Lewis - "L'amour"

http://weirdcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Lewis-Lamour.jpg

a poster linked to a track from this on the "classic album you were knocked out by" thread. theres a few other tracks from the album up on youtube. its amazing. wistful mysterious arthur russell-esque 80s soft synth ballads. anyone else heard this? is it going to be reissued? information on the record is fairly scant but i did across this - http://weirdcanada.com/2012/03/departures-lewis-lamour-1983/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwaVKAD1l0

it's being reissued next year on a mystery label. There's a big thread on hipinion about it

Bump. This is a great album. That's all I have to say at the moment. Check it out.

What I've heard of this sounds incredible, very excited for the reissue.

Learn how to spell Chlodoweg in the modern native fashion...

I am terrible with cryptic clues.

8th April

http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1140-l-amour

This is some great stuff. I'm sure every review of this is going to mention Arthur Russell, Nebraska and "Twin Peaks" - every one I've seen so far already has - but it's not really like anything I've ever listened to. There's so much fragility and intimacy and stillness embedded in this. The synths are straight out an 80s TV movie, the piano is played with saccharine sweetness and the vocals are so smooth and delicate, on paper it sounds very cheesy but the execution is so weird that the earnestness becomes haunting.

There's a convoluted backstory about Lewis, whoever he is, being untraceable and paying for the recordings with cheques that didn't clear, and while you wouldn't need to know that to enjoy this, know that there's this air of mystery around the album just adds to the otherworldly atmosphere.

I don't know if I'm obsessed with this record or just having a haunting old LA mystery story to click around at 3 a.m.

I mean, in my head, this is the kind of LP a murderer with an artist girlfriend makes in a late-80s made-for-TV noir.

i wonder why you would choose the pen name 'lewis' for a mysterious alter-ego, it reminds me of when people choose unremarkable pet names

nice album btw

just for the "lewis l'amour" joke, i figure

i had never heard of him before just googling him now.

kinda hoped it was a nod to inspector morse's sidekick

a touch of john martyn with the vocals too, the way the words just crumble to dust and are almost unintelligible

awesome indeed

this is great.

this is SO great, can't wait for my subscription copy to show up

Purchased it digital from their site a while back, definitely...off. Pleasantly.

http://i.imgur.com/MZiG0m0.jpg

I MUST KNOW ABOUT THIS SECOND ALBUM. (I know as much as Kaleb does, we've been boggling at it on Twitter/FB.)

i'm not convinced

This isn't him, but wouldn't it be funny if it was? http://ohio.arrests.org/Arrests/Lewis_Ballou_17403539/

i'm not convinced

― the late great, Monday, July 21, 2014 1:08 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You're not convinced its real?

He isn't ronvinced its ceal!

There is this...on page 27:

http://forums.hipinion.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65579&start=797

"Ok. Well now that the cat is out of the bag, I will shed a little light to wet the tastebuds... A Canadian digger turned a copy of this up 2 months ago and sold it to Light in the Attic. In a great irony, it was the same guy who we asked to go to the studio in Vancouver to ask about the recordings done there in the mid '00s. In an even greater irony, he found the record in his storage unit just thumbing through the refuse of some old buys. Such is life. The copy currently on eBay landed at THE SAME record store that Aaron bought his copies from years ago. It has been confirmed as having been recorded in Calgary, despite the address on the back for R.A.W. Corp which is actually a PO Box at a mailboxes etcetera type place in Beverly Hills.

The label had me come in and I found the disc under the coffee table, while Matt was on the phone. I initially thought it was a total hoax, but they handed me a CD-R and listening to it on the ride home I was pretty blown away. It's a great follow-up to an incredible record, and is decidedly even more personal and strange. The unintentional nods to Badalamenti on the first disc take a plunge into deep red room turf on "Romantic Times" and in some ways he feels like a necromancer waiting to make an appearance on that vaunted show. 5 years before it aired. I'll save the rest for the liner notes. Suffice to say, it's a doozy, and for me a future big one in the real people / twilight zone camp."

i believe it's real, i'm just not convinced it's that great

Late Great: "Not Great," Says Ingrate.

this reissue is seriously one of my favorite releases of the year. speaking as someone who'd only listened to the songs on YouTube previously, the vinyl pressing sounds astonishingly lush; it's the kind of album that just ensconses you in in its aesthetic. I hear where everyone's coming from w/r/t the Russell name-checks, but to my ears this album just does something else; I can't recall a Russell song fine-tuned to trigger my "beauty" receptors the way "I Thought The World Of You" does. I feel like the first Durutti Column album or Music For Airports come closer to what this album does - it's all about how gentle, delicate, and ethereal the total package of the album is (to say nothing of its many, many high points). it may be the single most poignant album I own.

