bill callahan (post-smog)

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.")

sometimes i read bits of the novel that crop up somewhere online or whatever & they totally crack me up or floor me:

You are the reason I get out of bed. To tell you that I have gotten out of bed.

i have a recording of a reading from it that's incredibly compelling, sorta someway between what you get from reading it and the very tense, charged, unfurling kinda quality that you get from seeing him sing. & because i read it when it came out - and it has that kinda woolf-ish flow of just going through your head to serve the purpose of just momentarily passing through you & leaving you slightly adjusted by exposure - i've forgotten most all of what is said in the book, remembering just the mood and tone of it. and so it's striking anew to hear the lines read aloud. i will probably retrieve my copy and read it again & like it more, i think. also maybe i will put my copy in the bathroom (huge compliment, setting aside).

the last record is still doing it for me, also. i think the thing that's appealing about baby's breath, particularly in reference to the v speculatively biographical abortion reading of it that people discuss, is that it gives you a set of circumstances to assume that it's based on, and then use as a basis to see his transformation of the facts of - turning the thing into an extended gardening metaphor and seeing the craft in being able to do so. i feel bad for trampling into that kind of intense fan reading, but he is the only thing that i feel that awed by as to want to tear apart in search of better understanding.

you know that baby's breath is a flower though (the american name for Gypsophelia).

where did you get the recording of the reading, schlump?

as an aside i'll say that i've done a 180 on Apocalypse and now think it may be his best record.

did not know, thanks for that. adding that to my case files.

reading at: http://culture.wnyc.org/articles/talk-me/2011/feb/07/talk-me-bill-callahans-letters-emma-bowlcut/
there's this v amusing q & a, and i sort of set aside the reading for later; it popped up on my headphones unexpectedly & caught me at this appropriately blank, receptive, zoned-out moment as i was leaving work a few weeks back, it's really lovely to listen to , though i was more primed then than i usually might be to listen to an extended reading of letters, etc.

i'm v fond of the new one, though need to spend more time with the second side. i don't think i'd appreciated how distinct his last five years (the a river/bill stuff) have been from what came before, until this one compounded it. like i was listening back to supper, & then to the last one - i always loved truth serum so much, because it's so well plotted and clever & amusing, but even so i hear it and think that he wouldn't try that shit now - there's an appeal to it that he seems to be sort of beyond, a maturity now that comes through a confident breadth and a way with these elliptical stories (which i guess he was doing back then, too).

his contribution to the Chris Knox compilation 'Stroke' just came up on iTunes--stunning.

Thanks for this. Illuminating. Bill reads GQ! :)

guys in shiny suits

oh my he's a very bad reader alouder.

but thanks schlump.

ha! that's funny, i didn't think so. i guess he inflects the same way, each line, with that wavering flick.

Looking forward to this reading, thanks!

I think there was talk about the recent shows on a different thread but I'll post this link to a great boot from the Bowery show here anyway...

http://www.nyctaper.com/?p=6622

Apocalypse is fantastically good! A bit slept on?

I'm listening to "Baby's Breath" in your honor.

anticipate APOCALYPSE, the new bill callahan record

"I've taken the edge off so many times

[pause]

I'm round"

that's from "Fools Lament" from the Rock Bottom Riser EP - a somewhat lost classic track.

"My comeuppance, I embrace
Like a monkey dressed just like me"

A bit slept on?

feel like i do this with most of his stuff. listen to it on release and think it's ok and then 6 months to a year later it finally hits.

Playing at Lincoln Center!

Bill Callahan
Wednesday, February 8 at 8:30

He is one of the greatest lyricists of our time and a captivating performer, too, with a dry, sonorous baritone and driving, subtle guitar chords that make for a towering presence both in the studio and on stage. Callahan, who recorded for decades under the name Smog, comes to our stage to celebrate his acclaimed 2011 release, Apocalypse.
http://www.americansongbook.org/index.php/as-2012-bill-callahan

One of my favourite concerts ever.

Who has read "Letters To Emma Bowlcut"?

I read it a few months back, lent my copy out, haven't seen it since.

