ya i mean i guess i'm more just curious as to what you really find valuable & interesting abt it. i get that ppl are interested in the aesthetic
listening to it today & thinking abt how most things i've read about it (excluding the p4k review which is the best thing i've read there in a while) have been so narrowly focused on the production & style switch-up and i was like o wait that's not why i care abt destroyer. by all means it's cool and good and interesting, but i don't think that's where the essential content lies, i feel like a meaningful engagement w/ the album requires that you really warm up to him
― flopson, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:31 (thirteen years ago) link
*i get that ppl are interested in the aesthetic but i'm curious to hear someone of your opinion explain more clearly
― flopson, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:32 (thirteen years ago) link
his other albums sound annoying
this album sounds awesome
― gr8080, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:37 (thirteen years ago) link
his other albums sound annoyingthis album sounds awesome
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:40 (thirteen years ago) link
haven't read the p4k review yet. and i haven't listened to destroyer in a long time, but in a different musical context i hear his voice and read his personality differently. i never really had a very fleshed-out impression of "who he is" tho, so i'm not sure how the new aesthetic effects how you hear him. it just doesn't seem like much of a stretch to see him as a different sort of guy when he's singing over different music, especially for people who weren't too invested in him in the first place.
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:41 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost
trying to imagine someone coming at the album w/o a willingness to engage with that dimension of it... but maybe im just strawmanning & u all think dan bejar is cool as fuck too
well its still recognizably bejar on this record i do think hes softer, less cutting, less layered & reflexive idk. i mean i think you can like the destroyer of kaputt and not love the destroyer of streethawk, yknow? i compared it to leonard cohen's 'i'm your man' upthread & i meant that more than just musically i think theres a similar shift in his personality/tone/way of approaching the listener
― Lamp, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:46 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean disregarding everything else but the lyrics & approach its difficult to imagine the destroyer of kaputt singing "you spent the 90s cowering" or "i'm a tastemaker & i kill things/i'm not a tastemaker & i kill things"
― Lamp, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:49 (thirteen years ago) link
But here the persona seems even more sharply defined. Singing these songs, Bejar comes over as the wizened ex-playboy; he's indulged every vice, come through the other side, and now looks on amused. The cover of Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies' Man, a record that seems to serve as a spiritual (though not sonic) father to this one, shows this figure in its quintessential form. On that sleeve, we see a man in sharp but slightly disheveled dress, a cigarette dangling from a couple of fingers; beautiful people are seated at the nightclub table, ready for another night of glamor and pleasure.
Leonard Cohen in that image has a sense of swagger, and you want to pull up a chair, have a drink, and hear him hold forth on the topic of his choice. The figure inside the songs of Kaputt understands the allure of this life while understanding equally its futility.
― flopson, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:54 (thirteen years ago) link
i can understand someone who found his persona on your blues or w/e icky & this is def a more charming & universally appealing mode. but if ppl are just tolerating it to hear cool sax jam im kind of incredulous
― flopson, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:56 (thirteen years ago) link
um, sounds like you pretty much nailed why i like this album and not his other ones
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:57 (thirteen years ago) link
wizened ex-playboys make music i like
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Tuesday, 8 February 2011 06:59 (thirteen years ago) link
that was a quote from the p4k review
― flopson, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 07:00 (thirteen years ago) link
But here the persona seems even more sharply defined
even on the earliest records the destroyer 'persona' seemed p fleshed out? i still love the destroyer of 'city of daughters' sneering at himself, at us, at some girl; barbed & clever & anxious. laughing but still angry saying "i'm so what's the word i don't know" trading in quick perversions & puns but that was 12 years ago?
but i mean karl's right p4k has p much hit on why the wiser, warmer bejar is going to be a more appealing figure for some ppl.
― Lamp, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 07:08 (thirteen years ago) link
everyone gets old
― Lamp, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 07:09 (thirteen years ago) link
new (i think?) interview at dusted: http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/960
― Clay, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 07:42 (thirteen years ago) link
found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1nuO0iVX_s
― talk talk talk (diamonddave85), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:06 (thirteen years ago) link
ah, that's rad. i've been wanting to hear that demo of "demo." you can hear a solo acoustic version of "chinatown" here. sorry if someone's posted it already.http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Destroyer/Destroyer_Live_on_CBC_Radio_3_10022009/Chinatown
― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:16 (thirteen years ago) link
better quality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGzM4coJ8v8
― talk talk talk (diamonddave85), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 16:36 (thirteen years ago) link
flopson so otm
― kl0p's son (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link
bejar's singing works better for me than on any of the other destroyer albums i've heard and the music is pretty incredible. i tried to get/w streethawk and your blues but couldn't really stand them. might give rubies and w/e the last one was another shot, though.
