Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

if they do put out the dwnmibiy leftovers this year i don't think "vampire empire" would be on it, i get the impression that it's newer than that - adrianne was still figuring out the lyrics a little when i saw them last year and the arrangement's much more fleshed out now

they've said they want to build their own studio for their next album so i'm not necessarily expecting any new recordings until next year but who knows

i would be so down for a "we built our own studio for this album" kind of album from big thief. also i love the move of playing an unrecorded, commercially unavailable song on tv. i would be curious to see a list of other acts/songs of that nature; i bet it would tilt toward the special

Any news on what about "Happy with you / Poison shame" which I heard them play out last year? Have they adapted it much? I was quite into the repetition

Booming post, z_tbd

thank you, although i regretted it immediately lol. didn't mean for it to come off as crabby as it did, sorry

I would go to great lengths to avoid being present when someone listens to something I have recommended... it's almost sure to be awkward/uncomfortable, at minimum.

they're still playing "happy with you" and it doesn't seem to have changed much. seems plausible they could have already recorded it back in 2020. they have so many unreleased songs floating around

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn40jcMdZ1o

it has to be the right person, I have a lot of great college memories of of me and my homie playing assorted mp3s and music videos for each other, with actual curiosity and openness. Found a lot of good music that way.

I guess I actually did have that kind of relationship with one particular jazzbo/jam-band/stoner roommate; but it was a very unique thing.

What a great, great song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H4wMF0dmlM

Not all heroes wear capes … well, who knows, maybe this “Matt” does wear a cape. Regardless, some genius has put together a spreadsheet with YouTube links to all the unreleased BT songs he can find: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jaV_9uDMzld6-Jt2bjjNtyPbmizMhVNp1ZpfHlc5yus/edit

That’s great… a whole album there.

I'm reminded of the story about David Geffen asking Joni Mitchell to write a "single," so she came up with You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio, except I think this is a better song than that.

Texas-bred singer/songwriter and Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek has signed to 4AD and announces his new album, Haunted Mountain, out 25th August on 4AD. Additionally, he shares the lead single and title track, 'Haunted Mountain'; a song co-written alongside his friend and longtime hero Jolie Holland.

Buck Meek - Haunted Mountain
4AD

1. Mood Ring
2. Haunted Mountain
3. Paradise
4. Cyclades
5. Secret Side
6. Didn’t Know You Then
7. Undae Dunes
8. Where You’re Coming From
9. Lullabies
10. Lagrimas
11. The Rainbow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv8uI2VXppA

"vampire empire" is out july 19!

they recorded it & "born for loving you" back in april while on tour, so there's probably not a new album on the way yet unless they've been recording more the last two months or have decided to put out the dwnmibiy outtakes

"vampire empire" will probably be a completely different arrangement to the incredible colbert version though, with how much they've been experimenting with it on tour

full band "born for loving you" is here

Vampire just dropped:
https://bigthief.bandcamp.com/album/vampire-empire-born-for-loving-you

Fantastic song, imo

i really miss the flute from the colbert performance but i'm glad this is pretty close to that arrangement, and that new section in the middle is nice

There are apparently so many complaints in the comments to the band's IG post that they added this 2 hrs. later:

for those who prefer the “live” version you can always go listen to the “live” version. But to clarify-
Recordings are records of us playing live, so you can look at it like this: the live version you may prefer exists and now another version exists. Every time we play it, it is a different version. We weren’t gonna go into the studio and try to replicate what we played on Colbert… plus there’s no way it would’ve been the same, because songs are vessels for the expressions of our present selves, and not highly manicured concoctions polished to be consumed based on demand.

That being said though, you can still listen to that version anytime you want, because is was recorded and exists on the internet. Now this exists too! The only difference is that the Colbert version isn’t available through every single streaming service :)

They really need to ignore this kind of shit.

It's not, like, problematic. It's just not worth their time!

