I'm seeing him at the Le Guess Who? festival. I have played his latest lp fairly often, it's a personal thing, the way he translates grief into song just resonates with me. But that 11 minute 'Distortion' video, I saw it too, is just too much. I don't know if I can bear it, live.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, 20 September 2017 22:55 (six years ago) link
yeah i mean i get that Phil needs to go through these emotions to heal and I would never judge that, but I dunno, I can't listen to music in this tone much these days. I remember putting it on for a friend and he told me to turn it off in one second flat. It's understandably a downer
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Wednesday, 20 September 2017 23:05 (six years ago) link
I was listening to a Slowdive artist radio station on Spotify on the way home on the bus and "Real Death" came up and Lord that song is like a punch in the gut
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 29 September 2017 22:54 (six years ago) link
I really did like this the one time I listened through it, and I will listen to it again soon, perhaps
― imago, Friday, 29 September 2017 23:06 (six years ago) link
new album Now Only out March 16.
1. Tintin in Tibet2. Distortion3. Now Only4. Earth5. Two Paintings by Nikolai Astrup6. Crow, Pt. 2
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 00:07 (six years ago) link
live versions of:
tintin in tibet and distortion
― Karl Malone, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 00:20 (six years ago) link
xp this is... unexpected. Did not expect him to return this quick. Though thinking about it, it's the most logical and best thing for him to do.
― ♫ very clever with maracas.jpg ♫ (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 00:21 (six years ago) link
Yeah I'm really glad he's doing this, wasn't expecting it either but he played at least half of these songs (if not all of them) throughout his tour last year. I can't wait to hear "Distortion," that song is stunning, and one I've listened to more than anything on A Crow Looked at Me. that record is remarkable, but I can't listen to it. I've never heard or seen anything that approaches the raw grief and directness of that record, it's unbearable for me to listen to. "Distortion" is more refined and completely captivating.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 00:29 (six years ago) link
I'm shying away from the live youtube videos I think, and rather have the new songs served raw on my plate. Though "new songs" feels odd to say: A Crow Looked At Me has lived with me all year, and yet it still feels unrelentingly new every time I play it. I can see why you'd have a hard time listening to it; I had that, at first. Now I mostly prefer to live inside it and dread everything that's outside of it.
― ♫ very clever with maracas.jpg ♫ (Le Bateau Ivre), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 01:05 (six years ago) link
in montreal he said with his newest songs he wanted to tell people more about genevieve (rather than mostly meditating on her death)... not sure if this is still how he envisions it.
― sean gramophone, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 01:15 (six years ago) link
I actually once watched a video of "Distortion" in full once. Bits and pieces here and there, but still more than ACLAM- I've still only gotten 4 songs into that.
..lol i just realized the acronym is ACLAM. takes the edge off tbh
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 01:16 (six years ago) link
A BOLD CLAM
― Chocolate-covered gummy bears? Not ruling those lil' guys out. (ulysses), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 02:19 (six years ago) link
Crow looked at me is the only mt eerie I wouldn't relisten to
― kolakube (Ross), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 02:33 (six years ago) link
thought Two Paintings by Nikolai Astrup was fantastic when I heard it live
― ogmor, Wednesday, 17 January 2018 10:49 (six years ago) link
"Distortion" is up here now:
https://soundcloud.com/p-w-elverum
― Simon H., Wednesday, 17 January 2018 16:19 (six years ago) link
It just struck me that Elverum is basically doing the same thing Mark Kozelek now does - wistful first-person autobiographical narratives over drifting guitar-based instrumentals - only it's great instead of terrible
― Simon H., Wednesday, 17 January 2018 16:26 (six years ago) link
yeah, that's exactly how i described A CLAM to a friend
― scoff walker (diamonddave85), Wednesday, 17 January 2018 16:52 (six years ago) link
― sean gramophone, Wednesday, January 17, 2018 12:15 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I always thought it was interesting that Phil didn't straight out say her name until the last song on ACLAM
― Isi, Thursday, 18 January 2018 05:03 (six years ago) link
wow that new track is great
A Crow Looked At Me was good but also not something I really ever want to listen to again
― ufo, Thursday, 18 January 2018 14:40 (six years ago) link
simon - i recall reading that phil was very much influenced by kozelek for his approach of late. new cover art seems very eric's trip/elevator to hell inspired, too - one of his biggest influences...
phil's always been direct and down-to-earth, anyway. i think his sense of humour was lost on a lot of people at a show i went to last year (leeds, UK). i suppose it was very much a traveling funeral for genevieve. i left feeling love, though. it was also very admirable to see him working his own merch stand both before and after his set. phil's always been very real and one of the hardest working independent musicians i know of since day one.
also to digress some: hello ILM it feels like this is the only forum on the internet i personally really visit anymore. i was chatting with kiran leonard (manchester musician and guitar player on moshi moshi) about how the centralized internet has led to people straying away from forums and smaller communities. feels like about ten years ago last.fm and other places were so much more active. i miss forums a lot and facebook groups just don't feel like good communities anymore!
