championsound Posted June 14, 2009 Posted June 14, 2009 If you haven't come across the latest LP from Bill Callahan yet, i can't recommend it highly enough. titled 'sometimes i wish we were an eagle'. I finally replaced the mp3s with the LP on the weekend. Having been a fan of him under his (smog) moniker for years, i was a little disheartened by the first LP under his own name - woke on a whaleheart, but this latest LP is absolutely brilliant. dare i say it, one of his best albums ever. the songwriting is so beyond brilliant it's not funny, the recording captures him at his absolute best, and the orchestration and music is incredible. you might deduce from the above paragraph that i quite like this album. I won't lie, it's pretty good. If you haven't explored his back catalogue (he's got a good number of albums, all of which contain gems, some of which are genius start to finish) i recommend you do. But at the very least, make sure you have a listen to SOMETIMES I WISH WE WERE AN EAGLE. rant rant rant, rave rave rave. seriously.
aarond1553552714 Posted June 14, 2009 Posted June 14, 2009 I downloaded this from Itunes on the recommendation of Graeme Reid's Elsewhere. I completely agree with championsound - very enjoyable album. I also got an older Smog album 'A river aint too much' and that has been played numerous times also. I need to get out to the music shop and get the CDs now...
Guest Guest Posted June 15, 2009 Posted June 15, 2009 Yes this is on my 'Must Get' list. He's quite underated I think. His back catalogue (Smog) is well worth checking out; there are some real gems - 'Dress Sexy At My Funeral' from 'Dongs of Sevotion' is an old favorite of mine. New single 'Eid Ma Clack Shaw' is on bFM's (over)playlist at the moment so I'm a bit sick of that for now - cool song though. :cool:
championsound Posted June 16, 2009 Author Posted June 16, 2009 yeah i was pleasantly surprised to see it on A rotate up there, but they are perhaps getting a bit too hammer heavy and commercial station like in their playlisting at the moment. I understand there's a new big cheese there, and from the sounds of it, he's bringing in too much of the commercial radio styles to bfm. I'm sure the disconnected money folk think it's all a good idea but they're in grave danger of losing their identity and point of difference which is their actual strength, they've got nothing to gain by becoming a new channel z. sorry, ranted off into the distance there, back to smog... Dongs of Sevotion was the first smog album i ever heard, and it's brilliant. also worth checking out are 'knock knock', 'supper' and 'a river ain't too much love'.
Sister Ray Posted June 17, 2009 Posted June 17, 2009 Smog...wow. Haven't listened to Smog for quite sometime. Used to love "Julius Caesar" LP & "Burning Kingdom" EP but lost interest around "Wild Love" LP. I suspect these releases were far earlier than the ones mentioned in this thread as I haven't heard any of those. Maybe I'll give him another chance... I saw Smog at Kurtz Lounge on Symonds St. in the mid 90s...anyone else see him?
championsound Posted June 17, 2009 Author Posted June 17, 2009 hey Sister Ray, yeah, that's pretty early in his catalogue. I've got wild love, but nothing earlier than that. i love that on first listen so many say 'oh it's so dreary...' or 'its so lo-fi', but on further listens, his lyrics seem to become smarter and smarter, and the music more and more considered and involving. even the early stuff. that would've be great to see him back then, i went to his concert double bill with joanna newsom a few years back at the uni theatre here in auckland which was amazing. he just played by himself. did he have a band when you saw him? i reckon his live show now would be pretty awesome.
Sister Ray Posted June 18, 2009 Posted June 18, 2009 championsound;94373 wrote: . did he have a band when you saw him? Ah...no band. He was unaccompanied from memory. This was when I was at University, so memory not too clear. I saw Will Oldham around this time at Kurtz lounge too. The two gigs have somewhat merged into one in my mind. But I'm pretty sure it was solo Smog whereas Palace had The Renderers as his backup band. Brian Crook on banjo..yeah.
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