why?

(navy blue hoodies and khakis, that was the style that year)

Why's good stuff.

Everytime I see him play, it feels like an epiphany, since it's always at someplace like a 100-degree vegan cafe in Montreal or someone's wood-paneled living room in Brooklyn. Dude's got lyrics for days. I bet he would be much more famouser if the (unwarranted) anticon backlash wasn't so icky.

"I'm fucking cold like a DQ blizzard"

http://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=25VJ0RQPF4UH822RVJYOCF32PS

Anyway, the elephant Eyelash album one of my favourites of last year, a lot more POP than a lot of anticon stuff, and better for it ..,

hmm.....

Point being: Elephant Eyelash is largely just a particularly interesting indie-rock album. Yes, weak and/or boring in plenty of spots. And yes, the "particularly interesting" part comes largely from proximity to already practically indie backpacker hip-hop stuff.

http://yolatengo.com/schedule.html

I would actually go to a Yo La-fucking-Tengo concert just to see Why?, and that's sayin' something.

one of the best live shows i've ever seen

why isn't this guy huge?

His Alopecia album is one the best this year so far.

Elephant Eyelash has gradually revealed itself to be my actual favorite record of '05. It somehow gets better with each spin long past the point where that is at all reasonable, like when you're a kid and you buy one of those sponge capsule dinosaurs and you decide to give it a whole aquarium full of water to grow in, only instead of growing to be six inches tall it keeps going and going and going and instead of shattering your illusions it shatters your aquarium and you come home from school and find it waiting for you in the front yard, like the dog you never had. I need some friends.

I would actually go to a Yo La-fucking-Tengo concert just to see Why?, and that's sayin' something.

― bernard snow (sixteen sergeants), Friday, September 22, 2006 4:35 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the day I bought Alopecia, I was driving back from the record store with my girlfriend, who had never listened to any Anticon stuff before, and we ended up just driving around for 40 minutes (the actual drive would've taken about 5) because she liked it so much. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this story, except that it says a lot about the dude(s) that (t)he(y) can make this really strongly emotional music that I totally fall in love with during a really bleak crappy lonely period of my life, and then follow it up even more really strongly emotional music that I totally fall in love with during a very happy and fulfilled period of my life. erm. whatever.

alopecia IS my best of 2008. i would venture to say he/they are one of the most important acts of our generation. brilliant. i swear.

next album is going to be the one. he finally brought the band into the studio and recorded what they do live. I like the previous studio records, but next one's going to be the one.

i haven't heard the records, but i'm checking out some stuff on youtube and it's cool how they handle the percussion etc. arrangements

i agree milton. i was actually thinking that during the show--where can he go from here.

http://downloads.pitchforkmedia.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Why%253F%2520-%2520This%2520Blackest%2520Purse.mp3

these new songs are brilliant

ESKIMO SNOW

you people

Huge fan of Why?, didn't think I liked this record at first—too folky, not enough of his held-over hiphop inflections, production kind of samey/live sounding throughout—but it totally grew on me after a week or two. Seriously just one of the best, most inventive lyricists out there right now. Also, I'm a sucker for the hand-wringing existential shit. Good times.

the album is a huge grower. but i felt alopecia was as well. his albums are definitely hard to digest at first.

VERY excited to see him at the end of the month in NYC.

if you want to be entertained, the comments here are just too much:

http://www.songmeanings.net/artist/view/songs/14193

great interview with john norris:

http://www.noisevox.org/

interesting comment on 'these few presidents' from that site:

" moirae
05-20-2008

Rated -1
i am a convicted killer, and i can say with absolute certianty that he killed her, or that he has been fantisizing about doing so for a long time. "

" narcissus_t
01-05-2009

Rated 0
Am I the only one who thinks that "these few presidents frowning in my pocket" might be referring to bills? Like, money? How that applies to the meaning of the song, I've yet to determine, but I think it's a definite possibility. "

haha

someone else reads this thread? wonderful

eskimo snow was such a grower. what an amazing record.

Elephant Eyelash has gradually revealed itself to be my actual favorite record of '05. It somehow gets better with each spin long past the point where that is at all reasonable, like when you're a kid and you buy one of those sponge capsule dinosaurs and you decide to give it a whole aquarium full of water to grow in, only instead of growing to be six inches tall it keeps going and going and going and instead of shattering your illusions it shatters your aquarium and you come home from school and find it waiting for you in the front yard, like the dog you never had.

all his work is like this it seems

i still can't decide about this guy. like i have a certain problem with the "just a lonely 20-something thinking about death" vibe that runs a lot through the two records i've heard.

some of what he does just amazes me, though; the verses on 'this blackest purse' and the one with the "we found a dead fox and a dozen matchbox cars" coda - the sort of laterally connected ideas he's good at working into things

eskimo snow is great, but it doesn't sound like an album in the way alopecia did, and a number of the songs sound almost like improvised skits.

i also really love the line "i want to speak at an intimate decibel / with the precision of an infinite decimal".

Who raps in a similar style? Specifically, with really good lyrics that are rapping but still intelligible?
― WillS, Monday, January 30, 2006 2:17 AM (3 years ago)

gross

sock

so was this actually recorded at the same time as alopecia or is that a typo in the liner notes huh

recorded at the same time, yes. watch that john norris interview, very good.

john norris obviously a huge fan

i hate watching video on the internet. yes i'm a luddite. why hasn't my copy of elephant eyelash arrived yet

ahem

let's review some recent facts:

i make decent cash, i'm a minor star, and we can't last if she don't drive a hybrid car. i scribble vapid raps on your flyer backs; word is, i just purchased a refurbished mac g4. pull up to critical mass in a gaz-guzzling ford, just to ask you when next your rock outfit performs; before you tell me the facts, i'm down the road yelling back: please post it on the wholefoods bulletin board. i'd earn a lick of respect and slum hard for sure, but I threw out my lumbar picking up cheques. i'm so numb, lord yes, despite how I'm blessed, destined to end up a slum lord, depressed; come by, poorly dressed, your address on the first; hum something under my breath that half resembles some words; and, like a bird in a suit cut for a brutish bear, back out of there bowing like a jew in prayer.

he's rappin' again

yes and i am excited by that development!!

How'd I not notice a why? thread before? Must've been the ease of searchability.

Haven't heard any new stuff yet, but I'm surprised to hear that he's back to rapping. The later records seemed to be moving in the exact opposite direction.

there sure are a lot of threads titled "why?".

i never listened to why? or clouddead much (although the beats are always pretty and i never disliked it), but i've gotten way into his podcast. not even for the musician interviews in particular (although that was the entry point and i always like hearing about the lives of struggling musicians), there are just some good conversations between people who have known each other for a really long time. it's weirdly compelling to eavesdrop on/slow learn about someone else's family and friends like this.

and it's resulted in me checking out more of his music, so mission accomplished there i guess.

Anyone enjoying the new Why? album? Pretty dope. I kinda fell off the Why? bandwagon years ago but this album is full of jams. Great, lush production.

"Rubber Traits" is still a brilliant song. Only thing of his that stuck with me, besides stray bits from Elephant Eyelash.

I loved everything from Elephant Eyelash through to Eskimo Snow at the time, but its felt like diminishing returns ever since. Whether that is because I've grown out of empathizing from his particular perspective or (I more suspect) he's been backing up his snark with progressively weaker melodies and production, though, I'm not sure. That said, I still owe the new one another listen or two.