Yeah I agree

flute also did not sound good

Ugh I would really like to see them but $80 to see them in the park?

i just saw them last night and "Vampire Empire" was much closer to the version they just released and it was fantastic. Not missing anything with the absent flute. Was a little sad to hear "Spud Infinity" without the jaw harp though.

They seem to like to mess around with their songs quite a bit, which imo is a great sign for a band, relentlessly creative. They played "Certainty" more or less like the album, maybe a little more oomph to it, and then Adrianne made a comment about how she hasn't really been feeling the rocking out aspect and has been wanting to do it more softly. Then she played it again as a soft, tender ballad. It was really beautiful.

i don't really get all the complaints because this is hardly a case of the arrangement being radically different, or the song being ruined or anything. i miss the flute but it's not a big deal at all. if they'd ditched the arrangement completely for the punk version or something i'd have been amused but more disappointed. my only actual complaint is that it's a fairly raw-sounding recording, it's very roomy.

i would still like to hear the unreleased studio version of the rock "dragon" but it's not like the completely different album version was remotely bad either.

Great little Pfork write-up: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/big-thief-vampire-empire/

As (maybe?) 2021's #1 "Time Escaping" Live on YouTube Fan, I was admittedly a bit flummoxed when the album cut of that song was released... but I figured I'd come to love it, and I certainly didn't go posting "THIS SUCKS" on Instagram (which was one of the thoughtful comments I saw).

(...saw for "Vampire Empire," to clarify)

...except for that bit about Elliot Smith.

(haha, I was willing to let that go)

never followed this band but listened to the newly released song followed by the performance on Colbert.

the studio version is better. her vocal performance is stronger on it. the flute doesn't really add anything except that it makes the guitar sound craggier in relation. it feels extraneous.

suspect people only prefer the Colbert version because it's familiar.

maybe i should listen to this band idk. i don't usually like straight up indie rock but Lenker seems like she has more to offer.

They really need to ignore this kind of shit.

younger bands are bad at ignoring stuff, and what's more, they can get press for responding, so they usually do.

honestly the biggest problem with all versions of this song is i can’t stop hearing “empty tushy fills, alive tushy kills”

Hahaha, I didn't wanna say it....

sounding wonderful on the p4k stream and generously playing a ton of new material

lmao what the hell is this vocal effect on "spud infinity"

james is doing pitched-up autotune harmonies on it and it is deeply bizarre

I was there in person and I dunno what you are talking about. Great set.

it was very clear in the stream audio, in the right channel only

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgwBsusfEI0

this'll probably get taken down at some point, but "spud infinity" is at 1:17:45 if you want to hear the goofy vocal effects.

other highlights are an acoustic "words" (0:00), born for loving you (17:40), "seam" and "free treasure" (48:20), and "happiness" (1:06:00)

I'm all for the wacky outfits, but I would draw the line at a mermaid's tail. No mermaid's tail or gtfo, guy.

https://soundcloud.com/97tlr/forgiver

thinking about this 10 minute version of unreleased track "black crow" (aka "forgiver") where they go fully crazy horse

i haven't seen the colbert version but i just listened to the new "vampire empire" on spotify and it seems good? seems like a song that could have been on the last album maybe with a bit of two hands era

the whole online thing w/this band is really weird, seems like a band to just listen to and never talk about on social media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8fQGCc_O18

gorgeous sprawling new song

Wonderful, yeah

Another one from Buck Meek's alb, out 8/25:

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

Classic Country style: you open for, then play with the Big Star er Thief

Buck Meek - Live at The Studio at The Factory, Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX 2/12/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-PSK8U6DfM

yas?

an American musician from Wimberley, Texas, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist of Big Thief.

#buckmeek

00:00 Cannonball! Pt. 2
04:40 Haunted Mountain
09:58 Pareidolia
14:33 Where You're Coming From
18:53 Second Sight
24:05 Paradise
27:41 Secret Life
32:20 The Undae Dunes
34:54 Stories
40:30 Sam Bridges (with Adrianne Lenker)