealed only a tiny amount of information about the record in interviews.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 10:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
aargh @ that cover. I want 30 secs of my life back.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 24 January 2013 11:11 (4 months ago) Permalink
I don't know about the roman numerals, but have you read Walker's explanation of the song's subject?
The title contains two brown dwarves: one, the coldest sub-stellar body in the universe discovered so far; the other, Zercon, was a real-life Moorish jester at the fifth century court of Attila the Hun.“I was interested in this thing about someone trying to escape his situation – in this case Attila’s wooden palace, which he regards as an immense toilet – and achieve a kind of spiritual sovereignty, and a height beyond calculation. As the song moves forward he imagines himself at different stages of height: he imagines first that he escapes and finds himself surrounded by eagles; then there’s the mention of St Simon on his pillar; then he jumps to 1930s America where it’s become a flagpole-sitter…’ Flagpole-sitting – trying to spend several days alone on a platform at the top of a pole – achieved a brief craze status in the 30s.At the end of the song he eventually becomes a Brown Dwarf, known as SDSS1416. As with the majority of my songs, it ends in failure, Like a brown dwarf, he freezes to death.”
“I was interested in this thing about someone trying to escape his situation – in this case Attila’s wooden palace, which he regards as an immense toilet – and achieve a kind of spiritual sovereignty, and a height beyond calculation. As the song moves forward he imagines himself at different stages of height: he imagines first that he escapes and finds himself surrounded by eagles; then there’s the mention of St Simon on his pillar; then he jumps to 1930s America where it’s become a flagpole-sitter…’ Flagpole-sitting – trying to spend several days alone on a platform at the top of a pole – achieved a brief craze status in the 30s.
At the end of the song he eventually becomes a Brown Dwarf, known as SDSS1416. As with the majority of my songs, it ends in failure, Like a brown dwarf, he freezes to death.”
Here's an account from Priscus, which has more about Zercon.
So that first part of the song seems to be the jester doing his job at Attila's court (near the Tisza river in Hungary, which is mentioned) & insulting various types - accusing women of being prostitutes (the opening crack) or going like a gynozoon (which is a female animal trained to have sex with a man, apparently), throwing some national slurs at greeks, Gauls etc. (Basically, It's the chaotic international court of a ruler who's been terrifying the established powers of Europe.)
At the same time there's the rise of ascetic christianity – so there are eunuch lines in there & of course the section about throwing your own mother's food back at her, which is directly about Simeon Stylites i think - it's Zercon, I guess, thinking with a kind of disgust/fascination about this religion, which might be showing him a way to climb up, but is also grotesque.
There's also lot of end of antiquity/dark ages stuff going on in the background - like telescoped northern invasions - Norsemen, Nibelung are Norse-Burgundian kings, 'Basel-cum-Strasbourg-cum-Frankfurt-cum-Speyer-cum' – which is historically later than Zercon/Attila, but all adds doomy living-in-collapse atmosphere.
Those are random thoughts on the opening section. I'd need to read closer (and google harder) to get further.
Still no idea about the numbers though.
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 12:06 (4 months ago) Permalink
hehe, I googled "gynozoon" recently and, well, yeah I kind of wished I hadn't.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 12:44 (4 months ago) Permalink
I'd read the press release, woof, but not the second bit of your post which is a great help. Would be nice to get a bit more lyric dissection going on on this thread - after all, that's part of the latter-day SW experience really.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 12:45 (4 months ago) Permalink
Good point about Simeon Stylites (who isn't explicitly mentioned in the lyrics or the accompanying texts), but yeah, he refused to see his mother during all the time he spent on his pillar and wasn't she eventually buried at the bottom of the pillar when she died?
