Jeffrey Lewis - Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror

yes sir, very good sir. but uhhh, does the rest of america know about williamsburg I guess?

Uhhh, considering it's in travel guides, probably

yeah, there are more German and Californian tourists here than usual

http://www.brooklynthemusical.com/images/homepage/home-topleftTour.jpg

Er, broken image, sorry.

this
http://www.brooklynthemusical.com/

GINSBERG?

This was one of my fav songs from last year.

I hate this song and this guy

this is wretched.

"...and then i started thinking well maybe that wasn't even Will Oldham even though he did hold my arms and fuck me just like Will sings in 'A Sucker's Evening'."

worthwhile for that line alone.

i thought this had to do w/the new kanye west video
http://www.kanyewest.com/?content=video_cant_tell_alt

Jeffrey Lewis is bringing out a whole album of Crass covers. I am half psyched and half terrified

THEY MIGHT BE JEFFREY LEWIS

I was hoping this was about Juliette Lewis' father.

New kanye video possibly >>> this

I had never heard any other Jeff Lewis songs before this. I went through a bunch on youtube and don't really like most of them, although the one about having a girl on 9th avenue and jumping into the east river was not bad.

Saw this a couple of weeks ago, fairly impressed. It builds very nicely.

interesting interview with jeffrey lewis and the video's director:

http://www.videology-tv.com/viewclip.php?id=69

the tall dude who suppose to look like will oldham actually looks like cody turner. i recently picked up a couple of his CD-Rs. they're pretty cool.

cody turner = turner cody!

Jeffrey is a bro. Though we are not actually related.

He's a formidable cartoonist too.

I mean really, just terrible, awful lyrics. Awful.

I think the lyrics are good, obv. - it's not like I like it for the music.

I think they're terrible, obv. - it's not like I hate it for the music.

ha

They're clearly supposed to be awkward and clunky and talky and I think they're effective - I really like the line about the Stones in '65 wanting satisfaction vs. the Stones in 69 just wanting to get what they need.

That was great, thanks.

i don't think very many americans have heard of williamsburg. however, a great many more americans have heard of williamsburg than have heard of jeffrey lewis.

I think the American demographic that would know about Will Oldham probably mostly has heard of Williamsburg.

otm

yeah this comes across as essentially a SNL-type short for a somewhat specific audience. and as for the lyrics, I don't think this kid was trying to be Rimbaud or anything. Anyway, I chuckled.

It wasn't the clunkyness of the lyrics that I disliked. I understand that that's part of his m.o.. It was more the woe-is-me tone of the thing, the badly phrased word play, and all the crap about "their" (upper middle class white kids?) "dreams" not coming true. Oh and the awful video with that trite bleeding nose imagery that's been done so many fucking times.

Right, because there's clearly no awareness of those things built into the song.

There is, which doesn't change anything. Being self aware of your bullshit disposition doesn't make me connect any more.

OTM. It's failed, unsympathetic self-deprecation. "I know how lame I am!" No, apparently not!

I like the humor, I liked the freaked out artist questioning what he's doing and being raped for it, I think that's funny. It's just in the middle when he's trying to get all deep that he loses me.

Sorry, but you just sound sour grapes. I don't think there's anything in the song that says "Feel sorry for a bunch of upper middle class kids trying to make careers in the arts and be hip," but the fact is there are tens of thousands of those kids in Brooklyn right now, and I don't see why they're unworthy of humorous commentary. I think you're taking the song a bit seriously.

I think this would be cool if they had gotten Will Oldham to play himself in the video.

Why shouldn't we feel sorry for them?

O, I don't know, because they made their own privileged and financially unwise decisions and have to face the consequences?

^^^ reverse republicanism

Indeed. nabisco, you argue this one please.

I'm more about the joke than the argument on that one.

Though a better response would be that a stagnant bohemian lifestyle is really not a huge life failure in any sense, especially for those people who have decent social safety nets and are perfectly employable somewhere or other.

Though a response to that would be that it's possible to not be an asshole and empathize with people in a much less politicized way, and to recognize that the mundane life-disappointments of a stagnant bohemian lifestyle are basically just like everyone else's ordinary undramatic life-disappointments, from those of the corporate drone to those of the unhappily married to whatever else on earth.

Which I think it's possible to empathize with without having to rank it on some scale of empathy-earning and compare it to the Real Serious Problems of starving children and genocide survivors and such.

Basically this is not even a real argument and just a way for people to say "hipsters annoy the hell out of me" or else "be nice, hipsters are people, too."

having a bohemian lifestyle's got nothing to do w/doing music or being in a band though. all you have to do to be in a band is practice, write music, and play shows. you can work in an office or do whatever and still have time to do it, you just have to make time. it's like mowing the lawn or finally repainting that garage or joining a bowling league...i think some people just use "i'm an artist/musician/writer" whatever as an excuse because they want the boho lifestyle. one doesn't have anything to do w/the other.

but i know plenty of cool folx that life "the artist's life" they are cool and sometimes i get jealous of the free time and stuff. but then again i like having money and shit.

almost as bad as will oldham. if the guy is 27... it kind of fucks me up anyone that age listens to will oldham.

the line about bob dylan and neil young rings true. only dylan >>> ginsberg/kerouac.

it's possible to not be an asshole and empathize with people in a much less politicized way, and to recognize that the mundane life-disappointments of a stagnant bohemian lifestyle are basically just like everyone else's ordinary undramatic life-disappointments, from those of the corporate drone to those of the unhappily married to whatever else on earth.

Which I think it's possible to empathize with without having to rank it on some scale of empathy-earning and compare it to the Real Serious Problems of starving children and genocide survivors and such.

Yeah, that's where I was coming from.

That was nice, let's do this more often.

