Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

yeah, holy shit. the whole album is so good that all four of the sessions come across as outstandingly productive, but that one might take the cake.

simulation swarm is just incredible

I like this bit from that interview (btw. James & Sam Evian, who did the Flying Cloud session):

Sam: (...)I think my process with overdubbing by myself is trying to make it sound like a band(...). If I don’t feel like a kid when it’s happening and if I don’t feel a little manic and dancing around like an absolute dweeb, then I’m like, this is done.

James: (...)I have a similar thing, which I try and impart on people when they’re doing an overdub. It’s like, this should be really exciting. Even though it’s just a tambo, this performance is important. It kills me when I see someone punching the clock on a tambo take because it’s like, dude pretend you’re in the room with this band.

Sam: You should be giving yourself the night sweats.

James: Totally. You feel it in the music when people take these little overdubs as if they’re nothing. You’re going to really hear this thing, it has to be more exciting than just in time.

Is it me or can I hear the scrape g of shirt buttons on the title track?

someone please grab "punching the clock on a tambo take" as a user name

there's so many good things in that interview. i love the concept of "the sauce" as well

xp Did that already! ;)

Is it me or can I hear the scrape g of shirt buttons on the title track?

idk exactly what you mean but there is a credit for "icicles" on that track and i can hear those

is it me or can I hear icicles scraping against the guitar necks on the title track?

that makes me nervous

James & Max are credited for "Icicles" on the title track in the liner notes

I ask because I thought it a cool cinéma vérité touch when Bob Dylan makes sure you hear them on "Wedding."

Bought this today. On my first listen through and I guess it's their warmest-sounding album so far? I'm on the second disc and there's almost a jollity to it. It sounds like the angstiness of albums like Capacity has all but dissipated and this is the sound of a band enjoying themselves together

as the world's #1 spud infinity fan, i learned how to play it on guitar today. left my capo somewhere else, so i play a version of it that's transposed and uses way too many barre chords. i'm planning to create a genius annotation that references me being the world's #1 spud infinity fan, and then citing an ilx poll that i create and rig so that only i can win as the evidence. i've been working on building up my scholar IQ over at the genius academy, and i hope you will support my effort to earn a candybar from the someday, if i earn it

Who is the World's Undisputed #1 fan of 'Spud Infinity' by Big Thief?

do you sprinkle capos in your ground beef? I do.

i capo'd the crap out of an omelette this morning

capos make a statement, you roll up on the gig with a capo on, ppl are like this is some serious guitar shit

i don't know, there are views among guitarheads that it's better to "git gud" at barre chords rather than resort to a shameful capo. I saw one quora thread where this guy was bragging about playing guitar since the 60s and never once using a capo. because that's how good he was at barre chords. i thought about signing up for quora to upvote him because his authority was undeniable

me capo-ing my ground beef

https://www.closetcooking.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Cuban-Picadillo-1200-9758.jpg

having seen adrianne play a couple months ago i can tell you that she does weird tuning stuff between every song, uses a capo way more than i expected, and also barres chords. please upvote me due to my authority

str8 fire beautiful beef alfred

ya that looks amazing!

str8 fire beautiful beef alfred

think we have the title for the next Big Thief opus

str8 fire beautiful beef alfred

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

I didn't get that compliment on my last date.

“Are you sure the noodle is ready, Alfred?”

Ahem

Anyhow, so John Prine, Will Oldham, and Radiohead walk into a Basement Tapes…

Yeah that's a good combo. Maybe throw Neil Young in there. I love the influences it calls to mind, there are so many of them but also they are always coherently their own thing.

I loved that alternative tunings video. One thing that struck me about Get Back was just the sheer musicality of the Beatles, how fluid and fluent they were with their craft. Big Thief feels very much like that, their musical dexterity lets them play with a lot of things.

i have to say, re: "Spud Infinity" ... i wish she'd cut two beats off all those taaaaaakes, ditch the last 75 seconds (from the drums on) and end up with a perfectly fine 4-minute song.

‘flower of blood’ and ‘blurred view’ are my favs so far

Something really satisfying about that part in Sparrow where Adrianne ends 5 consecutive lines with “apple”.

Second go round and this is really starting to shine through. I'm so glad I held off really giving any of the teaser tracks a listen beyond like one play as they work better in context. I'm also quite content absorbing the album side by side in whatever order is good. I don't come to BT for jolly larks, but I'm genuinely loving side three and especially Red Moon. So much fun

Yeah "red moon" and "blue lightning" (and "spud infinity" !) have a country feel good vibe that is so satisfying on a sunny winter day.

btw I just booked tickets for their Paris gig in June : exciting !