I've been desperately imploring all my music friends to check this out, but it's been an uphill battle. their loss. L'Amour is an all-timer, even without the backstory. I'm very, very glad to have a copy.

well i like the backstory AND the cover

guess i'll give it another shot

Jamescobo entirely otm. It's an all-timer.

i got quite a strong blue nile vibe off this thing

omg this album

My fiancee commented about how the backstory was a little to good to be true. In the sense that it is too perfectly mysterious with all the dead leads and haunting soft music and bounced checks and his general allure against all that he's kind of like the Bon Iver of reissued artists except way more compelling in every category.

t'would be great if bon iver started rocking lewis' sartorial sense

And similarly embraced anonymous obscurity.

"What happened to that guy?"

"THERE NEVER WAS THAT GUY."

wait so there's a 2nd album thats getting a reissue??

As we're talking about just upthread...

No that's Dustin Hoffman up there.

maybe lewis is gonna start to sponsor a super obscure small batch whiskey that was only made for one week during the '70s.

http://cdn.stereogum.com/files/2011/12/avalanches-boniver.jpg

maybe lewis is gonna start to sponsor a super obscure small batch whiskey that was only made for one week during the '70s alone in a secluded cabin.

I'm making my way through the hpn thread about L'Amour now, and some artist called Thomas (or THOMAS) keeps coming up as comparison point. can anyone shed any light on what they're talking about? for obvious reasons this is a pretty tough one to google.

also I would recommend Robert Lester Folsom's "Music And Dreams" to anyone who digs this album. it's less ethereally beautiful than L'Amour - then again, the same could be said of pretty much everything in the universe - but if you like gorgeous found-object private-press records, it'll do you right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZIkdqkH-7A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUCcLLbF0O8

fyi http://isthisthomas.bandcamp.com/music

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEWIS-LAMOUR-his-2nd-lp-LEWIS-BALOUE-Romantic-Times-R-A-W-private-synth-folk-/181469207601?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item2a40685c31

wow

whoa

daaaamn

Fuuuck

BTW we have verification

http://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=1&ti=1,1&Search_Arg=Baloue%20Lewis&Search_Code=NALL&CNT=25&PID=CQr3mYhrJSq0OrL0yTbHwJHb1cLn&SEQ=20140721150038&SID=1

We danced all night
Bon voyage
Don’t stop it now
It’s a new day
So be in love with me
Bringing you a rose
Where did my love go away?
As the boats go by.

I can't really add anything to what I tried to say upthread or jamescobo's praise except this album is just so brilliant. It feels so intimate and warm.

Nicely timed, this

http://blogs.kcrw.com/pressplay/2014/07/searching-for-lewis-lamour/#.U81tzrdEgDk.twitter

Isn't there (supposedly) albums he made in Europe under another name?

Oh right, Divine.

"ensconced" is such a great word

"IT SOUNDS THE SAME WITH THE SYNTH FLOWING OVER TOP OF HIS INCOHERENT VOICE."

lol yes

This album has clicked with me big time. The first time I played it I was kind of drifting in and out of sleep which seemed like a good way to hear it but when I actually sat down and listened to it on good headphones yesterday, it sounded amazing. I know The Blue Nile have been mentioned already but it's really the Paul Buchanan album in particular that it reminds me of.

Boom! The first 15 seconds of each side of Romantic Times: https://soundcloud.com/big-al-dub-lp/lewbaloue

(as promised on hipinion by the crate digger himself)

This is turning out to be some Vangelis/Lynchian/Carpenter orgasmic lp guys.

that is just too perfect

@ jamescobo, THOMAS is the project of a guitarist named Thom Gill. He played as my sideman for a year, he's currently-of-Bernice and once took a barnstorming solo onstage with tMG. He's a heavy session player who's worked with lots of famous people, old and new. His own music stylistically runs the gamut. He's got a new, great record that sounds like his weird COGIC gospel/jazz kid brilliance http://isthisthomas.bandcamp.com/track/gather-round and he also wrote this song http://isthisthomas.bandcamp.com/track/triumph which he has agreed to play as my wedding processional. Anyway, he rules so much.

I don't hear much similarity with Lewis, me, though Lewis also rules.

