So, Does Everyone Hate Cass McCombs?

ping ping goes the shovel
pang pang goes the pail
the middle of summer
and the furnace will be burning
when she gets some mail!

Tourist Woman is also great
Not crazy about the production and a little disapointed in some of Tim DeWitt's drumming; he's usually great.

so, the single is out there. That's That. sounds pretty good.

nice guy

great name, too...sounds like a hero of the Wild West...

the first song (Lionkiller) on the new album is pretty sweet. kinda dark, with a dinky keyboard riff towards the end. has anyone heard the record?

since the last album really lit up ilm, i am proud to announce that a new album, Catacombs, is coming out in June. First single, dreams come true girl, is out there on the internet. I didn't like a lot of Dropping the Writ, but based on the last time I saw him live, I am anticipating this.

feel a little bad that i didn't hear the last album and now there's a new one. but i'm a busy guy.

the new album,Catacombs, (he probably thought about this title for years..) is very good.
in fact, it's probably one of the better records of 2009.
References:John Lennon,Robyn Hitchcock,Calvin Joohnson,Nick Drake,Robert Wyatt...

great, minimal production too.

I've only heard one song by him: "Full Moon or Infinity". A friend put it on a mix for me. I really liked it! Is that song of typical quality for McCombs?

i don't know that song.
the only record i heard from him is perfection, which is very good, but he changed styles almost totally afterwards.(less 80's more 70's and accesible, in short)

also sounds kinda like a richard davies solo record. or bill fay, which is a great compliment.

i like "full moon or infinity" despite it sounding like elliot smith. i've never heard it mentioned as a highlight, and he has better songs. if you like that song i think you will find plenty to like on his albums.
i'm not totally convinced by the new one yet. it's too long by about three songs. the first track is really excellent, though.

if you are looking for something that sounds like richard davies, i recommend aptos by the moore brothers, which is probably my favorite album of 2009.

"Harmonia" is my JAM right now.

New record might be his best.

wow I forgot about cass mccombs. I really liked those first two records and then somehow totally forgot about them.

dude, she choked on a ham sandwich. preserve what little dignity she has left.

akm, I did the same as you. But this new single brought it all flooding back. Such a beautiful song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeBD4MYRk8

i kinda ignored that song at first cause there are too many slow ones on the album but it is really excellent.

A is still one of my favorite records of the 2000s!

Just got the new album and listened to it once - "Harmonia" is the track that is really jumping out at me thus far. And "Dream Come True Girl," but that one not in a good way. The rest of the album I need more time with.

i saw him last night with a new band including andy mcleod on drums and the bassist from bishop allen. they were great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVo7eueP6wA

i'm gonna turn this into a youtube thread now. last summer he played this fun, sun records-ish instrumental, wonder if he recorded it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c5wMLspJN8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSZ1QEUwRy8

never heard of him until his new one. like it a lot, reminds me of prime go betweens at points.

i've gotta get this -- i think he's a super-talented guy, and have loved some individual songs over the years, but from what I've heard, he's yet to make a truly great record. maybe this is it?

It is pretty good - turning out to be quite a grower. I wrote about it yesterday.

nice review!

i have listened to catacombs and can only conclude that this guy is a low-level sociopath.

please elaborate

karen black!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5l8lqNakPI

theres just such an insane amount of narrative distance with his stuff--i can only conclude that he's insincere, that he's fucking with me, or that he's more of a cranky editorialist/ironist than anything else. like "executioner's song" is so gorgeous melodically, and it's a great performance by him, but the lyrics + the title are fucked, and you can tell he knows this and knows the effect he's going for. a lot of his songs are also concerned with participating/not participating in mainstream normal stuff ("don't vote" being the biggest example but there are more) and he consistently comes down on one side of that debate. he's just a weird fucking dude.

that being said, it's an excellent record and a few of the tunes are really sticking with me and having an emotional effect--totally glad i bought it.

video is certainly strange:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KtPQt8B8HA

theres just such an insane amount of narrative distance with his stuff--i can only conclude that he's insincere, that he's fucking with me, or that he's more of a cranky editorialist/ironist than anything else.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, December 22, 2009 11:26 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I first meet Cass McCombs in a dressing room...His first sentence after “I’m Cass” is “Give me a minute to get changed into my outfit.” He returns 25 seconds later wearing a round straw hat and a denim jacket with a bright pink, airbrushed scorpion on it. Across his shoulder blades are the self-referencing bubble letters “Lion Killer.” Also sunglasses.

“It’s easier to be somebody when you have an outfit,” he tells me as we spill from Vancouver’s Commodore Ballroom out into an alley through alarmed fire doors.

BUT! There are some songs that are very emotionally direct and sincere. Dreams Come True Girl for one. Harmonia is a gorgeous song, about making yourself vulnerable, getting hurt, and realizing that the risk was worth it.

Amazing and beautiful record. Person upthread with all that narrative distance stuff may well be right. Thats what makes this record so much more interesting than other records of a similar ilk. Its good that it is mysterious.

new single is gorgeous
http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/15354-county-line/

btw, i really hope he has a best of titled Does Everyone Hate Cass McCombs

mm, love this. so stoked for new album. "You Saved My Life" has lingered in my head for like two years.

Catacombs has quietly become one of my favorite albums of all time.

Wit's End is my most anticipated 2011 release by far. Well, maybe not 'by far.' There's Callahan, Josh Pearson and Gang Gang Dance to consider. But you know. Pretty fuckin' stoked.

I voted for Heartmind pretty high but unfortunately no-one else on ILM did. "Karaoke" is such a beautiful song. I really love "Estrella" from Tip of The Spheres too which is another totally slept-on album of his. As is Mangy Love from 2016! There's a lot of soul stylings on that one that really work well. It took me a while to come around to Wit's End. Its pretty dark and one-note. I'm in agreement with most here that Catacombs is his classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2FM4zuAlNI

Cass has always been an incredible vocalist, and I knew the bridge of this song was incredibly difficult vocally, but seeing someone else try it really gives some context to how much he kills it.

Perfect song for a harp cover too!

I do think that his vocal melodies really toned down after around Catacombs by and large. His vocal delivery approach narrowed and lots of songs ended up sounding kinda samey as a result.

Windfall is the polar opposite of that problem, as demonstrated there

On the other side, windfall has always bordered on the offensively saccharine for me. I still love the song because its really the only saccharine song in his discography, so its worst qualities are balanced out by the rest of the work (I think I'd have no time for this song by anyone else). His wide vocal stage were definitely still there for Wit's End. County Line, Memory Stain (a top 5 Cass melody), buried alive/the lonely doll/hermits cave/pleasant shadow song.... so really everything besides a knock upon the door and saturday's song.

Windfall also has to be one of his only songs with a third section! It's normally always either A or A-B. Amazing how much putting a bridge in a discography without them makes the song sound completely out of character. The more time I spend with Cass's music, the more I grow to love his "one section repeating over and over" songs more

A return to a wider vocal range on his new album too. Love the vocal harmonies on Karaoke. The wandering, where the hell is this melody going? vocal lines on Music Is Blue. Every track is interesting vocally, it's the instrumentation and production that I haven't fell in love with on Heartmind (except for Karaoke, a cracker track)

enjoy reading your thoughts

I never considered Cass a strong singer, in the sense that his vocals seem a bit fragile or... well, they're very understated... but they work perfectly, live too

can't put a finger on the instrumentation, my favorite from Heartmind is A Blue, Blue Band