Will Oldham/Palace/Bonnie Prince Billie: S&D

• lost blues and other songs (singles/rarities comp) - search "lost blues", "marriage", "west palm beach"
• side 2 of viva last blues
• "one with the birds", "patience/take however long you want", "little boy blue", "trudy dies" (the 7" version) singles

definitely some melody there for you. check out the peel session of "you have cum in your hair..." which I like better than the original.

i find him interesting because he has a great voice (narrative- wise, but also vocally) uh... is it indie-pride week yet?

I got Arise, Therefore today. PERFECT for my mood.

Colin, you're not alone, I am also a big fan of Arise, Therefore. I think it's one of his most consistent works. I am very much looking forward to his upcoming greatest hits record, which I heard will be re-recordings.

It's hard to explain the mystique, I'm aware of the pretense of it all, but somehow, I find him very talented despite the obviously forced illusions. I think he'd be great to have a beer with. I don't own all of his records but the ones I do have I would not trade. Fair enough?

When I saw him, he didn't so much change as flesh out some of the earlier, sparser melodies. A lot of the really meandering/weird stuff from Days In The Wake, for example, was given a nice full band treatment. He also played with solo electric guitar for about 1/3 of the set, the band coming out to rejoin him for the end.

Further comments... there's a six minute long, full-band version of "No More Workhorse Blues" on this bootleg from Austria I found. Crazy. Parts of it sound spanish, then when the song climax the drums really start to come in. Unrecognizable initially!

There's also a wonderfully twisted piece written by will in today's guardian.

(p.s. THANKS NA!!!!!!)

A question, though: how can I find out who played on/produced the songs, without tracking down the original singles? The big Oldham websites don't seem to have that info. I'd like to know which song(s) were produced by Kramer, Adam & Eve, etc...

there's always been a protean quality to his music, which often goes overlooked largely because of the superhuman insularity of his misterioso hillbilly shtick. people tend to link him with these old balladeer types, which a certain prominent vein of his music does encourage. but i hear--sublimated and reconstituted beautifully in the last 3 records--a whole bunch of less-austere influences (sorry mark) there, like a thousand singer-songwriters and alterindie bands.

I don't know why I never really responded to the other Palace albums (though I like some of the songs on "Days in the Wake"). These early singles are just another breed - not just the songs themselves, but the production, the playing, the atmosphere...

"just to see my holly home" is a very funny song. it's about, i guess, the dark side of the whole "nuclear family" thing--the family has a remarkable closeness, but it comes from denigrating and attacking all others and ultimately locking them and the world out forever. oldham cheerfully places mysogynystic musings next to a kind of idealization of his partner/family. anyway this is a boring exegesis but what makes it work is how oldham finds a peculiar balance b/t silliness and earnestness. the balance wouldn't hold if the song had such an insinuating sound.

xpost

i'm not kidding.

It was at University of Missouri... maybe some of the guys had connections to the student bookers? (I'm totally just guessing)

Maybe. There is definitely something more factual behind "there was somehow an offer". Still curious.

I remembered that my wife works with a guy who was one of the two college DJs who organized that Big Star reunion show... I asked her to pick his brain and see if he knows/recalls anything about the Palace booking.

hey that's awesome! i just want to know how something like that actually happens, not how it is reflected in the lore or whatever. it probably does boil down to "friends"

I'm interested too!

Got an amazingly great anecdote / reminiscence back from the guy. Don't think I can post it verbatim (and won't use his name), so figuring out how to whittle it down...

Wish I had DM capability and/or your trust!

(a Louisville friend "well-actually"'d me and said that Will, Todd & Grant performed at a cafe "a couple of times" before the Big Star gig.)

(which morrisp's link goes into much better detail, haha, sorry for posting before clicking all links)

The core of it is that this guy (the college DJ and Big Star fan) was friends with Bob Nastanovich, and Bob "knew Will from Louisville and suggested we put him on the bill." He continues: "I didn’t really know what we were getting. But I knew Will from the movie Matewan. I think maybe we gave him $500. We definitely didn’t have 5g. If it was his first show, I didn’t know that at the time (or until now)."

He included a few other personal recollections which are v cool but I probably can't share here.

xp: (though I can confirm that is Grant on banjo in the pic which the meticulously detailed website is uncertain of w/r/t early lineup)

Bob "knew Will from Louisville and suggested we put him on the bill."

They were roommates at the time iirc.

What a great revive, this!

The new arrangements with Eighth Blackbird are gorgeous. It really shows where he is as a singer to hold his own with this ensemble.

Here’s a live one of “One with the Birds”:
https://vimeo.com/179383778

The new arrangements with Eighth Blackbird are gorgeous. It really shows where he is as a singer to hold his own with this ensemble.

Here’s a live one of “One with the Birds”:
https://vimeo.com/179383778

<3 that

same! going to get the album on the back of it

new single off new album, sounds like 8th Blackbird is still involved:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhMz9pvRNCQ

'Superwolves' came out a couple of weeks ago. I'm on track 3. Great stuff so far.

https://www.dragcity.com/products/superwolves

Reading posts from a year ago discussing the show at the university of Missouri. My good friend, Jeff Breeze, was the student who called Alex and pitched the idea of a Big Star reunion gig on campus. This was a few years before I went to school there and became friends with him, though.
He sadly passed away very suddenly last November. I know he was working on writing up the whole experience and shopping it around for publication, but he wasn't getting much traction.

I am not at all certain about any of the details surrounding the event. It had already become the stuff of college radio legend by the time I got there.

Gonna be a luddite and hold out for my physical copy of Superwolves. I've been waiting years for a follow-up, so a few more months ain't gonna kill me. I know pressing plants and schedules are still out of whack, but I'm surprised by how far behind Drag City's physical releases are lagging.

Having now listened to Superwolves fully a few times I am delighted to report that it is magnificent. A worthy successor to Superwolf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzjahqr9wGs

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/aug/24/bonnie-prince-billy-i-cant-regret-working-with-r-kelly-it-made-me-better-able-to-judge-my-behaviour-and-that-of-others

Didn't know about the Birdman thing.

Thanks for that, the "Birdman" thing is nuts.

His new album is terrific, one of my favorites of his in recent years.

I didn't know he took that Slint cover photo.

feel like the title 'Good Morning, Popocatépetl' is some sort of infringement

new record is great imo

absolutely, def top tier Oldham.

Bonnie "Prince" Billy is headlining Supersonic festival in Birmingham this August/September... I'm hoping this means there will be some other UK dates around that time.

he’s playing QMU in aug. presale is open

Thanks, obviously I'd totally missed that! When was it announced? I blame wretched social media algorithms.

He also has a small role in the upcoming movie The Bikeriders

Every now and then I become convinced “Troublesome Houses” is one of the greatest songs ever written.

H.P otm

also this news today: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3-jBRyunnM/
"ryan daly made this film. i witnessed and nudged. @criterionchannel is now streaming it. the idea was to give audiences a time and space to listen to an intentional grouping of songs, in this case the Bonnie Prince Billy record KEEPING SECRETS WILL DESTROY YOU. it was shown in movie theaters across the western world. i am a card-carrying Criterion subscriber and have found it a tremendous resource for uplift, edification and, at times, escape. we are honored and grateful to have our work on the channel. @dragcityrecords @dominorecordco"