Terrible Lizard

They won't, it'll kill the humor if I use it too much anyway. It just seemed like a good point to post one.

__________________
“YOU ARE SCUM SLUT.”
-John Martyn

Engine

Players:
Will Oldham – vocals
Grant Barger – bass, organ, acoustic guitar, vocals
Todd Brashear – drums, electric guitar, bass, lap steel guitar
Brian McMahan – electric guitar, drums, bass
Britt Walford – drums, electric guitar, bass

Released by Drag City

Early 20th century Appalachia is rife with American mythology. Old-time religions and isolated country living make for great literature, art and, of course, music. Today we have many musicians donning black vests, picking up a banjo and playing Gothic Americana. But before that existed as a well known music genre there was Will Oldham who rounded up a band and poured out his soul as if he was running his own tent revival. But he didn’t want to save your soul as much as to let you know that even a good church-going boy from the country has a soul as dark as anybody’s and probably an even darker one. The protagonists of the songs on There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You are holy people who have fallen from grace by their own undoing. His voice whispers, warbles, and soars through these stories of God-fearing people who are not sure where they will end up in the afterlife but are painfully aware of their surroundings in this life.

'Idle Hands Are The Devil’s Playthings' opens the album with some lively spurts of a banjo which eventually picks up a tune that the rest of the band follows. Will’s soft voice enters and, as usual, quickly takes center stage as he sings upbeat verses about the dangers of Hell. It’s just an earnest warning and he stops often enough to let the banjo spread out on a happy riff. Here we have a young man who is brazen in his sense of salvation. He is either inexperienced in life, or lying.

'Long Before' possibly stars the same character – years later after his house, family and life has deteriorated maybe beyond repair. Quiet banjo, guitar, and bass accompany Will as he morosely recounts the sad details of his existence. While he doesn’t come out and say exactly what’s going on there are some vague sexual references (“Mama suckled you on her holy breast/ Mama’s breast ain’t holy no more / Long before we shared a short sheet/ O, long before/ I stood above you as you slept / I don’t stand above no more”) There is something wrong at home for sure.


'I Tried to Stay Healthy For You' is a drunken confession of a man who can’t be faithful. The banjo sounds like it is crying in its own beer along with Will.

'(I Was Drunk At the) Pulpit' is a long series of couplets sung over a repetitive guitar strum. The man talking seems to be a preacher who has made the drunken realization that his entire congregation is a bunch of hypocrites (“Well I sucked down a cupful and God shown within/ in a red earthen mask/ and I saw where I’d been was a palace of sin”). It makes him question his faith but at least he is reassured that, despite (or because of) his drunkenness, he knows God better than those fools.

The title track is driven by the full band complete with organ. It’s a dirge about…fishing? I’m not sure about that but the moody organ pulls the band along at a steady pace as Will and other vocalists wail along. 'O Lord Are You In Need?' is another cryptic song that sounds simultaneously lazy and urgent. Lo-fi slide guitar caps it off. 'Merida' is more upbeat and sounds like Will playing around the fire to entertain the family on a camping trip. The subject matter is a common theme for Oldham: short, dangerous love affairs. 'King Me' is another love song of sorts. What’s most interesting about this song is that it builds to a crescendo in which Will begins to recite vaguely dirty lines like a possessed revival preacher. You can picture him with his eyes closed, brow furrowed and arms raised as he says “Yes you have pulled my manhood into your corner/ If I could get up enough strength, enough will/ To pull to your side, I want you to reach into your reserves/ Top me off, tide me over, make me a man”. Next song is “I Had a Good Mother and Father” which is a simple ode to dead parents. It is a celebration of worthy souls that have gone to Heaven. Will sings sweetly and offers a bit of his version of yodeling.

'Riding' removes any doubt that Will’s characters have practiced incest. This is the epic song of the album, chronicling one man’s sins. “Who ya gonna ride with, boy? I’m gonna bring my sister Lisa” is repeated until you understand. “Because I love my sister Lisa, I love my sister Lisa, most of all.” He is also unrepentant. “Don’t ya know that’s sinful, boy? God is what I make of him.” He is also resigned to his fate. “I’m long since dead and I live in Hell. She’s the only girl that I love well. We were raised together and together we fell. God is what I make of him.” And he still hopes for redemption. “And all I have I give to Him. All I own I owe to Him. All my life I pledge to Him.” And all the while the band plays ominous Western sounds like we are about to see a shootout at high noon.

