HYLI Vol. LXVII - Bon Iver and Thou
Andy sends Patrick some more sludge, this time by way of the greats from Louisiana, and Patrick sends Andy an album that he is absolutely baffled that dork has never heard
Hello, HYLI here. Lord willing, basketball will be Over With tonight (I am writing this Monday afternoon) (Andy: It is over) and I’ll have a brief respite from having to hear from the dork Heat fans in my life, who will simultaneously tell you this is an incredible team that is Actually Good, while also making excuses for a bunch of dudes that supposedly suck and should be playing in your local YMCA league. Pathetic. I hate the team. The actual players on the team, Jimmy Butler (RIP Himmy Butler) excluded, actually seem like pretty likable dudes but #HeatCulture is more annoying than anything Celtics or Sixers fans do and only is really rivaled by Kobe Lakers fans. Anyways, music. Jason Isbell released his eighth solo record last Friday and it’s maybe his best? The Foo Fighters released their 11th record the week before that and it’s maybe their best? What’s with these dudes closer to my dad’s age than my own releasing their best work? I thought you were supposed to be washed after album four? Music rocks. I love dads who also rock. It’s great. Hope you have a good week. I’m launching another music newsletter (Andy: wtf do I mean nothing to you) later this week and have to do my first interview in ages tomorrow as a result. Anxiety! Hope you like it.
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Patrick: This is shocking to me. There have been some here in this newsletter where it’s like, hmm, wow, Andy really only listens to metal, huh? For Emma, Forever Ago was so big that I felt like even he’d hear it (Andy: imo a wild thought from you). He’s heard stuff by your Vampire Weekends and your Tame Impalas. I figured for sure this one would have come across his transom. Also, without revealing too much about her, while Andy’s wife also likes some of the stuff he sends me here, I would have figured for sure this would be one that she’d Know and send to him (Andy: My wife, almost exclusively, only listens to metalcore from 2007-2013 or modern beatdown).
This record rocks. Is it my favorite Bon Iver record? Probably not, that’s probably his self-titled second record. Is it his best? Maybe, though I could see an argument for his third, 22, a Million. But, goddamn, this is his most important. One of the most important indie records of the 2000s. As the story goes, Justin Vernon got dumped and then caught *checks notes* pneumonia, then mono, and then a liver infection and holed up in a cabin in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and recorded this full thing almost entirely on his own, self-releasing it on Myspace, then eventually re-releasing it on Jagjaguwar after it popped off (Andy: I truly respect the misery here). All that, and now dude is headlining all the big fests and popping up on or influencing seemingly everyone’s albums from The National and Taylor Swift to Kanye and Vince Staples in the aftermath. This was the time when every indie band was seemingly from New York with two guitars and being seriously indebted to either a) Joy Division or b) Television. Dude was just a sad sack sick boi from Wisconsin with an acoustic guitar and he changed the landscape. We love a success story and we really love a Wisconsin success story.
I guess I should talk about the songs. I think a lot of this success I just laid out can be, truthfully, traced back to this album released in 2007, basically coinciding with the launch of YouTube, as “Flume” was the song that launched a thousand YouTube cover channels. I love how DIY this is. There is so much discussion about what is and is not DIY in the punk space. This is undeniably DIY. I love how you can hear dude’s toe-tapping on the floorboards of the cabin in time with the strumming of the acoustic (Andy: I agree). I don’t really think it’s the best on the record but the impact is obvious. “Skinny Love” is in the canon of great Hospital TV Show Songs (Andy: what does this mean). What else is in here? “Stolen” by Dashboard Confessional. “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol. Every song by The Fray. “Skinny Love” fits right in there. Andy is gonna hate this shit so bad lol. That being said, I don’t particularly *love* those tracks either. This record is all about five of the nine (really eight, excluding “Team” which is basically an interlude) tracks, for me. “Lump Sum” is closer to “Flume” and “Skinny Love” than the others I enjoy here, but it’s superior to those tracks. “The Wolves (Act I and II)” is maybe his best song. Have you seen the flick The Place Beyond the Pines? Sick picture. This song closes out the movie and I think I cried in the theater when I heard it (Andy: The last time I cried in a movie theater was during Disney’s Mighty Joe Young). Just about a perfect song and maybe the best usage of Vernon’s trademark falsetto. “Blindsided” and “Creature Fear” showed that, while the falsetto was Thee Talking Point, dude could also write a hell of a song removed from any gimmicks. “For Emma” is one of the saddest songs I’ve heard. I love it. For Andy, Deepest Apologies.
