Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

That's otm. Wish he'd stick to the latter.

Catching back up, I can definitely hear the "Suzanne" influence on "Promise is a Pendulum", I was thinking the same thing on my first listen before I even saw the comparison itt. Right now "Red Moon", "Blue Lightning", "Love Love Love", "Certainty", "Spud Infinity" and "Simulation Swarm" are my favorites, but that would likely shift with another relisten.

Tbh, still trying to crack my way into appreciating "Blurred View".

It's just a really joyous song. I love the "Wanna be the vape that gets you high" line and the slightly offkey guitar lead

^^ this

It's the first song I loved after absorbing the original EP or whatever

Oh wait I meant Blue Lightning not Blurred View

yeah I love "Blue Lightning" too! "Blurred View" is the one I just haven't hit on yet.

Yeah I'm not sure Blurred View has quite sunk in either. It's a bit like Heavy Bend but through a sort of Thom Yorke filter

Some people are fans of John Prine and some are fans of idk… Slowdive and this is an album that could actually be of interest to both sides.

lol, yes to both and to this album

sing for you sing for you sing for you sing for you sing for you

that was one of the first songs that sank in for me

It's a bit like Heavy Bend but through a sort of Thom Yorke filter

otm, and although it was the first track that really surprised me off the album and I liked it quite a bit at first, it's starting to cool on me as much of yorke's solo material does over time as well

I classified "Blurred View" as "the trip-hop one," coming after "the shoegaze one." I don't know that it's actually trip-hop, but ... it's not not. Anyway, I love it.

good call, it is totally trip-hop

The Pitchfork review called it that, but I don't think I would have made that connection myself (or necessarily "agree" with it)

Iris Dement (very passionate about Infamous Angels)

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, February 21, 2022 8:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Thought I couldn't like her more

I think the Michael Jackson cover might be my fave song on this.

Gave Blurred a proper listen and yeah I like it. I think because of the production being so much hotter and claustrophobic than the other songs it kind of passed me by before

Hadn’t made the connection, but there’s a bit of Portishead in Blurred View, yeah.

"I love John Prine and Iris Dement"

"Your new country rock album reminds me of Portishead”

Cool/interesting band interview: https://www.vulture.com/2022/02/big-thief-interview-album-dragon-new-warm-mountain.html

Jeff Tweedy does a Substack thingy and today's came with a recording of him doing a nice, Tweedy-esque cover of "Certainty"

blurred view def one of my fav songs

"I love John Prine and Iris Dement"

"Your new country rock album reminds me of Portishead”

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Tuesday, February 22, 2022 11:55 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

fucking let it go. you are right. i was wrong.

Today's favourite is Simulation Swarm, especially:

I remember
Building an energy field
In your room

I thought it was “energy shield”? Maybe just because my dad used to put these things he called “energy shields” (pieces of insulation cut to fit) over the windows when it got cold, ha ha

Jeff Tweedy does a Substack thingy and today's came with a recording of him doing a nice, Tweedy-esque cover of "Certainty"

― alpine static, Wednesday, February 23, 2022 2:22 AM (seven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Normally I put songs behind the paywall, but this album is brand-new and incredible, and I want everyone with ears to hear it. If ya subscribe, maybe I’ll talk the Tweedy band into recording a second song from the request pile later this week.

https://jefftweedy.substack.com/p/certainty-big-thief-cover?utm_source=url

from the liners, i think "Certainty" is the only one on the album that's a co-write (with buck meek)

Spent about an hour working on “Seasons in the Abyss”, the Slayer request. (Thanks Sean) Alas, it eluded me. I’m sure there is an acoustic version in there somewhere but I couldn’t find a believable way to sing “frozen eyes stare deep in your mind as you die.”

come on jeff tweedy! i already believe it, just reading the words

when does the Tweedy/Rahm Emmanuel podcast kickoff?

Adrienne is very good at these unexpected steps into the astral, into the fantastical, and she knows exactly when to do it: When you least expect.

There's that line in Simon & Garfunkel's 'Sound of Silence': And the vision that was planted in my brain still remains which always struck me as uncanny and incongruous for the kind of song it is, in that it evokes a kind of sci-fi horror imagery.

And for all their songs of leaves and trees and sparrows and arrows, that's what BT seem to be doing. 'Spud Infinity' is the most obvious example - it's constantly zooming in and out from the small and humble to the galactic and metaphysical by way of one's inner space. It's all-encompassing.

The line about "potato knish" isn't just bathetic throwaway fluff. It implies a form of subjective idealism whereby the spoiling potato dish, the nostalgic childhood race, and the sheer magnitude of the sun throwing heat on this summer scene from light years away, are all closely interconnected; are all one and the same. And then beyond that she implores us to to "Kiss your body up and down": So we have the heart, the body, the celestial, the extra-terrestrial.

It's a theme that repeats itself throughout the album: "Like a feeling, like a flash / Like a fallen eyelash on your sweater / Threading future through the past". It's this ability to deconstruct big metaphysical concepts and disguise them as either mundane observations or deeply personal musings, constantly switching to another lense so we can at once observe microscopic details and admire them on huge conceptual levels.

