Pages tagged “bonnie 'prince' billy”

Will Oldham is preparing his latest release under the Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker. Titled Lie Down in the Light, the record will come out on May 20, and will feature Emmett Kelley, Shahzad Izmaily, Ashley Webber and Oldham's brother, Paul.

The dozen-song disc will be available on Drag City Records, and it will be available in the UK a day early. (This is something to think about, especially if you have a stimulus check burning a hole in your pocket.) Oldham will tour Europe through June and July.

We last left Billy after 2006’s album, The Letting Go, but since then he has made forays into many other worlds of entertainment: standup comedy at Chicago’s Weeds club, a cover album reaching from R. Kelly to Björk, a lead role in full-length film, Old Joy, and a video with Zach Galifianakis for Kanye West’s “Can’t Tell Me Nothing.”

His most recent (and illicit) endeavor involves some chocolate-covered mushrooms and film director Caveh Zahedi. Zahedi contacted Oldham after using a song of his in a movie to ask if Oldham would do shrooms with him on tape. Zahedi is hoping to make a television series entitled Tripping with Caveh, assumedly in which he hallucinates with noteworthy people and records what happens.

Footage from this particular trip involves Zahedi putting hay in his hair while talking about celestial bodies and Oldham jumping on a trampoline. No word yet on if any of the major networks have picked it up, so you should probably just watch it for yourself.

Lie Down in the Light tracklist:

1. Easy Does It
2. You Remind Me of Something (The Glory Goes)
3. So Everyone
4. For Every Field There's a Mole
5. (Keep Eye On) Other's Gain
6. You Want That Picture
7. Missing One
8. What's Missing Is
9. Where's the Puzzle?
10. Lie Down in the Light
11. Willow Trees Bend
12. I'll Be Glad

Related links:
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy fanpage on MySpace
Feature: Paste’s 100 Best Living Songwriters
Galifianakis and Oldham’s Kanye video

Got news tips for Paste? E-mail news@pastemagazine.com.

Over the past year, Will Oldham has blown up in ways that no one could have possibly predicted a decade ago. How could the maker of such dark, insular folk music as Palace Music and Bonnie 'Prince' Billy become an indie film star, a viral video hero, or a stand-up comedian? Clearly, the man's revealing a new side of himself - no more Darkness to see here.

Continuing with the quirky sensibilities that have carried him to new heights, Oldham is putting together a collection of eight covers for his new album, to be released under his Bonnie 'Prince' Billy moniker. Who gets the Oldham treatment? Well, Pitchfork has been able to confirm that Björk (oooh), Danzig (whoa) and R. Kelly (damn!) will get folkified on Billy's Ask Forgiveness, which arrives in the U.K. (via Domino Records) on Nov. 19 and in the U.S. (via Drag City) the day after. The origins of the other five tracks are in some question, however. Put your sleuthing caps on and see if any of these titles ring a bell:

1. I Came Here to Hear the Music
2. I've Seen It All (Björk cover)
3. Am I Demon (Danzig cover)
4. My Life
5. I'm Loving the Street
6. The Way I Am
7. Cycles
8. The World's Greatest (R. Kelly cover)

Sure, "The Way I Am" is probably a Merle Haggard cover. But wouldn't it be great if Oldham took a stab at Eminem's version instead? Given his recent track record, don't discount the possibility entirely.

Related links:
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy at Domino Records
Paste: Review of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's The Letting Go
YouTube: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - "Cursed Sleep"

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.

We expect so much from Will Oldham. Thanks to his trickster nature, controlled voice and overflowing creative juices, the "Prince" seldom disappoints. He might weird us out, prickle our hearts, pickle our emotions and remind us of the beasts inside us all, but – or maybe because of this strange honesty – he always brings his audience back home in ways more liberating than haunting. He’s renowned for turning up the volume live, and at the 2006 Halloween show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, he lived up to that electric buzz.

