Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle, my god

Been a long time since a debut from a singer-songwriter hit me this hard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmGVIvf8Q6s

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

"Rejoice" is a performance for the ages

Kind of reminds me of hearing Because I Was In Love for the first time and appreciating that this is a songwriter who will probably go on to make better records, but will probably never make one this raw and pure again

oh yeah this record gave me a nervous breakdown

I had to take breaks from it when I first started listening to it, now I can't pull myself away. Just finished my fourth listen today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fynGDdomiI4

lol sorry if you feel alone in this thread evan, this is a really stunning record that deserves more attention (it's getting huge in the emo circles i run in tbf)

this is the one that kills me (i listened to it for the first time like... two days before a breakup)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xj72bDud40

really good record, title track is the killer for me, so economically crushing.

It's a top 5 of the year record for me. And it is funny, it does push my "I love this and so I want other people to really love this, too" button in a way I usually don't allow

I'm impressed by how much she does here. A lot of songwriters around her age/from her scene thrive on small, slice of life, slice of relationship songs, but she takes such a bigger view. She's writing about addiction, dependency, faith, mortality—all these huge topics it's really hard to do justice to in such intimate songs, but somehow she pulls it off. It's a big album disguised as a little one.

Pulse is slow
Faint metronome on my left side
Beneath my protruding spine
You can hardly hear the knife
Lying flat, blind on
Covering my sunken eyes
And the line rightful
Aimed at my sick mind

This album might have topped my EOY lists if I'd had just a little more time with it. Been listening nonstop and somehow I'm still loving it more each time.

I have nothing to add other than that I agree this is a very good record.

i'm hearing lyrics that might seem trite or cliched on paper, but she really sells them

yeah it's her voice that tells the story usually

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME1gGWsK9rE

I'm probably just gonna keep bumping this thread until every song from the album has been posted here b/c I love them all

I think it's a beautifully recorded album. That video there sounds lovely too. I'm a total sucker for that type of guitar sound. I should play more. Or at all.

"I've kissed enough bathroom sinks to make up for the lovers who never loved me"

I've only been able to listen to this album twice in total. it is so impressive and gorgeous and spacious and I literally can't listen to it without crying haha

Yeah I could only digest it in tiny nibbles for the first week or so, but it's been a constant companion since I got inoculated to it. (I still have to skip "Sometimes" and "Rejoice" some days though)

I think her use of space is the most remarkable thing about this. it's like hovering over a black hole

I just let the silence swallow me up
The ring in my ears tastes like blood
Asking aloud, "Why you leavin'?"
But the pavement won't answer me

Also enjoying the 2013 LP from Baker's previous band, which is on Bandcamp. A lot of it sounds like Paramore by way of Codeine

http://thestarkillerstn.bandcamp.com/track/vertical-cities-2

A lot of it sounds like Paramore by way of Codeine

oh this will probably actually kill me

The passion itt has spurred me to check this out. Can I just say, though, that I only opened the thread in the first place because I misunderstood and thought that Sprained Ankle, My God was a really hilarious album title.

Can I just say, though, that I only opened the thread in the first place because I misunderstood and thought that Sprained Ankle, My God was a really hilarious album title.

Well it took me reading this post to realize that was not the title...

(I would listen to the songs posted here but for the most part they're not available in my country, I don't get the fucking logic behind doing that if you're an artist or a label)

People who forget it's the 21st C. clinging to antiquated models of media distribution iirc.

raise yr hand if you recognized the "In Christ Alone" melody right away

man this star killers record is amazing

like REALLY amazing

I was thinking "holy shit it's an album tailor-made for Brad" the first few times I heard it.

I like the structuring of it, where the plucky, emo-y opening stretch gives way to spacier, moodier songs as the album goes on. So much good material here. And that last song really foreshadows her solo record

it has become my favorite album from 2015, ordered the cd a week ago

it is amazing

I'm thinking about driving to Madison (a three-hour round trip) this Saturday to see her play an opening set on a bill with three other bands. My guess is she'll play 20 minutes tops? But it's still tempting.

