Lambchop

good article but i think you misquoted this line: “Took the Christmas lights off the front porch / What felt like February 31st” - i don't hear the words "what felt like" at all, it's just "took the christmas lights off the front porch / february 31st"

he copped to writing badly about it, lay off man.

Kurt asked me to clap on some lambchop song when they were recording at the beech house. I begged off claiming lack of rhythm and hung out with a cat on the porch swing instead. Good decision IMO. Most of the lambchop dudes are really decent dudes, def including Kurt, but his instant dislike of David Berman when they met made me a little sketchy about listening to lambchop for a long time.

huh -- dislike, personally? obviously the rest of l-chop is down w/ berman, since they play on a bunch of the latter day jews records.

Hey congratulations. I took the 'Christmas' lyric from the sleeve notes but sure, Kurt doesn't sing it that way. The extra couple of words help though, I think. And thanks ♆ (gr8080) for playing my 'get out of jail' for me.

Yes there comes a booming sound
It used to come from underground
Now it emenates
From a kind of welfare state
Of the soul
Yeah baby of the soul

From all accounts that I have heard Berman is a pretty difficult guy. Shouldn't really reflect badly on Kurt I don't think. Not saying Berman is a bad guy, but still, who cares? You should listen to Lambchop!

DCB is super polite and sweet actually. I just don't listen to Lambchop because I just don't like listening to Lambchop very much.

I think my accounts stem from episodes that are at this point pretty far in the guys past, so really it is not fair of me to bring them up. If you don't like Lambchop that's fine, but was a pretty weird way to bring it up. IMO no need to pick sides, like Berman's and Kurt's songwriting a lot.

sunny you should have taken him up on the offer, i know of a dude who has a gold record hanging in his house because he got a performer credit for doing handclaps on a jimmy eat world song

i want these guys to fight on pay per view at a time that's convenient for me.

I saw this Lambchop show a couple months ago. This is me writing the article. The show convinced me that you could subtract everyone except Tony Crow and Kurt, and it would still be Lambchop, not that Tyler, Schneider and Martin don't add something. Kurt's songs are just so fragile, so almost-not-there, watercolor.

I'll add that I've met David Berman. Went to his house a few years ago. He could not have been nicer to me, a regular kinda guy. Musically, Silver Jews have had their moments, mostly on their last couple records--Lookout Mountain is my favorite by a big margin--but Berman is a pretty fine writer, in my opinion.

And while I'm on here, there's a Beech House/Mark Nevers box in the works. Stuff Nevers did with his bands Marky & the Unexplained Stains, the Dowsers, Meateaters and CYOD, in the late '80s and into the '90s. Good shit, some of it featuring the Lambchop folks. I'm happy to say I wrote the liner notes for it, and that Daniel Blumberg is putting the thing together, out sometime this fall, looks like.

Edd, I think my idea of Berman dates back from a long time ago, when things were maybe not so hot for him. Not really fair to judge, shouldn't have brought it up at all. I love his music, or at least everything before the last record, which I do not like much (kinda toothless compared to most of the others). Still, will always have an undying love for Berman and Kurt. I just love the way they see the world through song.

I interviewed Berman in 2006, at the time of Tanglewood Numbers, and found him just a regular kinda guy, like I say. When he did the next record, he had developed some animus toward the paper for whom I write, Nashville Scene, and therefore wouldn't deign to let any of us talk to him. But I wrote a review of Lookout anyway and relied on Mark Nevers for a couple quotes. I regard Berman as a poet who happens to make records--musically, I find it all a bit underwhelming at times, altho I do think his last couple records are way better than the earlier stuff. But I'm that way, I don't have much patience for amateurism or its cheerleaders. I also think Lambchop has gotten better over the years, and the only complaint I have about some of their music is that it just doesn't go deep enough--I'd fancy it all up a bit more. But that's not always true, and I also realize that the rather uninflected nature of their music is intentional. The rhythm section dynamics on Mr. M are just nonexistent, but that's also, I think, intentional. I like bands who play on the beat; Lambchop just floats, and that's OK too. I know just about all those guys at least a little--I'm pretty good friends with Ryan Norris and Luke Schneider, and with Mark Nevers (plug: my sweetie, Caroline Peyton, made a record with Nevers earlier this year featuring William Tyler and Chris Scruggs, which is pretty amazing and yet to be released), and I think a whole lot of Kurt, who is, like, the exact same age as I, we're maybe a month apart.