Sam: (...)I think my process with overdubbing by myself is trying to make it sound like a band(...). If I don’t feel like a kid when it’s happening and if I don’t feel a little manic and dancing around like an absolute dweeb, then I’m like, this is done.
James: (...)I have a similar thing, which I try and impart on people when they’re doing an overdub. It’s like, this should be really exciting. Even though it’s just a tambo, this performance is important. It kills me when I see someone punching the clock on a tambo take because it’s like, dude pretend you’re in the room with this band.

Sam: You should be giving yourself the night sweats.

James: Totally. You feel it in the music when people take these little overdubs as if they’re nothing. You’re going to really hear this thing, it has to be more exciting than just in time.

these guys are such romantics & it's pretty wonderful & also I find it very moving how much people are responding to this romantic mood, but I gotta say: if you get lucky enough to work with some of the heavy-hitter session overdub people, people who I guarantee have played notes & figures that take people's breath away daily on timeless sides known to everybody -- speaking from experience here, I've had the good fortune to have at least three such dudes on my sessions -- and these guys will not hesitate to knock out an utterly devastating take with their right hand while holding a sandwich in their left. I personally am on the "treat every take like it was a moment of sublime importance" train but I've often considered that an indictment of my own musicianship because the best musicians I've ever worked with, while they absolutely take visible pleasure in playing and never seem to get tired of it, are kind of the opposite of what BT are talking about here

i don't know, there are views among guitarheads that it's better to "git gud" at barre chords rather than resort to a shameful capo. I saw one quora thread where this guy was bragging about playing guitar since the 60s and never once using a capo. because that's how good he was at barre chords. i thought about signing up for quora to upvote him because his authority was undeniable

I recall Isbell boasting that his most recent album was recorded entirely without capos. The alternate tuning with a capo *and* barre chords, though, that's basically been the Keith Richards model since "Let It Bleed." If I were a guitar player kid starting in the '70s that would have driven me nuts, being unable to figure out what he was doing, which is super-simple but *only* if you know he's in a tuning, with a capo. I like how the Big Thief person doesn't seem that precious or mysterious about it.

Yeah, the "classic" Keith Richards parts are SO simple with that specific tuning/capo. That's barely guitar playing ! ;)

Congrats you just managed to be rockist against Keith Richards, that is high level shit

keith richards figured out that open guitar strings sound better than fretted strings and tuned his guitar accordingly. the best thing about capos is it allows more open-style voicings without having to tune and re-tune your strings after every song

Eheh

It's amazing how many songs Keith wrote in open G, with and without a capo, with essentially the same chord shape. Genius/hero.

keith richards figured out that open guitar strings sound better than fretted strings

better -for his purposes-, there is no better/worse on this kinda thing except for specific applications

All the capo shaming examples sound like they come from a very narrow standard tuning mindset. Capo, and partial capo even, unlock weird chords and new sounds on all sorts of wacky tunings.

what kind of dickhead would shame someone for using a capo

capos and alt tunings are the best guitar hack, if you can even call it that

I have seen many professional musicians whomst I love and respect playing with capos, hence all capo-bashing seems silly to me. Whatever it takes to get the sounds you want.

I took a few lessons with Peter Lang and he started our first lesson by talking about how open tunings were superior to standard, the thought being that the fewer fingers you have on the neck the more naturally resonant the guitar is. It was his contention that standard tuning was only developed due to the demands of performance, allowing show band guitarists to play in a variety of keys with singers at the expense of tone and more intuitive, easier ways of playing

capos just transpose the key they don't change what notes you have to finger/play

i don't really understand how they make it easier is it just because the strings become closer to the board?

Short history of standard tuning: https://www.fender.com/articles/tech-talk/standard-tuning-how-eadgbe-came-to-be

It quotes Richard Lloyd: "Even though the cello is a larger instrument than the violin, it is played with the neck vertically, which allows the hand to have a little bit easier time reaching for notes. With the guitar sitting in the lap and the neck diagonal to the player, the bend in the wrist starts to make it more difficult to spread out the fingers. So our next best choice for tuning any larger scaled multi-stringed instrument is going to be to tune in fourths, which are a little closer together. On a guitar, a person with a normal-sized hand can reasonably be expected to sound the major third with the pinkie finger while holding down the tonic with the index finger. So it makes sense that the next string should be the fourth.”

I have heard people knock open tunings as lazy but capos? Really? I have always thought of a capo as just reducing the number of frets, and I believe they make guitars in a couple different configurations suggesting it's not a sacrosanct count.

As a total amateur three-chord acoustic strummer, I sometimes use a capo for two reasons: Most commonly to move a song into a key that's easier for me or my wife to sing, and also sometimes so I can play with chord fingering that's easier for me. (e.g., a transposition to play a Bm chord with Em fingering.)