― meaulnes, Friday, 19 January 2018 13:04 (six years ago) link
that leeds show wrecked me but i enjoyed the weird sound of the audience realising it was ok to laugh. also hi
― ogmor, Friday, 19 January 2018 13:34 (six years ago) link
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/08/590957789/first-listen-mount-eerie-now-only
― Simon H., Thursday, 8 March 2018 11:17 (six years ago) link
on first listen this is incredible and powerful, and i think i'll be spending much more time with it than A Crow Looked At Me
― ufo, Thursday, 8 March 2018 17:06 (six years ago) link
so far, file under 'much like the last one', which is like, nice and all, but gruelling
― imago, Thursday, 8 March 2018 20:03 (six years ago) link
I miss his microphones stuff
― kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 8 March 2018 20:22 (six years ago) link
i think "distortion" is one of his most microphone-y songs in a while, in it's own way.
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 March 2018 21:37 (six years ago) link
Distortion is amazing, might be his masterpiece
― flappy bird, Thursday, 8 March 2018 21:55 (six years ago) link
i have to say, i don't really like the arrangements for "now only" and the first half of "earth", and they work against the lyrics in a way that seems intentional but that also out of character with the rest of the album (and the last). but really that's a small portion of the album, and it's bookended by the excellent pair of openers and the "crow pt 2" at the end
the stretch from 3:00-end of "Earth" is some of the most beautiful music he's recorded, i think. and "Two Paintings by Nikolai Astrup" also opens up about halfway into something that i like more (and the paintings he's talking about are great as well)
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:07 (six years ago) link
Flappy ??? Masterpiece? Surely that's the glow
― kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:21 (six years ago) link
The song
― kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:22 (six years ago) link
you mean pt 1 or 2?
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:40 (six years ago) link
1
― kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 8 March 2018 22:55 (six years ago) link
The way the drums phase rules my life
i love 1 as well. i always look forward to the closing loop with organ, creaking chair and the water being poured, the perfect sound setting for his imagery about finding shelter at the bottom of the ocean
On the cold dark ocean floorI felt warmth from behind a doorI asked to come insideAnd the glow replied
and somehow pt 2 is just as good, in a completely different way. i'm not even sure which one i'd pick.
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 March 2018 23:00 (six years ago) link
Had the pleasure of seeing him play raw versions of many of these songs last year which may have been one of the saddest/most life affirming concert experiences that I've ever had. But holy hell has he transformed a lot of them. Powerful, beautiful, sad, all at once. "Now Only" is unreal. I'm down for his journey through grief. He's given us a lot of great music over the years, I'm interested to see where this goes. Love the album after one listen.
― gman59, Friday, 9 March 2018 06:17 (six years ago) link
Do people actually enjoy this? This is masochistic.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Friday, 9 March 2018 07:37 (six years ago) link
Eh it's complicated. I guess enjoy isn't the word. I probably only made it through the last one once in full. I think i cried while listening to last album on the train the first time that I heard it. And the live show was painfully sad. But I also feel like it seems therapeutic for him and I'm getting a lot out of it so...I dunno, it's like a heightened version of traditionally sad music. I can't listen to it all the time but when I want to go through the fire, he touches on grief in a way i haven't really heard other musicians do. And the new one has fairly elaborate compositions so it's beginning to feel like music again, but yeah it's complicated and I don't really know if I do enjoy it but it certainly floors me.
― gman59, Friday, 9 March 2018 08:45 (six years ago) link
FWIW, on first listen, I found this new one less overtly painful than the last, a little more digressive maybe?
― Simon H., Friday, 9 March 2018 13:47 (six years ago) link
I'm with Moka. I appreciate Phil's need to heal but (perhaps selfishly) my musical interests rarely go to bleak places these days, the world is fucked enough as is to wallow in it
― kolakube (Ross), Friday, 9 March 2018 15:31 (six years ago) link
ross, you should jump on that Andrew WK bandwagon we've got going
― Simon H., Friday, 9 March 2018 15:34 (six years ago) link
yessss
― imago, Friday, 9 March 2018 15:35 (six years ago) link
andrew wk should visit phil and give him a hug and a nice talk and phil will be much happier GUARANTEED
― imago, Friday, 9 March 2018 15:38 (six years ago) link
Okay Simon :)
― kolakube (Ross), Friday, 9 March 2018 15:41 (six years ago) link
https://i.imgur.com/MVWsl8f.jpgIn a painting from around 1915 called "Midsummer Eve Bonfire" by Nikolai Astrup that shines on my computer screen in 2017 in the awful July nightThe house is finally quiet and still with the child asleep upstairs so I sit and notice the painting of bonfires on the hillside and hanging smoke in the valleysWrapping back up through the fjords at dusk, offering like scars of mist draped along the ridges of couples dancing in the green twilight around firesAnd in the water below, the reflections of other fires from other parties illuminate the depths and glitter shining and aloneEveryone is laughing and there is music and a man climbs up the hill pulling a juniper down to throw into the fire to make some sparks rise up to join the starsThese people in the painting believed in magic and earthAnd they all knew loss, and they all came to the fire
I saw myself in this one young woman in the foregroundWith a look of desolation and a body that looked pregnant as she leaned against the moss of a rock soft to the side apart from all the people celebrating midsummer
I knew her person was gone just like meAnd just like me she looked across at the fires from far away and wanted something in their light to say:"Live your life and if you don't the ground is definitely ready at any moment to open up again, to swallow you back in, to digest you back into something useful for somebody"And meanwhile above the Norwegians dancing in the twilight the permanent white snow gleamedYou used to call me "Neige Éternelle."