Looks like we have more info now, get bent just alerted me to this which went up today:

http://dereksmusicblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/23/lewis-a-musical-riddle-wrapped-in-a-mystery-wrapped-inside-an-enigma/

Call me crazy but he DOES look Canadian

Annnd, boom

http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1396-romantic-times

Now that we have a full quality version of the album cover...

https://light-in-the-attic.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/release_image/16822/image/tmp_2F1406152015683-jew377kb0fqolxr-766a9de7996a26c7317bec5c7209497b_2FAlbum%2BCover.jpg

This. Is. Insane.

so stoked

Haha kudos for your DN

In an effort to uncover more facts about Lewis, Light in the Attic talked to engineer Dan Lowe, who is credited for working on the album. He remembered little about the Romantic Times sessions, but he did recall that Lewis was likely "under the influence".

http://image12.spreadshirt.net/image-server/v1/compositions/107882257/views/1,width%3D178,height%3D178,appearanceId%3D1/Cool-Dude---bbm-smiley-.jpg

lol crut

You on this already gr8080?

i was looking for this LP yesterday but it's tough to find now. i think they're doing a second pressing, though.

From the clips of Romantic Times on the label page it just sounds like Devendra Banhart with a drum machine on a subway platform somewhere.

yeah man i've been mellowing to this album for months

I mean the new one!

Heavy George Michael/Twin Peaks/Blade Runner vibes. He's off the deep end here, love it.

I'm getting Nicolas Cage vibes from that new cover ("new")

This is great. He sounds only slightly more together than Riot-era Sly by this point. <3 the sax on "We Danced All Night", can see the player silhouetted in the distance as Lewis sips on his 10th glass of scotch and ponders the ephemerality of love.

Lewis is actually a Jandek side project

otm

All CD & LP Pre-orders include immediate MP3 download of the full album!

I don't know if I've ever seen a label give such an elegant fuck-you to one specific unaffiliated person as LITA just did to whoever's behind that ebay auction.

I love the first album, even though it is too long and repetitive.

Yeah this is what the seller posted on hipinion:

When I first dug the record out a month and a half ago the first thing I did was contact LITA and Aaron Levin. They confirmed that they knew about the LP but never confirmed they had a physical copy of it. I thought maybe they had a copy from the masters. They said they were going to announce the existence of it when L'amour was released. I offered them the LP for a $200-$300 record in exchange. Although it's obvious they wanted it nobody really piped up for an exchange. I even emailed weekly to see "what's up with the record"? After not really hearing anything from them and seeing L'amour got released I sent them an email saying I was gonna post romantic times on ebay. Never heard anything back so the next day I posted it. About 6 hours later LITA emailed me asking me not to post it because they weren't ready yet and were still a way's away from the announcement.......and voila

Obv LITA not indebted to anyone but they could have held off until the auction was over (though that would have screwed over the buyer, I guess).

L'Amour is 37 minutes! xp

Right now I'm thinking that Romantic Times > L'Amour, though maybe that will change. "Like To See You Again" will always be my #1 Lewis jam though.

The samples from the second record sounds more polished and less spacey. Julio Iglesias going electronic...

Yeah it's 37 minutes. And still it's too long!

Yeah the samples of the second record weren't as compelling for me either. See my comment above...

I'm not sure if my description is on the negative side..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc3JU8XyCoM

Ah, I misread you nostormo.

Yeah, on "We Danced All Night"- I still find the aesthetic interesting but that tune is floating right out the window for me.

I grabbed on to the melodies and felt some pain in them throughout L'amour.

Listened to the whole song. Nice, but the first record is much better.

what exactly is he wearing on the album cover? kinda looks like instead of a shirt he's wearing a second suit jacket under his suit jacket...

http://arjay.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c514053ef01a511dcf315970c-800wi
http://s3.amazonaws.com/light_in_the_attic/artist_press_images/2139/lewis2_copy.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/s526x296/10351819_10152138895731836_4199400750582874621_n.jpg
http://s3.amazonaws.com/light_in_the_attic/artist_press_images/2142/lewis2.jpg

third pic is a bit like

http://i372.photobucket.com/albums/oo166/candidcameron1984/camjess.jpg

lol

where are those from?

From the L'Amour photoshoot/liner notes, presumably?

i found those pics in my garage, idk where they came from

maybe Lewis is living in your garage, would be cool

NEW LEAD!

There's a piece on the Lewis album in the latest Mojo. Those pics above were included in it. I'm liking the new clips of "romantic times"....the synths sound a bit John Carpenter-esque.

countdown to lewis bottle opener

So can we vote for this on the ILM AOTY poll?

"year of impact"

Anyway yeah, reissues of albums that nobody heard first time are generally eligible iirc.

Finding it rather difficult to refrain from singing "Strangers In The Night" (as Fletch) over "We Danced All Night".

