I haven't paid any attention to his recorded output for maybe a decade but he is VERY smart/funny and he's easily made a half dozen classic records
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 June 2012 15:31 (eleven years ago) link
same
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 5 June 2012 15:50 (eleven years ago) link
I think there's some great stuff on the new album with Trembling Bells, e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J56ba8xesms
(video is a bit mental.)
I think the last album I really loved was Superwolf, besides that I now generally appreciate him as someone who I can rely on to release something nice with a couple of stand out songs every year or so.
― Merdeyeux, Tuesday, 5 June 2012 15:54 (eleven years ago) link
i jammed ease down the road a bunch of times recently and it was good
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 5 June 2012 15:57 (eleven years ago) link
most of the Oldham i listen to (love?) the most now is stuff from the last 10 years
― typhus in Corfu (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 5 June 2012 16:12 (eleven years ago) link
I'm sure it's good I'm just lazy/poor and can't keep up
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 5 June 2012 16:17 (eleven years ago) link
All the above. Fine while it's on, but never put it on. I have no problem with "I See a Darkness" being the sole Oldham I ever reach for.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 5 June 2012 16:50 (eleven years ago) link
He's the very best.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Wednesday, 6 June 2012 14:51 (eleven years ago) link
dude's really gonna get a pass here for "authentic-looking Nubian eunuch"? wtf
― decrepit but free (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, 6 June 2012 14:53 (eleven years ago) link
man dont be such a raincloud w/raincloud shoes
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 6 June 2012 15:16 (eleven years ago) link
well, plus, that looks like a woman in the picture, doesn't it? african eunuchs were african men turned into eunuchs no? to guard harems and stuff. usually slaves brought from africa to places like persia and the like.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 June 2012 15:24 (eleven years ago) link
although i guess that could be a man. i thought it was a woman when i first looked at the picture.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 6 June 2012 15:26 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjD1VoYTNMI
Jacques Renault from Twin Peaks in a supporting role as well.
― queequeg (peter grasswich), Saturday, 14 July 2012 07:19 (eleven years ago) link
The BPB/Trembling Bells record is my fave thing of his of the last few years.
― Simon H., Saturday, 14 July 2012 14:01 (eleven years ago) link
Such a vast catalogue but so much of it is unmemorable. Really hard to sift through.
― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive), Monday, 3 September 2018 18:10 (five years ago) link
agreed
― Paul Ponzi, Monday, 3 September 2018 20:14 (five years ago) link
and may god go with you both
― fuck giving a bear beer (Noodle Vague), Monday, 3 September 2018 20:27 (five years ago) link
owch
― dig me out requiem (Ross), Friday, 7 September 2018 16:22 (five years ago) link
The collaboration with Rian Murphy (All Most Heaven), the Amalgamated Sons of Rest, the solo stuff, the twisted stuff, the appearances with Matt Sweeney, Andrew W.K., the Haggard cover record; etc. etc etc.
This gent is on point.
― bodacious ignoramus, Monday, 10 September 2018 13:21 (five years ago) link
last one I got was Beware, which was good... but at that point I felt like I owned enough of his records, and now a few years have gone past without me checking in there's not much motivation to go back to the 9 (!) albums i've missed to work out which are worth it
― Hmmmmm (jamiesummerz), Monday, 10 September 2018 14:14 (five years ago) link
Had a dream I heard the new one. It was relentlessly avant garde and came with a VR outdoor game, which was one part deliverance style horror but with a bunch of hippies drinking screwdrivers.
Beware is also the last one I bothered with, tho I love the one with cursed sleep
― dig me out requiem (Ross), Monday, 10 September 2018 15:32 (five years ago) link
I've only really kept up with his 'official' releases since Beware (i.e. not the collaborations or the vinyl/cassette-only stuff) but the most recent (?) one, 'Singer's Grave A Sea of Tongues' is really very good imho.
― Steve Reich In The Afternoon (Against The 80s), Monday, 10 September 2018 18:58 (five years ago) link
I haven’t picked up any of his new stuff either but I would definitely see him live whenever he’s in town. I think he’s starting a tour now with a nice band backing him.