Andy: Thank you for apologizing in advance and I would also like to apologize. I’ve done a lot of growing during the existence of this newsletter but I am Not Quite There Yet for this. There was plenty that I liked about it but also plenty I was very much not here for. I fully recognize it is because I just don’t get it. While listening, I was often able to enjoy parts but it had absolutely zero staying power. I still do not remember a single vocal melody, riff, or even lyric (Patrick: this is kinda more crazy to me than you outright disliking it lol).
I am not going to complain or overly criticize. I recognize I am in the minority here. These vocals are very much, extremely, not for me. I don’t get them and I don’t like them. I think it has to do with the “layering” and production. Singing in falsetto is fine but the way it’s handled here really pulls me out. It is okay. Moving on.
I did love the lo-fi vibe here. It’s the best part of the album. People really “going through it” and making lo-fi sad music should really connect more with me. I loved “Team” (care to guess why?), “Creature Fear” was definitely made to be on Scrubs (is that what you meant by hospital tv show?) (Patrick: yes, Scrubs is a television program set in a hospital, you get it), and “Wolves” is probably the best full song here. The chaotic drums at the 4-minute mark were some welcomed energy on an otherwise sleepy album. Zach Braff loves Bon Iver right? He definitely does (Patrick: I believe you are referencing the Shins here, my guy). This is a very Zach Braff album. I don’t really see why it’s considered top-tier folk. I can’t quite separate it from some of the others we’ve covered.
I did my best (Patrick: I don’t believe you ever when you say this crap). I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough. I Didn’t Like It.
Thou - Tyrant
Andy: This was one of the first records I had on vinyl (with the original album art). I bought it specifically because the album art looked cool. I didn’t even have a record player. I had to go back and download this record off of a now-dead, totally “legal” website. This was my introduction to Sludge and it, unfortunately for the entire genre, set the bar way too high. Patrick thinks I don’t like Sludge but I do; Thou just set the bar way too high for any other band (Patrick: so you don’t like sludge and just like Thou?).
Unapologetically confrontational in style, Thou creates a landscape that is harsh and overpowering. Characterized by its unique doom-laden attributes influenced by blackened subgenres. With Tyrant, Thou also demonstrates that sludge metal could be a canvas for storytelling, challenging the notion of the genre being solely a playground for pure aggression, proving that heavy music could be depressing and engaging (literally the best combo). Vocal delivery here is second in the genre only to their counterparts in Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean (Patrick: this seems like a hot take but I agree, also personally I give the edge to Aaron Turner from Old Man Gloom, Isis the Band and Sumac). Black Metal-esq screams will always (yes, always) be better than the traditional lows the scene tends to rely on (Patrick: disagree lol).
What they do differently than Chained is they… let up for a bit. Give you a space to breathe. “Acceptance” is 11+ minutes of Post-Metal. At the end of “With a Cold Life Extinguishing Elegance” they play in the Post-Rock/Metal space again. They don’t use nearly as much feedback and dissonance but they’re still just as heavy.
I still stand by the comment that Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean are the new kings of Sludge, but they’d be nothing and nowhere without Thou. Respect your history. Hope You Like It.
Patrick: This one is a bit of a cheat code. Most of the bands, I’d wager three-quarters of them, are bands that are entirely new to me. The majority of that remaining quarter are bands that I’ve heard maybe a few songs by. I’ve previously heard two full-lengths solely by Thou and an additional two collaborative full-lengths with The Body and Emma Ruth Rundle. But I’ve never gone back and listened to the foundation, where they and a lot of sludge metal started. The results? Hell yeah! This rocked.
So much of sludge is relentlessly heavy. A lot of tech-death can be heavy but it’s so precise that, to me, it almost seems like uncanny valley. Black metal can be super heavy but it can also throw in acoustic guitars and wind chimes and shit like that. Sludge just seems raw, drop-tuned, and with vocals that sound more like dudes just opening their mouths wide and shouting their throats out. It’s great. Thou definitely does that on Tyrant, but they also mix in parts that almost sound like indie-rock? The title track ends with a highly delayed and reverbed guitar part and clean singing in a way that switches up the pace. Hell, they even seem to mix around some classic rock influences, if I squint a bit. On the title track, there’s a riff that almost sounds like a slowed-down version of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Third Stone from the Sun,” which is followed on the next track, “With a Cold Life Extinguishing Elegance,” having another riff that seems to recall the coda slide-guitar part of Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla.” Everything else really ups the heaviness. “Fucking Chained to the Bottom of the Ocean” is relentless. As Andy said, both “What Blood Still Flows From These Veins” and “Acceptance” almost border on post-metal sent to the swamps of hell and back. I love this shit. I want more. Sludge rocks, Andy is wrong.