I really hope she does a European tour but at the same time I'm already nervous abt the crowd cause it would need to be pretty quiet for her show to work I imagine

somehow listening to the album alone is perfect setting

I saw a post on Facebook about a London show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lw-qbPq1y70

this is really good
but i'm not going to listen to this again
just to make a couple references to things i listened to when i was younger and more prone to want to wallow in my own sadness

(this is not to say this is stylistically the same this is way more 00s indie/post-emo)

but it reminds me of the first elliot smith album and a lot of the songs: ohia/magnolia electric co. in that it's the type of music that wants to "pull you under" so to speak and i think she's good and talented but nope nope nope

niels, she has a handful of dates in Belgium, UK, Spain and Germany at the end of May listed here: https://www.facebook.com/julienrbaker/app/308540029359/

great news!

the type of music that wants to "pull you under" so to speak and i think she's good and talented but nope nope nope
so damn otm (but yes yes yes)

yeah i get the same feeling as ums, which is why i've listened to this album approximately 3 times in total

it's amazing still

Also obv I hope there is more distance between her and her work than the two I mentioned

this album, my god

Do you think that there's a way I could ever get too far
That you'd ask me where I'd been
Like I ask you where you are?

UK and European tour dates!

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/v/t1.0-9/12687879_1285637934785433_2776795949432720901_n.jpg?oh=2323eb2ed0cbe599271431545a3fe63a&oe=57669B12

I guess I'll have to go on a small vacation - anyone happen to know that one of these venues is particularly great?

was talking to a friend abt this record - we both feel there's an age specifity to some of the emotions Baker expresses, and at first this made us appreciate the record from a distance, but then it pulls you in, and suddenly it's like being a teenager again, let's you access some p strong emotions

(not sure if I'm expressing myself clearly, certainly don't want it to come off as patronizing)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxTjko70fBg

whoa thanks for posting! i jsut watched the full concert vid and they mentioned east coast tour, which i didn't know about :)

New song for NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts. It's sad and pretty, like all the others

http://www.npr.org/2016/03/04/469247254/julien-baker-tiny-desk-concert?autoplay=true

yeeeees she's coming to Aarhus in May!

Been a long time since a debut from a singer-songwriter hit me this hard

I drove from Mississippi to Nashville to see her a week or two ago, because I feel the same way. Her record reminds of when the first Smiths record came out when I was a teenager. Not that it sounds anything like the Smiths, but there is that same feeling that this person is articulating emotions that I have felt. You could have heard a pin drop while she was playing, she had the room in the palm of her hand, although her between-song banter was self-deprecating and funny.

Aside from the lyrics, I love how the music is sooooooo spare and spartan: she gets an awful lot out of one or two chords and a delay pedal. In that regard, it reminds me of the very early Durutti Column records, if they were slowed and stripped down even further.

The musical side of it is so perfect, just can't imagine these songs any other way.

I'm probably just gonna keep bumping this thread until every song from the album has been posted here b/c I love them all

No idea how I made it so long without posting this one

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSgWPJy01es

evan have you seen her live yet

Nope, seeing her in a few weeks in Madison. Super excited but also nervous to revisit all these songs from the darkest point of my life in a public place.

In all the live videos she somehow sounds just as good as she does on the album so I have pretty high hopes.

yeah i saw her in san francisco last month. it was tremendous. pin drop quiet

i get some nina nastasia vibes from her occasionally but she's very much her own thing

yeah i saw her in san francisco last month. it was tremendous. pin drop quiet

Saw her a second time a couple of weeks ago in a small venue that's usually full of noisy drunk people, but she does get people to shut up and pay attention.

Leaving aside the lyrics, within the self-imposed box of the minimal style she has chosen to employ on this album, she is really a tremendous guitar player with a great sense of dynamics.

I showed "sprained ankle" to one of my students on Tuesday and he had already recorded a cover by Thursday

I can't believe how young she is. Up with Julia Holter as a major new player in Americsn music

uh i dont really put em in the same building tho

also julia holter has been recording for a minute

ur gonna run

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlVp9W6LvTQ

Seeing her soon and stoked! I predict crying in public!

ok i covered sprained ankle, too
https://soundcloud.com/matthewmathieu/sprained-ankle-julien-baker

^^^^that is awesome.

http://www.stereogum.com/1869199/julien-baker-the-ballad-of-big-nothing-elliott-smith-cover/mp3s/

Excellent show last night. Kind of an eerie moment when, after taking in the entire set in stone silence, the crowd worked up the courage to start singing along with "Something."

holy shit there were a ton of people at her Minneapolis show on Friday. where are people talking about her besides here?

Seems like a situation where people are just gradually converted as they discover her. Glad I caught a club show; I wouldn't be surprised if she's playing theaters by the time she tours behind her next album

Amazing live. Also it was my first time trying MDMA (in slightly too small a dose, I think), which made it extra nice.

i'm seeing her tonight! no mdma tho.

Again marveling at what a remarkable feat this album is. Over the last six months nearly every track on it has been my favorite at some point (most recently I landed on "Good News" as the clear standout, but that could change). Can't think of a recent record that unfolded and grew on me at such a systematic pace. I never burn out on the record, because every time I think I've finally tapped it dry, a different song starts speaking to me.