THE Caroline Peyton? Like, of Mock Up fame? If so...well done! That record rules.

Berman is a sweetheart and so is Kurt. I've been in the enviable position of hanging out with them together, actually, and if there was any bad blood, it wasn't palpable.

Yep, the Caroline Peyton. She's trying to figure out how to release it. It's her first solo record ever, really. It's quite excellent. I tried at one point to nudge her into getting Lambchop in toto to back her, but that's not exactly where her head is at, altho she likes Lambchop. She's known William and his parents since forever, since Caroline's mother's side of the family are from Mississippi, as are the Tylers. (Dan's wife, Adele, shares Alex Chilton's birthdate and knew Alex quite well, which I just recently found out.) funny world, ain't it.

was just looking at what has come out so far in 2012 and mr. m might still be my album of the year

yeah was just listening to this yesterday. holding up, totally great from start to finish.

still love Mr M-- did it not make the 2012 77 albums poll?

I don't think it did. I just got that album last month, really enjoying it. Damaged, Ohio and Mr M is a pretty great run of albums. Shame that the double album spoils an almost perfect run since Nixon.

its wonderful indian summer music

The reissue of Nixon comes out this week, and is well worth picking up. For any vinyl collectors, I think it's the first time it's out as an LP in the States. Bonus radio session from 1998 is great, and the record has more low end than the cd ever did, even when played at low volume. It's aged so well, and Merge using it to kick off their 25th anniversary reissue program is an honor it truly deserves.

Interested in picking that up. I was kind of put off by the artwork though, kind of wish it didn't have that silver border around the painting. It doesn't look quite right.

It looks pretty great in person. It's a nice way to easily separate the reissue from the original.

Think I'll still get it anyway as it's by far my favourite Chop. Wonder what other albums Merge will put out in this reissue program. Fingers crossed for something by The Clientele. Nixon is a good start though.

Superchunk's Indoor Living was recently announced as the February reissue.

So excited for this, my wife got it for me for Christmas and I think it was supposed to ship (or be available) Jan. 28. Glad to hear that it sounds even better too, look forward to cranking "Up With People" at serious volume.

i just started listening to this band and i can tell this is going to be one of those where i plow through their entire catalog in the next 2 months

lucky you

best thing i did this year was get into lambchop

new 18-minute-long single: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf9wz5esgAo

new album "FLOTUS" out nov. 4 - sounds like it's going to absorb some of the electronic sounds of the HeCTA side project

sounds goooood

kaputt of the year

not sure how i feel about the single, esp. the electronic elements, but it might work better as the last song on an album

that's really nice, love the way the drums start skittering to life around the 14-minute (!) mark

incidentally Mr. M is probably my favorite Lambchop album (that or Is a Woman)

Mr. M is amazing, such a warm album.

this last song meanders a lot but the rest of the record (which mostly, basically sounds the same) is beautiful and less aimless

aoty then

Like this!

So I liked Mr. M well enough, but I never return to it, and the new song is just mystifying to me. Such rinky-dink stuff. The percussion really grates on me, and this song just goes nowhere and not fast. Vague, quasi-music. I'll listen again, and maybe the album will reveal all. Dunno. Maybe they need an editor.

Less alt country, more Coupler: an exciting development. New song is great, too.

Wow, this new single is brilliant. I liked Mr M but this is something really special. Hope the rest of the album is similar.

Very surprising, but loving this. Who knew Lambchop would go Alva Noto on us?

Fantastic.

What do I need to know about Coupler?

That's what I'd like to know!

I have been doing my research and Flotus appears to be Michelle Obama's Twitter handle. Perhaps this didn't need stating.