yeah the nasty tone his guitarist was pulling off was great. sort of a classic rock thing.
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 15 July 2011 21:19 (twelve years ago) link
sort of a classic rock thing.
totally. totally a part of the record, too, that kinda longing slightly wailing guitar, the electric part on riding for the feeling.
― Aa Bb Obscure Dull Blue (#000066) (schlump), Friday, 15 July 2011 22:17 (twelve years ago) link
his show in boston the other night was fantastic. it restored my interest in going to see shows—not one iPhone in the air, nobody texting, the sound was perfect. his music is so wonderfully minimal and full of intention... stoic... transfixing is a good word.
― nerve_pylon, Friday, 15 July 2011 22:46 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, even though you could probably describe callahan's stage presence as "aloof," it sort of works for him -- like he sets the right tone for the live show. I had close to the same experience (maybe a few iphones) in Denver -- packed crowd, but really quiet and into it.
― tylerw, Friday, 15 July 2011 22:55 (twelve years ago) link
it restored my interest in going to see shows
yeah: like there is something about it that so resembles the platonic idea of going to see like, lol, a songstrel play his songs, rather than your favourite musician possibly play one of your favourite of his songs. you're really listening, rather than remembering or tracking or appreciating or anticipating. there's a video on some site of him playing one fine morning in front of a crowd, & you can see it ringing out better than it does on the lp, because it's hitting people one line at a time - i can't explain it but the way it's unfolding feels so charged & ephemeral, seeing him.
― Aa Bb Obscure Dull Blue (#000066) (schlump), Friday, 15 July 2011 23:11 (twelve years ago) link
^ yes, well put.
― nerve_pylon, Friday, 15 July 2011 23:15 (twelve years ago) link
he's always been like that. i remember a show ca. 1997–8, he actually showed up early (wtf) and was drinking at the bar, looking into space w/ a 100-yard stare. nobody dared approach him.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 16 July 2011 00:13 (twelve years ago) link
"like that" -- aloof, stoic, whatever
just makes his droll humor stand out. at the show a few weeks ago, when one sort of embarrasingly overenthusiastic dancer dude stopped to relax/get a beer, and another dude started doing something similar, bill just said, "looks like we're at a shift change."
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 16 July 2011 00:16 (twelve years ago) link
lol
XP: at both of those stories!
― bernard snowy, Saturday, 16 July 2011 00:17 (twelve years ago) link
makin' me regret not going to the show he's playing here tonight but MONEY Y'ALL
that aloofness is why i thought it was weird he asked for requests, and then embarrassed when people were shrieking out song names. he doesn't seem like someone who should take requests.'][[[[[[[[[[iiii
― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, 16 July 2011 00:41 (twelve years ago) link
sorry my daughter typed that last part.
heard a story about an old show when people were hollering for requests, he'd been silent all night & then stepped up to the mic to say:
is anyone willingto diefor their request
― Aa Bb Obscure Dull Blue (#000066) (schlump), Saturday, 16 July 2011 00:55 (twelve years ago) link
that's the best concert banter i've ever heard
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 16 July 2011 03:00 (twelve years ago) link
i feel like callahan's the sort of ornery dude who'd ask for requests and then systematically ignore all of them.
i laughed every time he said "I Thank You" at the show. classic.but where DID that guitarist come from anyway?
― nerve_pylon, Saturday, 16 July 2011 03:03 (twelve years ago) link
i think i wrote this on another thread, but after he asked for requests and people were screaming song titles for a couple of minutes, he said "i'm glad you guys don't write the set list."
― congratulations (n/a), Saturday, 16 July 2011 03:16 (twelve years ago) link
his funny comment at my show was: "I haven't played here in many years ... but I thought about you ... the whole time I was gone."
― tylerw, Saturday, 16 July 2011 04:13 (twelve years ago) link
he should do a comedy album.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 16 July 2011 19:30 (twelve years ago) link
"take my cryptic poeticism ... please!"
Oh yeah, so like I said on the other thread I realized this album is amazing. I actually bought it mainly because the record store clerk was cute and playing it, but it's amazing.
― pass the duchy pon the left hand side (musical duke) (Hurting 2), Monday, 31 October 2011 03:02 (twelve years ago) link
would smog clerk
― Local Christian Blues (schlump), Monday, 31 October 2011 10:42 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/650397224/apocalypse-a-bill-callahan-tour-film
Anyone else pledge? Seems an unlikely subject for a tour film, Bill being famously reticent and all, but what do I know? I just wish there was an actual, you know, DVD. Ah well. I pledged for the mix CD. That's gonna be awesome.
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, 26 January 2012 15:24 (twelve years ago) link
http://americansongbook.org/pdfs/2012/AS-2012-02-08-Callahan.pdf
― mizzell, Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:33 (twelve years ago) link
lol @ Thursday, February 9, at 8:30tUnE-yArDs
― Gonjasufjanstephen O'Malley (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:48 (twelve years ago) link
ha that program is classic
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18:51 (twelve years ago) link
So that concert film/road doc is finished. Saw it in Baltimore this past weekend with the director and Bill in attendance. It was quite good! She caught some beautiful footage. Bill played a nice short little set after the screening. I’m assuming there will be a DVD/BluRay release at some point in the not-do-distant future.
