http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/17/magazine/17BRION.html?pagewanted=1
Lost in the Music
By STEPHEN RODRICK
A few moments before his regular Friday-night show at Largo, a club in Los Angeles, Jon Brion tries to conjure a catchy name for the music he loves. As a producer, Brion has collaborated with Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and Rufus Wainwright, constructing eccentric albums that evoke the Beatles, Aaron Copland and a pawnshop band. ''If it had a label, it could help,'' Brion says. He is almost 40, mop-toppish and currently without a permanent address. ''Look what 'alt-country' did for Lucinda Williams and Wilco.'' Sipping a Guinness, Brion comes up with one. ''How about 'unpopular pop'?'' he asks. He takes another sip of his beer and turns glum. ''God, that's too depressing.''
Unpopular pop is a new name but not a new genre. Even when Motown and the Beatles ruled the charts, perfect pop songs -- defined by liner-note-reading geeks as intricate rhymed verse accompanied by a melody that emotionally underscores the words -- often didn't match the sales of, say, ''Yummy, Yummy, Yummy.'' The Beach Boys' ''Pet Sounds'' took 34 years to go platinum. Big Star, the most influential unpopular pop band in America, couldn't get its records distributed. Except for the novelty hits ''Short People'' and ''I Love L.A.,'' Randy Newman, lauded as one of the country's treasured songwriters, released a half-dozen ''pop'' albums in the 60's and 70's that barely earned back their advances.
Like Newman, Brion comes from a family of musicians who share a reverential appreciation for Americana music. His songs evoke images of a bygone era: a carnival organ on one track, a melancholy woodwind section on another. And like Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, Brion has a savantlike ability to process melodies and turn them inside out. Sam Jones, who directed the Wilco documentary ''I Am Trying to Break Your Heart,'' and is raising money for a Brion film, plays a musical game with Brion. He leaves a stretch of music by Glenn Gould on Brion's answering machine. Brion calls right back playing the piece note for note. It is talent like this that has helped make Brion a Phil Spector of unpopular pop.
Occasionally, like Newman, Wilson or Big Star's Alex Chilton, Brion has managed to make popular pop. Using a screwdriver instead of a slide, Brion created the distorted guitar lead on the Wallflowers' ''One Headlight,'' a single that propelled the band to multiplatinum success in 1997. The session lasted less than an hour, and Brion nailed it on the first take. Normally, he declines lengthier commercial commitments. His manager fields calls from industry heavyweights like Clive Davis requesting Brion to produce his latest ingenue. Brion always says no.
''If the songs aren't great, I can't do it,'' Brion explains. ''I live with these songs. They're moving through my head constantly, even when I don't want them to. If they're bad, I'm throwing myself out a window after 48 hours.''
Recording studios are dreary places: bunkers filled with wires, smudged glass partitions and ashtrays. The Paramour, where Brion is at work, is not like that. Nestled in the Los Angeles hills, the grounds resemble Norma Desmond's spread. There is an ominous iron gate, an ancient lap pool illuminated by torches at night and a garishly decorated ballroom.
Down one dark hallway, music can be heard. There are red walls, a fireplace, a Scrabble board and left-over Cuban pastries gnawed by Charlie, the Paramour's half-wolf, half-German shepherd. A Hawaiian guitar rests against some Chinese gongs. In front of a Beatles-era E.M.I. console, an Apple computer displays a screen saver of David Bowie, Brian Eno and Robert Fripp at Bowie's ''Low'' sessions.
It's 1 p.m., and Jon Brion is still in his pajamas and slippers. For the past three months, Brion, Tom Biller, an engineer, and the singer Fiona Apple have been living at the Paramour. Right now, Brion is noodling at a Casio keyboard, playing along to a mix of Apple's ''Oh Well.'' ''I cried the first time I heard her play this,'' Brion says. ''We were at Ocean Way, Sinatra's old studio, and I just put my head down on the table and cried.''
As ''Oh Well'' plays repeatedly, Brion tries to conceive an arrangement that won't disturb the power of Apple's vocals. He says he thinks her delivery on the current version might be too slow for the anger of the words. To help, Brion has written out the lyrics in color-coded fashion on two giant pieces of white paper. Blue represents sad passages, red anger and green the resignation of Apple's whispering ''Oh, well'' in the last line.
''There's a space between this line and that line, and it's this continual sort of push and pull,'' Brion says. ''If she's not singing, I offer something to carry the listener through to the next moment where she returns.''
Apple's first release, fueled by her ethereal vocals and a video with her in her underwear, sold three million copies. Brion played on it, and they became close friends. After a rambling acceptance speech at the MTV awards, Apple absorbed a media assault. In 1999, she recorded the follow-up, ''When the Pawn . . . '' -- the full title stretches to 90 words -- which Brion produced and played most of the instruments on. It featured a hybrid of hip-hop beats and Brion's skewed instrumentation. Like most Brion-produced projects, it was hailed by critics. And like most Brion-produced projects, it was a commercial disappointment, selling fewer than a million copies.
Apple contemplated never recording another album. Then, in the spring of 2002, Brion and Apple met for their weekly lunch. Brion had recently been ejected from a five-year relationship with the comedian Mary Lynn Rajskub. Making matters worse, the breakup occurred while he was scoring Paul Thomas Anderson's ''Punch-Drunk Love.'' Rajskub had a large role in the film, and Brion spent hours watching his ex on celluloid. Now finished with the score, he was at loose ends.
''Please, please make another album,'' Brion begged Apple. ''I need work that can save me.''
Apple agreed, and Brion went to Apple's label, Sony Music, with strict stipulations. There would be no deadline. If a Sony rep wanted to check on progress, he would have to fly to Los Angeles. Brion requested renting a wing of the Paramour rather than recording at a conventional studio. The label agreed.
In an era of industry bloodletting, Sony's acquiescence to Brion's demands demonstrates how highly respected Brion is in the industry. In addition to his production work, Brion scored Anderson's last two films, ''Magnolia'' (for which he also produced some of Aimee Mann's career-making tracks) and ''Punch-Drunk Love.'' For the latter, he helped the filmmaker in unusual ways. In an early scene, Anderson was having difficulty communicating the emotion he wanted Adam Sandler to bring to his role. He asked Brion to come down to the set. The next morning, Brion returned with a 10-minute percussion track that captured the manic anger of Barry Egan, Sandler's character. Anderson had his star listen to the track repeatedly through headphones. Sandler got it, and filming resumed.