Ack, jesus christ speak of the devil

http://www.stereogum.com/1874106/watch-julien-baker-sing-good-news-with-sharon-van-etten-in-nyc/video/

i saw her and it was remarkable, really could hear a pindrop (except for the creaky-ass floor at the venue... at one point someone near the front needed to go to the washroom or something, and she walked away, and it was SO LOUD)

after seeing her live, rejoice absolutely jumped out, what a song

saw her live friday, absolutely amazing - entire show was a highlight but "everybody does", "good news", "blacktop" and "go home" stood out for me, eyes welling up

quickly ran into her later and she came off as the nicest person, as she also does in recent piece published on p4k

while the songs feel very contemporary to me in their intimacy, I couldn't help but feel they could become part of the western cannon same way as dylan/joni/browne/townes/etc's stuff

bury me with this album

NPR is streaming her set at Newport. Starts a bit slow but it's great
http://www.npr.org/event/music/488354526/julien-baker-live-in-concert-newport-folk-2016

Signed to Matador, no shock there. "Funeral Pyre" is a bruiser.

Do you reckon we'll get a second album this year following the Matador signing? I really hope so.

seconded

I think there's a very good chance of that happening, yeah

Funeral Pyre sounds great

Wonder if she'll record with a band now she's on a bigger label

Kind of reminds me of hearing Because I Was In Love for the first time and appreciating that this is a songwriter who will probably go on to make better records, but will probably never make one this raw and pure again

― Evan R, jueves 5 de noviembre de 2015 20:51 (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha! I was just talking about this with a friend yesterday. She's 21 I think? She certainly has the potential talent to continue doing even better music but as she gets older it's a given that sensitive types of singers get a bit burnt down and they stop delivering heavily emotional performances. Most I've seen become more tired, more cynical or simply start becoming more obsessed about layering sounds in the studio instead of raw performances.

I don't think she'll ever be as

Whoa pushed submit by accident. Anyways watch her live while you can!

I listened to "Sprained Ankle" the other week and it almost broke me in half

but it was just a sprain, tho?

"Everybody Does" sends these weird and terrible shivers down my spine every time.

new song "distant solar systems" is out there

Almost breezy by her standards!

another new song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI7fFavJQ0k

sounds great, digging the guitar work

also: https://www.instagram.com/p/BUpXYC5AE2s/

new album turn out the lights out october 27

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/5994f719b5493d7110d146be/master/pass/JB_cover02.jpg

new song "appointments" is on spotify and etc.

Yay! Looking forward to crying all November.

sounds great!

loving the cover, wonder if it's for sale as a poster somewhere?

cool I'm tearing up at work

her voice is huge in the last bit, my goodness

only songwriter who's ever made me physically reluctant to press play for fear of what she might make me experience

Her first album is inextricably associated with a personal trauma, so that's a big part of it, but she's the only artist that's given me that feeling. Like, I don't even know a way of describing it that isn't completely hyperbolic. I don't feel like I'm listening to the songs, I feel like they're happening to me, the evocations are so strong.

The first new song is great, shivers down the back of the neck at the finale!

Video for Appointments just released: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdBu21i9aEE

I really like the latter stages.

i thought the first album was called 'sprained ankle, my god' because of this thread until i saw it in a record store last week

i gotta be real "appointments" reminds me of taylor swift's "dear john"

for me this is a great thing

or like "dear john" merging with jimmy eat world's "hear you me"

haha, I didn't know those songs but listening now and very otm - she def has the potential to cross over

loving the single, which is apparently the first one off the album, maybe the other 2 were from an abandoned ep?

jfc this new album

I know you do better when you're by yourself
Free from the weight of my dirt-poor health...

wait is the new album out out yet or you're just talking about the singles?

i'm so excited i'm seeing her next month in philly

New album. Not out yet, but I've been sitting on a stream I've been too timid to listen to until lately

I probably won't spend too much time with the LP before it's public. This is unusually fraught territory for me, so I kinda want the support group experience of listening to it with other people. (Without getting too much into my personal stuff, "Appointments" alone is enough to leave me in a mild fog of panic for hours. There was a time when Baker's music really helped build me back up, but lately it feels like a straight trigger, sad in an almost unhealthy/unconstructive way, so I don't quite know what to do with it now. In a lifetime of listening to music, I've never been in a position remotely like this before).

