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Music dump
Mar. 13th, 2020 10:58 pmListened to Chris Thile & Brad Mehldau's collaboration album today, and I gotta say, I love the song "The Old Shade Tree" SO much. Despite (or maybe because of) the fact that Thile sings it like a man possessed, and I can hardly make out any of the lyrics in the second half. (On the record, anyway... I can understand it a bit more in live videos.)
The first time I heard this, I was walking down the sidewalk to work, and I wanted to scream when he hit the falsetto at the end, it was so exciting! But I was surrounded by people and that would have been awkward. Speaking of falsetto, I'd love to do another vocal analysis post on Thile's falsetto technique compared to others', but I'm afraid I don't know enough about falsetto to do that.
The first line of "The Old Shade Tree" always gives me a good laugh- "I hope none of you think I'm crying as the sweat rolls down my face"- because even though it's obviously being sung by a character, I feel like Chris Thile can also relate to it since there's this performance of the Punch Brothers tune "This is the Song (Good Luck)" where a few people commenting mistook the sweat on Thile's face for him crying... I always wonder if Thile saw those comments and that's what inspired the lyric, lol.
I'm in such a Chris Thile loving mood tonight, my heart is full of adoration for this man. I feel so blessed to have briefly spoken to him that one time before a concert... Sometimes I fear that even if I got my dream job (working for Live from Here), I wouldn't be suited for it because I admire this guy so much and that might be unprofessional of me... but really, I just love everything to do with the show and to play even a small part in its creation would be a huge honor.
Other highlights of the Brad Mehldau collab are: "Scarlet Town," a Gillian Welch cover which gets deeper into the darkness than her version did and features a haunting vocal contribution from Mehldau; "Noise Machine," another Thile original about becoming a parent that makes me melt every time I hear the line "If there's anything I want you to know, your mother is a hero;" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right-" a Bob Dylan cover which is so good that I refuse to listen to the original. Here's their performance of it on Live from Here:
I mean. How could ANYTHING, even the original- no, ESPECIALLY the original- be better than that?? This always struck me as a cathartic song- I imagine a person leaving someone behind with no regrets, no care for them, just joy that they're free from them... "You could have been better, but I don't mind. You just kinda wasted my precious time. Don't think twice, it's all right..." It's as biting as Ben Folds' "So There" (which is also an amazing song but I won't link it) and I LOVE it.
Another song of which I refuse to listen to the original version is "Come On Up to the House" by Tom Waits, covered by Sarah Jarosz. I mean... I tried listening to the original and made it maybe ten seconds? Once the vocals came in, I was out. Great songwriter, horrible singer (sorry, Tom Waits fans). But man... this cover...
This is a different feel from, say, "Don't Think Twice." This is a positive song conveyed with cynical lyrics. Like, "yeah, the world sucks. We all know, we're all hurting. Nothing to do but move forward and carry on. Pick yourself up and come on up to the house, where we'll commiserate and share stories of how society has failed us." Like, that shouldn't feel as comforting as it does... There's just a plain matter-of-factness about it that I very much admire.
To close out this post, just for the hell of it because it came up on my YouTube recommendations just now, here's an original by my boy Oscar Isaac. I was listening to NightLab earlier this week, on SoundCloud, but I prefer the acoustic versions- there's something cold and sterile about the recorded versions they have on SoundCloud.
It is a DAMN shame that Oscar Isaac has never released an album of music, because I love his voice and I would definitely buy his album. I really respect actors who are also musicians and devote time to both crafts (like Guy Pearce, another one of my actor crushes... hm, I have a type- MUSICIANS!!). At one point in time, he was even writing songs with Gabe Witcher (my favorite Punch Brother, despite all the earlier gushing about Chris), and GOD what I'd do to hear those tunes. (What I'd do for Gabe Witcher to produce and play on my own music, too...) Sometimes I get paranoid thinking about why that music hasn't been released yet, or why Punch Brothers doesn't talk too much about their involvement with Inside Llewyn Davis, and I start to fear that they had a falling out with Oscar Isaac, but I have no idea. Most likely Oscar Isaac's just been so busy with all his acting gigs that he hasn't had time to release music (now that Star Wars is over, I hope he branches back out into music and theater tbh), and hey, ILD didn't exactly make a cultural impact like O Brother Where Art Thou did (I still think the Coen brothers were aiming for that kind of success though), so it makes sense why they wouldn't talk about it nowadays. Anyway, to get back to whatever I was saying before... these acoustic sessions do nothing to help that aforementioned crush. Makes me just want to lie in bed with Oscar Isaac listening to Dave Van Ronk records. Seriously, that's my fantasy, more than anything else (involving him, I mean). The way he looks at his wife (girlfriend at the time) while she's filming him kills me. It warms my heart so much to know that their relationship lasted, considering the way it began (he met her while prepping for the role of Llewyn Davis and sort of method acting as him, so she thought he was this moody, depressed artiste type and was initially attracted to the character, not him lol). I'm obsessed with that story, it's so cute, and honestly the entire fact that Oscar Isaac got the lead part in Inside Llewyn Davis (being a huge Coen brothers fan and wanting to work with them more than anyone) kind of gives me hope when I think of my own dreams of working with Chris Thile on Live from Here.
