Red House Painters: Classic or Dud?

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The best is Blue Guitar, and my copy is MINE MINE MINE. Do you hear me, Ned? MINE! Actually, I think I like the first one best, mostly for sentimental reasons--it was the first I heard and I therefore take away not only the songs themselves but my initial reaction to these stark pop but not quite pop songs (fave: "Japanese to English"). The rollercoaster albums is also quite ace, and I like Ocean Beach. Never really got seriously into the bridge-covered album. I think I lean mostly towards Blue Guitar these days just for the opening track..."Have You Forgotten" is so great that I don't even need the rest of the album to consider this one a keeper.

That said, I don't really listen much to Old Ramon, and I just sold off my copies of the two solo albums. They were okayyyyyy, but really weren't enough to keep me coming back over and over again.

― Sean Carruthers, Sunday, 13 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Long Distance Runaround? LONG DISTANCE RUNAROUND?!! *wretching sounds* I can see that I'm _seriously_ outnumbered on this by those whose opinions I respect.

I really was ready to just send Ned my copy of Blue Guitar, but since you guys have praised RHP to the sky, I am now listening to it again in hopes of some revelation. Up til now my opinion of Kozelek has been (warning: tortured analogy zone) that being able to float in sewage don't make you a world class swimmer.

Hey, that bit of guitar wankery on track "Make Like Paper" is kinda fun!

Hunter

― Tom Hunter, Monday, 14 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

Do you hear me, Ned? MINE!

So I'm reading this as a sign you're giving me your copy. Why thank you!

Or Tom H. can send it if he likes. :-)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 14 January 2002 01:00 (11 years ago) Permalink

10 months pass...

i want to revive this thread. one of my top five bands and def. a classic. just amazing. and ned did you ever get your copy of Blue Guitar? I've got a songs for a blue guitar t-shirt from when I saw them live in 97. Great show, Mark did his solo cover of "Little Drummer Boy", we saw them around Christmas time. Made my wife cry.

― Chris V. (Chris V), Friday, 22 November 2002 18:05 (10 years ago) Permalink

I am currently in a cover band project that does Cheap Trick songs in the style of the red house painters.

yah, it's stupid, but pretty fun anyhew.

― J (Jay), Friday, 22 November 2002 21:16 (10 years ago) Permalink

I enjoy RHP a lot, but I'm intrigued by the fact that Retrospective covers their high-points so well that I don't feel the need to hear the individual albums anymore.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 23 November 2002 18:44 (10 years ago) Permalink

The Retrospective is passable at best - it doesn't include half of the good songs on "Down Colourful Hill" or any of the songs on "Songs for a Blue Guitar".

― bert, Saturday, 23 November 2002 22:37 (10 years ago) Permalink

Classic. Mark Kozelek is really overlooked. I liked almost everything they have done. Beautiful, sad, melodic, blah, blah. Great stuff.

― Juan (Juan), Sunday, 24 November 2002 01:51 (10 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

Grace Cathedral Park is a sad little masterpiece. I wish I stil had that cassette.

― Gatinha (rwillmsen), Sunday, 23 March 2003 01:35 (10 years ago) Permalink

5 months pass...

which is the best album of the red house painters in
the *literal* sense of best. actual very best.
y'know as in the sundays best is 'reading, writing...'
and the cure's is 'disintegration' and ride's is 'nowhere'.

you know the best album ! which one ?

oh and is there a best of ?
a little history here ?

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 2 September 2003 17:31 (9 years ago) Permalink

My favourite Red House Painters albums: Ocean Beach and the Rollercoaster s/t. Down Colorful Hill and the Bridge s/t are very nice as well. Never got "Songs..." as well. There is a "best of" compilation called Retrospective, a double CD with the greatest "hits" on CD1 and rarities & b-sides on CD2.

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 18:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

My favourite Red House Painters albums: Ocean Beach and the Rollercoaster s/t. Down Colorful Hill, Old Ramon and the Bridge s/t are very nice as well. Never got "Songs..." as well. There is a "best of" compilation called Retrospective, a double CD with the greatest "hits" on CD1 and rarities & b-sides on CD2.

― JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 18:27 (9 years ago) Permalink

I think the best is Songs For A Blue Guitar, since it´s essentially a solo project. But the debut and the rollercoaster alb. are also damn grate. Ocean Beach goes for 5 USD brand new down here in Mexico.

― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 19:12 (9 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

i wanted to revive this thread b/c i just discovered him recently and i'm just in awe but no one to talk about him with (everyone i know thinks his music is cheesy or they think its just ok). i really want to see him live but i need it to be perfect! how can i convince him to play at Smiley's Saloon the in Bolinas, CA? It would also be so cool to hear him drunk - or on a fishing boat -- for some reason.

also curious if anyone's noticed he sings a little flat of the music - seems more noticeable on RHP albums??

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Thursday, 14 April 2005 00:17 (8 years ago) Permalink

8 months pass...

i like 24, but i (still) haven't heard anything else, i wonder if i would like the red house painters

― calderdale in the 70s (gareth), Friday, 16 December 2005 22:48 (7 years ago) Permalink

you'd like Ocean Beach, and the Rollercoaster album.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 16 December 2005 22:54 (7 years ago) Permalink

KATY SONG and i highly recommend Sun Kil Moon

― slow jamz and white guy indie acoustic shit (Chris V), Friday, 16 December 2005 23:43 (7 years ago) Permalink

if you like 24, i recommend Retrospective and Ghosts of the Great Highway

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Saturday, 17 December 2005 02:45 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

really, extremely classic.

but what you get out of it on a personal level is essentially the very core of the listening experience. it can be difficult to get your friends to listen to old koz and expect them to be hearing exactly what you hear.

i tend to find red house painters immensely satisfying. 'medicine bottle' pretty much encapsulates what the band is about - long, dreamy, reflective, melancholy, and half entrenched in real, tangible, physical things ('ladies underwear tossed over the alarm clock' !!!), while still somewhat steeped in the surreal and metaphorically bizarre.

all of the albums are very good. and all of them have at least one shimmering highlight

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 13 March 2008 13:51 (5 years ago) Permalink

I like Kozelek's solo lps better. Some of those guitar solos remind me more of Zuma-era Neil Young, than Phil Collins.

