Three Imaginary Girls - Sun Kil Moon

Big bad Sasquatch 2009 preview

Imaginary Shrie — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:25:56 +0000

Sasquatch 2009 is a mere two days away. Go see bands all three days, cheer your head off, drink some beer and/or smoke a joint. Get dirty campin' toes and sweat through your forehead bandanna (or brave kilt-lifting style winds like in 2007). Come back harried and skip out on work Tuesday. Recount every last moment, with positive embellishments, to anyone fool enough not to attend. Buy the tshirt and flaunt the shit out of it.

Here is your big bad SASQUATCH 2009 PREVIEW.

April

Andrew Boe — Fri, 16 May 2008 04:22:51 +0000

7.2

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00158FK42/wwwthreeimagi-20/

sun kil moon april.jpg

Sun Kil Moon's April (appropriately released in the month of April and on Mark Kozelek's own Caldo Verde Records) is a sprawling disc with 11 songs that spread themselves out over nearly 73 minutes. Discounting the terrible Modest Mouse covers album, Tiny Cities, the album is the second full-length LP by Sun Kil Moon , Mark Kozelek's post Red House Painters group.

Their first record, Ghosts of the Great Highway, featured an array of styles. There were loud electric tracks alongside slow and gentle acoustic songs. April, on the other hand, has more of an epic whole album experience vibe to it instead of being a collection of different tracks. It is more melancholy than Ghosts mainly due to Kozelek's soft, almost soporific vocals, which are rarely raised above a distanced level.

As expected of a Kozelek release, the melodies on the new recording are beautiful. Mark Kozelek's songwriting and guitar playing abilities are showcased with ridiculous ease. He is one of those phenomenal guitarists who never looks as though he is trying despite the difficulty of the material that he performs. Most of April is acoustic guitar and solo based, but there are some songs that incorporate drums and bass such as "Tonight the Sky," a long and dirgey Neil Young and Crazy Horse sounding electric song, and the countryesque"Like the River," which boasts Will Oldham on backing vocals.

The most engaging portion of the album is the middle set of songs. "Unlit Hallway" is a pretty track that is similar in sound to the style of the Red House Painters' Old Ramon, from 2001. "Heron Blue" is perhaps the best song on April as it is the most unique. In fact, it doesn't sound much like anything that he has ever done before. There is an extremely stark sounding acoustic guitar that is finger-picked. It is so desperately remote, sounding like a Woven Hand song and Kozelek's vocals are detached, but direct, sounding a little bit like Leonard Cohen. The lead guitar is a sublime Spanish guitar part that supplements the song in the best possible way.

April is a strongly pleasant album. It is not as challenging or as emotionally striking as the Red House Painters, but it is on par with the first Sun Kil Moon disc. Kozelek may not be moved to deliver extremely poignant vocals or captivating lyrics these days, but he is still capable of penning some gorgeous melodies.

Kozelek may not be moved to deliver extremely poignant vocals or captivating lyrics these days, but he is still capable of penning some gorgeous melodies.

Tiny Cities

Joseph Riippi — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 08:00:00 +0000

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BI0WQ8/wwwthreeimagi-20

sunkilmoon06jan.jpg

"But, really, a Modest Mouse covers album? That inherently deserves a "suck it." Why does the world need Sun Kil Moon doing Modest Mouse covers? I think resources could have been used better." ~igLiz, Dec 2005, possibly intoxicated.

I wonder what was going through Mark Kozelek's head when he decided to record an album of Modest Mouse covers. I mean, I'll give Sun Kil Moon their AC/DC covers record from a few years back. That's fine. They did that album of covers, and you would have thought Kozelek might have had it out of his system? But, now I'm forced to ponder what he was thinking. Maybe he wasn't thinking; maybe it was just boredom, and he figured, "What the hell — I like Modest Mouse. I think I'll learn some covers." And then, after going through the trouble of digging through old lyric books from Sad Sappy Sucker to figure out exactly what Isaac Brock is singing, decided he was too worn out to write a record of his own songs, and did this instead.

The result is a castrated Modest Mouse record, with Mark Kozelek's I-just-got-punched-in-the-face voice groaning where Isaac Brock once howled. Kozelek, famed for the lovely Red House Painters of the 90's and the more recent Sun Kil Moon (under which moniker this Mumbling Mouse record was released), failed to make his record of covers interesting. He broke the cardinal rule of covers.

Let us examine famous covers. One of the most famous, Hendrix covering Dylan with "All Along the Watchtower," reinvented the song by taking elements of the original — in this case the basic Am - G - F chord progression — and augmenting them into the new artist's style (Hendrix's amazing guitar playing). The two versions sound like entirely different songs; Hendrix's guitar becomes the focus of the cover, while the lyrics remain the core of the original.

Tiny Cities fails because Kozelek does not augment anything at all from the original songs. It's as though the original recordings of great tracks like "Tiny Cities Made of Ashes" were giant cows in a slaughterhouse, swaying back and forth in groggy death before crashing with a thud to the bloody floor.

Imagine it Isaac Brock's way:

"Gonna hit you on your face / Gonna hit you in your glasses / Wearing a shirt that says 'the world is my ashtray."

Now imagine a ten-year-old with a speech impediment, mumbling his way through the same lyrics, not conscious that words have meaning.