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 12:48 (4 months ago) Permalink
In the Radio 6 interview he says, in passing, they are supposed to represent telephone numbers, as would have been scrawled on the walls of a Roman khazi if telephones had existed
― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 January 2013 13:14 (4 months ago) Permalink
ha, ok, thanks, would never have worked that out
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 14:24 (4 months ago) Permalink
Send "SDSS1416+13B (Zercon, A Flagpole Sitter)" Ringtone to your Cell
ohhh, so the insults and gags are toilet graffiti. I get it.
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 14:29 (4 months ago) Permalink
and the flatulence is flatulence..
― Mark G, Thursday, 24 January 2013 14:31 (4 months ago) Permalink
The whole thing's just one big fart gag
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 14:53 (4 months ago) Permalink
we must make fart noises or else we become a cold dead lifeless star do u see?
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 15:21 (4 months ago) Permalink
The insults in "SDSS1416whatevea" are ripostes to hecklers... from the same Radio 6 interview
― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 January 2013 15:52 (4 months ago) Permalink
You have to do a gig to have hecklers.
― Mark G, Thursday, 24 January 2013 15:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
I guess even Simeon Stylites had to do his business every now and again. Maybe he amused himself by carving out graffiti on the toilet area of his pillar while he was at it.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 15:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
how the dwarf got brown
― son of telegram sam (Edward III), Thursday, 24 January 2013 15:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
I still haven't gotten this album but i think i will soon, this lyric discussion is fascinating.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 24 January 2013 15:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
Anyone know what these refer to:
AdopocereMaman Neigho
?
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:00 (4 months ago) Permalink
Right - that makes sense - it's sort of how I was seeing the earlier ones, the "the red light where you work", "you should get an agent" stuff - but then it's (Zercon-imagined) bog graffiti by the time you get to "flush hard, it's a long way to Athens", "do not eat the big pink mint".
I will listen to that interview when I get in, it sounds informative if I am going down this rabbithole.
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:01 (4 months ago) Permalink
(multi xps to Tom that)
the "big pink mint" is a toilet freshener!?!?!
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:03 (4 months ago) Permalink
YES
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:04 (4 months ago) Permalink
woof, you're the bwast!
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:04 (4 months ago) Permalink
I think it's a 'Norseman are thick savages' gag about a toilet freshener.
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:05 (4 months ago) Permalink
The 'flush hard' joke is ummmm, either saying 'greeks are shits' or thinking about it some more, 'greeks are homosexuals & likely to be found in your bottom'.
― woof, Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:06 (4 months ago) Permalink
Or saying that Athens is a cesspit
― Designated Striver (Tom D.), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:08 (4 months ago) Permalink
From Wiki:
Adipocere (pron.: /ˈædɨpɵsɪər/), also known as corpse, grave or mortuary wax, is a wax-like organic substance formed by the anaerobic bacterial hydrolysis of fat in tissue, such as body fat in corpses. In its formation, putrefaction is replaced by a permanent firm cast of fatty tissues, internal organs and the face.
Adipocere in a zoot...? There are a lot of musical and lyrical references to late-40s/early-50s pop culture throughout Epizootics!. I kind of imagine it as West Side Story as viewed by someone who's having an extremely bad trip.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:11 (4 months ago) Permalink
West Side Story South Pacific
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:12 (4 months ago) Permalink
Not an answer to dog latin's question, but I've just learned from Google that there's a racehorse with the charming name "Neigh O Me".
― questino (seandalai), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:12 (4 months ago) Permalink
Other searches on the family name "Neigho" throws up... nothing much other than it's an ancient name.
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, 24 January 2013 16:15 (4 months ago) Permalink
wasn't she eventually buried at the bottom of the pillar when she died?