At the Paramour, the days effortlessly merge like the unchanging Southern California weather. Nine months after Apple played the first five songs for Brion, the album is maybe half-done. In the morning, Brion draws or works on his own songs. In the afternoon, he fiddles with backing tracks. Maybe around midnight, Apple will appear in sweats and bunny-rabbit slippers and record vocals for an hour.
''Jon's put in hundreds of more hours,'' Apple said one sunny afternoon on the lawn. ''If I could, I'd release this as a Jon Brion-Fiona Apple record. I keep borrowing his socks. He thinks it's because I don't have my own socks. It's because I want to be Jon Brion.''
Brion is contemplating the abandonment of all his ancillary projects so he can concentrate on his own material. Which is either brave or quixotic. Brion's only solo record was rejected by an Atlantic Records subsidiary and sold just a few thousand copies. Still, songs he has written with Mann, Evan Dando and Eels are the equal to anything they've done on their own. Every Friday night, Brion plays a sold-out show at Largo, whose guests vary from Rickie Lee Jones to Pink. He mixes Kinks and Costello songs with his own compositions. Regular attendees argue that Brion's songs compare favorably.
''Jon has at least 10 albums' worth of material,'' says Mann, a longtime collaborator and a former girlfriend. ''He blends the mood of the melody and the mood of the words in a way that no one else can do.'' She sighs. ''And he writes them so quickly.''
And yet Brion has released only one new song in the past four years, a track called ''Here We Go,'' a wedding song for a second marriage, on the ''Punch-Drunk Love'' soundtrack. If the song hadn't been dropped from the film, it might have earned an Academy Award nomination. ''Why finish a song when you can start a new one?'' Brion says with a laugh. ''I picked the hardest art form with the least amount of respect. The economy of language you need to get emotion across is so hard. You have to find rhymed verse, then match it with a melody. And then it's dismissed just as 'a pop song.' It is so sad.''
Brion can't let go of his songs. Or the songs of his disciples. For more than a week, Brion toyed with Apple's ''Oh Well.'' He spent one night moving equipment to his study at the Paramour to record a guitar part. ''The acoustics will pick up the reverb differently,'' he explains. The next day, Brion discarded the guitar. Then he laid down another basic track with himself on drums. He wasn't happy with the result. ''It sounded like a metal ballad,'' Brion says. ''I fired myself.'' A call was placed to the legendary session drummer Jim Keltner.
''The song is missing 'it,''' Brion says. ''Right now, I don't know what 'it' is. When you find it, everyone's physiology in the room changes. 'It' is a real, ephemeral thing.''
It's not uncommon to hear ''it'' on a Jon Brion-produced song many years after buying the album. More than a decade has passed since I first listened to Aimee Mann's ''I've Had It,'' from her 1993 album, ''Whatever,'' Brion's first major production. The subject of the song, as is often the case with Mann, is the music industry. The troops gather for a pointless New York gig as Mann muses that her chance at the brass ring may have passed. On perhaps the 400th listen, I pick up a ticking clock that moves from left to right in your headphones and underscores the fatalism of the lyrics. When Mann sings ''And Dan came in from Jersey,'' Brion plays the opening bars to Springsteen's ''Born to Run'' on a glockenspiel.
When he was 5, Brion wrote ''I am Jon Brion. I am a musician'' on a piece of paper. A few years later, his mother, LaRue, a club singer while in college, bought him his first Fats Waller record. Brion's father, Keith, was director of Yale University's concert and marching bands, and his parents introduced their son at age 13 to the jazz musicians Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell, who were known equally for their playing and for their jazz evangelism tours to China and Russia.
As he grew older, Brion refused to do any schoolwork other than music. The school district placed him in special-education classes with mildly retarded and emotionally disturbed teenagers. ''I was in with a kid who had seen both her parents killed in front of her,'' Brion recalls. On Brion's 17th birthday, his father signed the release papers, and Brion dropped out of high school.
At a recent Largo show, Brion began by laying down a drum track and looping it. He did the same with a jaunty piano part. He then picked up an electric guitar. He closed his eyes and resembled the kid from ''Tommy'' as he played a crunchy guitar part. Finally, he performed ''I Was Happy With You,'' a new song, picking through a melody that captures the post-anger wistful stage of heartbreak.
The next day, Brion told me that he has written a dozen new songs about his breakup. ''I'm trying to approach them from a realistic point of view,'' he said. ''I want songs that suggest, O.K., maybe it was 60 percent your fault, but I was there, too. Those songs aren't being written.''
Another day, I heard ''Citgo Sign,'' which was recorded in 1991 and would not be out of place in a musical. ''That may be my best album's worth of material,'' Brion said. He also has notions of turning a batch of songs written since 1995 into ''an Internet-only EP.'' When I mentioned this to Mark Flanagan, his manager, he laughed: ''You realize, that's not going to happen.''
Brion's inability to release his own songs is a hushed subject of conversation among his friends and musicians. When I asked Mann, she began: ''I think he has a hard time saying anything is finished whether he's producing or doing his own songs. Jon's a perfectionist.'' She hesitated and stopped. ''I'm not going to say any more.''
Part of Brion's procrastination is an inability to say no. ''Whenever I get a message from another musician, I know it's because they want something,'' Brion says. ''They want me to play on a track or produce. It's never just to say hi.''
His point was made when Grant Lee Phillips stopped by the Paramour for advice on his next album. They talked for an hour, and Brion grew increasingly animated. ''You must have a great drummer -- he captures the mood of the song,'' Brion advised. ''You have a bad drummer, you're going to be spending days trying to find that mood.'' Then, Phillips sheepishly asked, ''Hey, do you want to captain this ship?'' Brion said yes (though Phillips later proceeded without him).
''There's a thing called a heat sink,'' Brion says. ''It's a piece of metal attached to a machine. It draws heat away and keeps it from blowing up. That's what I do as a producer. It's up to me to let the artist know things are O.K. I'm the one who has to go home with the stomachache.''
