Big Thief - Two Hands

www.AdriAnne.com is still under her control!

A batch of recent demos on sale, to benefit their road crew: https://bigthief.bandcamp.com/album/demos-vol-1-topanga-canyon-ca-feb-2018

One more: https://bigthief.ffm.to/loveinmine

“We all felt this song was one of the strongest
songs/captures in the Two Hands batch but we could never quite get it to fit in a sequence. Happy to be sharing it now”

definitely too straightforwardly pretty for the album. splendid as a standalone single though

this sounds like a christine fleetwood mac song, its v v v good

https://i.imgur.com/XF9HQCQ.jpg

these twitter culture wars are outta control :(

#bigthiefisoverparty

It was just a matter of time

I think we may be getting a few new albums soon, guys: www.instagram.com/p/CADtCEpH-t7/

(btw - what kind of cyber-guitar is Adrianne holding in that first pic??)

I flubbed the link

I flubbed the link and the link won

Got ahold of Lenker's first album, recorded when she was 13.

Kudos to her for getting an album out that early, but I wouldn't recommend it at all.

Oh, nice! Good catch, did you find it in a store or online?

That alb is p terrible but it’s a charming kind of terrible, esp in light of what she’s doing now.

that looks like one those things lee ritenour played. it’s on his Wayne Gretzky tribute album

wait I’m mixing him up with Steve khan re: the Gretzky thing. Anyway here it is: https://www.discogs.com/Lee-Ritenour-Earth-Run/master/80205

A SynthAxe(tm)?

found it: Casio DG-1

https://youtu.be/3hf7AsraFx8

Thx!

Bought the first Lenker through Discogs. I’ve fallen pretty hard for Big Thief so I decided to start at the beginning. It’s not awful, but it sounds like a reasonably talented 13 year old
imitating... Sheryl Crow maybe? If she has any say in the matter, I can’t imagine it getting reissued anytime soon.

Pretty sure Lucid Tunes was a vanity label, likely run by her dad; this was its only other release. From what I've read, she and her dad are on good terms, so he's not likely to reissue it w/out her consent!

This demo "Mermaid" is sick... it's kind of a new take on the "Cattails" idea

These goofy-dressing hippies are the sickest band

really hoping the casio guitar is going to make the new album

https://open.spotify.com/album/2e3TrMSoC2IdX6tksQwpls

new adrianne solo track!

Big Thief's Adrianne Lenker announces two new albums, songs and instrumentals, out October 23rd on 4AD

songs and instrumentals are two distinct collections, both written and recorded in April after Big Thief’s March tour was abruptly cut short due to coronavirus. After returning to the states from Europe, Lenker decamped to a one room cabin in the mountains of western Massachusetts.

This recording is 100% analog-analog-analog (AAA). No digital process was used in the production of this sound recording.

The album’s stunning artwork are watercolor paintings done by Adrianne’s grandmother, Diane Lee.

Tracklist
songs
1. two reverse
2. ingydar
3. anything
4. forwards beckon rebound
5. heavy focus
6. half return
7. come
8. zombie girl
9. not a lot, just forever
10. dragon eyes
11. my angel

instrumentals
1. music for indigo
2. mostly chimes

very curious about what the instrumentals album will be like

Sounds like it will be mostly chimes.

mostly.

interesting! you know it's serious when someone decamps

This recording is 100% analog-analog-analog (AAA). No digital process was used in the production of this sound recording.

i'm enough of an audiophile douchebag to admit that at least part of big thief's appeal is how much better their records sounds than 99.9% of indie rock bands

Decamps(?) Adrianne solo albums aren't a new thing...

"No digital process was used in the production of this sound recording, except for the sick tones of the Casio DG-1 Digital Guitar."

Btw - the new song is good (no surprise)!

i just think the "decamped" to a one room cabin thing is funny, sounds like something a deposed military leader would do

"anything" is really pretty

Some more context on the new albums from Adrianne here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEowCPND49R/?igshid=cudu4affgpgx

(sorry I failed to trim out the tracking ID)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUqxxN7EbeQ

another new adrianne song "dragon eyes"

the guitars on it are so shimmering and pretty

The band has a track (a Two Hands outtake called “Jane”) on this benefit album: https://keeledscales.bandcamp.com/album/to-the-people-of-the-land-carrizo-comecrudo-solidarity-compilation

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/19/adrianne-lenkers-radical-honesty

good profile of adrianne that also mentions big thief were recording recently so i'd very much hope another album is on the way for next year

A good read, that. Ta.

Sorry to hear about her breakup.

“Adrianne has that disorienting quality all real-deal types have, where she comes at her songs so sideways that it subverts the form,” Jeff Tweedy, the front man for Wilco, told me. “Sometimes you would swear it’s a mistake or misunderstanding of her own song—‘Why’d she start singing there?’—but it’s not, it’s a precise angle that only she seems to possess.”

Great quote / observation

By coincidence, playing the KEXP version of "Masterpiece" and enjoying the messiness (and their obvious joy in that).

I see this thread and I think it's about Big Chief and I get excited for a second.

I'll show myself out now.

“Adrianne has that disorienting quality all real-deal types have, where she comes at her songs so sideways that it subverts the form,” Jeff Tweedy, the front man for Wilco, told me. “Sometimes you would swear it’s a mistake or misunderstanding of her own song—‘Why’d she start singing there?’—but it’s not, it’s a precise angle that only she seems to possess.”

Great quote / observation

― Guitar Dick (morrisp), Monday, October 12, 2020 3:56 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

more evidence for my chief keef parallel lol

big chief keef

https://open.spotify.com/album/25llO5FF2feSQx4Fxyd20O

instrumentals is out now

Coming up as a placeholder for me

yeah I can't get it yet -- US vs other countries thing?

liked but did not love the two recent songs

i'm in australia so maybe it'll be available at midnight for you? it's a day early here

"music for indigo" is basically exactly what i'd expected in that it's some very pretty noodling around. also has some nice ambience from a storm in the background