Sun Kil Moon doesn't translate Modest Mouse into a new style, the way Hendrix did Dylan or Guns 'n Roses did Dylan; rather, the Sun Kil Moon versions sound more like bad, unfinished Sun Kil Moon songs. Kozelek succeeds in his own music when his emotion and feeling comes through in his lyrics. He simply wasn't built to sing Modest Mouse, lest he reinvent the way he sings to meet these songs halfway.

But at least it is interesting in one aspect: who knew "Jesus Christ was an Only Child" could sound so much like a George Harrison rip-off?

Best of 2003: Top 100 Imaginary Albums of the Year

three imaginary girls — Sat, 03 Jan 2004 08:00:00 +0000

You voted, and we tabulated. Now you can print and clip the top 100 imaginary albums of the year list for your post-holiday-gift-certificate shopping pleasure...

The Postal Service, "Give Up"
The Shins, "Chutes Too Narrow"
Death Cab for Cutie, "Transatlanticism"
Radiohead, "Hail To The Thief"
Outkast, "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below"
The White Stripes, "Elephant"
The Long Winters, "When I Pretend To Fall"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Fever to Tell"
The New Pornographers, "Electric Version"
The Decemberists, "Her Majesty, the Decemberists"
The Strokes, "Room On Fire"
The Wrens, "The Meadowlands"
The Divorce, "There Will Be Blood Tonight"
Ted Leo and The Pharmacists, "Hearts of Oak"
Nada Surf, "Let Go"
Visqueen, "King Me"
Idlewild, "The Remote Part"
Junior Senior, "D-D-Don't Don't Stop the Beat"
Cat Power, "You Are Free
Belle & Sebastian, "Dear Catastrophe Waitress"
The Rapture, "Echoes"
The Darkness, "Permission to Land"
The Thermals, "More Parts Per Million"
The Dandy Warhols, "Welcome To The Monkey House"
The Lights, "Beautiful Bird"
Stellastarr*, "Stellastarr*"
Various Artists, "Lost in Translation" Soundtrack
Massive Attack, "100th Window"
The Mars Volta, "De-Loused in the Comatorium"
Wonderful, "God Bless Our Pad"
British Sea Power, "Decline of British Sea Power"
The Delgados, "Hate"
Jayhawks, "Rainy Day Music"
Los Halos, "Leaving Va."
Mogwai, "Happy Songs for Happy People"
My Morning Jacket, "It Still Moves"
The Aislers Set, "How I Learned to Write Backwards"
The Thrills, "So Much for the City"
Kaito, "Band-Red"
Basement Jaxx, "Kish Kash"
Gillian Welch, "Soul Journey"
Grandaddy, "Sumday"
The Decemberists, "Castaways and Cutouts"
Twilight Singers, "Blackberry Belle"
Sun Kil Moon, "Ghosts of the Great Highway"
American Analog Set, "Promise of Love"
Damien Jurado, "Where Shall You Take Me?"
The Hidden Cameras,"The Smell Of Their Own"
Cursive, "The Ugly Organ"
Clearlake, "Cedars"
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, "Take Them On, On Your Own"
Mojave 3, "Spoon & Rafter"
Rufus Wainwright, "Want One"
Calexico, "Feast of Wire"
Crooked Fingers, "Red Devil Dawn"
Sleepy Jackson, "Lovers"
Fountains Of Wayne, "Welcome Interstate Managers"
Manitoba, "Up in Flames"
Pretty Girls Make Graves, "New Romance"
Andrew Bird, "Weather Systems"
Johnny Cash, "Unearthed"
The Libertines, "Up the Bracket"
The Paybacks, "Knock Loud"
Broadcast "Haha Sound"
Deerhoof, "Apple 'O"
Menomena, "I Am the Fun Blame Monster!"
Fanny Pack,"So Stylistic"
Jet, "Get Born"
Kinky, "Atlas"
The Notwist, "Neon Golden"
Broken Social Scene, "You Forgot It In People"
Ed Harcourt, "From Every Sphere"
Exploding Hearts, "Guitar Romantic"
The Kills, "Keep On Your Mean Side"
Blur, "Think Tank"
Four Tet, "Rounds"
Kings of Leon, "Youth & Young Manhood"
The Drive-By Truckers, "Decoration Day"
The Minus 5, "Down With Wilco"
The Orb, "Bicycles and Tricycles"
Downpilot, "Leaving Not Arriving"
Longwave, "The Strangest Things"
Okkervil River, "Down the River of Golden Dreams"
The Malinks, "Can't Shake Last Night"
The Stills, "Logic Will Break Your Heart"
United State of Electronica, "Demo"
Guided By Voices, "Earthquake Glue"
Anna Oxygen, "All Your Faded Things"
Beth Gibbons & Rustin' Man "Out of Season"
Dead Meadow, "Shivering King and Others"
Martina Topley-Bird, Quixotic"
Rachel's, "Systems/Layers"
The Fitness,"Call Me for Together"
The Primate Five, "1234567APE"
Triple R, "Friends"
Holopaw, "Holopaw"
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Nocturama"
Smog, "Supper"
The Bad Plus, "These are the Vistas"
The Gossip,"Movement"

A list of the top 100 records of 2003 as voted on by you, our fabulous imaginary readers.