The final song is a lullaby entitled 'O Paul' in which Will sings kind reassurances to a dying family member. It’s a fitting end to the album. Paul will die but he will die loved and cared for. If only we all could be so lucky.

Will Oldham didn’t grow up deep in the forest in a log cabin isolated form the world besides his large family and local church house. But you can’t tell that from this album. There is No-One What Will Take Care Of You is a surprisingly earnest display of creativity. Listening to it is like sitting on the porch of long-lost family members who live in a different world amongst thickly-wooded, strip mined mountains.

8.8/10

music_phantom13

You know, I've been seeing this thread up there for weeks now but never came in here before because I had no clue what it meant. Now that I finally decided to give it a read I think I just found the next few bands I'll be checking out. I love Slint, Tortoise, Red Krayola, and the Sea and the Cake (though that seems strangely out of place to me on this list). I'm not sure what the deal is with Evergreen, I downloaded their self titled album which was really good. I also have a record that appears to be another self-titled album but it sounds very different, it's pretty much emo. Not sure what happened there.

Engine

Yeah, I'm itching to get to The Sea and Cake (wrongly listed as The Sea and the Cake on the handwritten geneaology on post #1) because I love that band. The fact that so many different sounding bands are related is one reason that it's fun for me to put all these reviews together here.
RE Evergreen - there are apparently several bands out there with that name so it gets confusing. I plan on reviewing that self-titled album one of these days. For reference it is the one with this cover:

and for more trivial fun: this Evergreen album was recorded and produced by none other than James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem). Strange relationships abound in the Squirrel Bait family.

music_phantom13

Yeah for some reason I just copied what was written on the paper rather than writing The Sea and Cake. Who knows. Thanks by the way, that's the one I thought it was the other one must be some weird obscure band. That does make it a lot of fun too, when you have a whole bunch of similar band members playing in bands that have such a variety. Maybe I'll be a poser and copy your idea with Dinosaur Jr, if you wouldn't feel to ripped off. I'm getting over my short obsession with trying to listen to all the good new music that comes out, there's an overwhelming amount of **** coming out and it's just starting to get annoying. And if I get tired of doing Dinosaur Jr thing I can link them back to Palace :p It's amazing how many bands you can link together.

Engine

I wouldn't feel ripped off at all - I think reviewing albums by the various bands of J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph sounds like a great idea.

waterbut77

goddamn, that's an excellent post. My favorite line: He is either inexperienced in life, or lying. I wonder if there's a gentle critique to be made about the fact that the musician is telling a story he hasn't experienced--or if that strengthens his position as an outsider / appreciant/ imitator.

Regardless, fantastic post. I'm a new fan of Will Oldham and greatly appreciate this take on his earlier work.

Engine

Thank you, waterbutt - and it's an interesting question that you raised. Does it detract from the overall credibility of a musician when they write songs in the first person but from an outsider's perspective? After all, rappers get a lot of shit when they write lyrics about lifes that they have not personally lived.
But I think this case is different from that. Will Oldham doesn't step up to the mic and announce, "I am Will Oldham and I have had sex with my sister, muthafuckas". No, he simply writes songs in a literary, artful way like a novelist or an actor would approach their craft. I would say that any strength or weakness comes only from Oldham's imagination and talent. If you take his words seriously and then are disappointed that he is not an actual Appalachian mountain man, well, that's not his fault.

Speaking of actors, Will Oldham is one of those too. He was in a semi-famous recent indie flick called "Old Joy" and also a film called "Matewan" in 1987 - filmed when he was a teenager. He plays a young preacher and the setting is the true story of a coal miners' strike in the 1920s that turned violent.

I haven't watched it yet although I've been meaning to for oh so long. My point is Oldham can act and that definitely comes across in his songs (and especially in his live shows). He appears very authentic no matter what he does.