Brion plays the role well. Last year, while he was producing an album for an alt-country songwriter named Rhett Miller, a real-estate agent showed up at the studio. He needed a signature finalizing the sale of the house Brion and Rajskub jointly owned. Brion excused himself, went to the bathroom and cried. Five minutes later, he was singing backing vocals on one of Miller's love songs.
Sessions with Rufus Wainwright, a talented and flamboyant piano pop singer, were turbulent. It was only the pleading of DreamWorks Records' co-chairman Lenny Waronker that kept Brion from leaving. ''Rufus had all these beautiful songs, but every time the vocals would kick in, he'd write some complicated keyboard part so you couldn't hear them,'' Brion says. ''He wasn't interested in listening to ideas about simplifying the arrangement.''
In 2000, Brion collaborated with David Byrne. Those who heard the Brion-produced songs said they were the best Byrne had done since the Talking Heads. Byrne rejected them by fax.
I ask Brion if he has considered hiring a producer for his own work. He answers in a sad voice. ''I don't have a heat sink for myself,'' he says. ''I don't have anyone who can tell me, 'This is good, this is a great song, let it go.' With my songs, I go home with the stomachache.''
A month later, I met up with Brion at Abbey Road Studios in London, where he was recording orchestration for Apple. He was exhausted from testing every microphone in its storied collection, cataloguing each of their shortcomings. ''If I reach a point where I want a voice to sound a little fuzzy, I'll know which microphone to use,'' Brion said.
In Studio 2, Brion sat behind an old piano and doodled a section from ''Here We Go,'' which was recorded there. ''I just had the major chords, and I knew I wanted to write a song that said, Even though my heart had just been broken, I'm not going to be cynical about love,'' Brion said. I remarked that the piano sounded like the one from ''Fool on the Hill.'' His eyes lighted up. ''Because it is!'' he said.
The next day, a full orchestra arrived, with ''Oh Well'' first up. Brion had Apple do another vocal take on which she almost growled the lyrics. He asked the violinist, Eric Gorfain, to add an arrangement. After listening to a rough mix, he offered only a little criticism. ''Don't place too much activity around her voice,'' Brion said. ''There's nice tension in the second verse, but tension is activity that draws away from her voice, so we have to lose it.''
The next day, Brion led the orchestra through ''Oh Well'' for two hours. Midway through, Apple arrived. Painfully shy, she sat on the floor, covering her eyes and peeking through fingers as Brion conducted. Eyes closed, he entered a blissful state. When the music stopped, he flashed a beatific grin. ''I don't think I have ever seen a human being look happier,'' Apple said.
Later that night, Brion, trying to relax with a beer, was still frustrated with the song. ''I can't figure it out,'' he said. ''It just isn't all there. Every album has a problem child. Maybe I want it to be a lawyer, when it wants to be a painter.''
Eventually, Apple's release date was pushed back from September to February. If that date holds, it will be 20 months from the time Apple played the first songs for Brion, or roughly 60 days per song. A month after the Abbey Road session, Brion told me he was done producing for the foreseeable future and will concentrate on his own songs. He even bought a powder blue van for touring. Of course, this means that songs will have to be released. For three months, Brion promised to send me demos of his new songs. They never arrived. In a final effort, I made an impromptu trip to Los Angeles. At Largo, Brion handed me a CD of seven demos. He looked miserable. The next day, I told him how much I liked them. He still seemed morose. ''When the album comes out, these songs are going to be ruined for you,'' Brion said. ''You're not going to be able to really hear the final versions.'' He grinned. ''If there ever are final versions.''
zoopp..meant to put it in the Real-life soundtracks section... :oops:
Quote from: neatahwantazoopp..meant to put it in the Real-life soundtracks section... :oops:
no problem.. awesome article, and by awesome i mean totally sweet.
Fiona in sweats and bunny rabbit slippers---> :kiss:
That is indeed an awesome article. Jon Brion just amazes me...I love anyone who can communicate through music. I try my best, but it's something I'll never be able to master. People that can do it effortlessly have my undying admiration.
But February? I have to wait until then? Goddamn it. Well, whatever makes it perfect.
great article, i didn't know Brion was such a tortured soul...nothing more maddening than having a genius ability...currently trying to find the opening bars of "Born to Run"
and yes, February will be a tough wait, it took a while for me to admit it, but "When the Pawn..." is a great album, i guess at the time [of its release] i was too close to it.
Thanks for posting that, great article.
I'd kill for the sheet music for Here We Go, I managed to figure a little out but yaknow...
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Quote from: moonshinergreat article, i didn't know Brion was such a tortured soul...nothing more maddening than having a genius ability...
the real life barry egan. its no wonder why his score for pdl works so well.
Quote from: ©bradthe real life barry egan. its no wonder why his score for pdl works so well.
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, ie, the crying and the "I'll make it big someday, I'm doing fine now tho" attitude. I always assumed the Barry character was autobiographical for Paul, but he must pull from other places / people as well.
Quote from: neatahwantaYeah, I was thinking the same thing, ie, the crying and the "I'll make it big someday, I'm doing fine now tho" attitude. I always assumed the Barry character was autobiographical for Paul, but he must pull from other places / people as well.
also the similarities would be due to his close friends being somewhat like him, maybe.
i picked up the I Heart Huckabee's soundtrack yesterday.
i think it feels more like an album than PDL's soundtrack.
maybe because it's all Brion.
so i like the PDL and IHH soundtracks.......will i like Eternal Sunshine's?
i believe there is one Brion 'singing' song......i wonder how that is.
i could've swore we talked about Meaningless on here......anyone have it?
i just got back from seeing jon brion play at the hollywood amoeba music -- did any one catch the show? played some huckabees stuff, some pdl stuff, some covers -- good show all around
i wish.
i wonder if the 5 songs on Huckabee's were going to be the EP he talked about in that interview.
the way he reprised some of the melodies at the end of the next to last track led me to this possibility.
he could easily do a Smile-ish type album.
i ordered Meaningless last night. i can't wait.
Quote from: bigideasi picked up the I Heart Huckabee's soundtrack yesterday.
i think it feels more like an album than PDL's soundtrack.
maybe because it's all Brion.
so i like the PDL and IHH soundtracks.......will i like Eternal Sunshine's?
i believe there is one Brion 'singing' song......i wonder how that is.
i could've swore we talked about Meaningless on here......anyone have it?