― Heez, Monday, 10 September 2018 19:53 (five years ago) link
One that I return to is The Wonder Show of the World from 2010. "Troublesome Houses" is one of his best songs imo.
― Chris L, Monday, 10 September 2018 23:58 (five years ago) link
Will's oral history behind 15 songs that are featured in his new lyrics compendium:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/will-oldham-my-life-in-15-songs-723480/palace-brothers-i-tried-to-stay-healthy-for-you-1993-724078/
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Thursday, 27 September 2018 18:22 (five years ago) link
excellent, thanks
― rip van wanko, Thursday, 27 September 2018 19:38 (five years ago) link
Any thoughts on "Songs of Love and Horror"?
(Seemed bizarrely expensive at the place where I'd normally buy from).
― djh, Wednesday, 31 October 2018 22:08 (five years ago) link
I'm looking for an assistant. Organizational skills, communication skills a plus. ability to navigate modernity also welcome. DM— boniface billy (@signifyingwolf) October 31, 2018
Living in or near Louisville KY is also beneficial— boniface billy (@signifyingwolf) October 31, 2018
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Wednesday, 31 October 2018 22:11 (five years ago) link
Only applicants who Work Hard need apply. (Applicants with a proven ability to Play Hard will be given special consideration.)
― greta van vliet (morrisp), Wednesday, 31 October 2018 23:18 (five years ago) link
I could really use a CD80 / POX or something covering the best of his output from the last 10 years or so. I lost track after The Letting Go.
― wayne trotsky (Simon H.), Thursday, 1 November 2018 02:44 (five years ago) link
SoLaH is a very pleasing listen to me,,, nice re-workings
― bodacious ignoramus, Saturday, 3 November 2018 23:54 (five years ago) link
Was having a drunken wander around Oxfordshire farm tracks, listening to "Sings Palace Brothers" on my MP3 player and my various thoughts included a) if Oldham releases an album, how many is he likely to sell (and what does that equate to in income for him?); b) he seems to do the "releasing lots of music" in a more dignified way than Kozelek; c) SoLaH sounds like it involved very little effort (though may have done) - does that matter?
Obviously, on my walk I had far more interesting thoughts than that but here isn't the place.
― djh, Sunday, 4 November 2018 20:11 (five years ago) link
Oldham hasn't released any original material for quite a while
― badg, Monday, 5 November 2018 16:23 (five years ago) link
Has anyone seen the book? Is it annotated?
― djh, Thursday, 8 November 2018 22:12 (five years ago) link
took over Drag City's Instagram account for the day and is currently posting a bunch of pictures of creatures like frogs and stuff flattened dead on pavement.
thanks?
― circa1916, Monday, 4 November 2019 20:54 (four years ago) link
right? i guess i just don't appreciate his art, man.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 4 November 2019 21:20 (four years ago) link
This is even more abrasive then when Olzone took over the Third Man insta and posted a bunch of memes about how grumpy Jack White is
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 4 November 2019 21:22 (four years ago) link
He's extolling the virtues of Crocs on twitter.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 4 November 2019 21:33 (four years ago) link
The GQ piece with him and Sweeney is a hoot, but this story at the end is ace:
There is a recurrent subgenre in Oldham's work where he revisits and reinterprets a catalog of music, usually music that is fairly obscure. An example is the album he released in 2013, along with singer Dawn McCarthy, of lesser-known Everly Brothers songs, What the Brothers Sang. A while after it came out, his record company let him know something odd—that one song, “Devoted to You,” was doing hugely better online than any other song on the album. Better, in fact, than pretty much anything on the label. And they couldn't figure out why.Oldham decided to try some experiments. Theorizing that maybe it was because “Devoted to You” was somewhat of an outlier in that it actually was a hit for the Everly Brothers, he decided to test out some other cover versions. He recorded and released his takes on modern country hits by Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw, hoping to repeat the success. Nothing. Now he was in full swing, so he turned his hand to contemporary modern pop and R&B hits by Drake, Ne-Yo, Kesha. Still no response. On the off chance that the success of “Devoted to You” might be down to a confusion with Olivia Newton-John's Grease hit “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” he