― U-Haul, Thursday, 13 March 2008 14:29 (5 years ago) Permalink

4AD never wanted him to do solos, and koz wanted to do them.
hence you see a bit of a stylistical change from 'songs for a blue guitar' onwards

i like the solo ones too, i might add

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 13 March 2008 14:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

Love these guys.

I'm seeing Mark Kozelek at SXSW today :)

― stephen, Thursday, 13 March 2008 16:02 (5 years ago) Permalink

wow, i'd love to catch him

― Charlie Howard, Thursday, 13 March 2008 16:09 (5 years ago) Permalink

one of those bands that I feel personally protective about, like they're "mine".... first two albums, ocean beach, and the first skm album all amazing.

kozelek can be kind of uneven live, solo; not really 'bad' but he can be really dull, I think. the last painters shows were like that as well. there were some amazing ones in the early 90's though.

― akm, Thursday, 13 March 2008 16:45 (5 years ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

bought my ticket today to see him in july in the inner-west suburb of enmore, sydney.
really looking forward to the show, particularly given how much i love 'april'.

funny that only a month ago (xpost) this seemed like such an improbability

― Charlie Howard, Monday, 28 April 2008 16:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

Classic

Apart from the voice and lyrics, some of the guitar work -particularly on the earlier stuff- was aceness squared. I'm thinking 'Katy song', 'Brown Eyes' etc. Was that down to Kozelek or that other geezer?

My memory is hazy, but when I saw them live, it was a portly guy who was picking out all those beautiful appregios

― Fer Ark, Monday, 28 April 2008 18:50 (5 years ago) Permalink

Bummed out his show in Chicago is sold out, especially since the venue is five blocks from my house.

― Bill in Chicago, Monday, 28 April 2008 21:17 (5 years ago) Permalink

That's the good and bad of live music in a city like this, lots of great shows swing through town but a much greater chance of them selling out before you get a chance to grab tickets.

― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Monday, 28 April 2008 21:20 (5 years ago) Permalink

My memory is hazy, but when I saw them live, it was a portly guy who was picking out all those beautiful appregios

i don't know when you saw them but if it was in the early 90's then you must be thinking of Gorden Mack, but he hasn't played with them since 94 (in fact, he stopped playing music altogether I think). Phil Carney played guitar with them later, but he wasn't portly. Kozelek might be seen as portly from time to time

― akm, Monday, 28 April 2008 22:16 (5 years ago) Permalink

X Post

It must have been Gorden Mack . It was at the much lamented Duchess of York in Leeds - 93/94?

Gorden probably wasn't even that portly - maybe it was his oversize specs? Something was incongruous with the music he was producing from his guitar. I don't think he was sat on the crapper or anything.

Again, hazy, but whoever it was was had the electric guitar right stage of Kozelek , the latter mainly on acoustic?

― Fer Ark, Tuesday, 29 April 2008 19:48 (5 years ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

I found this article I cut out years ago. I think it was from Melody Maker, but it might have been NME. I've kept it for years, it cracked me up.

― Bimble Is Still More Goth Than You, Saturday, 2 August 2008 19:40 (4 years ago) Permalink

I have mp3 of Kozelek playing a radio show in 1988

― Curt1s Stephens, Saturday, 2 August 2008 21:00 (4 years ago) Permalink

I used to swear by "Mistress," but in the end it's all about "Summer Dress." RHP are the cat's pajamas and all, but I think the Sun Kil Moon albums are even better. Cheers to aging gracefully!

― Pillbox, Sunday, 3 August 2008 06:34 (4 years ago) Permalink

3 years pass...

Sometimes it gets no better than the Bridge version of "New Jersey". Just listened to it three times in a row.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 3 May 2012 07:00 (1 year ago) Permalink

Stay away from the razor blades.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 3 May 2012 12:48 (1 year ago) Permalink

"uncle joe" from bridge really strikes a raw nerve with me these days. i think it might be to do with the lyrics.

― charlie h, Thursday, 3 May 2012 13:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

"the after late night television pain"

― charlie h, Thursday, 12 July 2012 12:44 (10 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

Holy shit he plays "Mistress" with the Roots at Jimmy Fallon!

http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/blogs/2012/10/sun-kil-moon-plays-two-songs-with-the-roots-on-late-night/

― Evan, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 15:17 (7 months ago) Permalink

So beautiful, what a treat.

― Evan, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 16:07 (7 months ago) Permalink

Wow, I had no idea he was going to be on - thanks for linking, Evan.

And yr dead right, *what* a treat. Both great performances, I've been playing the hell out of Among the Leaves recently, enjoying it more and more. So great to hear and see Koz on the TV :)

― that mustardless plate (Bill A), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 18:21 (7 months ago) Permalink

Neither did I! I heard some so-so things about the new record but it's hard to not love everything this guy releases, so I need to listen to the rest of it.

― Evan, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 19:19 (7 months ago) Permalink

2 months pass...

an observation on the (kind of) under-appreciated Bridge album:

http://walkingthelongmileshome.wordpress.com/

― charlie h, Tuesday, 8 January 2013 06:01 (4 months ago) Permalink

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