So, Does Everyone Hate Cass McCombs?

so for this album's interviews he's going pithy

Were Wit’s End and Humor Risk recorded at the same time?

Wit’s End started years ago. It just took a long time. It wanted to be that way, to be a slow record. Humor Risk began about halfway through (the creation of) Wit’s End. It was like the tortoise and the hare, you know what I mean? Except if the tortoise and the hare sort of tied.

Were you surprised by that surge of creativity? 



I write every day just to keep the wheels greased.

If you don’t, do your wheels get rusty?

No, I haven’t been rusty in a real long time. It’s just a job, you see. Not a lot of hocus pocus. You just build these little songs and slowly but surely they become finished.

That’s a very unpretentious attitude. A lot of musicians I talk to seem to regard writing as a mentally arduous process.

They should get stoned more. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzGJYjsfwQk

Dude is easily one of my favorite songwriters, one of the greats, I'd say, but I hate that he feels the need to be all belligerent and off-putting to prove it. Lou Reed's Disease, I reckon. (I refer to the Pitchfork interview posted today and not the video above, which I haven;t seen yet).

the video is lol

i dunno, i think it's ok that he is not a very forthcoming interview subject, it really doesn't matter too much. he was actually a pretty lively, warm presence when I saw him play last summer -- seems to be serious about the music, but also serious about *enjoying* the music. if that makes sense.

New one is AOTY for me. Just outstanding.

didn't you say that about the last one?

i do like this one more than Wit's End. Looking forward to getting to know this through many, many plays. "Mariah" is a killer song.

I did say it about Wits End, but this one is even better. Maybe far better. I don't know. Listening to it last night for the first time, I was having a hard time remembering when I heard a 'new' record I liked as much. Silent Shout and The Drift come to mind, but this album...holy smokes.

this $3.99 on amazon mp3 today...going to download when i get home!

STOKED

the field recording/processing on "love thine enemy" is so cool

I guess I need to go back and give Wit's End another change. "County Line" is still one of my favorite songs of the year, but the rest never really grabbed me as much as that one did.

"county line" does kind of tower over the rest of the record, but there's some great stuff on there.

Hope we got Humor Risk at the radio station. Hope I can find it in a store on vinyl.

it's streaming at http://www.dominorecordco.us/usa/news/07-11-11/cass-mccombs-humor-risk-out-today/

Oh, I've been listening to it on Spotify. But I want to own it on vinyl, and I also want other programmers at the radio station to play tracks from it.

yeah i meant that for anyone rather than as a reply to you

Its riduculous that he can release two albums of such brilliance in the same year. Two very different CmC albums as well, what a top class songwriter.

the two albums really interlock in a cool way - twins in which there's the introvert and the extrovert?

like the long ramble of "Mystery Mail" and the long ramble of the "Knock Upon the Door" kind of balance each other within the respective ecosystems of the two albums

I see what you mean that "County Line" is so great that it overshadows stuff, but "Buried Alive" is pretty goddamn fantastic too

I'm glad that these were two albums rather than one big thing- it would have been exhausting- and each is fab

^^^^ otm

I'm listening to this album again, this time not high as hell, and I like it just as much. White it's probably too obvious a comparison to make, a lot of this reminds me of some lost 'good' Lou Reed solo album. It also has a heavy Moz Factor, which I always appreciate in Cass's music. Don't mean to pile on the hyperbole - the truth is I usually find something to hate about everything - but every song on this album is a perfect '10.' If P**chfork gives this anything less than a 9.5, they have cloth ears.

I love how after a record of brilliant, meticulously produced pop, he out-private presses everyone with "Mariah," which is like, I dunno, Jakob Olausson or Greg Ashley or something. Outstanding.

Buried Alive, Saturday Song & Memory's Stain. What a fucking sequence of songs. I like County Line but that is just the warm up for me.

I also think that Memory Stain is the equal of County Line. I kind of like it more now cos it took me longer to get into.

It looks like Pitchfork are indeed cloth eared cunts. Or maybe just a bit churlish because Cass gives a grumpy interview. Fuck em. Why is it that the albums that always score around 7 are class and most of their Best New Music stuff is rinse?

Wow. Dude, its not like they trashed the album.

No they didn't trash it and I didn't say they trashed it. I just disagree with their review. Again.

i believe there's a thread that's all about how pitchfork sucks

xxxpost, nice to see 'rinse' getting some use even if I disagree.

all of this is so much better than he was live a few months ago.

I was just browsing other reviews of Humor Risk and discovered this gem. Its the most badly written review ever, even an underachieving 5th former could write better copy than this. http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2011/11/cass-mccombs-humor-risk.html

The disembodied sounds on "Love Thine Enemy" sound like some audio verite thing added for atmosphere, until a lone voice from the murmuring actually sings a line of the song. That was my stoned 'holy shit i'm freaking out' moment of the album this fifth time through.

Also, the spoken 'what's done is done' line on "Robin Egg Blue" - I can't tell if it's Cass's voice affecting some sort of character, or if another person actually speaks that line. The quality changes suddenly, abruptly, and the voice seems to appear from out of nowhere.

I may be smoking too much weed.

Love this fuckin' album so much.

lol “To Every Man His Camera” (paste review)

hmm I like this guy a lot

totally love him releasing two great short albums last year. short great albums rule.

The Living Word gets stuck in my head a lot.
His delivery is a little bit too precious at times.

'mystery mail' off the second one is a treat

new 7" Bradley Manning b/w Empty Promises

http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/richmedia/images/cover.gif

b-side is great

hmm, cover not showing?

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OjfST998zjM/T1aAs4wDjAI/AAAAAAAAAg0/hmKmBSoeWko/s640/artworks-000017586003-kchx9l-original.jpg

I keep listening to the new Grizzly Bear record and liking it musically but it's reminiscent enough of McCombs' stuff that when I start trying to get anything out of the words, I just put on Catacombs instead. Cass is unparalleled as a lyrics writer right now imo.

Catacombs is really, really great. i've kind of been obsessed with "you saved my life" lately. it's such a spacious song, and the lyrics kind of sink into the open spaces after they're delivered and flood them with afterthought. yeah, a much more genuine and less laboured performer than the likes of Grizzly Bear.

Underrated dude. Those last three albums are just beautiful.

he's opening for John Cale on the West Coast next month
I saw him a couple of weeks ago in a tiny bar in brooklyn, apparently taking a break from recording to play some new tunes. Angel Blood sounds like the best to me, but this was my favorite of those I hadn't heard before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZgTvERl2b4&feature=plcp

I played "County Line" a hundred times a week in January and February.

new song
http://theskateboardmag.com/videos/?__mr_id=67587

also this recent live clip has a cool Tinariwen groove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_HNep_A8q8

huge double album coming out in October

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/bp/cass-mccombs-lp.jpg

Big Wheel and Others

Disc 1:
01. Sean I
02. Big Wheel
03. Angel Blood
04. Morning Star
05. The Burning Of The Temple, 2012
06. Brighter!
07. There Can Be Only One
08. Name Written in Water
09. Joe Murder
10. Everything Has To Be Just-So

Disc 2:
01. It Means A Lot To Know You Care
02. Dealing
03. Sooner Cheat Death Than Fool Love
04. Satan Is My Toy
05. Sean II
06. Home On The Range
07. Brighter! (Featuring Karen Black)
08. Untitled Spain Song
09. Sean III
10. Honesty Is No Excuse
11. Aeon Of Aquarius Blues
12. Unearthed

damn, that's a lot of cass

I just impulsively pre-ordered it. The more Cass the better.

Where is the pre-order link? This is the best news I've heard all day!