Jim O'Rourke- Bad Timing

A friend of mine was over a few nights ago. As per usual, he had his acoustic guitar in tow, absentmindedly fiddling with it as we talked and listened to music. He sometimes plays along with whatever I'm playing though usually it's too electric/weird to match well with an acoustic. Jim O'Rourke's Bad Timing popped into my head as a great record to play along to, since it's an instrumental album centered around O'Rourke's deft playing, sometimes with ornamental orchestral backing. Hearing my friend find his way into the chords and melodies, adding his own style to the songs along the way, was one of the best moments of pure music I've ever experienced.

Like Eureka, Bad Timing is a rather unassuming piece of music, pleasing enough on first listen but not so mindblowingly good as to keep it on top of your list of stuff you want to listen to everyday for weeks. Every time I come back to these records, though, I'm filled with an increasing sense of wonder at the timelessness of the music, as well as the care and loving grace put into the playing.

Neither Eureka nor Bad Timing have any of the abrasive/experimental elements that mark most of O'Rourke's other work as solo artist, collaborator, improviser, bandmate, and producer, yet they are not obvious attempts to shill to the mainstream. Eureka has a very cinematic feel, some songs lingering in the same section for longer than is normal for a pop song, suggesting some unseen onscreen action is taking place while the soundtrack kills time until the scene changes. Bad Timing is more about sheer chops and lyrical playing, reminding me of Nick Drake's complex Pink Moon guitar style and the flamenco flourishes of Sun Kil Moon's Admiral Fell Promises.

The story goes that Jeff Tweedy was obsessed with this album, driving around Chicago while listening to it incessantly, leading him to invite O'Rourke to play with him at the Noise Pop festival in 2000. This in turn led to Wilco's experimental period from roughly mid 2000 to the release of Sky Blue Sky in 2007. Bad Timing might not be as important and influential to my life, or to the life of my friend, but it remains a unique and rich listening experience.

Loose Fur- Born Again In The USA

Wilco's Sky Blue Sky divided a lot of people because it wasn't another experimental, Big Important Rock Album like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born were. Rather, it's an easy going, classic rock, 70s worshipping release, and once you get past what you expected it to be and enjoy it for what it is, Sky Blue Sky is actually every bit as good as Wilco's best. Still, it's not as if it came out of nowhere. In fact, if you have been paying attention to what Tweedy was doing outside of Wilco--or read between the lines of A Ghost Is Born's more immediate, catchy songs--you'd have been prepared for it.

I'm resisting the urge to say that Loose Fur's albums are like a preview of where Wilco is going, but their two releases make for an easy cause and effect relationship. Though not released until 2003, Loose Fur's first self titled album was recorded in 2000, during the recording process for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Comparing the two, you really get the sense that Loose Fur unblocked whatever problems Tweedy was having with Wilco. Though Loose Fur is more overtly experimental and at the same time not as consistent or excellent as Yankee, the sound of the two albums isn't that different. The same could be said for Born Again In The USA, which was released a year before Sky Blue Sky but approximates its 70s sound and classic rock just as equally.

By the time of this recording, Loose Fur's three members had a very familial working relationship--Jim O'Rourke had produced or worked on a couple Wilco albums while both Glen Kotche and Jeff Tweedy are in Wilco. Like its predecessor, Born Again In The USA isn't as good as the related Wilco album, but it has a low key, relaxed charm all its own. Guitars are the obvious centerpiece of this album and nearly every song has some outstanding playing on it. Tweedy and O'Rourke remind us both of their chops and their way with a song; though O'Rourke only sings two, it's nice to hear him again since he's spent most of this decade off the mic. Tweedy, meanwhile, reveals the playful side that's emerged lately both in his music and in his personality/stage presence. 'The Ruling Class' is a jaunty tune and sees him singing about a Christ-like figure (or maybe Christ himself, returned) shootin' smack and smokin' crack. And as usual I've got to give some token appreciation for the efforts of Kotche, always showing the difference between simply being a drummer and being a master musician/session musician, doing what he can to add to the music, never getting in the way. In fact, I'll go one step further and say that he is a deceptive drummer because what he's playing, despite filling the usual role of holding down the groove/rhythm of a song and keeping time, is much more complex and interesting than it initially seems.

