Jim O'Rourke

There was a period in maybe 2002 or 2003 when I listened to either Bad Timing or Dylan's Nashville Skyline every morning as I roamed about my crap apartment in Eugene making coffee and breakfast and what have you. Whenever it occurs to me now to play Bad Timing in the early AM I get this nice nostalgic "This is gonna be a good day!" feeling, even though those years in Eugene were just like the worst years of my life easy.

So, then, Bad Timing.

the ompa-pa-pa horn explosion at the end

This always reminds me of John Fahey's Old Fashioned Love record, which also busts out the horns toward the end, though not mid-song like on Bad Timing. I know he was into Fahey, but does anyone know if this thing on Bad Timing was inspired by that thing specifically?

The jazz band absolutely comes in mid-song on the title track of Old Fashioned Love, don't know if Happy Trails is a copy tho. I want to stick up for Gastr del Sol too, probably prefer those records to most of the solo O'Rourke that I've heard.

I always tend to like his duo recordings the best. I've always felt that Jim just shines in a duo setting, maybe better than any other player I can think of. 'Slow Motion' with Müller. 'New Kind of Water' with Null. (I attended that 1992 show at Lounge Ax where the live portion was recorded.) 'Third Straight Day Made Public' with Prevost. that Kaiser disc that Sundar mentioned. even his hated 'Indicate' record with Hampson. These were some of the most thrilling records of the 90s for me. And hey, if Gastr counts as a duo them too for 'Upgrade and Afterlife' alone, which totally ruled.

This thread just cost me £7 on Brise-Glace.

Yeah. That is a good disc too.

but of the *solo* stuff that comprises the poll ... i'm actually sorta ignorant of large chunks of it. I heard all the early Extreme label stuff back when it came out, and then 'Bad Timing' (great) and the Tzadik disc, and that's about it. always more to discover with him.

oh wait, shit, and 'Happy Days' of course, I have that one. Might even vote for that!

brise-glace is fantastic, i still listen to that pretty often (on cd, sold the vinyl like an idiot - apparently skin graft had a warehouse find of the lp a few weeks ago but they're all gone).

the two Müller/O'Rourke duos are excellent. so are the Prévost, Null, Kaiser. two favorites were O'Rourke/Mats Gustafsson's Xylophonen Virtuosen(2000) - lots of fun, that one - and the O'Rourke/Loren MazzaCane-Connors In Bern on Hat Noir, which gets a bad rap but i like it. Müller/O'Rourke/Voice Crack is another great one. ahead of its time.

Brise-Glace seemed a lot less impressive after hearing the This Heat and Luc Ferrari. still sounds good, just not all that original in its execution.

who hates Indicate?

Terminal Pharmacy is a dud. Jim's big, formal 'i am a composer. take me seriously' statement, and it fell flat. heavyhanded and way too serious. even the experimental guitar albums - Tamper, Remove the Need, Disengage - are leavened with some humor.

what's Use?

how is The Ground Above Below Our Heads? i know Jim all but disowned his recorded debut. but if i really like his concrète pieces, a la Scend, is it worth a listen?

voting for... Bad Timing, i think. yeah.

I know he was into Fahey, but does anyone know if this thing on Bad Timing was inspired by that thing specifically?

For some reason, I was under the impression that it was a Charles Ives homage, although I don't remember how or where I read that.

jim always referred to b-g as being an homage to this heat, sometimes even as a "cover band," so originality isn't really the point.

Well then I must hear Brise-Glace, and soon.

who hates Indicate?

Jim, apparently! I recall someone telling me that he "disowned" it.

Brise-Glace definitely a bit of a This Heat tribute. but hey, why not. don't forget to seek out the Brice-Glace track from the AC/DC tribute on Skin Graft! Jim goes wild with a razor blade and reels of AC/DC lps .. awesome.

Jim's big, formal 'i am a composer. take me seriously' statement

I remember browsing the classical section at the Tower in Chicago on Clark in the early 90s, and bumping into copies of Scend that were marked as consignment. I found that kind of funny, the mental image of Jim walking in there clutching a bunch of the CD and sort of going "These belong in your classical section."

that doesn't seem like his style. he was pretty contemptuous of people who "placed" themselves in a tradition, like george flynn and his timeline, much less a bin. heh.

well right, I know .. but they had to get there somehow right? that's why it seemed funny to me. I've never heard that disc, btw ... I always regret not picking it up that time, I don't think i've seen it since.

"scend" is really great, when i find it i'll up it for you in exchange for that paul rutherford.

Stormy - I worked at the Clark St. Tower the first year it was open and I remember Dan and Rian coming in occasionally with at least some Drag City items for consignment - I remember singles specifically, but odds are that one of them suggested to file the O'Rourke in the classical room where it sold like wildfire no doubt.

"Please Note Our Failure" is a pretty interesting exercise in plunderphonic tape editing. But it's an ep, so probably isn't worth inclusion above. The best part is the Al Green sample.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

avant jim gets no love

when is he gonna get another album like the top 4 here?

Wire Magazine just tweeted that he has a new album coming out on Drag City on August 31. Songs? Laptop experimentation? Which is it to be? That's what I'd like to know.

!

Cool!

Excellent news.

"The Visitor" it's called, but i haven't played it yet. mostly because it asks that it be played loud on speakers and i haven't been in front of my stereo long enough to make that happen.

Wire Magazine just tweeted

Ugh.