I thought it was “energy shield”? Maybe just because my dad used to put these things he called “energy shields” (pieces of insulation cut to fit) over the windows when it got cold, ha ha

― Not Dork Yet (alternate toke) (morrisp), Wednesday, February 23, 2022 3:56 PM (twenty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

You're right, it's energy shield

'simulation swarm' is reminiscent of modest mouse. i hear them in 'love love love' too. i've really had to reckon with her singing style to try to fully enjoy this. i like the guitars, drums, the way its produced, but her warble is tough for me

xxp Or maybe I've been reading too much Borges. Very possible

from the liners, i think "Certainty" is the only one on the album that's a co-write (with buck meek)

― dig your way out of the shit with a gold magic shovel! (Karl Malone), Wednesday, February 23, 2022 10:05 AM (forty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Didn't know this but interesting given their history and the lyrics, which I interpret to be about convincing your partner/yourself that you're still in love. Saying 'I love you'/ Need to lie here, need to leave, Living in the debt of make-believe.

I don't get the Tweedy/Rahm podcast joke.

Also, what's the instrument making that rubbery, fluctuating sound in "Simulation Swarm"? Is that the fretless bass ufo mentioned above?

It's either a bent guitar or bass note

xp i was just being an asshole. he campaigned for Rahm and now has a substack. i don't really like the dude anymore but i'll keep that to myself

fair enough. i like Jeff a lot, have mostly lost interest in his music, and was just thinking this morning how this new era of ubiquity of his might be a bit too much for me.

anyway ... "Simulation Swarm" on good headphones! holy shit! i had only listened through crappy computer speakers before.

I’ve finally been able to listen to the CD in the car (my preferred mode of listening)… omg, “Little Things” is on a different level when heard that way; it’s like a living, breathing thing.

Coming around on “Blurred View” now. I can def hear the trip-hop others hear, but I also hear a little Billie Eilish in it too.

morrisp otm though, this is a great car album!

Also, what's the instrument making that rubbery, fluctuating sound in "Simulation Swarm"? Is that the fretless bass ufo mentioned above?

― alpine static,

yeah, i assume overdubbed as there's a standard bassline as well

They were great tonight in Bristol. I'd never seen them before.

I don't know what it is that strikes me about Lenker's disposition in that it isn't one of someone who plays for enjoyment or for financial gain, rather because her life depends on it. It feels like she's singing because she has to, like there's an important purpose to it beyond mere entertainment.
So I can see why some might not be on board with that. Why would you want to listen to someone who sings as though they're not doing it for pleasure, but because they have to?
I think that's possibly why some people have a problem with her voice. I mean, I really like it, but others have described her voice as pitchy and amateurish; and perhaps they have got a point but for me it's about her delivery and the emotions and passions being expressed.

So anyway, yes the gig.
Lots of brand new material, even a song they'd written the night before apparently. Also another one that just repeated the line "I'm happy with you / Happy with you" followed by another repeated line for the chorus. Wondering now with songs like "Heavy Bend" if the next release is going to have lots of these kinds of repeating mantra.

As for more recognisable material, there were a fair few curveballs and odd song selections. They played 'Blurred View', it worked really well live. We got 'Not' and 'Paul' and 'Shark Smile' but not much off UFOF save for a stripped down version of 'Terminal Paradise'. Someone shouted for 'Mythological Beauty' which would have been great but they didn't play it. Instead we got things like 'Black Diamonds', 'Wake Me Up To Drive', the title track of the new album, and quite a few other deep cuts that I personally wouldn't have selected but hey, it's their show.
The highlight was of course 'Spud Infinity', the one song where Lenker looked like she was genuinely having fun. No fiddle or jaw harp meant she got the crowd to sing the violin hook and it worked

so, going back to the 8 songs that were released before the full album came out. there are two things i'm curious about. the first if anyone thinks they constitute kind of a digestible single LP (36 minutes), a different version of how they could have went about choosing the final songs for a shorter album.
or, are those just the songs they wanted to put out ahead of time?

secondly, and, this may just be an artifact of me looking at this on spotify, but the way it's presented there, each one of the "singles" they released included the previous singles for the album as well. so the first single, "Little Wings / Sparrow", was:

1. Little Wings
2. Sparrow

and the second single, for Certainty, was:

1. Certainty
2. Little WIngs
3. Sparrow

and so on. for each new song, they'd tack another song on the front, until, after the last single ("Simulation Swarm") it looks like this:

1. Simulation Swarm
2. No Reason
3. Spud Infinity
4. Time Escaping
5. Change
6. Certainty
7. Little Things
8. Sparrow

so if you look up the single for Simulation Swarm, it gives you that playlist. and of course, Simulation Swarm comes across here as an absolutely perfect opener, and the 8 songs flow so perfectly from one to another. but then again, i think you could just randomly choose any 8 of the 20 songs from a full album and plop them into a playlist, and it would probably flow very well, because when you 20 songs that rule everything kind of flows imo

anyway, curious if anyone had any thoughts about those 8 songs released beforehand

they performed Spud Infinity at the show I went to back in fall 2019 and I found it strange and silly, very unexpected direction compared to the gloom and mystery of UFOF and Two Hands

I liked the 8 pre-release songs, loved some of them, but I feel like hearing them in the context of the full album gave each of them more weight. It was unclear if this was going to be, like, a mostly country-folk album with a few rockers (like Two Hands) or (as it turned out to be) something weirder and more varied.

the hyperbole in this thread truly puts the ilx Autechre street team to shame, which is quite a feat

the key to hyperbole is to take it past previous limits

sorry for loving this band

I liked the 8 pre-release songs, loved some of them, but I feel like hearing them in the context of the full album gave each of them more weight.

otm