― besides Sunny Real Estate (dog latin), Thursday, January 24, 2013 7:48 AM (5 hours ago)
buried alive actually, the bastard still didn't come down
― a sock of regals (Edward III), Thursday, 24 January 2013 18:13 (4 months ago) Permalink
The Alfredo Garcia cameo in "Epizootics!" makes me very happy altho I have no idea what it's doing there
― castle grayscale (wins), Thursday, 31 January 2013 22:55 (4 months ago) Permalink
I pretty much assumed that this album would be my automatic BEST OF DECADE just based on the trailer + "Epizootics!" & the fact that I'm a massive scott stan (listened to the drift nearly every day for like a year after it came out). And then the release date came & I heard it and I just couldn't help feeling deflated, like yeah this is brilliant but none of the songs really get to me the way eg "clara" or "farmer in the city" do.
Happily I'm revising this position & now think that "zercon" especially is one of the most affecting things he's done. The central metaphor, though oblique, is just so elegant & moving: zercon moving to higher & higher peaks (across multiple eras/spaces) in order to escape his circumstances, but of course he can't, and even when he ascends to space he's still a dwarf and the universe is still cold & cruel & unfeeling - Walker's said in interviews that at the beginning of the song zercon is getting "heckled by silence", which is some kinda bergman-level angst right there. At its core it's not a zillion miles away from the 60s character pieces - poor zercon, like big louise, is looking for (fire) escapes in the sky.
I mean I wouldn't really claim to know what's ~going on~ in the song at all times but it seems to be "about" different kinds of human cruelty & the ways people have of coping with them. Hence the many references to past racisms &c. Zercon's defensive strategy against the society that treats him like shit is to give as good as he gets (all the classic putdowns at the start of the song); later, he just withdraws & withdraws until there's nothing left & he "drop[s] into the darkness" (this is how you disappear). The responses to heckles in the last part of the song aren't randomly chosen, they all point towards complete effacement: "I want to forget you just the way you are", "I think you've got nothing there","I hope your face clears up".
This is why I can't get with complaints about the humour - even the funny lines on this album aren't just there for the lolz. Plus there's always been humour in scott's work - on the drift he actually bursts out laughing ffs!
― castle grayscale (wins), Thursday, 31 January 2013 23:41 (4 months ago) Permalink
Brilliant post wins
― dog latin, Friday, 1 February 2013 01:09 (4 months ago) Permalink
Another thought I had:
ROOMFULLAMICEROOMFULLAMICEROOMFULLAMICEROOMFULLAMICE
― ☯ t (wins), Thursday, 7 February 2013 00:49 (4 months ago) Permalink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6AjaS1adwk8
I laughed.
― On Being Blue (Da Ba Dee): A Philosophical Inquiry (wins), Monday, 11 February 2013 23:19 (4 months ago) Permalink
Hmm!
http://pitchfork.com/news/50048-scott-walkers-bish-bosch-becoming-multimedia-show-for-vivid-sydney-festival/
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 21 March 2013 15:49 (2 months ago) Permalink
― castle grayscale (wins), Thursday, 31 January 2013 22:55 (1 month ago) Permalink
Garcia also gets a mention in Cockfighter on Tilt.
― Zelda Zonk, Friday, 22 March 2013 01:05 (2 months ago) Permalink
"eccentric, asburd"
― ma ck ro ma ck ro (mackro mackro), Friday, 22 March 2013 13:40 (2 months ago) Permalink
still playing this. Also
Another thought I had:ROOMFULLAMICEROOMFULLAMICEROOMFULLAMICEROOMFULLAMICE― ☯ t (wins), Thursday, 7 February 2013 00:49 (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― ☯ t (wins), Thursday, 7 February 2013 00:49 (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
me otm, although that may be the "jazz police" of this album
― "LOL is other people" - Jean-Paul Snarktre (wins), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 21:43 (2 months ago) Permalink
Some video of the Bish Bosch thingie at the Sydney Opera house:
http://youtu.be/M6gowakwh8A
looks neat!
― mr.raffles, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 13:01 (3 weeks ago) Permalink
Really hope they do this in the UK. The Sydney opera house thing is free to attend! Any ilxors going?
― too busy s1ockin' on my 乒乓 (wins), Wednesday, 29 May 2013 13:13 (3 weeks ago) Permalink