― circa1916, Monday, 27 August 2012 17:36 (eleven years ago) link
#217 of my 1,000 favorite moments on this record:
that quiet, brief laugh he does at 3:56 in "universal applicant" ---- "the flare burned and fell / the boat burned as well, hm!"
― marcos, Monday, 22 July 2013 14:55 (ten years ago) link
bees only swarm when they're looking for a home...and so i followed them!
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Monday, 22 July 2013 15:48 (ten years ago) link
#218
"to be free in bad times... and good"
― marcos, Tuesday, 23 July 2013 16:09 (ten years ago) link
IF this record has 1000 moments, Eagle has 100,000.
― nostormo, Tuesday, 23 July 2013 17:28 (ten years ago) link
Both Eagle and Apocalypse are favourites of mine but out of the two, I prefer the latter - more consistently excellent and for me the lyrics are the best Callahan has ever wrote.
― yugi ex, Tuesday, 23 July 2013 21:26 (ten years ago) link
this was the performance that convinced me that "america!" is the highlight, not the goofy outlier, of this album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwaiE9nZWCk
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, 11 September 2013 21:26 (ten years ago) link
incredible record and cannae wait for the new one
― monotony, Wednesday, 11 September 2013 21:58 (ten years ago) link
ne too but i hope it will be better than Apocalypse
― nostormo, Wednesday, 11 September 2013 21:59 (ten years ago) link
nobody does not hope that but we can still be fond of apocalypse all the same
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Wednesday, 11 September 2013 22:28 (ten years ago) link
waking up tremulously anxious to hear this every day btw
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Wednesday, 11 September 2013 22:29 (ten years ago) link
Apocalypse is his best album.
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Thursday, 12 September 2013 01:14 (ten years ago) link
that's going a little far but there's absolutely nothing wrong w/it
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 12 September 2013 01:52 (ten years ago) link
it's not one of my fave callahans but seeing him live on this circuit helped me appreciate it more
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 12 September 2013 02:08 (ten years ago) link
i do not generally care for, or at least don't automatically prioritise, shows, but he does something so special, live, i think, like it plays to a strand of his music, to do with timing & tension, that makes it even more itself, in a kinda extra-dimensional way. it becomes ... ultra-smog.
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Thursday, 12 September 2013 02:20 (ten years ago) link
yeah - and more simply for me, you notice how good a guitarist he is, how much he's doing in those economical little turnarounds
― combination hair (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 12 September 2013 02:43 (ten years ago) link
it is interesting seeing the new song to know it's another of his kinda woven into a simple, rolling line, like it has the DNA of to be of use or all thoughts are pray to some beast. I think there was definitely a moment (like around a river?) when he seemed to step up & sorta click more with what a guitar could do propulsively, how it could be momentum for him to sing with or else play against, pitching his hesitation against its flow on the well or whatever. I'm curious to hear the arrangements for the new record (which I hear are pretty jazzy/loose), because I generally can't neatly assign a register or style he's working in , now - that he is amid this kinda syrupy late flowering, & playing with these sorta austere & delicate classical sounds seems to mean people are calling him glen campbell or picking up on his mickey newman affection, but it isn't that, to me. I feel like he's doing everything very minimally & then dressing it up well.
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Thursday, 12 September 2013 03:30 (ten years ago) link
he's always been kind of a minimalist, arrangement-wise, and he's always been good live with these kind of steady vamps whose dynamics shift in subtle ways. i've admired this about his live shows since... probably the red apple falls era. he's just got better since.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, 12 September 2013 07:22 (ten years ago) link
"it is interesting seeing the new song to know it's another of his kinda woven into a simple, rolling line"
you mean the song he played live in the NYC park?
i'm not sure it will sound the same on the record. maybe it won't be as simple.
― nostormo, Thursday, 12 September 2013 09:56 (ten years ago) link
no, sure. but that it's a reducible, cyclic thing, though, right? i was trying to find an old youtube of him playing all thoughts, solo, the same kinda thing, & can't. i'm sure it'll be dressier on the record, but i think he is doing something kinda structurally minimal anyway.
― @twitizensforlemonlipbalm (schlump), Thursday, 12 September 2013 12:59 (ten years ago) link
yea i'm really excited about this new record. i don't know why but i'm imagining it to maybe be like the looser stuff on apocalypse (e.g. universal applicant or free's), perhaps b/c as schlump said there is some talk about the arrangements being a little jazzy/loose.
anyways i generally do fall into the camp that apocalypse is his best record so far. definitely his most consistent. and i've totally gone to appreciate "america" is a great feature of this album. not the highlight, for me that would probably be "one fine morning." but i really have a hard time picking the highlight because as i mentioned upthread this album has 1000 moments of brilliance and is all around just spectacular
― marcos, Thursday, 12 September 2013 13:39 (ten years ago) link
i hope it WON'T be like Free's or Universal Applicant. i'll abandon the ship if that will be the case.(i hope it will be his Aja lol!)
riding for the feeling is my personal highlight of Apocalypse, (maybe because it sounds like an Eagle track, which i adore)
― nostormo, Thursday, 12 September 2013 14:47 (ten years ago) link
riding for the feeling is wonderful
― marcos, Thursday, 12 September 2013 15:13 (ten years ago) link
the song or the act itself?
― nostormo, Thursday, 12 September 2013 15:30 (ten years ago) link