Oh, I'm not on Twitter and I don't read Wire. Someone told me about it.

Phew, escaped the net.

I guess The Visitor being a euphemism for The Man Who Fell to Earth. Sorta glad he went that route.

i thought he quit music. anyway this is intriguing news.

i guess around the time he was finishing this news stories started coming out about how it was a misunderstanding that he quit music, rumors of death greatly exaggerated, that he's been working on music the entire time, etc. makes sense since o'rourke never made a statement about it, it's just been coming from other people's mouths that he was more interested in films now and by extension not working on music anymore

Where does this 'he's quit' thing even come from? He released an album with Loren Conners just this year (Two Nice Catholic Boys). Plus he released three (!) albums last year, one of them being a double album.

Anyway, so psyched for this! I hope it's following up 'Insignificance'.

the "he quit" thing came out around the time he stopped playing with Sonic Youth, but seemed sort of like BS ... But I can understand wanting to take a break -- he had a pretty much nonstop 10 years or so there. But I'm glad there's a new record coming out! Will be interesting to see what direction he's taking.

all the other recent o'rourke output has been archival, including the connors, with the excellent touch 7" being the only exception i can think of

i have a vague memory of O'Rourke saying he hadn't made a proper solo record in so long because his conception for it would be too pricey to actually record -- don't know if this record is what he had in mind, but it would be cool if someone kicked in the cash!

I guess The Visitor being a euphemism for The Man Who Fell to Earth.

No, I think he just really, really loved the Richard Jenkins movie. I'm expecting djembe on at least half the tracks.

you think it's going to have the same cover as the prop used for the lp in the movie?

i think that joke went over jaymc's head...

Does one need a $15,000 stereo to properly appreciate his more abstract stuff (Terminal Pharmacy, etc.)?

that, or $15,000 worth of primo weed

i think that joke went over jaymc's head...

What makes you think that? Matinee thought that The Visitor was a reference to The Man Who Fell to Earth, presumably since O'Rourke's previous solo albums have all been named after Nicolas Roeg films. (Of course, it'd make more sense if it were called Castaway, since Bad Timing, Eureka, and Insignificance were all in chronological order, and Castaway follows in the Roeg filmography.)

you think it's going to have the same cover as the prop used for the lp in the movie?

Unless you mean this joke, in which case you're right, I don't know what he's talking about.

When is O'Rourke going to release "Full Body Massage"

Bowie's character (Newton) in The Man Who Fell to Earth records an LP called The Visitor. I don't see why he'd need to follow Roeg's filmography chronologically starting from Bad Timing

and, ya, my comment about the prop is just an unfunny, dorky joke. the only way i have right now to vent my excitement for the lp.

also, i'm happy to hear that drag city has a convincing way of insinuating a hi-fi into their record's listening experience. i would like to see that copy :)

Oh OK, nice. I've never seen Man Who Fell to Earth (admission of which will probably be fodder for Steve Shasta to make some kind of derisive comment). Anyway, I thought I was the one making the unfunny joke by referencing the Jenkins film.

i have a vague memory of O'Rourke saying he hadn't made a proper solo record in so long because his conception for it would be too pricey to actually record -- don't know if this record is what he had in mind, but it would be cool if someone kicked in the cash!

interesting if true. same thing happened with the second plush album

The rumor started because he moved to Tokyo and spent most of his time learning Japanese & obsessing over Kiyoshi Kurosawa and contemporary Jap cinema & expressed an interest in involving himself with film. He's always admitted that he's more passionate about movies than he is about music, though. Can't wait to hear the new release.

Seeing him play in 7 minutes. Excited

<3

checking songkick and for some reason i think this tour date is probably the wrong guy lol

Saturday 18 May 2019

Jim O'Rourke
with Dolly Trolly and DJ Nigel

Will's Pub, Orlando, FL, US

I am listening to all the Steamrooms in order to find the diamonds. I'm making notes! So far Steamroom 3 is a real keeper, it's incredible, micropolyphonic dissolving via Shepard tones into monolithic moments of diatonic calm, it's like what every composer dreams of achieving.

I started following the Steamrooms around #40 and haven't explored the earlier ones too much, but I just listened to #3 based on your rec, and you were so right--it is SUBLIME. Thanks fgti! Would love to read your thoughts on any other standouts in the series.

waiting so much for the Toneglow interview with Jim and David for the Gast reissue :(

Dolly Trolly definitely sounds like a Drag City all-star side project

Jim's piece was great last night. Beautiful piano number at the end (which I couldn't help thinking would make a phenomenal jandek backing track lol).

Keiji Haino absolutely tore it up afterwards tho. Very funny, very large, many many many majestic screaming guitar solos

Did not like being in a sit down crowd for Haino. I wanted to be up on my feet and moving with the screaming guitar

Haven't seen the latest issue of Personal Best, but apparently it has some Jim O'Rourke coverage. Smalltown Supersound released a Jim collab but under Eivind Lønning's name earlier this year (nice cover too).

New album (!) on Drag City (!!) with Eiko (!!!)... edits/remixes of their live improv shows in europe in 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW0kcSl1tR4

comes out on 8/29/25

sweeeet, love that video and clip

Hyped. I listen to “Shutting Down Here” at least twice a month, they’re a brilliant duo

I still need to finish my Steamroom cheat sheet! I got halfway through but I don’t have time these days and I am gonna have to do a second listen-through to make sure I got it all right