I did like Callahan's 2009 a lot, btw.
― The Magnificent Colin Firth (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 March 2010 01:07 (fourteen years ago) link
recently i did some design work in the home of a slightly oder english lit academic. on the day i was finishing off i was playing "a river..." and she came rushing through from the next room, where she had been working, to ask me what it was. now she's a bill callahan stan and sent me a text last week saying that she's given up smoking and that the thing that calmed her during a hectic day was the knowledge that she could listen to "too many birds" when her last student had left.
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:13 (fourteen years ago) link
older not odder
although perhaps she is slightly odder now that she's a bill callahan junkie?
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 12 March 2010 01:16 (fourteen years ago) link
i'd say that's a definite.
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:18 (fourteen years ago) link
That Forster review is the best thing I've read on the album.
― The Magnificent Colin Firth (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 March 2010 01:23 (fourteen years ago) link
she got me back by making me read Henry James (unrelated to the smog incident and obviously the other end of the style scale) and now i'm (four books in) a Henry James stan.
xpost was just reading that review. it's great.
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:28 (fourteen years ago) link
Forster touches on it in his review and it always stuns me how Bill can make a simple lyric so evocative.
"i started running/ and the concrete turned to sand"
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:30 (fourteen years ago) link
The Spoils of Callahan
― The Magnificent Colin Firth (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 12 March 2010 01:32 (fourteen years ago) link
i just finished that one, my favourite so far.
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:34 (fourteen years ago) link
it always stuns me how Bill can make a simple lyric so evocative
Guns or fireworks are poppingDown in the townA woman is runningA man jumps up and down...I slide in the front seatThe drivers sideTo hotwire and hightail crosses my mindBut still in the drivewayFixed like the stars
I flip on the headlightsAnd go back insideThe climates controlledWhile the battery dies
― werewolf congress (schlump), Friday, 12 March 2010 01:35 (fourteen years ago) link
"clipping the wings of your morning flight"
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:38 (fourteen years ago) link
that line makes me swoon.
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:40 (fourteen years ago) link
The night will end inSome form of excessPants around anklesToo weak to fully undress
― jed_, Friday, 12 March 2010 01:42 (fourteen years ago) link
Dude is playing two shows at the Hideout (a very intimate venue) in April. Tickets are $20 (benefit show) and I have no extra money at all right now but I might have to go anyways.
― congratulations (n/a), Thursday, 18 March 2010 18:49 (fourteen years ago) link
ooh, what HJ have you been reading jed?
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 18 March 2010 19:22 (fourteen years ago) link
oh snap i might have to make it for those shows. wish they were on my spring break.
― by another name (amateurist), Thursday, 18 March 2010 22:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Ward - "Washington Square", "The Aspern Papers", "Turn of the Screw", "The Spoils of Poynton" and i'm currently on "The Portrait of A Lady" as well as just having bought the fairly large (and pricy, for a paperback) Penguin "Selected Tales" this looks great but I'm slightly put off by the miniscule type - 600 pages of miniscule type.
― jed_, Thursday, 18 March 2010 23:57 (fourteen years ago) link
huh?
― by another name (amateurist), Friday, 19 March 2010 06:09 (fourteen years ago) link
"Hop on Pop"
― The reverse TARDIS of pasta (Niles Caulder), Friday, 19 March 2010 07:29 (fourteen years ago) link
amst, i was answering wards q but i admit it's a strange place to be talking about h. james!
― jed_, Friday, 19 March 2010 11:33 (fourteen years ago) link
I may be the biggest Callahan fan here, but after three passes, I still think this live album is bland as bread.
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Just ordered his book.
Will report back.
― Hadrian VIII, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I haven't listened to the live album much either. I like some of the new arrangements, mainly of the songs from Woke on a Whaleheart, because that's the only recent album where I'm not a fan of how the album sounds.
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:15 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm a big fan of pretty much everything he did as Smog, but mostly it's been zzzzzzzzzzz since Dongs of Sevotion...
― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:39 (thirteen years ago) link
Nah. A River Ain't Too Much to Love and Sometime I Wish We Were an Eagle are two of his best imo.
― circa1916, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:45 (thirteen years ago) link
the book is real good, i think. i thought he might have some problems maintaining the whole grizzled, laconic thing through a whole narrative, but nuh uh. he makes such great use of the elliptical nature of a one-sided epistolary novel, too; "i don't think there is such a thing as ceiling wax".
also you crazy if you've been tuned out since dongs. the lps are way more like albums, since, and i'd put everything bar maybe whaleheart above DOS.