How was it?

I don't remember it all that clearly which I guess is about the clearest thing I can say. I enjoyed it, found it very funny in that particular dry, dark and strange way Callahan makes me smirk. It's very weird, (set slightly in the future I think, and it's epistolary which means most of the details are left for the reader to fill in for themselves). I enjoyed it and it's a very very quick read. Actually thinking about it makes me want to go back nd try it again.

i love Apocalypse, and just recently started listening to Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle. I like his Smog material as well, but his recent stuff is so, so good.

this is lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo0FSl3wOU4

via permanent smile:

[Austin Bat Cave] are hosting a Songwriting Workshop featuring Bill Callahan, and you are invited! Head over to our Workshop Sign-Up page and register your child for the three-hour songwriting workshop, which will take place on July 14th, from 1pm to 4pm, at the Austin Bat Cave, located at 1807 W 11th Street. It will be a fun, engaging writing workshop that will tackle songwriting and putting lyrics to music, the different ways a song can tell a story, the different stories that songs can tell. We’re super-excited to be working with a fabulous and highly-regarded musician such as Bill Callahan.

really enjoyed his show on the current tour. sort of extended, spacey versions of recentish songs. it was just bill plus a guitar player and a bass player and had a great quiet-but-intense feel.

yes!
Dream River coming out Spet. 17

1. "The Sing"
2. "Javelin Unlanding"
3. "Small Plane"
4. "Spring "
5. "Ride My Arrow"
6. "Summer Painter"
7. "Seagull"
8. "Winter Road"

i am psyched for the possibility of a bill callahan song called "javelin unlanding"

yesssss

"easily the most sensual and soulful of Callahan's career"

those are some delightful song titles. "The Sing", "Small Plane", "Spring". can't wait for this.

look forward to everything this dude does

except that coffee-table book, that is embarrassing

tour documentary is "available" now btw

he really was pretty amazing during that last tour, kind of hope he keeps that band together.

ha, i'd really like that photo book

http://zero1magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/165925_537436852963717_1725660117_n.jpg

i actually was not keen on the doc, like there is something ill fitting about trying to get a p reserved guy to talk about stuff because what he's prepared to give up is not really so absorbing. it shoulda been a silent.

tyler otm re: his last group. he toured recently w/the same guitar player, minus neal morgan drumming but plus a bass player. he's playing electric guitar again, which is exciting for me.

that drummer was amazing though

http://www.dragcity.com/products/i-drive-a-valence

was hoping this was a new album bump!

Bill Callahan and Paul Ryan's creative partnership comes to Vivid Sydney stage

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/bill-callahan-and-paul-ryans-creative-partnership-comes-to-vivid-sydney-stage-20150526-gh9kdo.html#ixzz3iWpLpsZU

Callahan, whose style has been compared to that of Leonard Cohen, came across Ryan's work when the painter sent his record company an email asking for permission to use his music in a documentary film about his art practice. Callahan said he would give permission if Ryan sent an artwork he could use on his next album cover, Apocalypse. He loved it so much, he asked Ryan for paintings for his next releases, Dream River and Have Fun With God.

from back in may but i hadn't read much about before about their connection

Fred Neil reminds me of him and vice versa.

i saw him play last night. it was not the best bill callahan show i've seen (there was no drummer and instead he played this annoying foot tambourine thing through all of the songs) but i'm glad he's still playing and touring with matt kinsey. that guy is a great guitarist and his playing adds a lot to the songs on the last couple of albums.

yea i hope he keeps kinsey around for a while

i am ready for new callahan music though. dream river was three years ago exactly

did he play any new music NA?

he only played one song I didn't know but it sounded like it could have been a cover or a traditional song? something about how everyone has to walk this road alone, then every verse substituting my father has to walk this road alone, my mother, etc. before returning to everyone. thought it could be a cover bc it was more direct/simple than his recent songs. unfortunately i don't remember the lyrics accurately enough to search.

oh he played his grateful dead cover "easy wind" also

Have Fun With God is a fantastic record, massively slept on