Jim O'Rourke

New album with Kassel Jaeger (sp?) on Mego is truly gorgeous and strange and one of my favorite things this year.

already posted this in another thread but it needs to be seen - Jim singing karaoke of "Thanks But No Thanks" by Sparks in 2000. Thurston on Casio.

22:52
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_yuTYi4xpM

I never got into the Sparks but that is a very good impression with showmanship

Has to be "Halfway to a threeway". "Not Sport, Martial Art" is unfuckwithable

"Not Sport, Marital Art" is my favorite song of all time. I always thought the pun in the title was cool but confusing - so many people spell it "martial" despite the fact that every copy of the record spells it "marital." it's not a typo

but yeah i would've voted for Halfway to a Threeway - despite its length it has his best work on it. Insignificance is my favorite of the Roeg LP's - I think Eureka is massively overrated, maybe due to Women of the World.

Eureka presaged a whole era of epiphany-core ukulele and xylophone filled corporate commercials and movie trailers.

Behave - plenty of records can be accused of that, but how many people have actually heard Eureka? Anyway, it's long been my favourite (hence why I'm reacting so spikily!) but it's been overtaken by Bad Timing and Threeway in the last couple of years.

i like eureka
my favorite recent jim o'rourke is the soundtrack he did for The Creeping Garden, which i strongly recommend for the music as well as the film

yeah eureka is great, though i suppose sufjan took quite a bit from it ... i haven't heard creeping garden, I'll have to check it out!

Sufjan is definitely guilty of swiping Stereolab songs... compare "The Free Design" and the title track on Illinois. it's just ridiculous

Me either. Is it readily available?

i know it's included with the UK release of the movie, but i don't have it either
i asked (via twitter) the people who made the movie if it was going to be released separately and they just offered me that but maybe he will release a version? it's really slow and droney. the movie is about slime molds <3

you could probably email him, i think he gets back to fans p quickly

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

do you know his email? i don't!

you can reach him thru the contact on the Steamroom page

https://steamroom.bandcamp.com

helpful, thank you

some of his soundtrack stuff shows up on steamroom, so it seems possible he'd put it out there ...

hope so! i really liked it. he does whatever he wants. i admire that.

The best concert I've ever attended was O'Rourke at the Empty Bottle just before Eureka came out circa 1998. He played one song: "Women of the World." For 50 minutes. Just him, a guitar and a drum machine. The same riff, the same vocal lines, repeated over and over and over. It was the most sublime musical experience I've ever had.

I'm a huge fan and would love for him to continue with music, but I understand that sometimes you have to move on for a while.

― Bill in Chicago, Tuesday, August 7, 2007 1:16 PM (nine years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Bandcamp interview from last year

The same riff, the same vocal lines, repeated over and over and over. It was the most sublime musical experience I've ever had.

does... not... compute

Terje Rypdal-tribute with Jim contributing one track

innnnteresting.
did LL see that the Creeping Garden soundtrack she was asking about showed up on bandcamp? https://steamroom.bandcamp.com/album/steamroom-35

i bought the DVD which came with the soundtrack! It was like $16 and worth every penny! i was just talking about this movie/soundtrack with some strangers at a show and i got that sneaking feeling that they were like "will she ever stop talking about this...?" lol
i stopped! the performance i saw had a dance component and there were visual and sonic elements that reminded me of this movie.

anyway now everyone can listen to it

We caught him doing the "prelude" at the Fillmore West, in 1998. Went to see Sonic Youth on their ATL tour, first time in SF, didn't know Jim O'Rourke was opening. Just walking in, and hearing this pleasant drone going on (no vocals) in the main room (we were still out by the merch tables), "sublime" is a good word for it.

Can I just commend EvR for returning to this forum solely to update the Jim O'Rourke thread? Closest and most dedicated follower of all things O'Rourke imo, it's greatly appreciated Eric! :)

The soundtrack is great, I have to seek out the film.

You're welcome Gerard :-)

Another find, this time on iTunes: Magnetic Reconnection, a 12-minute documentary with an O´Rourke soundtrack

is there much jimbo discussion in leech's fearless?

^would also like to know this

reminds me, i rented the Wilco doc I Am Trying to Break Your Heart a few months ago on amazon, mostly to see that one brief scene of JimO hysterically screaming "Everyone always says I ruin records!!!!!!! I come into mix a record, then everyone hates it!!!!!!!!!!!" but it wasn't in there... maybe the DVD i used to have was another cut.

reminds me, i rented the Wilco doc I Am Trying to Break Your Heart a few months ago on amazon, mostly to see that one brief scene of JimO hysterically screaming "Everyone always says I ruin records!!!!!!! I come into mix a record, then everyone hates it!!!!!!!!!!!" but it wasn't in there... maybe the DVD i used to have was another cut.

This fragment is from a bonus disc (which I happen to watch more often than the actual documentary).

that's so strange because i specifically remember not having the 2 disc version & being bummed after i bought the DVD. whatever i'll just find one on eBay. totally worth it just for that brief scene of Jim screaming about how everyone hates him. ha ha ha. the movie itself is really great, though. one of my favorite music docs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOBc6au6BBg&feature=youtu.be

PBK / Jim O'Rourke: Unidentified Again [2LP]
Released May 2015. Gatefold cover.

link to picadisk website

A recent find: Calder Walk by Jim O'Rourke

new album Sleep Like It's Winter out June 6. instrumental album, 46 minutes, somewhere in between the Drag City records and the Steamroom recordings. https://www.stereogum.com/1992335/new-jim-orourke-album-sleep-like-its-winter-reportedly-out-in-june/news/

This fantastic news obv, and I've enjoyed every single one of his steamroom releases, but my heart yearns for a new (Eureka/Insignificance like) singer-songwriter album.

yeah me too. but i'd love a Bad Timing/The Visitor style thing. not even necessarily with guitars, just not as amorphous as most of the Steamroom releases.

has anyone heard anything more about 'Sleep Like It's Winter'? I emailed the Japanese label but haven't heard anything.

Still no news about the new album? It's meant to be out on Wednesday. The label website won't even load for me.

Assuming it’ll be a Steamroom-esque release if there hasn’t been any additional press. But yeah still psyched to hear it. Vinyl import only or ...?

http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/PECF-1152

Pic from Tower Records in Tokyo from Twitter today:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/De-ys9HUYAAFsOq.jpg:large

You can hear a (tiny) sample here, by pressing the play button in front of the (only) song on this.

clearly the new singer-songwriter album you were rooting for!

hahaha, yeah I imagine the clip just being the intro until it all kicks off 'Insignificance'-style ;-)

A new interview with Jim talking about the album in Japanese (site has more JOR content).

heard the new one — not terribly different from the steamroom stuff, but very good!

I´d say it´s more melodical than most of the Steamroom things, but granted there are no vocals or songstructures. By far one of the most beautiful things he has done. But why not an international release (say, Touch or Mego)?

Meanwhile there a new O'Rourke remix up on Spotify of postrock outfit Tangents' new song 'Terracotta'.