Yeah, can't shake that impression myself.

Lots of 'George Michael on a merry-go-round in 'Carnival of Souls'' going on here, too. Good vibes.

desperately hoping LITA sends out early DLs to subscribers before I have to get on a train for like 6 hours tomorrow!

also, I wonder who will be actually tracked down first: Lewis, William Onyeabor, or Satoshi Nakamoto

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rdu3GD50w0

is it me or it just sounds like george michael's cowboys & angels looped ad infinitum?

Celebrity through obscurity

I thought they found Onyeabor but he just wasn't interested in talking?

Hipinions thinks this is Lewis at :51. I'm inclined to agree. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utlLjnP9kVE

anyone feel like investigating that license plate number on the romantic times cover?

Do we need to solve the mystery? I quite like the romance of the way things are just now, with just a vague knowledge that he was out there somewhere with a family and a real name. It doesn't shape what I get from this album.

If he WAS a con man I suspect a few victims would dearly like to know where he is!

Think I like Romantic Times more, actually. "So Be In Love With Me" is the winner.

haha jbr i already googled that plate, which is just about the extent of my access to the DMV database :/

romantic times just sounds so damaged, so howling-into-the-void. those leonard cohen synths really add to the creepiness.

That clip is now established to be Lewis by an engineer at the studio, so the documentary is probably finished and they're doing B-roll by now.

I don't rep for other boards much but that hipinion thread is nuts

and still going

It's a real joy.

its great yeah

A naïf, perhaps, on the outside looking in on a world of privilege, who probably traded the dream of making a living through music for making a living to make music. but whereas most private press records reflect the secret musical dream life of dentists and actuaries--jandek, i believe, worked in finance--it seems pretty likely that, given his estrangement from family, his name-changes, his ostentation and general shadiness, that lewis was involved in something like the coke trade or in a comparable arena of me-decade impropriety. part of the unmistakeable twin peaksiness of his music is in this struggle between the "james" side that donna describes--the sweet, doomed-sounding loverboy--and the "bobby" side we glean from his nephew's description and donna's later suspicions of illegal activity. between these two albums, we're hearing a soul get lost...

l'amour, then is a picture of the transition from an impecunious, hawaii-bound, shirtless dreamer to a new-minted man of the world: international erotic vistas opening, christie brinkley fantasies within reach, a lingering whiff of 70's cash-poor blues disappearing into the vapour of synthetic prosperity...we don't hear confidence in the music as much as a stunned, tentative sense of the man's sudden irresistible smoothness. with romantic times, we have fallen further towards the darkness. the shirtless dreamer disappears beneath slicker surfaces, the earnest gaze now harder to read under furrowed brows. everything is bigger and bolder, but the songs are less about coming together than the fear of coming apart. the formless horizons of "i'd like to see you again" are closing in, the boats are leaving, the romance seems more and more for one..."don't stop it now" is the anthem of this anxious romanticism, as the naïf realizes he's passed the point of no return, and the only choice is to embrace the hedonism, to revel in the decadence while it lasts. just listen to that opening chuckle--it's the sound of a man trying to convince himself of the pleasure he should be having, the laugh of a man who will take you around the world but can never take you home...

"...yeah but do we kick butt?"

"Read it again."

Seeing this thread was so odd. I had to read it a few times to make sure I was reading it correctly. I had no idea this was being reissued or that he had a second record!! I've been out of the loop for awhile now. Weird that it's taken off like it has, always figured it appealed to no one.I haven't listened to Lewis in a few years now but I remembering the music almost not existing, like you're hearing soft rock half asleep and it's just an outline. Can't think of better way to describe it.

"Romantic Times" is so creepy and deranged. That laugh on "don't stop it now", for example. It really is like something out of a David Lynch movie. I'm not sure if I like it more than "L'amour", whose wispy romanticism I've become infatuated with.

Where to start with the hipinion Lewis thread? 90 pages in...

honestly the whole thing is worth a read; the whole Lewis story from start to its current state is genuinely one of the most fascinating tests of a community's collective credulity that I've ever watched unfold, and a whole lot of it happens in that thread.

like, the last time I can remember an online community uniting to say NO FUCKING WAY this loud, Chris Benoit had just killed his family and himself.

From the Light in the Attic website -

Recommended if you like:
D'Angelo
Mercury Rev
Donnie & Joe Emerson
Gnac
Mark Lanegan
Seefeel
Morphine
Marcos Valle
Leyland Kirby

uh?

Makes sense

*If* Lewis is a hoax - which it's not, but let's pretend it is - from the above list it would definitely be Leyland Kirby's doing, no doubt about.