There's just a dynamic where people want to think of themselves as the sensible ants and anyone "hip" as a kind of straw grasshopper, hopping around going la-di-da and thinking he's so great, and so of course people resentfully wait for the winter to come so they can finish off that tale.

My sense is that laziness vs. hard work and sensible decisions vs. stupid ones are pretty evenly spread across all levels of cool and non-cool lifestyles. To be honest, I'm often surprised and impressed by people who seem to be hipster slackers, because I'll suddenly learn that the way they support themselves actually involves carefully maintained networks of specialized jobs, freelance work, good financial planning, etc. -- all stuff I am crap at even with a regular paycheck coming in. I have to respect a non-wealthy person without a "real" job who can nonetheless have all the finances locked down, travel all the time, and still have more money saved than me.

(Just as often, though, I learn that it's because they eat nothing but lentils and baby carrots and yogurt, and not even to save money but cuz that's just what they EAT.)

maybe it's because i just watched it again, but nabisco your post reads just like lyrics to the song..

THAT SHIT WAS AWFUL Y R U EVEN DISCUSSING IT

Haha yeah, poortheater, I just got home and watched it, and now I'm doubly confused by the "feel sorry for them" stuff -- the song's totally about the stuff I was just typing about, yeah! It's not that good, but I mean, yeah: the whole thing's structured as a question, like "why bother doing this, it's disappointing and pointless, I should probably just get a real job, etc."

It's funny, because it seems like Filthy up there is reserving the right to call low-level artists whiny time-wasters, and therefore somehow disagreeing with a song that goes "oh crap, I'm just a whiny time-waster, aren't I."

(He's also treading on (1) my pet peeve where people assume the point of any song / text / whatever is that someone is asking for your pity, which is especially dumb with this song, which is basically about two different routes the speaker could take to being LESS self-pitying, plus also (2) my pet peeve where people pretend like there are people in the world who don't experience failure and wonder what to do about it, plus also (3) my pet peeve where people criticize stuff from knee-jerk angles without having paid nearly enough attention to it to notice what it's even about.)

PS this isn't that great and goes on far too long

Also the conclusion is lame and disagreeable and I am somehow disappointed that he decides to soldier on, and not only that gets snobbish about it, and it'd be much better if it had a happy ending where he becomes a singing cop who arrests subway sexual-assault perps.

like a cross between Adam Green and Stabler from SVU

it's rare that I get to be the guy saying "this is really the first time you guys have heard this song?" so let me relish the moment

It's funny, because it seems like Filthy up there is reserving the right to call low-level artists whiny time-wasters, and therefore somehow disagreeing with a song that goes "oh crap, I'm just a whiny time-waster, aren't I."

No, I'm saying this low-level self mythologizing artist is phrasing his (by my standards, awesome) life in a woe-is-me sort of angle that bothers me. This is only during the beginning and middle of the song. I like the end.

It also sort of bothers me that he only cites Dylan's influences as white writers instead of the black R and B musicians Dylan himself more often cites.

christ almighty it's just a goof, people, i thought it was pretty funny

i was ABOUT to turn it off about 2 minutes into it but then something about it made me watch all the way through

a lot of weird feelings seeing the L train like that, as a brooklyn expatriate - grand and bedford was my home for awhile - more than 10 years ago now - the cute girls had just started showing up there - this video sort of confirms for me that those days are never coming back to that part of brooklyn

i didn't really like the end either, but doesn't he say that it comes from one of will oldham's songs or something?

this video sort of confirms for me that those days are never coming back to that part of brooklyn

fear not, there are still plenty of cute girls at grand and bedford.

grand and bedford was my home for awhile - more than 10 years ago now - the cute girls had just started showing up there

you moved just as the cute girls started showing up?

UNCLE CURT'S FUN FACT OF THE DAY: Jeffrey Lewis is also the name of the first man to stick a camera up my rectum

ok lock thread

GREAT ELFQUEST T-SHIRT! 5 STARS!

Yesterday I was hanging out at Mount Carmel
When I saw a guy who I was sure was J0hn D4rni3ll3

I don't think the song is making an argument so much as depicting reality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP_Dk81f9fg

maybe ilm like this better.

1 - that IS Turner Cody in the video

2 - this song is really old (but still really great)

3 - The album of Crass covers is aboslutely amazing

4 - Jeff's comics are also great

Yeah, I was gonna say, isn't this song ancient?

I first heard him play it about two years ago. It was mid-afternoon and I was probably drunk and I pissed my pants laughing. I know it's a cliche of sorts but I think a lot of people get het up by hyper-analytical musings like this song because they act as a bit more of a mirror than they care to admit

Just to clarify what I was saying upthread, I'm not saying we shouldn't empathize, I'm just saying we shouldn't pity, but nothing about this song strikes me as genuinely self-pitying anyway so it's all good.

I do sometimes have a knee-jerk reaction to people who don't even work very hard on anything and complain that they don't make enough money when they choose to work in some almost impossible field and live in an expensive place and they have other options. But nonetheless I can totally empathize with the speaker of this song who's laughing at himself and saying "wait, why am I doing this again?"

http://alfredo.octavio.net/images/2004/04/18/self.jpg

Latest in a long list of musicians who are playing in Portland within two weeks of my first hearing of them. Jeffrey Lewis, next Thursday.

This phenomenon was pointed out to me by my bro-in-law in NC, who keeps hearing cool stuff on Sirius and looking up bands' tour schedules and seeing Portland but no Raleigh and getting all pissy about it.

i don't find this funny/witty at all or understand what the point was also i couldn't finish watching it because it was really boring

I really like the song but the video is pretty worthless inasmuch as it really boringly and literally depicts the lyrics. Which probably goes without saying, but whatever.