sun kil moon?

It's not just the lyrics that are noteworthy for their oddness. Those backing vocals on "I Love My Dad" for instance are, uh, a choice. I guess. And I could have gone with more Will Oldham and less multitracked Koz.

so, lyrically, here's where sun kil moon is at its best. there's this hazy, hypnotic guitar-driven song, with kozelek singing about loving mundane things, like watching late-night cable and debates over which old pro-boxer was more hated or more loved, and nostalgic things, about behaving like his dad before him. it's wistful, a little sad, a little sweet, and makes me think about what it means to grow older. then, bam.

I buried my first victim
When I was nineteen
Went through her bedroom
And the pockets of her jeans
And found her letters
That said so many things
That really hurt me bad

I never breathed
Her name again
But I like to dream
About what could have been
I never heard her calls again
But I like to dream

now maybe this is a metaphor for kozelek breaking up with a girlfriend. that's a possible reading. but it seems too literal to me for that. and what a swerve. most of his lyrics i love for the reasons appearing above the block-quote, but kozelek has the ability to really surprise.

by the way, setting aside the serial-killer lines, the rest of the song today made me think of how much i miss my maternal grandfather (died when i was 10) and grandmother (died when i was in my 30s), how much i'd give to speak to them, even one more time, again, and how much they'd love my daughter.

I'm loving this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejBfyKd3WSs

Daniel I've had pretty much the exact same feelings about that song. The murder angle is jarring but so well done. And the nostalgic imagery just before it has always grabbed me in the same way.

the live version of "I Love My Dad" on the bonus disc is hilarious

Kozelek - "Do you guys get that reference or not? Edgar Winter was an albino..."

Lone audience member - "woo!"

Kozelek - *annoyed grunt*

Hahaha! Picking this up today at the shop I used to work at.

this album is really fucking good

can't stop listening to this

iiiii haaaaate thissss recorrrrd

lol

why

is the nels cline hating a joke?

What do you have against Nels Cline? This is the second time you’ve brought him up in one of your albums. Has he tried to retaliate? Do you secretly like him?

Honestly, I don’t know anything about him. I saw Wilco live only once, in New Orleans, and on TV once. I decided to name off a bunch of guitarists I liked, in the chorus of “Bramble,” but then thought it would be more dynamic if I named a few I hated. The thing is, I don’t hate anybody. His name just rhymed with whatever came before it, and people laughed. So on Benji, I did it again. I do things twice, sometimes, like how I did “UK Blues” and “UK Blues 2.”

i dont understand why someone would hate this record, unless you dont like mark kozelek's music. and if thats the case, then why the fuck are you listening to it?

I can understand someone loving ghosts and not liking this record

he also mentions Panera Bread twice and his uncle twice on this record

that is fantastic

i have a little trouble reconciling the deep-redneck trash-burning uncle and the presumably exurban panera bread flirting dad. maybe they are from different branches of the family. kozelek cosmology. also this record is great.

I don't know where you're getting "exurban" -- it says elsewhere on the record that he was an eighth grade dropout. Panera Breads are everywhere. You see truckers getting coffee at rest-stop starbucks. I feel like you're speaking from kind of a narrow idea of what a working/middle class family might look like.

i dont understand why someone would hate this record, unless you dont like mark kozelek's music. and if thats the case, then why the fuck are you listening to it?

― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 11:24 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can understand someone loving ghosts and not liking this record

― the Norwegians are leaving! (Sufjan Grafton), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 11:25 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah within the Kozelek world this record is very distinct, even if the MK/Desertshore record was a direct "warm up" that lead to it.

AFP and Benji are so similar on the outside but are so very different in context.

Some people have been pointing out the Newtown song as the weak spot of the album, but I think he does something kind of neat with it that relates to a larger theme of the record. When he talks about the Norway killer, there's a great moment where he says "they didn't really care, but I did (pause) cause I got a lot of friends out there." At first you think "but I did" is a self-righteous thing, but it's actually about his personal connection to the tragedy. In the same way, he writes about Newtown not because he heard it on the news, but because a fan (from Newtown I think) wrote to him and asked him to pray about it, so once that connection was made he felt compelled to do something. It all ties back to the line in Song Remains "whenever anything close to me at all in the world died/ To my heart, forever, it would be tied." Same force that motivates him to write a song for the second cousin he didn't know well, and for his dad's friend who he spent the day with.

he doesn't rap on ghosts

Yeah I totally read that song to drive the concept that we shouldn't let moments of tragedy leave our thoughts even when time has passed or something happy is happening to us personally. As a way to stay grounded? Not necessarily to keep depression perpetual throughout our lives- which a Kozelek non-fan might joke.

can't stop listening to this

― Burt Stuntin (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 18 February 2014 15:20 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Same. So good.

I love the short, descending string melody (mandolin?) in Carissa - it's like he gave her her own "theme" as part of the eulogy.

sry it's nylon string guitar

i tried to listen to this in the shop but somehow i think there is a maximum of kozelek albums you need in your life and i have surpassed it. in the end it is always the first ep and the rollercoaster album i come back to. his vocal delivery on the new one really turns me off. he has completely given up singing, it is not even sprechgesang anymore here. and i am not too interested in his personal stories.

they have panera bread at truck stops?

http://linktown.wcnc.com/biz/panera-bread/amherst/oh/44001/15641266

it's even in ohio. story checks out.

http://img.groundspeak.com/waymarking/82ec9715-e9d8-44d0-9dab-4491465ef816.jpg

http://www.mightysweet.com/mesohungry/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/03-Panera_Ohio.jpg

is that a picture of heaven?

it is so beautiful.

lol

"Whut the hell is a Panera Bread. I'm hungry, I'mma go keel me a possum"

serves the possum right. they're super-gross.

xp wait is that supposed to be someone from Ohio?

no it's supposed to be someone's ridiculously wrongheaded idea of a "redneck" in the 21st century

ah, i get it now

nels lived in SF for ages I'm surprised he doesn't know anything about him.

i also took the noodly guitar stuff after "i hate nels cline" to be parody

which would require some familiarity

I have no doubt he knows him better than he lets on, but I doubt there's any big story behind it

mark kozelek auditioned for wilco in 2004 when he was beaten in a crossroads-style guitar battle with nels cline

I just figured he was a good figurehead for muso guitarists within his relative musical universe, and also his name fits lyrics well.

It's funny to say "I'm no Nels Cline" because of the particular position Nels Cline occupies. It's better than saying "Yngwie" or something like that.

i work at it every day, and i can bake a mean pumpernickel. but i'm no panera bread.

so "Ben's My Friend" is basically kozelek's remix of "Semi-Charmed Life"

I don't mean this as an insult, but you could basically write "RILY: Eels, Soul Coughing, Everlast" about this record and it wouldn't be wrong

Indie rock fans in being confused about what "rapping" sounds like non-shocker. I mean, I can't help but immediately dismiss any praise or criticism for this record that says Mark is "rapping".