Can we talk about how Bill Callahan is one of the best song writers alive?

[fishjim]

Dongs of Sevotion

This was my first Smog, and DRESS SEXY AT MY FUNERAL MY GOOD WIFE was an earworm for weeks. I blame it for not listening to more Callahan until I heard Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle.

Don't think Dongs is salvageable for me, but most everything else I've heard I've loved. Whaleheart is the only one that's uneven, but "Footprints" is a fucking great song.

[Chet]

I dunno, but this is the single greatest performance of all time. Maybe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7gVsmanJcI

[Chet]

Dongs is fucking ace, the darkest Bill record (apart from maybe Doctor) and also the funniest. Dress Sexy... is funny as shit. It also sounds unlike anything else he's done. Also PERMANENT SMILE.

[fishjim]

Dongs is fucking ace, the darkest Bill record (apart from maybe Doctor) and also the funniest. Dress Sexy... is funny as shit. It also sounds unlike anything else he's done. Also PERMANENT SMILE.

Well, I'm glad you think it's a different animal. I just didn't like the humor much - it felt too easy to be dark. "Dress Sexy At My Funeral" sums this up for me.

I've only listened to maybe half of Smog, but for me, Red Apple Falls is the darkest so far.

[narlus]

nothing gets darker than "You Moved In"

[Good Intentions]

'I Break Horses'

[Chet]

True, but his reasons for writing it are actually pretty sweet.

[G.C.R]

'All your woman things' beats everything on Dongs of Sevotion for dark and creepy.

[Chet]

What about My Family?

Mother's smoking pot
In the bathroom
I can hear her butt
Squeaking on the tub
As the water grows cold
Around her legs
And father
Is in the study
Watching a vague
Lesbian scene
Don't go in

He gets to me
Planting foot prints
Where I hope
I'll never be
Da da da da da
And sister phones to say
She isn't coming home
She says she'll write to me
But I know
She won't write to me
Da da da da da

[jm]

'I Break Horses'

[Chet]

did y'all listen to the version i posted above? it's amazing.

[auto-da-fey]

I make fun of my lady for listening to dull bands like Beach House and Real Estate all the time, such that 'borecore' is an actual IRL term for us these days in our bickering.

Partly due to this thread, I've been stuck on Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle lately, which I hadn't played in probably a year. The lady came over, heard it, and was like, "what in the fuck distinguishes this from my borecore?" Beyond an outraged "well, it's . . . better!" I couldn't really mount a powerful refutation. Can someone give me a good quippy response to steal?

[auto-da-fey]

also I was like "I think my internet friends like you because you're a degenerate pervert and they can tell you make me really happy, but damn if this ain't gonna sully your standing among these folks."

also,

did y'all listen to the version i posted above? it's amazing.

yes.

[peacocks]

Honestly I think it's his voice and the subject matter and damn, the sound of the music. I just youtubed a real estate song and can't really get any similarity to b. callahan out of it. They both have guitars? Beach house and all those chill wave bands have wafting far away waif-y sounding voices. They are pleading and washed out. Bill Callahan's voice is right there with you. You gotta pay attention. He is also meaner and funnier than the chillwave people. I like beach house, I will put them on in the car sometimes. But it is definitely distinguishable from Smog and Bill Callahan.

One is background music you listen to when you are rolling around in a field of flowers or running on the beach and the other is what you listen to in your room or driving down a long road by yourself.

ps. I don't think any less of her.

[jm]

did y'all listen to the version i posted above? it's amazing.

I did, and I don't know if it's the audio quality or what, but I don't like it as much as the album version

[Nick Ink]

I think I like Beach House a bit better 

[Chet]

I think that you should resign from listening to music, Nick.

[fishjim]

Don't tease, Chet. Nick's a cephalopod. His listening apparatus is different from ours. 

[Nick Ink]

Don't tease, Chet. Nick's a cephalopod. His listening apparatus is different from ours. 

Ha! It's true. I use the width of my eyeball as a gauge to tell whether or not I can fit through a hole.

I mean, I like Bill Callahan, I do. His songs range from fine to good, and once in a while, very good. But Beach House are pretty nice, mellow boy-girl folky indie, and that's at least as good. I think sometimes artists like Bill Callahan appeal more to their compatriots. The music seems quite clearly located, geographically. maybe that's why he doesn't connect so much for me.

[Chet]

Man, I dunno, Beach House are ok and all, I enjoy them fine, but it's just like fluff. Bill has made some bonafide classics. He is a great songwriter. And while I agree that a lot of his work is rooted in American tradition, and deals in American iconography, a lot of it is also universal. He deals in the desire to escape; he deals in love, nature, mortality. Bill will probably still be making vital music in ten; twenty years time and probably still be spoken about twenty years after that. Beach House will be a mere footnote.

[Nick Ink]

Well, maybe. I don't usually care much about lyrics in pop music though, so to me Beach House just sound nicer.

[Good Intentions]

I don't usually care much about lyrics in pop music though

As a coping mechanism, this is fine, given that most lyrics in pop music are awful, even those of well-loved indie bands. But hopefully that sad fact wouldn't hide from you the occasions where somehow good writing gets through.

We've been over this before in the past, so we don't need to run over the topic again. It's just, with Bill Callahan, even though the delivery is really quite nice, the songwriting is really what is on display, so if you're not coming to it to listen to what he has to say, you're at the wrong party.

[fishjim]

It's just, with Bill Callahan, even though the delivery is really quite nice, the songwriting is really what is on display, so if you're not coming to it to listen to what he has to say, you're at the wrong party.

And there you have it.

[Trousers and Pat]

bury me in corn flakes, and I will eat them

[edison]

Been listening to Mr Callahan all day, particularly "Drover", "Too Many Birds" and "The Wind and the Dove" over and over, to the extent that I got distracted from work and pretty much screwed up any chances I had of having something resembling a weekend. Still, these songs are very comforting in difficult times and endlessly re-listenable.

The second chorus at the end of "Drover", particularly the drums, is probably my ten favorite seconds of music of the year.