― omar little, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 17:36 (thirteen years ago) link
rubies is prob next most listenable to non bejar lifers
― flopson, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 17:38 (thirteen years ago) link
whoa i love that acoustic "chinatown" - so violent!
― kl0p's son (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 17:41 (thirteen years ago) link
I can't imagine spending enough time with his records to get into his 'difficult' vocal schtick if it wasn't for the draw of gorgeous kaputt-esque music. Hearing Kaputt, and eventually getting to like the vocals for what they are has got me look into the earlier records, but they are nowhere near as immediate for me.
― Vasco da Gama, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 17:46 (thirteen years ago) link
dunno, i guess there are people out there who like 80s leonard cohen, but can't be bothered with the guy's folkier early stuff?
― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 20:43 (thirteen years ago) link
haha -- I prefer eighties Cohen, mostly for the way in which the vocals play off the rickety Casio presets.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 20:47 (thirteen years ago) link
well, yeah, if push came to shove i might say i prefer 80s/90s/00s cohen, but i also love his early stuff. seems like a lot of people here aren't into bejar at all except for this album.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 8 February 2011 20:51 (thirteen years ago) link
It seems like a lot of people here aren't into bejar at all except for this album.
I'm def one of those.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 8 February 2011 20:52 (thirteen years ago) link
what was that first clip that's been removed?
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 00:44 (thirteen years ago) link
oops, sorry--i see it was the demo
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 00:45 (thirteen years ago) link
I just noticed that the Harvard Crimson gave Kaputt a negative review....BWAHHAHAHA
― Iago Galdston, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 02:53 (thirteen years ago) link
googled it out of curiosity, wow that's p.bad
Whatever Bejar is trying to express here, he does so with typical poetic flair.
Bejar’s most infuriating characteristic is his imperturbability. Nothing seems able to shake him out of his complacent monotone.
― proso_Opopoeia (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 9 February 2011 03:05 (thirteen years ago) link
*imagining The Social Network as scored by 2011-era Bejar instead of Trent Reznor*
― gr8080, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 10:09 (thirteen years ago) link
I like how the demo ends with that flute melody, I was wondering if that would turn up in this version. That melody is easily my favorite part of this entire album.
― Moodles, Wednesday, 9 February 2011 18:22 (thirteen years ago) link
dmr otm
― James Tipitina, Jr. (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 11 February 2011 20:32 (thirteen years ago) link
I am? When?
The Laziest River is amazing.
― dmr, Friday, 11 February 2011 20:44 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, it's not just some throwaway track, hard to listen to the album w/o it
in some weird way it makes "bay of pigs" make more sense?
― it made me wish batman had written an article on mfas (Edward III), Friday, 11 February 2011 20:48 (thirteen years ago) link
i gotta get my hands on that
― kl0p's son (k3vin k.), Friday, 11 February 2011 21:49 (thirteen years ago) link
via jaxon on the balearic thread
http://mediumrotation.blogspot.com/2011/01/destroyer-kaputt.html
― jaxon, Sunday, February 6, 2011 8:05 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark
― dmr, Friday, 11 February 2011 21:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Like this fine but prefer lots of other Destroyer albums or any Denim album.
you were otm in pretty much all your posts, dmr.
― The 33 1/3 Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:28 (thirteen years ago) link
I wonder if we will ever go back to Sh4rlene's for the trivia contest again
― The 33 1/3 Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:33 (thirteen years ago) link
having 5 beers on work night: very difficult.
I may actually buy this album.
― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh man, "Laziest River" is fantastic.
― Tyler/Perry's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (jaymc), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:48 (thirteen years ago) link
It's cool. It's the best thing on it, but it's not quite on it.
― The 33 1/3 Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 16:50 (thirteen years ago) link
Well, it's not on my (digital) copy, so I'm just now listening to it via that blog post.
― Tyler/Perry's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (jaymc), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 17:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Anyone know whether/when this will get a UK release?
― Steve Reich In The Afternoon (Against The 80s), Tuesday, 15 February 2011 19:48 (thirteen years ago) link
I do find it oddly fascinating that apparently so many folks (myself included) that have never particularly liked Destroyer do like this one a lot. It'd be really funny if everyone that liked Destroyer before hated this one, and everyone that didn't liked it. Like, a total 180.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 15 February 2011 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link
it is interesting because i don't really hear the songwriting being all that different here -- i can imagine all the songs being done in one of the earlier styles. but yeah, must have something to do with the instrumentation/style of singing.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 15 February 2011 20:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Wow, "The Laziest River" is like the score from "Rain Man" crossed with Tangerine Dream's "Risky Business" score. It's great.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 15 February 2011 20:17 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh, and "Love is a Battlefield."
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 15 February 2011 20:19 (thirteen years ago) link