But as for the album itself it's gorgeous and triumphant and potent and brilliantly written and it totally lives up to the promise of the debut, while expanding on it in so many different ways. I'm hoping I can find a place for it in my life, because it's phenomenal.

um what do i have to do to get access to that stream?

pitch a review somewhere. If you're interested in possibly covering it I can PM you the publicist contact (it's being serviced through a very critic-friendly PR firm and label)

hmmm i haven't written a review in like 5 years but it might be worth it to hear this early...

yeah can't hurt. Even if you just wanted to pitch somewhere small or modest, a blog you enjoy or something, it might be worth it and the publicist would probably be cool with that. It's the kind of album that stirs a lot of thoughts. I can't imagine anybody listening and being like, "nah, I don't have much to say about this."

When is this coming out? 'Appointments' is so achingly great.

listening to Sprained Ankle now, it is indeed a unique tearjerker

Out Oct. 27, just before the cruelest week of the year (when daylight savings time ends and the world suddenly feels very, very dark).

Ahhh that's perfect, thanks

Two more thoughts then I'll shut up for a few weeks: The title track is an experience and I'm excited to see how she plays it live, and "Sour Breath" is one of her best songs

Any percussion?

Appointments has an indie-Christian Contemporary element that sticks out to me, like Eisley (Texas band) a decade ago.

No spoilers!

(j/k :))

xp

I do not get any (indie-)Christian vibes from Appointments, but that's probably because Jesus isn't alright with me :) She does believe in god, so that would make perfect sense.

no doubt in my mind JB knows Eisley's stuff

the little "In Christ Alone" interlude at the end of "Go Home" on Sprained Ankle threw me for a loop the first time i heard it

"turn out the lights" (the song) is out and it's stunning and huge

song is amazing, album is amazing. Does such a great job expanding the sound of her first album while preserving the feel of it.

my god

Just bought tickets to see her at the end of November (w/David Bazan opening). She's playing a gorgeous old theater here with amazing acoustics, looking forward to just sinking into it.

Seeing her next week for what will surely be her last gig under twenty bucks.

she is amazing and deserves every success but boy did she zoom past Bazan, a guy who's been good to great for a long time

i realize this happens all the time, that xpost just struck me.

https://www.thefader.com/2017/10/18/julien-baker-turn-out-the-lights-sprained-ankle-interview

I just really need this to be streaming somewhere so I can properly cry along to the new songs at the gig next week

We speak a few days after Baker opened for one of her longtime heroes, Paramore
surprised at this connection - slightly off topic, where do I start if I want to get to know Paramore?

i like the self-titled a lot

s/t or brand new eyes

I used to get Paramore vibes from her music. Different volume levels, obviously, but there's a similar emotional/blunt candor to their songwriting

Seconding s/t; that one is their masterpiece. Riot! is one of my favorite alt-rock albums of the '00s, though, and probably their most influential, even if it's the one most people feel like they've outgrown

the new one is my fave but it's definitely an outlier sonically. S/T is probably the correct answer

thanks, will listen!

She walked on right after "Rose-Colored Boy," lol

It was a v good show but not quite as entrancing as the last one, probably cause the venue was 4x bigger and people were filming and singing along this time

sounds p cool!

I also picked up the new album at the show and it's very good but tbh I'm just not sure about her move to the piano. She's an incredible guitarist but a fairly plain pianist and it turns the piano-based songs into blunter, less expressive things.

1:49 in Shadowboxing - shivers

i'm listening to this right now. if i can find someone to go w/ me i'm gonna see her sunday.

The new one's really good. "Sour Breath" is the one I keep repeating whenever it comes on.

She's a terrific lyricist, too -- the territory she covers could veer into maudlin or self-indulgent really easily, but her metaphors are vivid and honest.

and relatable, I think ... she sings about universal things in a way that feels not just personal, but tangible

I think my *slight* disappointment with the album stems from how much I loved the "Funeral Pyre"/"Distant Solar Systems" single. The album feels a bit broader and safer by comparison

Yeah, that single is very intimate. Reminds me of Elliot Smith's earlier stuff. But I also like the sweep of the new one, it's kind of like bedroom stadium-rock.

hurt less, my god

she is so powerful

I don't get the hype, and i tried. I thhink it might be the dramatic singing style

"Sour Breath" is still my fav, but man that closer.

this album is fine. idk why i am particularly unable to connect with it. i was sorta hoping the expanded arrangements would include drums

"hurt less" is v good

Tried listening to this album today. It sounds like it was commissioned by a music supervisor at Hulu. Maybe the most faceless thing I've heard all year. Genuinely baffled by the appeal of stuff like this - or at least baffled how people can tell this sad-girl-with-guitar from the six dozen others who sound exactly like her who also put out albums this month.

