Lambchop

The Man Who Loved Beer is all time favourite ever, probably. How I Quit Smoking is insanely underrated.

And haven't you got everything everyone's done?

Oh for all of Muslimgauze's work.

I sorta wish the falsetto had come out more, frankly.

1. Either he can't sing or he doesn't feel too much like trying
2. I found his that-almost-means-something lyrics intensely annoying

Musically it was quite good - might drag it out again.

So last week I saw Aw C'Mon/No You C'Mon for £5 and decided to take the plunge. It's good - I haven't had time to fully get to know it but there are some crackers on No You C'Mon - 'There's Still Time', 'Nothing Adventurous' 'The Producers'.

So I saw 'Is A Woman' for a fiver too. Hmm - looked a bit *sepia* for my taste but what the heck, I bought it.

What a record!! I am loving this album so much. To these crash-bang-wallop trained ears it took a couple of listens to recalibrate and then...wow! Some truly lovely melodies/chord changes and superb layering. I see what people say about the lyrics and they're not wrong...yet they work. I like the fragmented, in-and-out of sleep feel. It's *evocative*, I think. (Did I really say that?)

And I'm surprised to find out who some of the admirers are - Matt DC says some great stuff upthread! Also Tim Hopkins!

aw cmon... is great too but i haven't listened to it a lot. the instrumentals are gorgeously melodic and instantly gratifying. but i think i would have preferred it to be condensed to just one disc.

Is A Woman is extraordinary. I kind of think you don't really need anything else by them.

Unsurprisingly, it's like a cross bewtween "Lazy" and "Up With People", with piano to the fore and a neat video that seems to take its stylistic cues from, uh, "Money For Nothing".

Your thoughts, ILM?

Source: subtitle of their forum here.

Gushing preview & more info here.

No confirmed tracklist yet, AFAIK, but these 10 tracks are out there somewhere:

01. Paperback Bible (7:48)
02. Prepared (6:03)
03. The Rise And Fall Of The Letter P (3:36)
04. A Day Without Glasses (4:11)
05. Beers Before The Barbican (4:51)
06. I Would Have Waited Here All Day (4:02)
07. Crackers (4:11)
08. Fear (5:00)
09. Short (3:48)
10. The Decline Of Country And Western Civilization (4:36)

Please disregard and choose one of these two corrections:
9th (or 8th, if you count Aw/No as one album)
8th (or 9th, if you count Aw/No as two albums)

:-)

I havent given the rest of their stuff a shot yet, but I do hope it's like this album. It's got this awesome sort of quiet and subdued intensity, like the sax (the sax!) in New Cobweb Summer that comes in at about 3:30...I nominate this for best use of a sax in a pop/rock song ever! and the layering - the "na na na" female voices in Track 4...

overall, a really compelling album. It's sleepy sort of, like Low can be, but i think much more lush and intricate.

finally, to quote ryan, "is there anything else out there that sounds like Is a Woman?"

anyone?

So shy tonight I'm told you were, I'm in the thick of it, i've been a dick with it, you're just not used to it

And I'm alright. Well, as you were. There's no use for this: It's not a theater kiss, 's more like a railroad piss.

My confidence is returning; I'm relating and remarking in an improved fashion, so much that I decide to stop on my way home. So much that I decide to stop for donuts on the drive home.

Last night I saw the sun rise over sleepy Barcelona, riding on a bus with the road crew from Embrace.

Oh yeah, I'll show your punk rock ass.

fell sadder for the sad old bone
it's not far, really babe, it's just not that far

I shoulda stood in bed with Loretta Lynn in my head.