recorded “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” another song from the Grease soundtrack. No. “Just wanted to see if folks loved buying big songs,” he says. “It was a lot of fun doing all those, but nothing worked.” And the mystery of why one song had done so well in the first place remained unsolved.A year or two later, a neighbor in Louisville put a note on Oldham's windshield. What she wrote was this: She was a keen practitioner of Jazzercise, and a song of his, “Devoted to You,” was part of their official warm-up routine. She was leaving the note because there was an upcoming event for Jazzercise instructors in town, and she wondered if he was available to come and play the song.When Oldham tells me this, I must confess that I harbor some suspicions that I am being spun some kind of yarn here. But I check into it, and I am shamed for my doubts: “Devoted to You” is indeed the final song on the Jazzercise playlist R3–13. It comes directly after Britney Spears’s song “Ooh La La,” from the movie The Smurfs 2. Its appearance on this playlist is, it seems, why the song had become mysteriously popular. And that, one might assume, is where this story should end: a weird tale about where music does and doesn't find a home in this strange modern world.
Oldham decided to try some experiments. Theorizing that maybe it was because “Devoted to You” was somewhat of an outlier in that it actually was a hit for the Everly Brothers, he decided to test out some other cover versions. He recorded and released his takes on modern country hits by Luke Bryan and Tim McGraw, hoping to repeat the success. Nothing. Now he was in full swing, so he turned his hand to contemporary modern pop and R&B hits by Drake, Ne-Yo, Kesha. Still no response. On the off chance that the success of “Devoted to You” might be down to a confusion with Olivia Newton-John's Grease hit “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” he recorded “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” another song from the Grease soundtrack. No. “Just wanted to see if folks loved buying big songs,” he says. “It was a lot of fun doing all those, but nothing worked.” And the mystery of why one song had done so well in the first place remained unsolved.
A year or two later, a neighbor in Louisville put a note on Oldham's windshield. What she wrote was this: She was a keen practitioner of Jazzercise, and a song of his, “Devoted to You,” was part of their official warm-up routine. She was leaving the note because there was an upcoming event for Jazzercise instructors in town, and she wondered if he was available to come and play the song.
When Oldham tells me this, I must confess that I harbor some suspicions that I am being spun some kind of yarn here. But I check into it, and I am shamed for my doubts: “Devoted to You” is indeed the final song on the Jazzercise playlist R3–13. It comes directly after Britney Spears’s song “Ooh La La,” from the movie The Smurfs 2. Its appearance on this playlist is, it seems, why the song had become mysteriously popular. And that, one might assume, is where this story should end: a weird tale about where music does and doesn't find a home in this strange modern world.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 25 March 2021 15:07 (three years ago) link
new record is really great, really all over the place. the lyrics are wild and weird and funny.
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Saturday, 1 May 2021 02:26 (three years ago) link
xp That’s a really cool anecdote… But wouldn’t he have (hopefully) received Jazzercize royalty statements that would’ve tipped him off?
― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Saturday, 1 May 2021 02:56 (three years ago) link
(or does Oldham have uncashed $70,000 checks lying around his pad like Ty Webb)
― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Saturday, 1 May 2021 03:00 (three years ago) link
Maybe they just got folded into his regular streaming and radio (lol) royalties? He knew it was a hit.
― Joe Bombin (milo z), Saturday, 1 May 2021 04:18 (three years ago) link
I'd imagine Jazzercise pays in to BMI
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 1 May 2021 04:28 (three years ago) link
I'm enjoying Superwolves... it has a mellow, 40-something dad vibe (which I guess fits my own vibe).
― Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) stan (morrisp), Friday, 7 May 2021 18:26 (three years ago) link
the lyrics are wild and weird and funny
God can fuck herselfAnd it does, hardcore
― Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (CBTL) stan (morrisp), Friday, 7 May 2021 18:28 (three years ago) link