ah

imo she has a very distinctive sound but if you describe female singer-songwriters as "sad-girl-with-guitar" it could be this isn't a genre that you're really giving a fair chance

yeah i think it's pretty apparent why she sticks out—the austerity of her arrangements, her songwriting approach sort of finding the middle between emo and, like, songs: ohia

I think you hit on why I'm a bit lukewarm on the record, brad. The expanded arrangements work to make the songs more homogenous and less impactful than the debut. it's easy to forget she's still very early in her career and figuring out what works.

lol thank you for deriving that extremely good point from my not particularly good post. yeah i think that's about right

xp I don't know any other artists writing the way she does and she has a very distinctive vocal and sound

her personality and story are also interesting and probably a part of the package

I believe "Hurt Less" is the first song of 2017 to make me cry

Genuinely baffled by the appeal of stuff like this - or at least baffled how people can tell this sad-girl-with-guitar from the six dozen others who sound exactly like her who also put out albums this month.

woof

Anyway, this record was never going to hit like the debut did but it pretty clearly succeeds in what it sets out to do. I think to the extent that a few tracks fall flat for me (at least right now) it's just because the songwriting isn't as impeccable as it was on the debut. But there are still like five or six tracks on this thing that are right on par with Sprained Ankle, and that's pretty remarkable.

Elliott Smith comparisons really hold. It's the difference between Roman Candle and XO.

Tried listening to this album today. It sounds like it was commissioned by a music supervisor at Hulu. Maybe the most faceless thing I've heard all year. Genuinely baffled by the appeal of stuff like this - or at least baffled how people can tell this sad-girl-with-guitar from the six dozen others who sound exactly like her who also put out albums this month.

― grawlix (unperson), Wednesday, November 1, 2017 1:26 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a horseshit opinion, not that i would expect much else

the six dozen others who sound exactly like her who also put out albums this month

name names! looks like i have some catch up listening to do.

yeah i'm doing a big EOY catch-up and would also love to know who these six dozen sad girls with guitars are

so i can make time in my personal schedule for all of them

https://pitchfork.com/features/song-by-song/julien-baker-delves-into-the-trauma-and-triumph-behind-every-song-on-her-new-album/

I honestly found reading that to be more emotionally bracing than listening to the album :(

for people who like JB I would recommend the most recent albums by Emma Ruth Rundle and Sarah Mary Chadwick

I connected hard to a couple of the songs on her first album, but my first impression of this new album is actually that on the whole I like it better than the first. Beautiful melodies, lyrics still raw in the best ways.

great interview, this woman is truly brilliant

and infinitely more knowledgeable than I was at 22

Saw her last night, she was terrific. Her voice is really something you have to hear live to fully appreciate, how huge it is and how skillful and subtle she's gotten at deploying it. Amazing clarity of tone in both her singing and playing, it was really radiant.

This album has not lost its lustre for me. "Shadowboxing" is just crushing

oh fuck I missed that there was a new album, it is also amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdOZxrp7t7s

I desperately need a covers record - at least an EP!

Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers are.....boygenius

https://www.stereogum.com/2009654/phoebe-bridgers-julien-baker-lucy-dacus-tease-collab/news/

oh fuck

EXCUSE ME

ready for the sadpocalypse

Interested in what she sounds like as a band member but I also need her to be lead as I’m not as much into the other two.

Phoebe tho

oh my days

dacus tho

I will prob not hear an indie rock record better than historian this year

Yeah it's really great. The highs on the Bridgers album are considerable as well.

Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers are.....boygenius

Did Snail Mail not return calls or?

Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, Phoebe Bridgers, Snail Mail and Soccer Mommy are.....The Traveling Girlburys

yes because they're all the same arent they

are you saying Dylan, Harrison, Lynne, Orbison and Petty were all the same?

yes because they're all the same arent they

― Number None, Saturday, August 11, 2018 6:55 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"they" aren't, of course, but the fact is the music these particular individuals make sounds indistinguishable to me. Maybe you can convince me otherwise? Because in a blindfold test I could absolutely not tell you one from the other, but maybe that's due to my own limitations as a listener

I can see conflating Baker and Bridgers, kinda, but Dacus is very distinct from the other two

maybe that's due to my own limitations as a listener

here it is

fwiw, Ponzi's Snail Mail joke made me chuckle, and i made my dumb joke, but i definitely don't find those 5's (or 3's) music indistinguishable. i just lumped them together because they're prominent members of the wave of young women that has risen up in indie rock over the past couple years.

first three boygenius songs are on spotify, i've only heard "bite the hand" but my god lucy dacus is such an incredible songwriter

uh "me & my dog" rules too, i love hearing them all sing together???

