Hitched.

I’m not a big fan of linking to leaked records. It feels vaguely uncouth. But the new Bonnie Prince Billy record leaked and I wrote this up quickly for a SUPER-SECRET record sharing group I’m a part of and then I figured I’d done all that work that I may as well pass it along here. You will enjoy this, I think:

http://rapidshare.com/files/203110458/BPB-B.rar via http://bolachasgratis.baywords.com/

Bonnie Prince Billy is a weird guy. When he’s not being America’s best unsung musician, he’s starring in music video parodies with Zack Galafinakis or showing up on Wonder Showzen. It is essentially impossible to reconcile the gothic Americana end of Will Oldham with the insatiable prankster end. Via Wikipedia:

“Will Oldham is known for his “do-it-yourself punk aesthetic and blunt honesty,”[1] and his music has been likened to Americana, folk, roots, country, punk, and indie rock, although Oldham is dissatisfied with these labels: “I don’t think it’s roots music, though it’s definitely influenced by Western popular music.”[2] He has been called an “Appalachian post-punk solipsist”[1] and is notable for his unique voice, which has been described as “a fragile sort-of warble frittering around haunted melodies in the American folk or country tradition.”[1]“

All of these labels drive me insane because if he had never flirted with “indie rock” labels, he’d just be called an American folk artist. And a fucking great one at that. Beware is his newest album, and so sayeth The New Yorker: “He intends to promote the album with singles, a photo shoot, and a handful of interviews, if only to prove that record promotion doesn’t really work, at least not for him.”

Last year’s “Lay Down in the Light” just sort of came out. It wasn’t really announced, there was no tour. “Beware” feels like a more ambitious “Lay Down…” in tone. It isn’t nearly as deep-deep dark as his earlier works, nor as chilly and sparse as “The Letting Go”. There are a lot of people playing a lot of instruments on “Beware”, occasionally chiming in for weird group sing-alongs. It certainly betrays a good deal of fore thought and careful arrangement. For what it’s worth, this is not his best album, but it’s certainly his most accomplished and most listenable effort in years. If you have even a slight interest in country or American music, you’d be well advised to clicky-clicky the linky-link.

Some interesting Bonnie Prince Billy materials:
The New Yorker article on him: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/01/05/090105fa_fact_sanneh?currentPage=all

The video for his stunning cover of the Everly Brother’s “Ebb Tide”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpUIsmv3AGI

On Conan ‘o Brien with Matt Sweeny, his brother Paul and ANDREW WK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St7uDJG0vSc

My favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS-Ip3aRay0 , being interviewed by two clueless television personalities.