Definitely get the ESoSM soundtrack. I listen to it quite a bit. The song he sings on it is called "The Strings That Tie To You" and it's awesome.
the huckabees soundtrack is fucking wonderful -- second best to meaningless -- i believe you can find meaningless off the largo home page -- believe its largo-la.com
buy meaningless here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jonbrion
yeah, i ordered it from there.
there are 2 minute clips to all of the songs.
its really odd how close he and Aimee Mann's phrasing/melodies are alike. i wonder who is more influence on the other.......or if its more of a mutual one.
i wish that Grays album wasn't out of print. it looks like it's wonderful.
originally posted by Bethie in the IHH thread......i thought it would be good here too for future reference.
Here's an interview with Jon about the soundtrack:
From the Aug 17-23 Hollywood Reporter:
"I began the soundtrack by creating what I would call typically good soundtrack music. (Director) David Russell's reaction was that he wanted more 'good' feeling in it -- more feeling, in general. David and I had a conversation about how disgustingly gratuitous song placement in the movies has become, and how most soundtrack music doesn't have a sense of song to it. It has gotten to the point where you really feel, as a viewer, that almost every song placement is really just a marketing scam.
I had been remembering some older film soundtracks that were iconographic and had a sense of song to them -- such as (1961's) 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'. David was open to the concept (of creating a tune-driven soundtrack). Then, just as a way of getting myself out of 'soundtrack guy' mode and into 'songwriter guy' mode, I began playing some melodies on the piano from some songs of mine. (Russell) exclaimed, 'what's that?' I told him it was something of mine that was never released. 'Can we play that to picture?', he asked. Boom -- instantly, we were both totally happy; it gave the film a sense of playfulness with an emotional undercurrent.
For the soundtrack, I used very intimate arrangements, not big orchestrations. Bells ended up being prominent. There are a zillion different types of bell sounds; glockenspiels, hand bells, hollies and bells off the Mighty Wurlitzer organ. Using that instrument felt special because it had actually been created for use in the movie theaters but, of course, stopped being used after sound came along. You can instantaneously make finished orchestra pieces! Other than bells, (the score) is a mostly acoustic guitar and acoustic piano-based soundtrack. There are also some brush drums and bass and old chamberlain -- which is a weird instrument I play now and then. Essentially, it is all very small, except for the Mighty Wurlitzer.
What was nice for me in working with David was that we tended to have the same emotional response to certain tensions in the film. When I saw tension in the film, I would write a song about it, and he would immediately relate the song to the tension. This made me happy because it meant each of us was thinking about the film in the same abstract way. The fact that an entire score such as this would be populated by unreleased songs sans lyrics via complete serendipity is interesting.
People in the movie are trying to come to grips with the fact that you have to accept things as they are. It was appropriate that the music have a sweetness, openness and intimacy to it. Here we are, having this sweet conversation about the raw deal that is being born -- and embracing both things whole-heartedly. It worked out because there was a sense of the question of how to be OK with just being a creature in this universe, without merely becoming apathetic."
from beingcharliekaufman.com
Texas Chainsaw Thursday, 28 October 2004
3rd Update: Jamie sends word to those of you in the USA, that Jon Brion will be on tonight's Late Late Show on CBS (guest host Jason Alexander). So will Rachel Bilson, whoever that is. Check local guides and what-not, cos I don't want you peeps to come cryin' to me if you don't get to see it. For those of you who haven't read the last couple of updates (do I have timing or what?), Brion did the score for Eternal Sunshine.
now if i can figure out about what time (central time zone) he will play so i don't have to stay up.
thanks for the tip! Can't wait for him tonight. I can share the Grays album on aim or slsk if you have either and I got some Brion demos/scattered live Largo stuff as well. Thanks again.
A Reluctant Musical Genius
Whether it’s making up songs on the spot Friday nights at Hollywood nightclub Largo or laboring for months on movie soundtracks, Jon Brion is ultimately just a hard-working ideas man. Source: FilmStew.com
There are few composers working today who have left as indelible a mark on modern cinema as Jon Brion.
Along with anchoring Friday nights at the Los Angeles club Largo for longer than anyone can remember, the 34-year-old Connecticut native has also been responsible for some of the movies’ oddest and most unique odysseys, including Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I Heart Huckabees. Not that you would be able to immediately tell by listening to these respective scores; Brion’s oeuvre is defined by a distinctive lack of conceptual continuity beyond its consistent excellence.
And as the composer recently told FilmStew, that’s just the way he likes it.
“I have nothing,” Brion says of his approach to composing. “I have my gut, and I have my relationship with the given director, and that’s it.”
Brion, also a producer of such venerated performers as Fiona Apple, Rufus Wainwright and Aimee Mann, began his film career in 1996 thanks to a chance encounter with then-unproven director Paul Thomas Anderson. The result: a jazz-influenced score for Hard Eight.
While Brion acknowledges that he’s enjoyed innumerous opportunities working with some of the best people in show business, this particular strand of his music career came almost in spite of his own efforts. “I guess it’s pretty important to note that I’ve spent my entire career trying to avoid doing movies,” he explains, with now five significant credits attached to his composing resume. “That’s my first advice to anybody getting into the motion picture business: avoid doing them at all costs.”
“And then, when ones that are sort of so good that you can’t refuse them come up, do those,” he continues. “I mean, that’s pretty much all I’ve done. I’ve never actively sought movie work.”
However, Brion’s general resistance to working in the motion picture business has been consistently couched over the years by the chance to work with folks who are impossible to say no to. “When I get a phone call or somebody I know goes, ‘I’ve got a movie you might be interested in,’ I’m like, ‘I don’t want to do any movies. I want to make records. Leave me alone!’” he says with a chuckle. “[They reply,] ‘Oh, it’s these guys Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman,’ and I’m just like Goddammit! It’s like Al Pacino- they keep pulling me back.”
“I’m fortunate enough that whatever it is I’ve done for some other movie, someone sees it and calls up and wants to do something,” he says modestly. “If I know something they’ve done and actually had an emotional response to it - for instance, with Michel Gondry, when he called I hadn’t seen the first movie that he had done with Charlie, but I was a fanatical fan of his video work, and actually had collections of his videos on VHS tapes from years before.”