Eh soccer mommy does not sound like snail mail. Lush had a few rockers but was mostly subdued stoner grunge. Soccer mommy rips a lot more in a Colleen green fashion, concise fuzzed out power pop vs folkier songs on the record

"stay down" essentially envisions my dream julien baker record: her backed by a band that sounds like elliott

Can’t say I’ve ever liked Julian baker but maybe I haven’t heard the right stuff?

there is no wrong stuff

and yes def makes it clear that she could do a great full band album

damn, "Bite the Hand" would be at home on the new Mitski, and "Stay Down" is what I was hoping for from the last Baker album. they're touring together, too:

11/04 Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium
11/06 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/07 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
11/08 Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
11/10 Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
11/11 Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
11/12 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
11/13 Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
11/15 St Louis, MO @ The Pageant
11/16 Madison, WI @ The Sylvee
11/17 Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
11/19 Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre
11/20 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
11/23 Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
11/24 Seattle, WA @ The Moore Theatre
11/25 Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
11/27 Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater
11/29 San Diego, CA @ The Observatory North Park
11/30 Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern

i mean i think as alpine pointed out the wilburys were more tied culturally than by a certain sound so i think the joke is fine

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/21/639528019/hear-new-music-from-phoebe-bridgers-julien-baker-lucy-dacus-supergroup-boygenius

need soccer mommy and snail mail to join to make a full-blown traveling wilburys situation

lol obviously someone made that exact joke hours ago.

a week ago

weeks are made of hours

Jenny Lewis, Bright Eyes, Ben Gibbard and M. Ward already did the indie-singer songwriter Wilburys

so what you're saying is that the bar is really really high

next Wilburys has to be aging k-pop stars

the ep is out today, and almost frustrating in that it feels like a tiny glimpse at a huge world

ep is great, "bite the hand" still my fav track

maybe it's where I'm at but the songs of longing for idylls ("Me & My Dog", "Ketchum, ID") are hitting me hardest

looking forward to hearing the other 3 songs. weird spotify metadata thing that will hurt their clicks - "boygenius" is an artist, but it only shows their three singles - not the EP. in order to find the EP, you have to type in one of the 3 member's names, where it's then displayed as an album. maybe i'll crosspost this with the spotify thread since someone there might actually be able to fix it.

bridgers's solo work is certainly my favourite so i'm not really surprised that the tracks she leads here are my favourites, but the collaborative approach seems to elevate all of them and hearing them sing together is wonderful

Dang the boygenius EP is great

Stay Down needs to be longer. Twice as long.

Idly wondering if the EP is ideal length for the streaming age (and may have been all along).

I haven't really kept up since the first Julien Baker album, but I'm listening to the boygenius ep on rotation today and it's wonderful. I need to go back and see what I missed in the interim.

I know I slept on the Phoebe Bridgers album last year and have been escaping to that world pretty obsessively lately.

That other sad parallel world

Always managed to move in
Right next to the cemeteries
And never far from hospitals
I don’t know what that tells you about me

occam's razor says they're living in dense urban areas so nothing is ever that far away

because all of those dense urban-centred cemeteries...

lol there are two cemeteries down the road from my high school!!

i live next to a (small) cemetery

anyway lucy dacus is the greatest songwriter in indie rock today

the way they trade vocals on "souvenir" is exquisite, and their harmonies at the end!!!

oh yeah this record gave me a nervous breakdown

― insufficiently familiar with xgau's work to comment intelligently (BradNelson), Thursday, November 5, 2015 3:12 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

happy anniversary

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

love it

julien is so damn adorable

anyone know why "boygenius"?

policygenius was taken

cool that they made Julien's vocals totally inaudible in that clip

nice! me & my dog is still my fave. (though they mixed julien super low in that performance, bummer)

also calling them a "supergroup" sometimes makes sense in press outlets that have covered the individual members before and given them lots of praise, but it's kind of weird to hear them referred to that on late night tv

xp!
yeah, i'm sure they listened back to it later and were a little :/

(not to focus too much on the mixing of a live performance but) maybe what happened was that julien's voice was a bit too high in the mix during rehearsal, so during performance the mixer turned her down AND she chose to sing further away from the mic in an attempt to fix it on her end, and it ended up with her pretty much at 0

re: the band name

“I felt the need then to qualify that we didn’t want to be in control in a mean or exclusionary way," Baker says. "But the thing about being a woman in the music industry is that you constantly feel the need to qualify yourself. We produced this record and all the players are female. It was important for us to show that there doesn’t have to be a man behind the scenes pulling the strings who is later accredited with the genius.”

