Lambchop

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 !

They're announcing a european tour in the autumn, called "Ohio tour" - leading to speculation that the next album is going to be called Ohio. Anyone know anything more at the moment?

Really babe, it's just not that far.

And I guess it's right
To love the girls who fight
Off our manly acts of desperation

I need to listen to these guys again. I remember liking them when I was 17

Is there a reason they only play Europe

man, is a woman is a stunner.

but its been years and I've still never checked out anything else! doesn't sound like the rest of the catalog is much like this one at all too. bummer.

There's nothing quite like Is A Woman, no, but Nixon is as good, if not better, in its way (orchestral country-soul), and there are big chunks of Damaged and Wa C'Mon / No You C'Mon that are as good.

What Another Man Spills, How I Quit Smoking and Thriller being the other ones I have, and all of them being good, too, btw.

I lent my copy of Nixon out ages ago. I need it back.

yeah, I have a feeling I'm going to get real deep into this back catalog, eventually. I think I've just been a little intimidated and almost a little afraid of disappointment. and thanks for the recommendations.

as for is a woman... I just read up a bit and this record was mostly panned when it came out? seriously? crazy.

i like what another man spills & how I quit smoking and especially Jack's Tulips, but Nixon is what I think of when i think of Lambchop.

I thought Is A Woman got pretty decent reviews? http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/lambchop/isawoman?q=lambchop

the publications which gave an unfavourable review: q, pitchfork, trouser press, rolling stone, spin. quite interesting.

much as I love the 'Chop, I will always hold it against them that "Up With People" was not a cover version of that 80's Super Bowl halftime staple...

yeah, I thought it was panned going by some posts I read in this thread and the pitchfork and rolling stones reviews linked in the wikipedia. just glanced through the metacritic link. guess "mixed" would have been more apt.

anyway, not having heard nixon, I may not be the best to say... but to me it seems apparent that is a woman has some really obvious positive qualities going for it that I find it hard to believe people would just write-off. most of these have already been mentioned - the sheer uniqueness of it, the arrangements (the PIANO!), the subtle use of electronics or whatever else is going on in the periphery. its beautiful.

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?