“An old girlfriend was in a video of his and that’s how he came to my attention almost ten years ago,” he remembers. “She said, ‘Oh my God. You’ve got to see this guy’s reel!’ It used to be this thing we had around the house and just watch for the pure joy of it, so he wasn’t yet sort of a known name.”
Brion’s partnership with Kaufman gave birth to the singular audiovisual experience Eternal Sunshine, which branded romance in melancholy and established both the filmmaker and composer’s names to folks who before might only have known each of them in passing. Like most composers, Brion typically joins a production once most of the shooting is already completed. But he has also enjoyed some very unique and fruitful collaborations during and even prior to the beginning of production.
“Most people remember they have to hire a composer once they have started editing the film,” Brion maintains. “It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we should have some music on this,’ which I think is a pity, because if you really want it to be integrated with the film, you make your decisions earlier one.”
“A lot of the great stuff with Spielberg and John Williams [whom the director recently characterized at the Kennedy Center Awards as the most fortunate element of his movie career], I think there was a little more contact early in the process,” Brion observes. “I mean, with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, you had to; they had to know what their little melodic figure was going to be that’s used in communications, and because of it there’s a real beauty to how the music works in that film.”
This is in fact the way Brion worked with Paul Thomas Anderson on Punch-Drunk Love. At the same time, he confesses that even the most elaborate collaborations sometimes generate ideas that seem anathema to his own creative process.
“ What always happens is you have the themes for the character and then the director goes, ‘Yeah, I don’t like that piece of music for that moment; can we take this piece and put it over there?’” he explains. “Suddenly it’s like, ‘Well, that’s the theme for the opposite character.’ It just becomes, ‘There’s no poetic interaction here,’ and I give up on it.”
Despite these occasional obstacles, Brion has always flourished by working with filmmakers who fly in the face of convention to create something new. “The people I’m attracted to are trying to break up cinematic clichés in general, so why should we be beholden to the leitmotif idea in general?” he suggests.
While Brion’s reputation as a musical mad-hatter opens him up to some tough demands from collaborators, he loves the idea of delivering music that others might look at as not always appropriate for the on-screen moments being accompanied. It’s the kind of philosophy that endears him to fellow iconoclasts such as Anderson.
“Paul’s working process for every movie changes,” Brion reveals. “He does not have a hard and fast way that he does this. Even though he has a crew of people he trusts and generally works with, he is changing the very concept of how he approaches making movies every time, and there’s a lot of that in how I’ve made records.”
Nevertheless, Brion admits that each and every project he’s worked on has proved significantly taxing, no matter how familiar he was with the director or his other collaborators. “Every one is a challenge,” he confesses. “Many of the musical decisions that get made in the movies aren’t even ones I necessarily agreed with. I tried to make it work as well as I could, and then it was mixed the way they wanted it mixed.”
“I consider the things I don’t like acceptable losses,” adds Brion. “But because I allow myself to be collaborative with directors, I’ve finally realized that because I can offer up options on the spot, they pretty much do with me what they do with actors and editors.”
Even though this doesn’t necessarily always create better options, it can provide some mightily useful creative context. “Fifty takes in, it’s like, ‘You know, that second take you did was pretty great,’” he says with a laugh. “It’s always exhausting.”
“I haven’t done a movie where I wasn’t absolutely just a quivering mass of flesh that couldn’t remember its own name at the end,” he continues. “If I was a quivering mass of flesh on the ground for a picture that’s just an average picture, I’d kill myself. That would be terrible. It would be an awful life.”
Having helped shape the sound of many progressive alternative musicians during the 1990’s, Brion can now look back on undeniably the signature year of his evolving sideline career as a movie soundtrack auteur. Although he does not yet know exactly how he will follow I Heart Huckabees and Eternal Sunshine, he looks forward to the relative simplicity of the cinema art form.
“You look at it and go, ‘Okay, here’s this guy who’s talking about this stuff he really cares about,’” he explains. “I feel like, ‘Okay, I’ve got your back, motherf*cker.”
“If you want to put your foot forward and talk about this subject matter, then a lot of people as just a knee jerk reaction will go, ‘Oh, you’re totally pretentious.’ And I’m like, ‘I got your back, and I’m on for the f*cking ride. If you’re going to put your heart on the f*cking table, I’m with you.”
Wheres the guy that has all Brion material on soulseek? I know there is someone here who has a folder titled genius and inside it contains everything Jon Brion has ever done. Hook me up, add me to your userlist. Anyone, hook me up with some Brion tracks! Please, preferabbly vocal tracks. Soulseek has nothing (not since they changed to that new version that gives download privledges only if you donate over $100)
$100. what are you talking about?
if you didn't know, the 2 disc Huckabees DVD has 2 performances by JB, a music video for Knock Yourself Out and a doc on him scoring parts of the film.
Quote from: MacGuffinI'm like, 'I don't want to do any movies. I want to make records. Leave me alone!'" he says with a chuckle.
But his movies are a hundred times better than his "records"... :yabbse-undecided: ...
You are trying to stir up shit eh? But it wont work, cause your username is Jeremy Blackman, which really can't be taken seriously.
jon brion played with david garza, the greatest rock musician ever.
jon brion is the man...
end of story.
he has a cover version of the song "Play The Game" on the upcoming Killer Queen tribute album.
he co-executive produced the new Kanye West album as well
no way! i knew he helped on a song, but i had no idea his prints were on the whole album. is it noticable or not?
it turns out, he recieves official credit on 4-5 tracks.
IMO, it is not very noticable
the album has not leaked as far as we know, correct? I would love to hear the Jon Brion tracks. I heard a snippet of Gone, and it's one of the most beautiful rap tracks i swear.
Quote from: JimmyGatorthe album has not leaked as far as we know, correct? I would love to hear the Jon Brion tracks. I heard a snippet of Gone, and it's one of the most beautiful rap tracks i swear.
http://rapidshare.de/files/3948811/Late.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/3949339/Registration.rar.html
Pass - sth
Ugh, I hate Kanye West. He's one of the most egotistical people on the planet. He makes hot beats but his mic skills are suspect. Jon Brion probably made more money doing this stuff for Kanye than he ever has in his life, so I see the reason he did it. It probably doesn't even sound like him anyways.