lmao I can definitely imagine an unfamiliar sound guy assuming she'd have a small/meek vocal presence only to render half the audience deaf xp

xp cool, thanks!

to be fair to the sound person, she definitely looks like she's belting it in that performance. maybe he/she overcompensated ... or maybe Karl Malone is right.

but yeah, a bit of a bummer there.

caught 'em tonight - JB actually has become a much quieter singer, like to the point where she was generally the quietest of the three performers. my guess would be she's had some formal training and it's reigned her in a bit.

anyway, Dacus was fantastic and the group set was stunning. they (apparently for the first time) eschewed amplification for "Ketchum, ID" resulting in a startlingly warm singalong -- now that was something else

I just got home and someone has already put it up on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NxC76FD45M

man they kick so much ass

beautiful video

something about julien's voice instantly pierces my heart

ok, this is a silly thing to revive with, but imagine boygenius covering the roches' "hammond song"

hehe

that would be dope

I saw them in Vancouver this past weekend and it was really good. It was a pretty sad but beautiful few hours. Very moving. Maybe the best show I've seen this year.

hell yeah:

https://www.stereogum.com/2023750/watch-boygenius-cover-the-dixie-chicks-cowboy-take-me-away-in-seattle/video/

These shows look so great. I got tickets for The Tallest Man On Earth a long time ago so I’m going to miss the boygenius show tomorrow night. :(

Since this is the de facto Boygenius thread now, enjoy a Phoebe Bridgers Christmas song with Jackson Browne(!)

https://www.stereogum.com/2024160/phoebe-bridgers-christmas-song/music/

UM

love everything about the story behind it, song's gorgeous too

McCarthy Trenching is singer-songwriter Dan McCarthy’s band. We played a show together in Omaha this last year. They named the band after the trenching company owned by Dan’s uncle so they could sell those t-shirts instead of having to make their own. The first time I heard this song it hit me like a ton of bricks. A lot of McCarthy Trenching songs do that. It’s not that often that I hear a Christmas song that doesn’t make me want to quit music. I played a show in L.A. around the holidays last year where I covered it for the first time. Jackson Browne was there, and he came up to me after the show to tell me how much he loved the song. A couple days later, Dan got a Bandcamp notification on his desktop computer that someone paid 50 bucks for his record and wrote a nice note and signed it Jackson Browne. He thought someone was fucking with him. So when I decided to record a version of the song, I knew who I wanted to sing on it. Plus, I have wanted to make music with Jackson as long as I’ve wanted to make music.

that is awesome!

I love jackson browne

I love this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrV4SFp5N0U

Cool that the guitar magazine bro seems to be a fan.

she really seems like the nicest person

and she does awesome things with her guitar

wild to imagine that future generations discovering julien baker will (probably) be able to find videos like this

wonder why it's unlisted

They keep them unlisted for the first week to push people to access it from their site.

aah, clever

https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2018/11/29/boygenius_cpollack_brick-02f55231f7ee6092d2ae7404589d9acb5525f594-s2000-c85.jpg
with love from Cameron Pollack/NPR

the boygenius ep is great. somehow i only discovered it now.

somehow I only tried her music lately, and now I am head over heels, can barely listen to anything else. it's as though "Little Fury Bugs" is a genre and it warrants 10000x investigations, every angle must be pursued. my ankles are sprained.

I've only heard Turn Out the Lights, did she cover that Death Cab song somewhere?

no, but "Appointments" for instance is a take on it, in the way that the lines of marble guide the sculpter's hand

Oh! I see what you mean now, sorry, that makes sense. Now I have another reason to go back to "Appointments" though!

the way she sings "marathon runner, my ankles are sprained", and in particular, the word "my" into the word "ankles", I could listen to that forever and ever and ever. I feel a terrible loss, or even a shame, there that I can't understand outside the singing. is shame supposed to be so beautiful?

new shit!

https://youtu.be/bWAOkg2i6_g

there is actual percussion! it sounds good! album is out in february.

Yeah I like that.

Once again I fell into a loop of watching live performances of her and it’s so hypnotizing. Seeing her perform
is the definition of Sehnsucht for me.

I have only listened to Julien Baker a lil bit (mostly the boygenius record) but this is one of my favorite ILM thread titles

'hypnotizing' otm

The boygenius record is probably the best thing she has been involved with. I don’t think I actually like listening to her lyrics or her records in a way that I enjoy let’s say, Phoebe Bridgers, but seeing her live performances is so enthralling to me because she seems to go somewhere else when doing so. The way she gets completely lost in it is not that common to see imho... it’s the small performances of her... I’ve seen videos of her with big audiences and I don’t think it works that well because she’s sounds more self-conscious.