While we're on the subject:

"the clerk smiled as she saw the same nut pick up a personal size grocery basket and head down aisle two. she smiled because periodically this guy would return with a basket full of glade lock and hold room freshener and deodorizer. it's a deodorizer that works on the same principle as a bug bomb. simply push down on the button and it fills the room with a scented fog. the man would buy only about five or six cans at a time. he'd been coming in for about five weeks now. sometimes he would come in twice a week. he seemed like a normal guy. he was kind of balding in his mid thirties wearing a black leather jacket. and he was always so damn dusty something soft about his features. it looked like it was makeup but it was just dust. he paid with a twenty and said thank you and left.

when the man returned home he took the glade from the worthless little plastic sack. he placed one on the rug, one on the end table, one on the window sill, one under the TV, and one on the air conditioner. this might seem unusual except for the fact that his entire apartment was just filled with them. every room on every surface. he figured he had about sixty of them in all--each one's nozzle poised at the ready. he sighed and opened a beer. he started to push down the lock and hold buttons on the canisters, slowly filling the room, working his way from the dining room into the den. each room filling with a multiscented fog: desert bloom, evergreen, misty rose, fresh lemon, regular and unscented, pot porrouri, wild oak, petulia, ocean mist, musk, hazel wood, irish nights, sandal wood, rain forest, country kitchen, natural prevention?, orange blossom, indian summer, and holiday candle. calmly he sat on the couch, spilt his beer, and closed his eyes."

If he buys 5 or 6 at a time for 5 weeks, and only sometimes twice a week, then he can't have bought as many as 60.

(taking pedantry to new levels)

http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/thumb/9/9f/180px-Sharilewis&lambchop.jpg

sorry

I don't recall either woman or lamb being that weird looking.

My favourite Lambchop moment?

Spell hard water with three letters.

Ya ready?

I C E !

wasn't sure of the new covers LP... but god i've not listened to This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You) enough in the last year. I think I overplayed it in 2019 so needed a break. it's so great.

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

new album Showtunes out May 21

the concept this time is he composed demo piano tracks with a midi editor instead of writing with a guitar, and it also features James McNew of Yo La Tengo as a band member (https://www.lambchop.net/ press release is here)

"chef's kiss" is pretty nice, a similar-ish feeling to the last album but he's shifted around which bits of the sound feel more and less organic. some people will be delighted he dropped the vocal processing but personally i could have listened to a whole career of albums with it

This (is what I wanted to tell you) was so good that it will be difficult to beat though

really lovely and interesting

That's hit home. His voice is beautiful at this pitch. Not wishing age on him but I think Wagner's voice will be extraordinary in later life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP8SGpb0PTc

fuck yeah!!!!!

sounds like the lambchop discography collapsing on itself

my goodness

those horns!

oh wow

sounds like the lambchop discography collapsing on itself

lol & otm. yeah their progression is very much like "i've been burning and re-ripping CDR copies of the same lambchop album for 20 years, and i think the drive is starting to fail." in the best way.

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

another gorgeous new one

pretty good album, though not quite as perfectly to my tastes as the last one

did no one else care about this album at all?

https://toneglow.substack.com/p/tune-glue-011-kurt-wagner-lambchop

great interview with wagner here

Not sure it's as good as the last, and feels like it will take some time to settle in - but i've really enjoyed first few listens

That’s a terrific interview.

the new album is pleasant & interesting but not the masterpiece the last one was yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ7BBAipvzw

another new album already, the bible out 30 september

single is pretty cool, glad to have more of the warped sophisti-pop vibes of the last few albums

INTO THIS.

sounds like it could be in a michael mann movie. love that he's leaning into this sound.

a few more listens later and i adore this

i missed Ohio the first time around but turns out its one of their best whoops

It’s my favorite. Saw them in San Francisco touring that one; it was beautiful.

new album is wild wow

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

this one's especially cool

very nice

greatest band of all time

this is an incredibly stupid thing to say but "little black boxes" reminds me of last train to paris

Well, this is _unexpected_. 'Little Black Boxes' currently making me think of Hall & Oates, The1975 and Little Simz.

OK, 'Every Child Begins the World Again' just broke me. It's been a rough week.

"little black boxes" reminds me of last train to paris

lol i totally get this

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-page-of-madness-with-live-musical-accompaniment-by-coupler-tickets-609503049027?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

May 5, 2023: Coupler is accompanying the silent film A Page of Madness (1926). Anyone here going?