Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

"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

If loving Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You is wrong, I don't want to be right

Sorry for loving hyperbole

There is definitely a lot of hyperbolic praise about this band out there, but I don't see it itt - most of this is just uninhibited enthusiasm, which I love to see on ILM as it happens rarely enough to this degree.

I honestly dont see that much hyperbole ... everyone seems to be taking care to like, temper all their praise I feel at some level, because we're so used to raw basic enthusiasm that oversells stuff, so people *undersell* this, partic on this thread... 'but better than that sounds'-type praise

I’ve recommended this album a half a dozen times and everyone is pleasantly surprised. From my metal head coworker to my 60 yr old uncle. It’s very likable

I haven’t had a reaction like this to a record for a truly long time - maybe a decade or more? It felt instantly classic as soon as I cued it up and listened the first time - like the first time I heard The Band’s self-titled or I dunno Blood on the Tracks or Ziggy Stardust - most of the songs land their first punches and all of them sink in eventually. It’s one of those rare albums - like some REM records - where I can’t pick a favourite because every song is, while it’s playing. I dunno the last time that happened to me - maybe Kill The Moonlight? That record is almost 20 years old. So forgive me for gushing a bit.

Also bite my butt :P

(Now, I mean, I’m not gonna make any great claims for being the most voracious new-music listener out there. I’m not saying this is the BEST album since KtM [I think Spoon might have made better albums than KtM since] [and my god there are whole worlds of music from the period that make this little slice of Gen-X heaven seem wee and parochial] but sometimes something just hits your sweet spot and you KNOW)

From my metal head coworker

I saw M4tt P1nfield in a Mexican restaurant last week – if he had walked by me when he got up to take a leak, my plan was to ask him how he likes this album (but the restrooms were the opposite direction).

I’m trying to imagine I’m Matt P1nf13ld and what I would do in that situation

i love this band and i love this record

Mmmm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Tna3qg1t4

Due to be at Shepherd's Bush tomorrow for my first big gig since the old covid started. How was the masking - anyone on the first two nights know? Are people asked for test evidence to go in? I really want to go - a bit nervy.

Flower Of Blood = Bloodflowers influence yes? not sure how i hadn't made that connection yet.

enjoyed the SBE gig a lot, despite it being one of those packed gigs where if you're downstairs and need a piss, you almost certainly won't be able to return to anywhere with a decent view.

also enjoy the Spud Infinity tshirts (but not enough to buy one at £35) and 'Deeper Understanding' / 'Love And Anger' both being on the pregig mixtape over the P.A.

I can't stop thinking about this "Happy With You / Poison Shame" song they played

I finally reached the point where my brain no longer distinguishes between the pre-release songs and the other tracks; though a few of the songs still catch me by "surprise" when I listen to the album (I haven't totally internalized/digested the track list)... e.g., I tend to forget about "12000 Lines"; it's pleasant getting reacquainted when it comes up.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37gYMhMM_6g

here's two of the new songs

Holy shit - "Happy With You" is amazing

("Forgiver" could be the new generation's "Wagon Wheel")