As the user name indicates I'm a pretty big fan of this story and I think it's cool regardless if it's real or not. I'll be interested to see what the outcome of this is. If it really is a hoax, the whole Lewis project has already been handled better than some of the other failed attempts by well known musicians impersonating fake pop stars - Platinum Weird being the most recent in my mind.

Oh I totally agree! And I am a believer. My biggest doubts went out the window when someone on hipinion discovered the records had in fact been registered in 1983 and 1985 already. But on the off-chance that it turns out to be a hoax, it's played out so masterfully that it really does not matter and I'd applaud it. In the end the music is the music, and the music is friggin amazing.

as someone on hpn pointed out, if it's a hoax, then the US Copyright Office itself has to be in on it since it's not like they'd just be like "sure, you can just backdate the release date on that copyright"

Romantic Times is an absolute stunner btw. kinda funny how two of my favorite releases of 2014 are essentially the combined effect of two inseparable albums (the Lewis records + those horizon-dominatingly tremendous Neil Cicieraga things)

would really be surprised if it was a hoax, if it was somebody would have spotted a modern production 'thingie', a certain mic 'feel' or whatever by now.

There's no way it's a hoax - I've heard interviews with the guys who found the record and the Light In The Attic guy. It's the classic conspiracy theory thing - too many people would have to be "in on it" for it to be made up at this point.

CBC radio doc: http://www.cbc.ca/day6/blog/2014/08/01/lewis/

This is a good legit news story on the search too: http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Legend+Calgary+artist+Lewis+grows+more+music+discovered+from+elusive+cult+hero/10083646/story.html

tracks from the first album were uploaded to youtube in 2010 and entirely ignored until last year, so if someone was undertaking a hoax they were doing it with the utmost patience

Heard the CD today and somehow it feels more "authentic" than when I was listening to Youtube clips.

Can't for the life of me hear why it might be recommended if you like Seefeel, though.

Oh hey

RT @lightintheattic WE FOUND LEWIS!!!!!! http://www.lightintheattic.net/news?p=28161

http://blog.lightintheattic.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LEWISphoto-675x916.jpg

holy smokes

holy shit

holy cats

In respect to Randall, we’ve decided that once our CD/LP stock runs out, we won’t be repressing L’Amour or Romantic Times–until he tells us differently. It doesn’t feel right collecting money from his art and him not sharing in it regardless of how incredibly positive he was about the entire thing. The royalties will continue to be set aside into an escrow in case he ever wants them.

:(

He told us over and over again, “That was a long time ago” and that we should “have a ball” with the reissues. When we mentioned that we’d been looking for him for years, he was surprised, responding that he’s been right there all along and shops for groceries at his neighborhood store.

Maybe this guy is more heroic than we ever knew.

that is a fantastic attitude.
i may not like the music, but i already love the guy.

wooooooow
that's like....just exactly how you would hope he would be

kinda wish he'd take the money though!!!

at least to pay off his debts

I live in Calgary and have been pretty faithfully combing the dollar bins, picking up any offbeat Canadiana I find, esp. private press stuff. Sadly, I have never to my knowledge run across a copy of either of Lewis's records. It's possible I have seen but overlooked a copy, becuz if there's no indication it was a Canadian production I might have passed it up. But I probably would have bought it based on the cover alone, as I do stray from Canadiana for "private boners," which is what I probably would have classified this as. At this point I imagine the crates are pretty well dug for Lewis by the pros, but I still hold out hope of stumbling across a copy someday.

I totally love that the dude won't stop thinking about tomorrow.

I asked Erin Macleod, being Canadian herself, about how easy it would be to keep out of searching eyes given his name and presumed country of residence was known, and she had this to say:

I think the best way to think about it is that Canada--especially out west (and I say this with Saskachewan blood running in my veins)--is, in some ways, like a giant New Hampshire in terms of keeping stuff to ourselves. When our Prime Ministers retire, they don't have secret service, they just go back to wherever they're from. No one really pays them much mind. People always say that you're not a Montrealer until you've seen Leonard Cohen. He's normally just hanging out. Sure, there are big stars like the Biebs and Aubrey, but when people want to have their privacy, Canucks (again, especially out west) have a history of leaving well enough alone. You could probably find him, but it is a big country, and you'd probably get there and just feel really weird about tracking him down. Or at least I'd hope so.

Holy shit this news is kind of messing me up. So great that this guy is so awesome, and alive. Bit sad bcz of the death of mystery though.

"Aubrey"?