https://i.imgur.com/xZNkFWU.jpgThere's another Nikolai Astrup painting from 1920, called "Foxgloves" that hangs on the fridgeAnd I look at it every morning and every night before bedSome trees have been cut down next to a stream flowing through a birch brow in late springAnd two girls that look like you gather berries and baskets hunched over like young animals, grazingWith their red dressed against the white birch three trunks interweavingBeneath the cluttering leaves, the three stumps in the foreground remind me that everything is fleetingAs if reminding is what I need
― and in my opinionation, the sun is gonna surely shine♪♫ (Karl Malone), Friday, 9 March 2018 16:43 (six years ago) link
xp drum phasing on glow pt 1 yes! 'it was hot we stayed in the water' will always be my favourite work of phil's. it's so creative in arrangement but still fairly minimal. im not a vinyl listener regularly but its one of those that just sound better on LP.
as far as latest releases, i suppose it's emotional exertion as it always has been with phil. it's strange to me how listeners are surprised of the explicit confessional nature of the past two records. he spilled his guts years ago in the Dawn journal/CD, and has always been frank and earnest in lyrics. of course there's going to be a lot of heartfelt emotional vomit, and given the nature it's a challenging listen... phils never worked a regular job in his life -- he's not going about things any differently than he has ever done, it's all he's ever known. given his self-sufficiency, honesty and commitment (manning merch stalls before and after his own shows!) he's more worthwhile of respect than any other independent musician i can think of.
if the new records are too heavy for you maybe consider buying previous releases directly from his store to offer support
i hope i dont sound condescending -- the microphones just changed my life and were instrumental in music appraisal, ethics and practice for me!
― meaulnes, Friday, 9 March 2018 17:49 (six years ago) link
Feel absolutely the same bud ^ water is my favourite record too
― kolakube (Ross), Friday, 9 March 2018 18:21 (six years ago) link
i'm with Moka, i couldn't get past the first 4 songs on crow, tho i also agree with Simon that this record is more listenable, less raw material. and yea i'm happy for Phil blah blah blah but at least for me the verbose and very detailed lyrics prevent me from accessing this material on a universal emotional level. even something like John Lennon's first solo album, yeah he's singing about his mom and dad and the Beatles, but the song titles and lyrics are very elemental: Mother, Isolation, Remember, Love, God... and I agree with something meaulnes said on the Grouper thread re: her record Ruins. that one is deeply personal, stripped down, very somber... but her lyrics are not easily distinguishable, and when they are, they're of a more general nature (i.e. "every time i see you, i have to pretend i don't / it's funny when we fuck up, no one really has to care") than anything on these Mount Eerie records.
― flappy bird, Friday, 9 March 2018 18:39 (six years ago) link
I feel like it's abusive toward a listener-with-a-critical ear to inflict upon them music like this. Music that is impossible to criticize, because it's come from a point of grieving, and this is how it feels, unadorned and unpoetic-- to somebody who is tangentially acquainted with the man and the deceased, this is frustrating music-- for me. Glad it moves others. I do not want to listen to this music ever but I would cook the biggest best meal for Phil and babysit for him whenever he needs
― nevertheless, he stopped (flamboyant goon tie included), Friday, 9 March 2018 19:34 (six years ago) link
yeah. but the artist's impulse to channel grief & negative energy into something productive is very real. i completely understand the intent and purpose but will never listen to it.
― flappy bird, Friday, 9 March 2018 19:36 (six years ago) link
not getting accusatory but I wonder about the underlying attitude to death and/or art that leads ppl to hear heartbreakingly tender expressions of grief as masochistic or abusive
the fact that I found the last album hard to listen to speaks to my failing to face the intensity of it, not to a failure to express himself in a more palatable manner
I don't understand the surprise, it's as if people think he could or should have done something else. his insistence on being the same gentle, self-aware, ironic, simple, warm person is what makes these songs so devastating, but also inspiring, like if Phil can keep being Phil through this then mb there's hope for the rest of us
― ogmor, Sunday, 11 March 2018 00:30 (six years ago) link