Bill Callahan - Dream River

lol also bill was a wearing a t-shirt with this huge graffiti-style cartoon hawk on it

found it!
http://allstonpudding.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/billcallahan-15.jpg

i saw him a while ago & have ~thoughts~ about it which i will inflict here sometime but one thing is that i was surprised by how fine spring was, sung, & this is nice & demonstrative of that,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPlkr2ILuqM

there are smog "proper" threads elsewhere but i may as well ask it here since the album doesn't have it's own thread -- what's the consensus on rain on lens? feel like it doesn't get mentioned much but this album is killer, right? i'm really digging it. really edgy and tense, it doesn't have the warmth of supper but the quality is really high.

it just has a really great sense of movement, too

also, on a different note, i feel like a lot of the reviews/articles about "dream river" are locating bill's current streak as starting with "a river ain't too much to love" -- is this kind of sudden or has that been the thinking for a while?

i certainly feel like that one has more in common with his bill callahan albums than his smog albums. not sure when i started thinking that though

sonically it's a world apart

For what it's worth, based on seeing Callahan last week and on reading the available setlists, during the current tour the only Smog songs he's been playing are from "A River Ain't Too Much to Love": "Say Valley Maker" and "Rock Bottom Riser." That may simply be a matter of the older songs feeling over-familiar, rather than "A River" marking the beginning of Callahan's latest creative phase, though.

he played a couple of things from supper as well as bathysphere when i saw him after apocalypse!

xp - what'd you think of the show?

There wasn't as much sense of discovery for me as there could have been -- the setlist was mostly drawn from "Dream River" and "Apocalypse," and the arrangements were very close to the recorded versions -- but it was a strong performance. I was slightly disappointed that the setlist didn't reach back farther (the last time I saw Callahan, in 2006 or so, his set was more chronologically diverse), but I was impressed at Callahan's ability to get his vocal subtleties across in a crowded room. (The clave parts on the recent songs also carried over surprisingly well.) The highlight for me might have been "Sycamore" (which for the first few instrumental bars I mistook for a very drawn-out cover of "You and Your Sister"), which benefits from a sparer arrangement than the "Whaleheart" version, along with an ominous version of "Summer Painter."

No flute in the touring band, but I can't say it was missed; Matt Kinsey's guitar carried most of the countermelodies.

yea i felt the same way re: lack of flute

they played a similar version of sycamore at the cambridge, MA show, sparer and slower. i like Whaleheart but i'd enjoy hearing an alternate take on the entire album, something a little more sparse and minimal and not quite as jaunty

Agreed -- Hagerty's production is interesting in its own right, but I feel like there are already enough distancing/ironizing effects at work in Callahan's lyrics and vocal delivery that a drier sound better suits his songs.

this album is grrrrreat. i love the flute.
whaleheart is kind of where i got on board with callahan, i think it's very good.

i've been listening to this album pretty much daily and it is terrific. only bummer is Winter Road, which i don't find interesting lyrically or melodically. still hoping it will click for me. also i wish javelin were longer.

a donald sutherland interview comes on
the truck radio
he apologizes to all he's loved and sired

long shot of my face

otm

Show at Mojos last night was good. He didn't turn the phaser off until the second to last song.
Matt Kinsey is definitely earning it, he was great.
Met a Z S doppleganger.

Damn, he played at mojos last night?

By chance, I am rolling into Columbia TONIGHT (gonna be at the new tongues show - haven't heard them before but friends are attending) so lemme know if you're there tripmaker!

Afraid to meet the doppelgänger though. Every time I do I end up with lower self-esteem afterward

i'm gonna be at New Brookland Tavern on 10/30 -- anyone in Columbia should come say hi! I don't know anyone there! we can talk about how good this record is.

Dammit, I'm gonna be back in DC by then!

It's all dopplegangers in Como. But I wouldn't be worried if I were you.
I may drop in to Cafe Berlin.

Wrong Columbia, Tyler, but the thought is appealing.

haha, damnit!

we are playing st louis on the nov 5, but that's a ways away from columbia, right?

had a go at reviewing it: http://crackmagazine.net/music/bill-callahan/
criticisms fully welecomed bte.

*btw

listen to Robert Forster talk about Dream River.

nice!

damn this album is so good.

^^

it really is, so damn good.

damn this album is so good.

― tylerw, Wednesday, November 13, 2013 11:54 AM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^

it really is, so damn good.

― JACK SQUAT about these Charlie Nobodies (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, November 13, 2013 11:58 AM (3 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes

everything about it has grown on me. parts of it seemed light and inconsequential at first but i really love it from start to finish

"Summer Painter" is the one that's knocking me out currently. Music has kind of an "On The Beach" vibe, lyric/vocal has this mystified malevolence that I can't imagine anyone except Callahan pulling off.

When the hurricane hit some found it suspicious
That I’d just since left the frame
Like all that time spent down by the water
Had somehow given me control over the rain
Some people say wrongly that I wash things away
Guess I got my rainy day

love that

Tyler how many more of my favorite newly acquired albums are you going to profess your love for today?

haha, i don't know!
his delivery on "guess I got my rainy day" there is definitely top 5 musical moments of 2013 for me.

yeah this record is so masterful

When the hurricane hit some found it suspicious
That I’d just since left the frame
Like all that time spent down by the water
Had somehow given me control over the rain
Some people say wrongly that I wash things away
Guess I got my rainy day

yes i love this too. haha, especially "wrongly"! i feel like a successful delivery of those lines is hard to pull off, it seems wordy at first but callahan just does it wonderfully

I'm bummed that I still haven't had a chance to hear this

huh he's almost two consecutive nights at the royal festival hall. gotten popular since i last saw him. but i got a ticket!

maybe you'll be lucky and he'll wear the cartoon hawk t-shirt i mentioned upthread

if not i'll storm out immediately.

there was a big bill callahan feature in pitchfork yesterday: http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/9261-bill-callahan/

seeing this dude tonight! (Still haven't heard the new album)