If forced to pinpoint what exactly it is about this album that makes it merely above average, an interesting side project but not as good as Wilco's main stuff, I'd have to give two reasons. The first is 'Wreckroom.' While it is eight minutes of mostly interesting music, it doesn't quite gel with the rest of the album. In the same way that I like 'Less Than You Think' on A Ghost Is Born but rarely listen to it, 'Wreckroom's extended outro of swirling, pealing guitar space never works for me. The second reason is that, well, this is just a side project, ultimately. I don't want to insinuate that Tweedy saves up his 'A' game for Wilco because I like these songs a lot and he's not holding back. But due to the way these songs are played and what they are, they don't have the panache and punch that Wilco does. Loose Fur get by on a lot of charm and "we just did this because we enjoy playing together and it was fun" on Born Again In The USA. Anyway, when are side projects ever taken as seriously and loved as deeply as the main stuff?? It's pretty rare. Loose Fur was an album about risk taking and sonic discovery and though I do like it better than Born Again, that's a matter of personal taste. The two albums are trying for different things and succeed at them. On Born Again, they aren't trying to push themselves; it doesn't have the sense of experimentalism and searching that made Loose Fur so interesting and worth hearing. But, again, this isn't trying to be that. Just as Sky Blue Sky was a good old fashioned rock album at its heart, Born Again is a good old fashioned rock side project, where a few guys from other bands or what have you get together to hang out and play music together because they like each other.

Born Again In The USA may not have the freshness and historical importance that the first album did, but that doesn't diminish it in any way. It's a nice companion piece to Sky Blue Sky, at any rate, and an above average album in its own right. Since you'll come to this via one of the three people involved, there's little chance it will blow you away in the same way the main projects do, but it's still great music for fans.

Album of the Week: Jim O'Rourke- Eureka

Jim O'Rourke recently turned 40, Eureka is about to turn 10, and I had a dream a few nights ago where for some reason I was obsessed with buying another album by Gastr Del Sol...so I took all of these things as signs that I ought to review this album. To be perfectly honest I hadn't listened to it--and I mean really listened to it, not 'one of the songs came up on my iTunes shuffle' listened--for probably over two years. Eureka never really comes up when I'm talking about music to people I've recently met or when I'm thinking of things to review. It's a quiet, unassuming album that usually stays in its place on my shelf, the CD case tucked between Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Smith, my eyes acknowledging its presence as I scan by but I think "nah, not today" to myself for the 600th day in a row. I don't know why this is; it's a good album. Damn good, even. But it's just not the sort of thing you find yourself reaching for when you can't decide what to listen to on the way to work or while you're home and need some background music.

Eureka is a curious, interesting little orchestral pop album. While O'Rourke's previous release, Bad Timing, had a lot of intricate acoustic guitar picking on top of some orchestrated music, it was entirely instrumental. But Eureka drops the acoustic guitar workouts, picks up the orchestral pop flag, and runs away at full speed, humming tunes to itself along the way, crafting music that often sounds like a film soundtrack when O'Rourke isn't singing. It's a fascinating album since it comes from a guy mostly known for helping birth Wilco's 'difficult' masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, mucking about with Sonic Youth for half of this decade, and producing/remixing a bunch of people. Though he's worked with a surprising number of singer/songwriter types and pop-leaning artists, I still mainly think of him as belonging to the artsy, experimental, and avant garde fringes. And it doesn't help that the cover art for Eureka is strange as all get out--it looks like something you'd expect from Xiu Xiu and not a nice, relaxing orchestral pop album...

At only 8 tracks but 43ish minutes, you have to figure that there's more going on here than just Beach Boys, Phil Spector, or Burt Bacharach-isms--though, ironically, there's a cover of Bacharach's 'Something Big', made even more ironic because it's done with absolute sincerity and is one of the album's best moments. Anyway, Eureka is for the patient music listener, which isn't to say it's 'slow.' Rather, the rewards come from listening to the whole thing and enjoying it as an entire work instead of a series of discrete songs with incessant hooks or repeated choruses. It's orchestral pop, so there are some hooks and choruses, but as I said earlier, it often sounds like soundtrack music. Just as often as it erupts into singing and lyrics, it slowly blooms into upbeat, melodic instrumental music or explores subdued moods. And I always remember the album as having way more singing than it does for some reason. That's probably because there's something very lyrical to this music at all times, the way the strings and brass are used to suggest singing, or even the way a wordless 'bah bah bah' chorus is employed on 'Please Patronise Our Sponsors.' Which is too bad, actually, because Jim O'Rourke has a surprisingly excellent and emotive voice. There's something very warm about it, and it's disappointing that the moment it gets used most is on the album closer, 'Happy Holidays', which is less than two minutes long. Ah well, there's always his songs for Loose Fu. And his other album, Insignificance, which I haven't heard.

But I digress. This is one of those albums that has just a special atmosphere to it. For me, it's evocative of that moment when the wine starts to get to you during the holidays and you suddenly feel entirely too sentimental about your past and too content with your current life. Or when you, for whatever reason, think about your current significant other and just knowing they're in your life gives you a sudden shot of magic and awe about life and love. These moments of euphoria don't last very long, but Eureka is their soundtrack. When I listen to it, words like 'pristine', 'ornate', 'meticulous', and 'romantic' come to mind. Assuming I have a wedding, I might have to insist it be played at the reception. Or in the getaway car with my bride.