I think the important details about the photo are:

- strong sunlight, signifying a connection to the west coast

- white clothing, the same as on the RT cover, suggestion of wealth

- holding a double cup of coffee to go, firmly planting this photo in the present and most effective refutation of this guy's mythology

- cane, sign of age and experience

- long hair and chain, showing he's still a romantic

Man, this guy is the real deal. Too cool for school. Kind of got this Brian Wilson minus the LSD brain fry thing going on.

Ambient yacht god.

Randy simply wanted to look forward with both his life and music and had no interest in any celebrity or financial gain having to do with the albums. He told us over and over again, “That was a long time ago” and that we should “have a ball” with the reissues. When we mentioned that we’d been looking for him for years, he was surprised, responding that he’s been right there all along and shops for groceries at his neighborhood store.

"Have a ball". This guy <3

Hahah was thinking Brian Wilson myself.

"Aubrey"?

― sleeve, Friday, August 8, 2014 2:36 PM (9 minutes ago)

One Mr. Drake as he is also known.

“I wish you guys all the best. I’m not looking back. I’m doing stuff now that’s taken me forty, fifty years to write. I’m not looking into coin. I’m not looking into anything. I’m just strumming my guitar. I just wish you guys all the best in the world.”

I love the fact hes still all dressed in white

"Randy Duke"

hmm.

Randy "Duke" Cunningham, disgraced California Congressman (50th District), Vietnam Naval "Ace," former Top Gun instructor...

We're getting closer to...

nm they found him

Somebody please please please stick a microphone in front of this guy pronto and ask him to strum and sing the songs he's been working on for 40+ years. I get the feeling hearing Randy/Lewis in his older years could be just as singular and otherworldly and special as he was around Romantic Times times. Of course, he may have no desire to share his lifetime songs with us. It does make me feel good, though, to know that they at least exist somewhere in the world, even if it's just in his living room.

I haven't listened to this guy's music but he seems like a total dude.

Should... we ask him what the actual lyrics on L'amour are?

Shame they decided not to do any further pressings when the artist has pretty much given the go ahead.
Or am I reading that right?
I ordered this last night when I'd just been thinking about it beforehand. does sound like it could be something I'd be quite into from comparisons I've seen.

The way I heard it was I don't care about that stuff. It's the distant past for me. I'm into something completely different now.
So don't involve me in that stuff, if it interests you. Not cease and desist immediately but it's no longer of interest to me.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/theneeds-images/selection/2014-08-01/thumbs/full512/c83aaca04b63c56bd3476fa6c8a9fd711b19c38d.jpghttp://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/74821192/Daydreaming.png

the l'amour sleeve reminds me of this a little

http://991.com/NewGallery/Lindsey-Buckingham-Law-And-Order-354433.jpg

Does Maura know Lindsay Buckingham did a concept album about Law & Order?

It was called Chung-Chung

So it looks like a lot of people's take on the LITA decision was the same as mine. I see somebody else here has highlighted that part of the article plus I've seen the response in another couple of places.

& I noticed that there was a condition placed on the decision,, which para[phrases as that it would be reversed if the artist got in contact and gave word that he appears to have already given. & it looks from what is said in the article that Lewis isn't bothered by this release going on , just that his interests lie elsewhere. Also looks lie he might be doing well enough financially not to be bothered by royalties.

So I wonder what happens when supplies of these pressings do run out. Is there any likelihood that a 3rd party might get in contact with the artist and get something in writing. Sounds like the artist has been haunting the same locations for a while, just that nobody had looked for him in the right place. Though it could just be the article that's the hoax.
ah well, hope I've got a copy on its way

Ok. I listened to this guy's music and it's really boring. Cool story tho!

same feelings as rev on this

thirded.

yeah soz

I normally like boring stuff tho so I'll give it another spin

Oh, so now that the backlash seal has been broken, I can say that this stuff sounds like music white dudes caress their nipples to

Lol

yeah sure, like avalon, pink moon, world of echo. music for nipples.

OKAY

Unfair to compare it to those albums, no?

At most it sounds like Ben Watt's North Marine Drive.

I mean, the breathless rush to crown this a masterpiece is hilarious to me

just caressing my nipples to this and holy shit it's perfect

xposts

Grady: pix plz

yeah sure, like avalon, pink moon, world of echo. music for nipples.

tbf these are music for disembodied nipples that glide in a realm of palm fronds

okay maybe just avalon

I guess we can start using "nipplecore".

teatstroke

Oh, so now that the backlash seal has been broken

Well put. I'm still trying with this. On paper, it's something I should be going crazy over. I mean, I love me some fluffy and weightless (also Avalon, Nebraska, World of Echo, Spirit of Eden, etc) but maybe this is just too frameless and empty even for me. It sounds really nice when it's playing but really doesn't leave much of an impression once it ends, which I would not say about any of those other albums, or Pink Moon. I'm listening to it a lot though an waiting for that breakthrough moment, when I catch myself singing along to one of the songs or something.

