bill callahan (post-smog)

props for shoehorning "plenipotentiary" in there

I laughed at both the bracketing quotes

I could be cool w/ a whole album at this tempo, I think I've drifted away for the last couple records for the reasons NA states above...the structures and melodic lacking /geir

i liked this song more than anything i can remember from shepherd. i think i never listened to the whole thing which is kinda crazy given how much i like so many of his records.
should i know/ expect some context for the johnny cash thing at the beginning?

he really has a lot of ugly album covers.

Yeah what was he thinking with that Apocalypse cover

https://i.imgur.com/WQ5xFN8.jpg

Psyched about the new album, love the song Pigeons! Not loving Shepherd as much as I should, feel kinda weird and guilty about it. Hmm

I love the "Sometimes ..." artwork and the cat/power "Knock Knock" image makes me chuckle. But, yeah.

Welcome back Rizzx!

I like Pigeons a lot, it's very much in the same vein as Shepherd tbf. I'm surprised so many of you didn't get into Shepherd. It's long but bobs by so nicely.

Dream River + the dub versions (especially the dub verions) have been my lockdown jam.

Hey thanks Bateau!

Sadly, the new song is more of the same, and not in a good way. It's like he is writing the same song, with the same arrangements over and over again..

More attention to interesting melodies at least will be welcome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ3rR3JOVfQ

why can't the album cover art be one of these cool drawings in the videos ?

nice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2_T4CMCmXs

wow this is one i really like !

love the drawing, too.

i don't want to wait until september

here's another song. not to be confused with 'Another Song'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOhdwYC678Q

i'm really just in the mood for these new songs sort of all the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc5mU2-sKcU

Love this one.

I hear you Budo, it's a balm.

I'm holding off on repeat listens to these cuz I want the album to work on me as a whole....but man every one of these on first listen is so good

b callahan's voice is like a strong, perfume-y (flavored) sort of maple syrup.. if it's agreeable, then great. if not, then it's a bit much. his expressive range always feels measured, even when the rest of the instrumentation is (going for) loose and ramschacke. it's not entirely unlike d sylvian's vocals on manafon, or blemish

The Mackenzies is beautiful.

Just like 5 loaded storylines falling into each other. No direct, sensible route through. And it’s perfectly OK.

"Hello, I'm Johnny Cash"

It's a gift to have you back with a new album, Bill <3

Uhhh, Mr. Cooder

on first listen i like it more than shepherd in a sheepskin vest but less than most of his other albums. maybe it'll grow on me.

"Pigeons" and "The Mackenzies" feel like top tier BC to me

Listening to this walking the dog tonight and could not stop laughing at Protest Song. That is a funny song. I am not sure how to articulate this but I love how Bill is not afraid to commit to song concept. He has so many subtle songs, many oblique, but most of his albums have one or two peppered in that, while they can be just as profound, also have this air of novelty to them.

step aside son you’re gonna get hoit

I guess as close as he’ll ever get to chooglin’

I can't follow any of these stories, they go in one ear and out the other and I'm left wondering what each song is about. I got The Mackenzies but didn't like it much, some good points though. I think I know what he's trying to do (maybe) but can't appreciate it at all.

Pigeons is a pretty straightforward story

the new one has this awkward feeling of the music being built around the structure of the lyrics, to the extent that the songs don't really flow or even feel like proper songs sometimes

I like this album and think "Breakfast" the keeper.

has this awkward feeling of the music being built around the structure of the lyrics, to the extent that the songs don't really flow or even feel like proper songs sometimes

― na (NA), Wednesday, September 9, 2020 1:15 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is otm and exactly how I feel about the last few albums

So, Bill & Will re-recorded "Our Anniversary" with Todd Rittman (US Maple/Dead Rider) plopping down some big beefy chunky riffs all over it, and then Jim White (played drums on the original, I just learned) joins John C. Reilly and Tim Heidecker to record their reactions. Not clear if John & Tim had heard it before, but the original is my favorite Smog song and so my reaction was a lot more similar to Jim's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYxKpXIh1k

Yeah weird.

Seems not really like a cover but the just the lyrics grafted onto something entirely different? On the one hand I like the idea of these two really going for it and Will really reaching (!) on the vocal...on the other its missing that circularity that makes the orig.

...so amazing^

Maybe would dig more if I wasn’t trying to get the same feels

My sentimonies exactly, this is an entirely different song, lyrics do not a song make, but dang is Will ever belting em, whatever this is. And on second listen I would like to retract beefy and chunky and replace it with harmonically crunchy, that's really more Todd.

god love him but Tim and his guitar face :/

Rittman's feel for getting that Crazy Horse sound out of the band is awesome but the lyrics feel like an afterthought -- like nobody wanted to write new lyrics so they just sang "Our Anniversary," or noticed at some point that the phrases could fit into the jam and did that instead of finding what other story the music might want to tell. One of my favorite Smog tunes in the original, dig the jam they're doing here but as Hadrian says it doesn't really evoke the mood the (excellent) lyrics do

I'm just happy to see John C Reilly jamming out to one of the greatest American rock guitarists of all time

This may be one of Will's finest vocal performances, the most range I've ever heard him reach for.

god love him but Tim and his guitar face :/

― early-Woolf semantic prosody (Hadrian VIII), Tuesday, December 8, 2020 7:38 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Tim is a bit over earnest as a musician and music lover, which is an interesting stark contrast against his persona in regards to comedy. I think he's been a little wrapped up in feeling like a Real Indie Rockstar this past year especially, but I don't fault him! Glad he's having so much fun.

haha yeah heidecker is definitely "you guys looked like you were having fun up there"

During the verses Will adopts an almost Robert Plant ca. "Kashmir" tone.

didn't even realize he had a new one out today. i'll give it a shot but i haven't really connected with anything past "dream river" (maybe a me problem)

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/62fa6349ecee23939248fbd4/master/w_1600,c_limit/Bill-Callahan.jpg

pretty awful album cover, though that's in character at this point

it's with jim white--big plus in my book