sun kil moon?

as I said, it's not a new development

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqV9ilyiWK4

It took Panera bread to connect with the people

Fair enough. Among the Leaves was the literal first time he changed his approach in the autobiographical way, but MK/Desertshore and Benji seem directly from a diary and entirely unedited beyond a first draft. To me they differentiate that way. AtL and Perils both have the conversational feel yet sound to me like he worked on the songs a bit more. "Young Love" for instance wouldn't even be that out of place on AFP (though I admit it isn't the best representation of AtL on the whole).

AtL literally has one that goes

Well I wrote this one and I know it ain't great
I'll probably sequence at track number 8
And pick up some water at 7/11
On my way to the mastering session

It's called Track Number 8

Plus as far as why Benji resonated more is clear- people don't emotionally connect to funny stories about touring the same way they do about the relatable accounts of family members tragically dying in their mundane hometowns between visits to mundane Panera Breads, reflections of parents much like theirs, growing up, etc.

xpost OK, OK, fair. Benji is still farther down the rabbit hole of quickly written and patched together songs though. His choice of guitar lines plays a big part as well.

I like to imagine that he laid down some really complicated and overwritten tracks before switching to chords + blue crabcakes

blue crabcakes + sports bar shit are my favourite moments on the album

otm

always read Panera bread as Pantera bread.

I'd eat a dime bag of chocolate croissants

LOL

I just realized that Koz must be looking at post-divorce Ben Gibbard w/ dollar signs in his eyes

Does anyone know who the female vocalist on Songs For A Blue Guitar is? I remember trying to find out a few times with no luck.

Stephanie Finch

"I just realized that Koz must be looking at post-divorce Ben Gibbard w/ dollar signs in his eyes"

why? Koz didn't get a divorce

"Stephanie Finch"

she's Chuck Prophet's wife and sings with him as well.

Thank you! Looks like she had a solo album a few years ago.

Can someone please tell the dude he is NOT funny?

he has his moments. funnier than most people, i think.

Yeah, like his funny songs

With regard to "beer commercial lead guitar music" or whatever, I used to see Red House Painters perform in San Francisco in the mid-90s. Kozelek was playing mostly electric guitar in those days. He would launch into a noodly, 20-minute guitar solo at least once during every set. It used to bore the piss out of me.

there's a point in OLD MAN YELLS AT CLOUD reportage where you stop laughing at the old man and start laughing at the reporter

i could except this sort of criticism from a band like Swans or something.
not from Kozelek, which is closer to the mainstream maybe even more than War On Drugs are

xpost

accept

'Make Like Paper' is fucking awesome, and I would listen to 90s kozelek's neil young impression all night long with a smile

agreed. i got to see him do a condensed, acoustic version of River, but it just wasn't the same without the Neil Young-isms.

So, logically, out of nowhere, we're getting a Mark Kozelek solo Christmas carol album. Enjoy?

http://caldoverderecords.com/christmas/mkscc2014.html

Kozelek has been particularly prolific these last few years so more material isn't surprising.

Personally I'm quite puzzled by pitchfork's stanning for Benji. Much more into the Koz with gravitas than the borderline rapping, teetering b/w sad and jokey Koz of Among The Leaves and beyond.

The Christmas carols album was actually announced about a year ago.

I think the pitchfork review is mostly based on their tendency to overestimate albums that are made by compelling characters. They seem to emphasize artists that would have compelling backstories over artists with without that attribute.

Think about how they treat very solid albums by not so distinct artists vs solid albums by very distinct artists.

Kozelek shifted from a incredible musician, singer and poet into a sloppier musician with an unedited, heart-wrenching and uncensored series of stories to tell and that's when pitchfork perked up.

lol revisiting pitchfork scores and april got an 8.3. pretty sure pfork were woke to kozelek

Right, they considered it solid but they didn't make a big fuss- no BNM etc.

Some albums just seem to come at the right moment. Never been able to figure out whether that was the result of zeitgeist or just a good PR team.

my thing is i think that a lot of early rhp lyrics had a stream of consciousness quality that's entirely distinct from benji and was way more rich than shit hanging on walls plus someone died man

which wouldn't be necessarily measurable by pfork scores. april being an 8.3/non-bnm is kinda right imo, it's a more discursive ghosts of the great highway and not as many people would be interested in that than, say, old white guy indexes memory, inevitably stumbles upon profound shit

mostly i'm thinking of "strawberry hill"

Honestly what's kind of funny about April though is that it may be (now after Benji, perhaps) the most heard album by SKM, and largely by demographics you wouldn't expect to care... all due to Heron Blue being used in that Gears of War trailer/commercial.

i can dig the destroyer-style arrangement, but i'm not into the rapping that he's doing or whatever. maybe i'm boring but i prefer serious koz to the post-admiral fell promises goofy koz.

― pearly-dewdrops' bops (monotony), Saturday, January 18, 2014 7:30 AM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol, turns out I made basically the same post in January

He was pretty deadpan hilarious at the show I saw a couple weeks ago. Also poked fun at the BNM designation.

i hope neil young will remember: a southern man don't need him around, anyhow

http://sunkilmoon.com/mkwod/index.html

"the whitest band I've ever heard" - says the guy who makes the whitest music I've ever heard. What a stupid ass-clown. "bridge and tunnel people" - gee, sorry we can't all afford to live in the city itself, you elitist fuck-face.

song is pretty lol

It’s way funnier than a song called "War on Drugs Should Suck My Cock" should be.

friends with the writer he called a "spoiled bitch rich kid blogger brat" :[

the part about War on Drugs is sorta funny I guess

I wouldn't mind being called names in a song if it meant Mark Kozelek. If Matt P is a singer that's probably the closest I'll get.

I do agree that War on Drugs edges ahead of Sun Kil Moon as far as whiteness goes. And he never said he wasn't a close second so there's that.

I don't know if anyone would have predicted that the guy singing Alesund in 2010 conjuring Segovia in the process would in 2014 be channeling Art Alexakis in some bitter asshole joke-song about some buzzband.

friends with the writer he called a "spoiled bitch rich kid blogger brat"

did not enjoy that line much at all, and though most of the rest of it was pretty funny, i really wish he would concentrate on doing something more worthwhile

i can't take it as anything other than a sendup of his current bitter crank persona

That line reads as sexist and ugly to me

yeah, that is spiteful however you slice it

could imagine warren drugs being able to laugh at the stuff aimed at him though

looking forward to his new album, Finally Getting Publicity