The first time I heard this, I was walking down the sidewalk to work, and I wanted to scream when he hit the falsetto at the end, it was so exciting! But I was surrounded by people and that would have been awkward. Speaking of falsetto, I'd love to do another vocal analysis post on Thile's falsetto technique compared to others', but I'm afraid I don't know enough about falsetto to do that.
The first line of "The Old Shade Tree" always gives me a good laugh- "I hope none of you think I'm crying as the sweat rolls down my face"- because even though it's obviously being sung by a character, I feel like Chris Thile can also relate to it since there's this performance of the Punch Brothers tune "This is the Song (Good Luck)" where a few people commenting mistook the sweat on Thile's face for him crying... I always wonder if Thile saw those comments and that's what inspired the lyric, lol.
I'm in such a Chris Thile loving mood tonight, my heart is full of adoration for this man. I feel so blessed to have briefly spoken to him that one time before a concert... Sometimes I fear that even if I got my dream job (working for Live from Here), I wouldn't be suited for it because I admire this guy so much and that might be unprofessional of me... but really, I just love everything to do with the show and to play even a small part in its creation would be a huge honor.
Other highlights of the Brad Mehldau collab are: "Scarlet Town," a Gillian Welch cover which gets deeper into the darkness than her version did and features a haunting vocal contribution from Mehldau; "Noise Machine," another Thile original about becoming a parent that makes me melt every time I hear the line "If there's anything I want you to know, your mother is a hero;" and "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right-" a Bob Dylan cover which is so good that I refuse to listen to the original. Here's their performance of it on Live from Here:
I mean. How could ANYTHING, even the original- no, ESPECIALLY the original- be better than that?? This always struck me as a cathartic song- I imagine a person leaving someone behind with no regrets, no care for them, just joy that they're free from them... "You could have been better, but I don't mind. You just kinda wasted my precious time. Don't think twice, it's all right..." It's as biting as Ben Folds' "So There" (which is also an amazing song but I won't link it) and I LOVE it.
Another song of which I refuse to listen to the original version is "Come On Up to the House" by Tom Waits, covered by Sarah Jarosz. I mean... I tried listening to the original and made it maybe ten seconds? Once the vocals came in, I was out. Great songwriter, horrible singer (sorry, Tom Waits fans). But man... this cover...
This is a different feel from, say, "Don't Think Twice." This is a positive song conveyed with cynical lyrics. Like, "yeah, the world sucks. We all know, we're all hurting. Nothing to do but move forward and carry on. Pick yourself up and come on up to the house, where we'll commiserate and share stories of how society has failed us." Like, that shouldn't feel as comforting as it does... There's just a plain matter-of-factness about it that I very much admire.
To close out this post, just for the hell of it because it came up on my YouTube recommendations just now, here's an original by my boy Oscar Isaac. I was listening to NightLab earlier this week, on SoundCloud, but I prefer the acoustic versions- there's something cold and sterile about the recorded versions they have on SoundCloud.
It is a DAMN shame that Oscar Isaac has never released an album of music, because I love his voice and I would definitely buy his album. I really respect actors who are also musicians and devote time to both crafts (like Guy Pearce, another one of my actor crushes... hm, I have a type- MUSICIANS!!). At one point in time, he was even writing songs with Gabe Witcher (my favorite Punch Brother, despite all the earlier gushing about Chris), and GOD what I'd do to hear those tunes. (What I'd do for Gabe Witcher to produce and play on my own music, too...) Sometimes I get paranoid thinking about why that music hasn't been released yet, or why Punch Brothers doesn't talk too much about their involvement with Inside Llewyn Davis, and I start to fear that they had a falling out with Oscar Isaac, but I have no idea. Most likely Oscar Isaac's just been so busy with all his acting gigs that he hasn't had time to release music (now that Star Wars is over, I hope he branches back out into music and theater tbh), and hey, ILD didn't exactly make a cultural impact like O Brother Where Art Thou did (I still think the Coen brothers were aiming for that kind of success though), so it makes sense why they wouldn't talk about it nowadays. Anyway, to get back to whatever I was saying before... these acoustic sessions do nothing to help that aforementioned crush. Makes me just want to lie in bed with Oscar Isaac listening to Dave Van Ronk records. Seriously, that's my fantasy, more than anything else (involving him, I mean). The way he looks at his wife (girlfriend at the time) while she's filming him kills me. It warms my heart so much to know that their relationship lasted, considering the way it began (he met her while prepping for the role of Llewyn Davis and sort of method acting as him, so she thought he was this moody, depressed artiste type and was initially attracted to the character, not him lol). I'm obsessed with that story, it's so cute, and honestly the entire fact that Oscar Isaac got the lead part in Inside Llewyn Davis (being a huge Coen brothers fan and wanting to work with them more than anyone) kind of gives me hope when I think of my own dreams of working with Chris Thile on Live from Here.