Fuck it, im dling the album. What tracks did Brion work on?
Yeah, one of my heros of music as of late. I've seen him about ten times at Largo and he is just a wonder to watch.
not sure which tracks he worked on, i havent heard it yet. but from the new Rolling Stone...
"They say you can't be all things to all people," West told his new production partner, rock studio whiz and film composer Jon Brion. "But I want to be all things to all people."
The most obvious sign of West's quest for universal appeal was his genre-defying decision to hire Brion- best known for his lush, quirky orchestral arangements for Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and P.T. Anderson movies, including Punch-Drunk Love- as co-executive producer. "Some people who hear about this assume it's just total madness," say Brion, who had never worked on a hip-hop track until West sought him out on the recommendation of mutual pal Rick Rubin. "But why not make the attempt to bridge as many gaps as possible?"
Brion helped wiht song structure and played guitar, keyboards and other instruments - but his most noticeable contributions are the album's prominent straings and the extended codas on some tracks. Among West's other collaborators were guest vocalists Cam'ron, Brandy, the Game, Jamie Foxx, Jay-Z and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. "This is definitely not just a hip-hop album," says Brion. "But it is also by no means overly arty, or non-hip-hop. I don't think it's a weird record by any means."
"I think there was a great deal in common between us," says Brion. "Kanye is absolutely obsessed with wanting to make something really good."
i just thought of something. what if one of brion's tracks becomes a huge hit and then he's like the new neptunes/lindaperry/kanye and works with every rapper and pop artist for the next few years? :shock:
yeah, i've always feared that for Brion after everything he releases...
Quote from: modageQuote from: JimmyGatorthe album has not leaked as far as we know, correct? I would love to hear the Jon Brion tracks. I heard a snippet of Gone, and it's one of the most beautiful rap tracks i swear.
http://rapidshare.de/files/3948811/Late.rar.html
http://rapidshare.de/files/3949339/Registration.rar.html
Pass - sth
EDIT: I'm pretty sure this is the advance leak and not the actual album.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mtv.com%2Fshared%2Fmedia%2Fnews%2Fimages%2Fw%2FWest_Kanye%2Fsq_kanye_brion_cc-jive.jpg&hash=83ddb9b766d059b31b781dcf00c98b2c7db2c9b2)
Kanye's Co-Pilot, Jon Brion, Talks About The Making Of Late Registration
The streets can't wait for ... er, Jon Brion?
Source: MTV
When word got out that West had enlisted the esoteric composer/producer to collaborate on his second LP, Late Registration, some fans scratched their heads — "Who??" — while others assumed the worst.
" 'Oh, [Kanye's] gone off his rocker — he's going to make an art record with some crazy, left-field music guy,' " Brion said, imagining haters' comments. "That's not the case whatsoever. It's very much a Kanye West record."
Brion should know — he's the co-executive producer of nearly every track on Late Registration. Renowned for his distinctive production work (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann) and film scores for auteurs like Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), Paul Thomas Anderson ("Punch Drunk Love") and David O. Russell ("I Heart Huckabees"), Brion's not exactly known for his hip-hop chops.
In fact, his résumé is completely devoid of hip-hop.
So why was he given such a big role in Late Registration? According to Brion, Kanye is a Fiona Apple fan, and while watching "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," his ears perked up at Brion's evocative score (see "Unsung Composer Jon Brion Brings Heart To 'Huckabees' ").
Hooked up through a mutual friend, producer Rick Rubin, Kanye wasted no time ringing up Brion. The two clicked instantly, and by the end of their first afternoon in the studio, the basic tracks for "Gold Digger" were complete.
"It was completely apparent that he was open to investigating new ideas," Brion said. "I was playing something on a track and he was completely psyched, and then he left after a few hours and said, 'I'll see you tomorrow.' "
The album's recording was experimental and exploratory. West, who marveled at the many unusual instruments Brion has at his disposal, would bring in a song's basic structure, and then the pair would let their imaginations run wild. Kanye would then pick and choose, shaping the track as he saw fit. Make no mistake, Brion says: Kanye was in charge.
"When he hears something he likes, he knows it," Brion said. "He has vision, and when the guy makes quick, intuitive decisions, he just has it. I'd watch him take a rough track that I had worked on and completely stand it on its head in 10 minutes — and it's just better. It was mind-boggling."
All that praise makes it seem that Brion's as big a fan of West as the rapper is of himself. But the producer said Kanye's choice to enlist a hip-hop novice was not only courageous, it spoke to West's true nature — which isn't the one you usually read about.
"On your sophomore record, that's the ultimate time to not f--- with the formula, right?" he said. "And he gets me — a guy who has never made a hip-hop record in his life — and gives me half the reins? That is not an egomaniac."
Brion makes his mark on tracks like "Gone," which features rappers Cam'ron and Consequence and is slated to be the last track on the album. "It's just a drum beat, an Otis Redding sample and Kanye going to town over it. There's a whole string section, and it turns into crazy soundtrack music. It's a big piece of work."
Brion conducted a 20-piece orchestra on "Celebration," and had to restrain the players' laughter at the lyric "You know what this is?/ It's a celebration, bitches." He also had to fight with Kanye to keep the song, which had begun with weird electronic twinkling sounds before morphing into its current cinematic treatment, on the album — something he also had to do with a track about his sick grandmother called "Roses."
"His attitude was, 'See if you can make me like this,' " Brion recalled. Brion layered the track with keyboards — and hours later, Kanye eliminated all of his work, along with the beat, which the producer adored. West reconfigured the song so that the verses are based around a vocal that forms the rhythm, and then Brion's music comes crashing in on the chorus. "All the authority [and] groove is from his voice, and when the chorus comes in, it's just this extravaganza of stuff going on," Brion said, comparing the track's construction to Prince's famous last-minute removal of the bass from "When Doves Cry."
"Heard 'Em Say," featuring Maroon 5's Adam Levine, was done quickly, as the singer had only a couple of free hours. Levine had a vocal that the pair had already discovered meshed with West's music (see "'Can He Do It Again?' — Kanye West Says New LP Backs Up His Bragging"), and Brion "translated" the two pieces in a matter of hours. "Adam had something, Kanye loved it and the three of us went at it like banshees, and there it was," he said.