Also, amongst certain NPR-listening, Best New Music-buying types, this is clearly going to be the Roots of Chicha, Rodriguez, and / or William Onyeabor of 2014, right?

oh definitely

no need to listen to the whole album.
listening to 2 songs (thought the world of you+ like to see you again) gives the same impression as listening to the whole thins.

life's too short.

On paper, it's something I should be going crazy over. I mean, I love me some fluffy and weightless (also Avalon, Nebraska, World of Echo, Spirit of Eden, etc) but maybe this is just too frameless and empty even for me.

hell I like north marine drive too and yep

tho I listened to the 2nd album and enjoyed it a fair bit more although I was def enjoying it thru the filter of witedude nipple caress, an epithet it will never ever lose for me

would't say it's anywhere near as good as avalon, world of echo, or pink moon. just firing off a return salvo in defense of nipplecore. i like this album. it's striking, soothing and evocative, a pleasantly formless muddle of breath & tone. ambient music, basically, so it doesn't bother me much that the songs don't stick. and they don't. it may not be a masterpiece, but it is an interesting artifact, and that's more than i can say about most albums, tbh.

interesting artifact

otm

looking fwd to decades of reduced expectations

though i think world of echo is an "interesting artifact" as well

Oh, so now that the backlash seal has been broken, I can say that this stuff sounds like music white dudes caress their nipples to
― Herbie Handcock (Murgatroid), Sunday, August 10, 2014 4:44 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

*heads to amazon.com*

Caressing Nipples to Make Music to Caress Nipples To

FYI, played this album on a tiny speaker in a tent in the middle of a national forest and it sounded like the best thing ever. Preceded it with The Pearl by Budd/Eno. Recommended listening experience.

Jimmywine: I think "frameless and empty" captures it perfectly. For some reason, the drift and emptiness is the aspect I'm most drawn to. Each song feels like the first three or four minutes of a strong painkiller kicking in, when the pain starts to feel indistinct and faraway. Lewis's music has an almost bodily effect on me, like Thursday Afternoon or Selected Ambient Works II. I find his voice soothing, especially on L'Amour. Although I guess I am an old fart, so what the hell do I know?

my wife wanted to get this and i was ambivalent at first but the music hooked me, it works on its own level, like it's music made by the ghost of a minor drug dealer character on miami vice, during their unaired halloween episode.

its like floating on a cloud of titties

― cutty (mcutt), Friday, February 2, 2007 6:02 AM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The statement that the albums won't be re-pressed feels like *pressure* to buy the second album when I want to live with the first one for a while.

play w/yr nipples they will tell u what to do

man i have to say the music holds up way better than the frankly played marketing ploy sorry "story"

but i like minimalistic titted clouds so

I still can't believe a 'real people' record has gotten this much attention and a story was stretched out around it, or lack of a story. I still haven't heard Romantic Times but it sounds right up my alley. But $2000, even my grails aren't that unbelievable. Trying to figure out who would spend that much as from someone who thinks it's an investment. Record collecting is getting so weird.

my grails are ;_;

The statement that the albums won't be re-pressed feels like *pressure* to buy the second album when I want to live with the first one for a while.

― djh

When I read what they said about not re-pressing them I ordered the Romantic Times vinyl straight away. It came with a download which I now have on my iTunes but don't plan on listening to it for a while. I'm obsessing over L'Amour right now and want to spend a lot more time with it until I hear the second album.

The L'Amour vinyl has just gone out of stock on Amazon by the way and no sellers seem to have it anymore.

they still had a copy of l'amour on cd at my local record store. i thought about picking it up, since i've only heard it on spotify, but for whatever reason i changed my mind.

I ordered L'Amour from LITA a few days ago and it said they'd be delivered early September. Are those coming now or did they cancel that pressing?

Hey guys I found the 3rd Lewis album. Plz send me $5000 plus nipples

Lewis - L'Ane?

New Lewis. I'm guessing the title's actually supposed to be "Heartbreak":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcor3spv3cE&feature=youtu.be

lol

Somebody please please please stick a microphone in front of this guy pronto and ask him to strum and sing the songs he's been working on for 40+ years. I get the feeling hearing Randy/Lewis in his older years could be just as singular and otherworldly and special as he was around Romantic Times times.

