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

In that Licht book he talks about West Palm Beach/Gulf Shores being his Jimmy Buffett single. Ever since I read The Long Secret I associate it with WPB.

Easily his greatest 7". Nothing else in his discography sounds quite like it.

― one way street, Thursday, November 6, 2014 5:34 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah don't think he'll ever top that 7". some days i think that's all he really needed to release, ever.

I've had a hard time getting really into anything he's done since Master and Everyone. Most of the output up to that point I like.

Master and Everyone itself I like, although at times it feels almost uncomfortably intimate and tender, in a similar (but very Oldhamian) way to Blue.

I'M LONG SINCE DEAD AND I LIVE IN HELL
SHE'S THE ONLY ONE THAT I LOVE WELL
WE WERE RAISED TOGETHER AND TOGETHER WE FELL
GOD IS WHAT I MAKE OF HIM

I do not believe he has written anything that troubling and compelling in the last 10 years, but would be happy to be corrected

^^^ especially when you imagine it being sung from the perspective of Bart Simpson

If you like the "open/exploratory" Palace stuff and you haven't heard Superwolf that's the best place to start getting into the BPB stuff. It has that same startling vibe where songs unfurl in unexpected ways. After that, I suggest exploring the trilogy of live albums - Summer in the Southeast, Is It The Sea? and Wilding in the West. That cracked, fragile swell of his early material still remains in his live stuff.

superwolf is great, kinda zeppelin
i really like lie down in the light and the letting go

goat and ram is such a great song!!!

Goat and Ram is so awesome that the next few songs seem underwhelming in comparison, but they're actually really good.

i don't even remember what they are
all is goat and ram

i really have a soft spot for summer in the southeast

Yeah actually I like Superwolf. On the whole I just feel like he's gone down this Dylan-esque "I am a confounding artist who will keep doing unpredictable things" path. But I should probably give the more recent stuff more of a chance - I heard a song off Lie Down In The Light recently that I liked a lot.

Oldham is one of those artists I always like when I hear, but rarely enjoy for long when I put it on myself. At this point the catalog is so windy and unwieldy there's really no easy point of entry, save "I See a Darkness," which I still think is all anyone really needs, even if you like the rest of the catalog. Though I guess I am aware that some folks find the guy unbearably moving and deep, which means they get more from him than I do. Obviously it's not fair to compare the guy - or anyone - to Dylan, but Oldham's balance of emotional honesty and humor has always struck me as much more confusing/confounding. I could equally imagine him penning a beautiful song about taking a dump and a stupid song about his mother dying.

i think there are a few records of his that work more or less equally well as a starting point: i see a darkness, sure, but also the letting go, and the lost blues comp.

Lost Blues > I See A Darkness

Lie Down in the Light is a really approachable, more comforting record, it's like his American Beauty

Similarly found it difficult to go beyond Ease Down the Road - like marcos I've come to the conclusion it's the singing as much as anything else, something platitudinous about it, though I think there's been a lyrical drop-off as well. NV's stanning for I Don't Belong to Anyone off Beware did something to win me over to that record and the Black Cab session version of Black Captain is wonderful. Would also second ows's praise of Get on Jolly - 25 off that is probably top 15 Oldham material for me.

The recent album seems terrifically boring - I haven't managed to make it all the way through.

I remember really liking the Trembling Bells collab record but have not listened in a while

Lie Down in the Light is a really approachable, more comforting record, it's like his American Beauty

ha yea it does have a very dead vibe to it, esp that first track which is probably the best on the album imo

the oral sex song starts off very strong but the climax of it is very bad imo

jeez, how many songs about oral sex does this guy have?

I love this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IgTBFlUSeg

glad to see folks referencing the licht book. it is very good, not a while lot of musician "biographies" like it. made total sense to have a friend do the book, i always think of oldham as surrounded by friends and collaborators throughout his whole career who he really values and draws from. i could never see him agreeing to such a book with an unrelated journalist or something, and the fact that licht is a friend allows oldham to get much deeper into the questions than i've ever seen in any published interview.

not a while lot of musician "biographies" like it.

not sure where the "while" came from. anyways

This is my kids favorite dessert in the world: http://arthurmag.com/2009/04/02/will-oldham-on-his-double-chocolate-chess-pie-as-told-to-gabe-soria/

haha

When you take a bite of it, it’s like… how you know… it helps you recognize how omnipotent and indescribable God is. Because this food, you know, goes beyond, and obviously God, you know, God would go beyond anything a Pope could tell you, or an imam could say about, or rabbis, you know? They can pretend that they can tell you about God, but it’s way fucking beyond their comprehension, no matter how many books they read or how much they whip their back or do whatever they do. It’s the same thing with the pies when you realize that the way things work is way beyond anything you could comprehend. We can put [the ingredients] together, but we can’t explain why, when you put them together, why they do what they do.

did you like the cake?
ah some of it was nice
I have made a cake like that
in my own home once or twice
it was just as fine as that one
which we had some of today
none of it was wonderful
much more of it okay

A+++

btw i found this very wonderful picture on the internet

http://www.rockdelux.com/files/article/82/smog_1.jpg

is that bill callahan?

yes!

woah!

"What a bummer that my hair is thinning. Maybe I should grow a beard? Hmmm ... "

Shhh, It's Actually About Oral Sex

the new record from Bonnie Prince Billy

tbrr i cherish the memory of the time i sneezed at a show (bert jansch!) and someone behind me put a hand on my shoulder and said "bless you" i turned around to say thanks and it was will oldham

Surpised he didn't say https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efk9p00mEJA

which borrows heavily from Billy Bragg's "I dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night" and samples Julee Cruise's "Falling" in reverse.

We can put [the ingredients] together, but we can’t explain why, when you put them together, why they do what they do.

will, say hello to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_science

bonus reading: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/19/291406696/why-a-sweet-tooth-may-have-been-an-evolutionary-advantage-for-kids

sorry i just hate that "only god could make something so perfect" stuff. love you, will.

As a food science denier, I say tis God that makes it taste good.

i mean save your "only god..." for stuff that science truly doesn't understand well. a chocolate cake is easy.

But who invented chocolate? God, that's who. Advantage: Bonnie Prince Billy.

A friend of mine saw an early Oldham show in NYC at some small place and was impressed when Oldham went around the room and handed everyone a photocopy of a typed lyric sheet for all the songs he was going to play

tbrr i cherish the memory of the time i sneezed at a show (bert jansch!) and someone behind me put a hand on my shoulder and said "bless you" i turned around to say thanks and it was will oldham

― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Tuesday, November 11, 2014 3:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whaaat that is so awesome

yeah it was pretty awesome
i wish i were like 10% as confident as will oldham
dude is a weirdo but he seems to have it figured out

for himself at least
he also doesn't seem like a prescriptive person

however i do worry a little when he veers too far in the self-baconing direction

yes you are very right about all of this

huge regret I never saw him dancing with mark e smith at ATP because I was too busy vomiting, but friends I was there with did.

marcos
Posted: November 12, 2014 at 10:29:10 AM
tbrr i cherish the memory of the time i sneezed at a show (bert jansch!) and someone behind me put a hand on my shoulder and said "bless you" i turned around to say thanks and it was will oldham

― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Tuesday, November 11, 2014 3:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whaaat that is so awesome

lol