Other guests on the record include Jay-Z, Nas, Game, Jamie Foxx, Paul Wall, John Legend, Brandy — and an unlikely guest drummer on "Diamonds From Sierra Leone": filmmaker Michel Gondry, who just happened to visit the studio on a day Brion had set up a drum kit (see "Kanye Previews New LP, Modestly Exclaims: 'This Is Killing Everything Out There!' ").
Other songs on the album include "Addicted," "Touch the Sky" and "Drive Slow." Brion says each track the pair worked on could have gone in multiple directions, and he expects that drastically different remixes of the songs will be released. While Brion acknowledges that the album is not standard hip-hop, he stresses that West isn't, either.
"There are colors and ideas that make [the album] different from average hip-hop, but Kanye is already different from the average hip-hop guy. He's got this sense of pop record-making which is really solid, and he likes tracks with a lot of things going on in them — which is not necessarily common for hip-hop. He was already barking up that tree."
argh, he's just trying to get even with Fiona!
I've been spending some time with the late registration version that mod posted and it has it's moments. Brilliant at times, but other times just sounds like mass consumer rap music.
Some tracks Brions touch is apparent (the amazing my way) and on others it's not even noticeable.
This has got my interest, for sure.
So was that version posted the final album or is it the same as the leaked version that was out awhile ago that I never bothered to dl?
Quote...and an unlikely guest drummer on "Diamonds From Sierra Leone": filmmaker Michel Gondry, who just happened to visit the studio on a day Brion had set up a drum kit...
Fuckin' mind-blowing...I love it when worlds collide...
tell me some of the tracks on it and ill tell you. im assuming that it hasnt leaked yet cause ive been keeping heavy tabs on this. kanye is one of the few rappers that interests me and his collaboration with jon brion has me giddy. this is gonna be rad.
Quote...and an unlikely guest drummer on "Diamonds From Sierra Leone": filmmaker Michel Gondry, who just happened to visit the studio on a day Brion had set up a drum kit...
I saw the video for this today.
I head that 'Gold Digger' song the other day and was blown away - one of the best new hip hop songs I've heard in quite some time. I've always liked Kanye, for the most part, but this song was particularly outstanding. Now I know why.
So the Kanye West CD leaked and I'm really impressed by some of the stuff (although I haven't heard it all), especially Gone, Touch the Sky, and Roses.
I forgot what song it was, but it reminded me of the Sydney score.
how different is it from the 'early leak' on the last page?
the only songs on the early leak on this one are gold digger and diamonds, the two singles. this CD won't strike many rap fans as good--theres two minute instrumentations of just strings. i'm loving it. it really grows on you.
Has anyone noticed the music for the latest Heineken commercial is a blatant rippoff of the Here We Go theme?
I'm loving this new kanye west cd even if black people are looting and white people are just looking for food and sonofabitch if mr. bush hates black people. "Drive Slow", "Gold Digger", and "Gone" are some of my favorite tracks...however i have to amdit that part of my infatuation with this cd stems from the simple concept of Jon Brion getting a shout out in a rap song
Do you think he'll finally get his much warranted producer grammy for this record?
Quote from: ABKman18Do you think he'll finally get his much warranted producer grammy for this record?
hahaha, ur talking like the grammys aren't the most worthless awards in existence.
"much warranted grammy" is like an insult. "hey kenny g! u deserve a grammy u piece of shit!"
they are worthless, but to see Jon in the spotlight would be just great, in my opinion. then again, the sun may be shining on him at this moment already.
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/features/weekly/05-09-06-cinematic-treatment.shtml
have you guys read this?
Quote from: squintshttp://www.pitchforkmedia.com/features/weekly/05-09-06-cinematic-treatment.shtml
have you guys read this?
wow, I need to find his version of Controversy.
Stairway to Heaven? are you serious? i must hear it
Maybe it's too late, but MTV's playing a special on Kanye's new album, right now; Jon's in the studio. :kiss:
For any other New Yorkers interested, Jon Brion is playing two shows at Canal Room in NYC on October 25. Tickets are onsale now through Ticketweb.
so basically.. don't live in new york unless you're rich.
Quote from: Pubrickso basically.. don't live in new york unless you're rich.
Or stealthy.
Quote from: Pubrickso basically.. don't live in new york unless you're rich.
or unless you like missing stuff.
so i saw jon brion tonite. it ruled. everyone in/near/visiting LA should go see him. i kinda wished he had played Here We Go or Strings That Tie To You but no dice there. he did play an awesome array of covers in various styles and a handful of originals incl. The Same Mistakes (which was probably the song i wanted to hear most of his solo album WHICH they were selling there and i finally got to purchase for real, except it was $20(!) which sucked, but hopefully it all goes to him, which rules). anyhow, he brought up Rhett Miller to do a couple songs as well which was great. highlights of the show included Waterloo Sunset (which he said was his favorite song of all time), Sexy Sadie (as played by Thelonious Monk), Roxanne (insane), and Purple Rain (as played by Les Paul). it was great and insane. it kills me though that he must have HUNDREDS of songs recorded and has only ever released 11 plus a few here and there on sntks. and even his album is practically self-distributed so, why in gods name doesnt he put out more stuff? he should podcast his largo show everyweek so i can subscribe and listen to it.
this is what it looked like:
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brooklynvegan.com%2Fimg%2Fmusic%2Fjonbrion%2Fcanalroom%2F15.jpg&hash=c298cb0b1f5cdfa72f4c48f8c76bd2ded0063d6e) (https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brooklynvegan.com%2Fimg%2Fmusic%2Fjonbrion%2Fcanalroom%2F7.jpg&hash=e75d3735efdbef148b2bc25520770bea71c44399)
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brooklynvegan.com%2Fimg%2Fmusic%2Fjonbrion%2Fcanalroom%2F6.jpg&hash=b73ad7bc640f7086b23a5ee3e5f2615a00ee4dcf) (https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.brooklynvegan.com%2Fimg%2Fmusic%2Fjonbrion%2Fcanalroom%2F27.jpg&hash=79be5646417768058c9852dba310b7fb6473017c)
Quote from: modagehe should podcast his largo show everyweek so i can subscribe and listen to it.