I have the opposite problem. I can't get into any of Bridgers's solo stuff but I love Baker and Boygenius

I've fallen down a couple of Baker YouTube wormholes recently. She's captivating on stage - lost in it and seemingly lacking in self-consciousness. I've been trying to find a non-weird way of saying 'it's her mouth' but there it is. That turn of the head she does. She's so good.

This sounds really interesting and I'd love to hear what any ilxors with musical nous might make of it.

"For the exciting Isolate/Create project, Julien Baker offers the stems for her new single “Faith Healer” from the forthcoming album ‘Little Oblivions’. These are supplied for the purpose of remixing and reinterpretation, hopefully offering some fodder for creativity during this challenging time."

https://www.isolatecreate.com/julien-baker/

I love Julien Baker, and at the same time I agree she's not (so far) as distinctive a songwriter as Phoebe Bridgers or Lucy Dacus. Or she's distinctive, but it all pretty much sounds like the same song (a good song, but still). That said, I like her whole sound and vibe enough that I don't really care. AND the one time I got to see her live was just incandescent, she's an amazing performer. Anyway, I like "Faith Healer" and I'll be happy to hear the new album. Hoping that she's maybe sharpened and varied her approach a bit.

xp

Cool! I may download those and try it. Any ideas for a remix/re-imagining?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pGBIAiJPF4&

I want to love everything she does but I'm just not that wild about the sound of this record so far

yeah i feel the same at the moment

also

hm, i think this sounds awesome but i'm not sure i hear the song yet

record is self-produced! that's interesting! i was like is this dave fridmann

weird, I'm currently listening to the Apple Music Julien Baker Essentials playlist for the millionth time, did not know a new song was on the way today

I like the song, but love the video.

her previous work never really clicked with me but the new album is sounding good, really like her arrangements

her new work still is not clicking with me. I don't like the arrangements :(

maybe it's just that her vox and lyrics are so big and intense on their own that even relatively small additions feel to me like a hat on a hat, just a giant stack of self-loathing hats

I've had this on repeat in the background while I'm working, and at that level I like it but only a few songs have made me pause to see what their titles are. In general it sounds a lot like Turn Out the Lights, with the arrangements a natural progression from that album's fuller sound. I like her a lot, but also I think she's kind of a great sound in search of great songs. More songwriting collaborations would be good for her imo.

I think my other problem, and this might just be me, is that the lyrics tip over into a level of pain and self-loathing where I honestly just start to worry whether this level of public emotional exposure is healthy or even safe, especially since she seems to get more raw and specific with each release (and has grown in commercial stature with each one). like, I'm not in recovery but I have friends who are, and imagining them putting themselves "out there" to this extent makes my stomach churn

Yeah, I admire her candor and also hope this is all catharsis rather than crisis.

Another song just registered for me. Maybe if I listen to it all weekend they'll differentiate themselves.

is it a pixies track that favor rips at the beginning?

sounds a bit like "Gigantic" maybe

hmm i think that's why i thought of pixies but i think there's something else out there that's closer to it that isn't a pixies track i guess

"here comes your man"? that's the track that comes to mind, but only because i'm listening specifically for a pixies reference. having said that, i get more of a sebadoh vibe from those opening notes

still not all the way into this album, but "Repeat" is pretty great. in a super grim way.

A ton of great melodies on this album, and the lyrics are raw, effective, and gutting, but the production and recording sounds quite muddied and leaves me wanting throughout. Still one of the better American indie-rock records I've heard this year.

great live show!! Her voice is amazing and her band rips and she seems like a really cool person!!!

sorry for xasanthur style post

The new song with Torres is good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcTr10SpRhs

Also I'd never gone back and watched clips of her first Memphis band. She's 15 here I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4E35RX9Dyc

Not sure I love the song yet but a) that SUIT and b) BANJO.

Huh, Baker just canceled her tour with Torres, saying she needs to focus on her health “due to recent events.” Hope she’s ok.

I read she got a concussion last month so presumably related to that

Yikes.

that's awful news. seems like maybe not just a concussion, I know those can be quite serious but it seems like something that wouldn't necessarily cause you to leave all that tour income on the table. I actually hope it is just a concussion since there are plenty of worse alternatives.

Concussion (and post-concussion syndrome) are plenty bad enough to warrant great caution in planning workloads etc.

Just getting to this Julien Baker/TORRES countrified collab -- it's quite good!