(but yeah the live record just doesn't sound right, bar the well, which sucks because he can be alternately entrancing & rollicking, live).
― schlump, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:47 (thirteen years ago) link
man is p much the only current singer songwriter i listen to
― just sayin, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:51 (thirteen years ago) link
you crazy if you've been tuned out since dongs
Not really tuned out -- I've heard all the recent albums, just haven't enjoyed much of it lately.
― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:51 (thirteen years ago) link
I've also seen him live a few times in Austin, his longtime residence, and think he's a bore live. Sorry...
― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 19:52 (thirteen years ago) link
― circa1916, Tuesday, August 24, 2010 2:45 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
def. agree with this
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 24 August 2010 22:10 (thirteen years ago) link
^^^^^
― Hadrian VIII, Tuesday, 24 August 2010 22:18 (thirteen years ago) link
thirded.
live album is OK. good, not great. i know i'm a douche for saying this, but i have live shows i got from the internets that are even better.
― by another name (amateurist), Saturday, 25 September 2010 05:52 (thirteen years ago) link
If...If you...If you could...If you could only...If you could only stop...If you could only stop your...If you could only stop your heart...If you could only stop your heart beat...If you could only stop your heart beat for...If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart...If you could only stop your heart beat for one heart beat.
― jed_, Sunday, January 10, 2010 9:23 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
otm
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, March 9, 2010 7:55 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
― jed_, Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:30 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark
OTM.
I listen to Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle a lot. It's amazing. DAMN the tastemakers and the cannibals
― Edgware Wolf in London (admrl), Saturday, 25 September 2010 23:22 (thirteen years ago) link
:-)
― jed_, Sunday, 26 September 2010 00:31 (thirteen years ago) link
― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Tuesday, August 24, 2010 3:52 PM Bookmark
presumptuous apologies...
― rammer jammer jan hammer (Hurting 2), Sunday, 26 September 2010 15:52 (thirteen years ago) link
I saw him at the Starry Plough in Berkeley with ILX poster AKM and he was pretty great, I thought. He has a presence. Also he came and played in the middle of the crowd for the encore.
― Dan I Wish I Was Your Lover (admrl), Sunday, 26 September 2010 16:29 (thirteen years ago) link
http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/callahanposter.jpg
http://pitchfork.com/news/41420-bill-callahan-announces-new-album/
― just sayin, Tuesday, 1 February 2011 18:51 (thirteen years ago) link
hoo-rah
― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, 1 February 2011 18:53 (thirteen years ago) link
fantastic. i wasn't expecting something so soon.
― jed_, Tuesday, 1 February 2011 18:56 (thirteen years ago) link
― Edgware Wolf in London (admrl), Saturday, September 25, 2010 6:22 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark
― ullr saves (gbx), Friday, 4 February 2011 04:15 (thirteen years ago) link
― jed_, Friday, 4 February 2011 10:36 (thirteen years ago) link
DAMN the tastemakers and the cannibals
― just sayin, Friday, 4 February 2011 10:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Bill CallahanApocalypse PRE-ORDER
APRIL 19TH RELEASE DATE Callahan is back! Essentially an ensemble recorded live in the studio, Callahan's Apocalypse is the corpus delecti. Something happened here! If tape is like meat, this record is the whole hog! Callahan, riding on the back of his band, corrals them all and guides them single-handedly through the valley with love and ferocity. This record makes us wonder what has really happened in the last 100 years, and what will happen in the next 10. The soul of your country called and left you a message.
― j., Monday, 14 March 2011 16:28 (thirteen years ago) link
pre-order where?
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Monday, 14 March 2011 18:43 (thirteen years ago) link
what the
― jed_, Monday, 14 March 2011 18:47 (thirteen years ago) link
there is a thread for this album iirc
― just sayin, Monday, 14 March 2011 21:17 (thirteen years ago) link
i think i got that from an insound email.
― j., Tuesday, 15 March 2011 05:02 (thirteen years ago) link
show last night was amazing. backed up by just a drummer and a guitarist, which i was a little concerned about, but it worked well on pretty much every song ("eid ma clack shaw" was the only one where the arrangement didn't work for me, but it might have also been a sound issue). the one-two punch of "america!" and "our anniversary" was especially devastating. it seems like he's not interested in playing old stuff at all, i think "our anniversary" was the oldest song in the main set, though he begrudgingly played "the river guard" and "bathysphere" as encores (he asked for requests, everyone was yelling out songs, he said "i'm glad you guys don't write the setlist.")
― congratulations (n/a), Monday, 4 July 2011 13:53 (twelve years ago) link