From gamblers in the ’20s, to deadheads in the ’70s, to its current eclectic roster, the Hall has seen as many incarnations as Oldham has, and on this evening, he brought a killer live band highlighted by the jazz-influenced keyboard playing of Azita Youssefi, who brilliantly danced around melody notes. Oldham caressed his guitar like a Big Band-era jazzhead, while Emmett Kelly, also on guitar and wearing a large Casper mask all night long, played succulent, meandering leads recalling the best local psychedelia. The surprisingly not-so-costumed audience caught a fire when the band played an extended, almost gospel version of “John the Baptist.” Later in the evening, Oldham brought attention to a tall, robed attendee wearing a snare-drum-shaped St. Francis mask. The crowd responded with primal yelps.

In the new film, Old Joy, Oldham helps provide a study of the unspoken, where “study” translate roughly to “shut up and watch.” The Halloween show was at the other extreme. In his usual quick statements, he talked as much as he sang, his comments ranging from his love of tootsie rolls (which were summarily tossed on stage for his public consumption), to asking us to summon departed spirits to join in the fun. Comments about how the band was having a better time than any of us fell a little flat, but when local Dawn McCarthy, who sings on The Letting Go, joined the party onstage with her lush, eerie vocals, we knew that the call to dead spirits was serious. Their joint rendition of the snowy ballad, “The Letting Go,” seemed to coat the audience in radiance, and caught concert goers looking up to the ceiling as if expecting something to descend from the sky. By the time Paul Oldham was onstage for a speedy “Wolf Among Wolves,” one of numerous encores, we were all howling together.

Will Oldham/Bonnie “Prince Billy/weird dude with weird facial hair just looks like a jokester. According to a story originally reported at Idolator.com, the indie crooner will be performing as a stand-up comedian Dec. 19 at Chicago comedy club Weeds. That should definitely be a fun sight.

Oldham will perform as part of a series of shows sponsored and curated by the Drag City record label.

The enigmatic Will Oldham sees a lightness

At last, Will Oldham as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy has given us a record of cryptic romanticism to complement the silver-rimmed bleakness of his 1999 masterpiece I See A Darkness.

Oldham's impulses are still arresting—he's unguardedly affectionate ("The backs of your knees conceal me / And your eyeballs / They unreel me / Love comes to me") and, with the same emotional intensity, he's frightening ("A strange form of life / Kicking through windows / Rolling on yards / Hitting in loved ones").

Dawn McCarthy's ethereal voice floats over and under Oldham's too-human warble, creating a raw intimacy throughout, and elements that might seem unspectacular in isolation—acoustic guitar, bass, piano, strings—organically coalesce to form disarmingly subtle arrangements.

Too refined for clichés but unafraid to sing lullabies, Oldham comes off as neither tortured nor naive. In that trembling croon, he gently reminds us that he's just another child of this messy world—broken, expectant.

This summer, Will Oldham will head out on a 14-date tour consisting primarily of free shows in various indie record stores.

Beginning this Friday with a performance at Grimey’s in Nashville, Bonnie "Prince" Billy will make stops in the Midwest and Southeast as well as a solo stop in Canada.

In addition to the free record store performances, Oldham will play four shows in two days at New York City's Joe's Pub.

The unique tour paves the way for Bonnie "Prince" Billy’s upcoming album, Then the Letting Go, which is set for release Sept. 19 on Drag City. The single “Cursed Sleep” will be released July 25.

Tour Dates
7/21 Grimey's, Nashville, Tenn.
8/05 Joe's Pub (two shows) New York, N.Y.*
8/06 Joe's Pub (two shows) New York, N.Y.*
8/10 Atomic Records, Milwaukee, Wis.
8/11 Madcity Music Exchange, Madison, Wis.
8/12 Roadrunner, Minneapolis, Minn.
8/13 Record Collector, Iowa City, Iowa
8/14 Love Garden, Lawrence, Kan.
8/15 Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis, Mo.
8/17 Vertigo, Grand Rapids, Mich.
8/18 Stormy Records, Detroit, Mich.
8/19 Rotate This, Toronto, Ontario
8/20 New World Record, Buffalo, N.Y.
8/21 Bent Crayon, Cleveland, Ohio
* with Hazel Dickens, Captain Anomoanon