― Bloody Pelt Found Near the Scene of the Crime (Skrot Montague), Friday, August 8, 2014 10:31 PM (6 days ago)

http://i.somethingawful.com/forumsystem/emoticons/emot-colbert.gif

I think this recording is from the late 90s or early 00s. From the sessions in Canada.

he sounds like a muppet?

I think this recording is from the late 90s or early 00s. From the sessions in Canada.

ah. hopefully his unreleased material is stronger, because I'm really not feeling the blues thing. it's funny how the video is captioned "From The Album 'Mystery Man'" -- I wonder if he recorded an entire album in Canada or if that's just a joke on the part of the uploader/producer.

That Youtube is exactly why this mystery should have just remained a mystery.

Sounds like a Robert Plant impression.

I think that YT is a joke, no?

from a vid uploaded in 2012:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utlLjnP9kVE&feature=youtu.be&t=50s

(50 seconds in if timestamp doesn't work)

aka lewis aka randy duke

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100210215905/parksandrecreation/images/thumb/7/7a/Duke_Silver.jpg/250px-Duke_Silver.jpg

Shoobee doo wop

http://31.media.tumblr.com/11e25142d4a96f00c76f492dd5211497/tumblr_naezhxDygG1qjuy9xo1_500.png

yeah stockbrokers just cán't possibly have feelings. (didn't Jandek used to be a stockbroker)

for the record: i think L'Amour is absolutely beautiful, but that 2nd album... woah, laughable. if you'd buy that one in a thrift shop (if only!) you'd think, 'well at least the cover is cool!'

Is Brinkley actually hinting at being the "beautiful girl/model" that was with Lewis at the recording of L'Amour?

there's a dedication to Brinkley on the album sleeve

Billy J'oel

Dang, didn't catch that at first crut

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/emperor-ice-cream

^An insurance executive who concealed multiverses

(Or was he a banker)

http://www.factmag.com/2014/08/27/a-third-lp-from-elusive-crooner-lewis-has-surfaced/

more like lewis nae more amirite

And yet MORE Lewis

http://www.fiascobros.com/lewis_randy_duke.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULD82AApJpo

Those are old Randy Duke albums that someone is digitally bootlegging as "Lewis" records

nothing beats L'amour

I thought Randy Duke was Lewis?

yes, but those are not "MORE Lewis", nor anything that he wanted released under that name, nor with those covers

ok well it's the same guy.

dudes you are never going to believe what i found in the record store today

http://blog.clearvisionstudios.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Duke+Definitive+Edition+Remaster+dukedefremastered.jpg

how's Hawaiian Breeze? anyone?

http://i.imgur.com/aVBJWHV.jpg

xpost -- I like it! As opposed to that other collection of Randy Duke stuff, which is good but more straightforward, just him and guitar, Hawaiian Dream has more production in general, fuller arrangements, even a backing singer and one song with a total Epic Rock Solo. It's almost something that follows on from Romantic Times.

Meantime, well worth reading this latest from Kaleb Horton.

http://bitterempire.com/best-music-story-2014/

Lewis is a 2014 artist in the same way Robert Johnson was a ‘60s artist. Sure, they verifiably existed a few decades earlier, but they were around without any myth or campfire stories or PR curation, and nobody really knew about the records.

er... nobody but some black people buying blues records in the 1930s. i know this is just an analogy but it reeks of the whole "it doesn't exist until people I know (=white hipsters) know about it!" thing.

btw at this point i don't really care about the back story all that much, i just think they're compelling and pretty sui generis records. nice use of synths.

xp it's immensely more complicated than that as per race records of course...
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/exchange/exchange_race_records.htm
... but this is probably a poor place for that conversation

well, yeah (johnson's records were released when sales were pretty bad IIRC) -- but the idea that somehow robert johnson was completely unknown before the 1960s is a little nagl.

IMO "Hawaiian Breeze" is much more engaging and wonderful than "Love Ain't No Mystery." As I get more familiar with it, I'm starting to sense it might even be as good as "Romantic Times" (though probably not quite up to "L'Amour" levels). There are less tics in his voice on the new one, but he really sounds great throughout. The weird ultra-delay effect on his voice adds an interesting new touch. Not to mention the arrangements are quite bonkers.

And a new interview, kinda. In...Maxim?

http://www.maxim.com/entertainment/music/article/looking-lewis

How had Lewis gone from making such ethereal compositions to putting out such dreck?

lol

that's kind of mean! although it sounds like lewis himself will never read that so i guess no harm done.

also it immediately points out that he didn't make those records

control+F "Climate of Hunter"