So, my next Oldham review is Viva Last Blues by Palace Music. This is an important album to me in a larger way than just in terms of the Squirrel Bait family. It is probably my favorite Oldham album and one of my all-time favorite albums as well. It was also the first Oldham album that I heard and I bought it randomly, never having heard of him. So that I don't have to take up my review space here is some personal backstory:

1995. I had a lot of free time and I was a regular at the local record store (Plan 9 in Richmond, VA). I had recently started buying vinyl because it was cheaper than CDs and I had a cool old record player and my dad's bigass 70s speakers. So I was looking through the 'new releases' section of records and came across Viva Last Blues.

I already liked the skinny leopard-man on the cover and the title so I turned it over and saw the Drag City logo and Steve Albini's name in the credits and immediately decided to buy it. I brought it home, put it on and fell in love with the first track even before Will's atonal, voice-cracking vocals started. Of course after they did I liked the album even more. Review coming soon.

*Note: There is a glaring omission in my There is No-One... review. I left out a crucial credit and that goes to Paul Greenlaw who played banjo on the album. The banjo is an essential element of the album so I'm sorry about that, Paul.

Engine

Tracks:
1. More Brother Rides
2. Viva Ultra
3. The Brute Choir
4. The Mountain Low
5. Tonight’s Decision (and Hereafter)
6. Work Hard / Play Hard
7. New Partner
8. Cat’s Blues
9. We All, Us Three, Will Ride
10. Old Jerusalem

Credits:
Liam Hayes – piano, organ
Jason Lowenstein – drums, additional singing
Ned Oldham – bass, slide guitar, additional singing
Will Oldham – singing, guitar
Bryan Rich – lead guitar

Recorded by Steve Albini

Released by Palace Records / Drag City

Viva Last Blues is an ode to the working man and all of his pains and pleasures. Palace Music approaches music often with a full band and, as usual, Albini’s production results in a tight, full sounding rhythm section that pounds forward no matter how slowly. The band plays like a honky tonk band in a bar on a Friday night well after hours. They and their audience are so inebriated that all the off-kilter melodies and missed notes form a beautiful symphony.

‘More Brother Rides’ creeps in with a slow beat and ghostly piano and then gets up to speed in time for Will’s voice to enter subtly but surely like its holding it all together. He rhythmically and poetically mutters about life as a young working man who can’t wait for the weekend. His lyrics are as dense as Faulkner but they tell a simple story of the frustrations that come with living only for free time for more drinking and fucking. Lyrics aside, the song is hypnotizing like countrified psychedelic jazz crammed into a traditional song structure.

They slow it down in the next song, ‘Viva Ultra’, showing us that Will has not given up his passion for slow, lo-fi country blues. ‘The Brute Choir’ picks the pace back up and drags the mood down lower. He is angry at himself for something he has done and isn’t in the mood to listen the church choir singing like everything is alright, damnit.

‘The Mountain Low’ is another highlight of the album. It’s a song about a young man who loves mountains almost as much as he loves women – and he loves mountains a lot. The music sounds like it’s for dancing some king of jig in a square dance.

‘Work Hard / Play Hard’ is played with the excitement and intensity that is felt on Friday night after you already spent half your paycheck on alcohol and that’s why you feel so sure that everything is going to be OK. The band reaches the height of its energy and every element of the band rocks while Will belts out his words with abandon. This song confirms that Will Oldham has soul.

‘New Partner’ is a veritable love song without any of the callous sexual imagery that is usually present. It really is a beautiful song. When I saw Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy play live this past June, the crowd went wild when this song started. ‘Cat’s Blues’ is another quick paced song that plods steadily as Will reaches some emotional highs and lows. The last two songs are sparse and feature only singing and acoustic guitar. They seem a bit out of place among the relatively rocking songs that preceded them but they still feel appropriate or at least natural like Saturday morning’s depressing hangover.

Today, Will Oldham has a relatively polished sound having played his own music with so many different musicians for so long, but Viva Last Blues was the first glimpse into what Will could do with a full band while fully opening the throttle on his voice. It is the result of Will taking his dark mountain folk concept into the realm of rock-n-roll. The album is raw but made to stir the listener physically as well as emotionally and it succeeds. There were probably not a lot of truckers and miners at Palace Music shows in 1995 but if there were, I’m sure that everybody got roaring drunk and had a really good time.

9.8/10

Terrible Lizard

Album that introduced me to Oldham, excellent.

__________________
“YOU ARE SCUM SLUT.”
-John Martyn