Jim O'Rourke

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'.

wow, this full set was uploaded in february, setlist is amazing, only live performance of 'Life Goes Off' i've ever heard. his 'Fast Car' cover from this show has been up on youtube for a while.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWnm8tZ9kMg

00:00 - Untitled
11:46 - There's Hell in Hello, But More in Goodbye & Movie on the Way Down
16:10 - Halfway to a Threeway
20:37 - Life Goes Off
26:25 - Good Times
30:52 - Fast Car

Just heard and savored this whole thing. That droning 30+-minute "Fast Car"!

this is an amazing find, flappy. his voice is so good here, too.

I really enjoyed this. Thanks. :)

ooh looking forward to listening to this. that version of fast car is fascinating.

http://www.ele-king.net/interviews/006354/

nice interview, thanks for sharing! only wish it was longer

Yeah it's good! Did you see there was a second page?

holy crap that 'fast car' cover is great

Yeah it's good! Did you see there was a second page?

thank you!

nice p4k review https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/jim-orourke-sleep-like-its-winter/

this new one goes to some pretty incredible places. it's a single 44-minute track that continuously develops in unexpected ways while still belonging to the same sound environment.
the section that starts about 21 minutes in gave me some goosebumps the first time i heard it, for example, although i may just be subconsciously and existentially craving stars of the lid deep bass

Entertaining interview:
https://www.stereogum.com/2007352/jim-orourke-interview-2018/franchises/interview/

Is the new album available on vinyl?

No, don’t think that’s planned. This was made specifically for CD, which is still the dominant format in Japan.

From that interview ^^

STEREOGUM: A lot of people don’t realize you taught the kids in Richard Linklater’s 2003 movie School Of Rock.

O’ROURKE: Yeah, I taught them how to play, I taught them the songs, because except for one scene, that’s actually them playing. So for those scenes I’d be on set to keep the music part off of Mr. Linklater’s mind, sort of on the side music-directing, you know? That was a fun experience. I was supposed to be in the movie, but there was a Sonic Youth tour during the shoots so I couldn’t go back to do it.

Yeah I did not know that! The story about him abt to give a signed cd to this boy and then refraining bcz of his own artwork :D

o'rourke seems like a weird choice to teach a bunch of kids to play classic rock

i applaud his teaching skills if he took them from 0 to whatever we see in the movie

xp idk have you seen him do karaoke of Thanks But No Thanks by Sparks

I think there's some footage of him with the kids on one of the DVD extras

Love the children's choir on Smog's Knock Knock too, which he produced.

I'm pretty sure all the kids in School of Rock were music school students?

somehow had never heard this before. pretty straightforward cover, with Insignificance style production

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM506qZEnu4

Eureka is 20 years old today. Remember being completely blown away on first listen... "Movie On The Way Down" esp.

20 years?!?!

still blows me away. can't believe it's that old.

I heard "Ghost Ship In A Storm" the other day in a shop and was amazed at how great it sounded, and also how generic it sounds today. I remember thinking when "Eureka" came out "there is no other music that sounds like this!" and either my ears have broadened or the world has adjusted to sound like "Eureka".

"Camofleur" still sounds crazy to me though

I love all his records but Halfway to a Threeway is the one I'd keep from '99... and I think the world has adjusted to sound like Eureka: marimba, xylophone, strings, piano, brushes... it's the same sound palette as Illinois or Michigan, and all the car commercials and epiphany core that followed in the mid-late 00s.

Same for me, that EP is the one from '99.

It's "Bad Timing" for me above all else. I love the story about Jim recording that album and producing John Fahey's "Womblife" the same year, and John calling Jim all upset saying "it's not fair. your album is better than mine"

Ha, I hadn't heard that! :)

His best song-based solo effort is Insignificance for me, without a shadow of a doubt.

I was so non-plussed by The Visitor that I never listened to Simple Songs :/

if you love Bad Timing you should really give The Visitor a second chance, it's basically a sequel. but I wasn't into Simple Songs at all, it was just Insignificance with less interesting songs and more obvious lyrics.

I wish he would relent and allow his music onto streaming services. Bad Timing is up on youtube in full and so many of the comments are like "I'm here because of Jeff Tweedy, why can't I find this anywhere else??" I know you can buy them on Bandcamp, I've probably paid for his Drag City records three times over, but I'm obsessed. I wish more people could hear these records, I mean as it is most of them are up on youtube in worse quality than Spotify, Apple Music, etc. and no one is getting paid, even if it's pennies.

At least all of this is up too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qim-IbmFTHo

the second track "Not Sport, Marital Art" is my favorite piece of music ever. Still so elusive and utterly thrilling after thousands of listens.

Xp to Goon
What song sounds like Ghost Ship in a Storm? I find it hard to believe that a similarly styled song can live up its standards and I worry that your idea of new, generic, Eureka-sounding music is 10x weaker but you still compare them like they are two sides of the same coin (a more approriate comparison would be a silver dollar to a dime).

God I love the title track so much. His vocal delivery throughout this album is spectacular.

Only barely pips Bad Timing for me which is so perfectly formed.

remember that japanese named after eureka that is also scored by jim o'rourke?

not sport, martial art is astounding.

what a cheeky little fucker jim o'rourke was, huh?

er japanese *movie