Thats a good idea - Go to the largo site an email the owner(whos also his manager). I know he reads the emails - He may just bite at that.
is there a page or a link or something with any of his shows on mp3? thanks
Quote from: cronopiois there a page or a link or something with any of his shows on mp3? thanks
i don't know. but here is something he recorded last week while he was here in new york. http://wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/episodes/10252005
i would love to see a show. the Extraordinary Machine DualDisc has a 5 or so song video with Brion on guitar accompanying Apple live at Largo. it's pretty amazing how perfectly he recreates the piano style of playing on the guitar.
well, i don't think jon would be up for podcasting the shows. As he said in the interview and many times before, he likes largo to be a contained thing, a "community experience". He doesn't really like recording devices coming into the shows.
Quote from: bigideasit's pretty amazing how perfectly he recreates the piano style of playing on the guitar.
I've spent hours playing the "Paper Bag" performance over and over, trying to work out the guitar arrangement. It's insane. Absolutely insane.
Quote from: ABKman18well, i don't think jon would be up for podcasting the shows. As he said in the interview and many times before, he likes largo to be a contained thing, a "community experience". He doesn't really like recording devices coming into the shows.
well thats too bad. the only thing that really made me think of it is just the lack of brion recordings out in the world. if he put out half the albums worth of material he's recorded for himself then i dont think it would be as neccesary. but i just thought, this is something he does anyway, and its always so different and the bredth of his talent so wide, why not put it out there for interested people?
wow...
from cigarettesandredvines
in other pta-ish news, boy wonder jon brion, who is currently suffering from tendonitis and is unable to play any shows, has scored the new romantic comedy 'the break-up' with vince vaughn and jennifer aniston.
i wonder if his music will elevate the film? or if the film will water down the music? like, Mark Mothersbaugh scores Big Love but you'd never know it was the same guy who scores Wes Anderson's films. so.... weird.
i thought he said he was going to stop doing soundtracks, at least for a while
he lied to you.
i really don't understand why he doesn't release anymore solo albums.
i have a feeling he has several albums worth of recorded songs just sitting on the shelf.
he has a computer filled with recordings of covers and shit he's done. there's a big box in the back of largo that has recordings of pretty much everything. most of the new solo album has already been recorded at abbey road, he's probably just tinkering with it for millions of years now. and looking at his hand
Quote from: sickfins on May 08, 2006, 03:59:38 AM
he has a computer filled with recordings of covers and shit he's done. there's a big box in the back of largo that has recordings of pretty much everything. most of the new solo album has already been recorded at abbey road, he's probably just tinkering with it for millions of years now. and looking at his hand
was this info in an interview? if so, i would like to read it.
yeah i thought like, years ago there was a trip out to LA and special stuff coming?
Quote from: bigideas on May 08, 2006, 07:25:17 PM
Quote from: sickfins on May 08, 2006, 03:59:38 AM
he has a computer filled with recordings of covers and shit he's done. there's a big box in the back of largo that has recordings of pretty much everything. most of the new solo album has already been recorded at abbey road, he's probably just tinkering with it for millions of years now. and looking at his hand
was this info in an interview? if so, i would like to read it.
nope, this is information i have pulled from many sources. i think it was that gondry talked about how he was talking to brion about hearing 'everybody's gotta learn sometime' on the radio and jon suddenly pulled it up on his computer with countless covers/recordings of songs. turn out he had recorded it a few weeks prior to that
jon going to abbey road was confirmed by his agent and what he said at recent largo shows.
i've been looking for an MP3 of his song "the girl i knew"...i know the video is online of him performing it live and impressively recording all the instruments live...but god damn it, i want a decent MP3.
can anyone help me out?
thewrathofsam@yahoo.com
when listening to the new Loose Fur i had the thought:
what if Jim O'Rourke and Jon Brion worked together?
both are singer/songwriter/producers/ and talented at multiple instruments.
what do you think?
new article:
http://www.laweekly.com/general/features/jon-brions-amazing-musicquarium/13452/
Quote from: LA WEEKLY
He's especially fond of engaging with musicians and film directors wise enough to leave him to his devices yet sufficiently firm in their own visions to forge a truly collaborative spirit. Such was the case with Huckabees' David O. Russell, for whom Brion will also score the upcoming There Will Be Blood.
wow, how wrong. who writes these things?
http://www.fairfax-avenue.com/
a new jon brion resource. also the sister site of cigarettes and red vines! fancy that.
Quote from: sickfins on October 29, 2006, 11:29:32 PM
also the sister site of cigarettes and red vines! fancy that.
what are we, like, cousins twice removed?
Quote from: Pubrick on October 30, 2006, 04:40:23 AM
Quote from: sickfins on October 29, 2006, 11:29:32 PM
also the sister site of cigarettes and red vines! fancy that.
what are we, like, cousins twice removed?
We're the hot cousin.
that new Waterloo Sunset file they put up is great.
i finally got high speed internet access at work, so i was hoping i would find a good video of one of his Largo performances where he records each instrument one at a time until it's a full song.
any idea where i could stream something like this?
i just posted an exclusive soundboard recording of jon's performance at the intonation festival in chicago from a few months ago along with a slew of other boots
looky looky
http://www.fairfax-avenue.com/
this is the greatest website ever. thank you so much.
wow, your site rocks! :bravo:
Quote from: sickfins on November 19, 2006, 12:21:38 PM
i just posted an exclusive soundboard recording of jon's performance at the intonation festival in chicago from a few months ago along with a slew of other boots
looky looky
http://www.fairfax-avenue.com/
you brought two wombats out of hiding.
Quote from: Pedro the Alpaca on November 19, 2006, 11:30:11 PM
this is the greatest website ever. thank you so much.
Quote from: imawombat on November 21, 2006, 09:48:28 AM
wow, your site rocks! :bravo:
that's pretty good. now if only pedro would stay sickfins.
anybody know if jon brion still does shows at the largo every friday? is that going to be happening in january?
not as far as i know. he's confirmed for a night this month, and he's rumoured to be playing on the 6th.
i doubt he'll ever return as regularly as he has in the past.
oh horseshit! well, i'll be around on the 6th. should i make reservations or is it JUST a rumor?
Quote from: bonanzataz on December 05, 2006, 03:33:47 PM
oh horseshit! well, i'll be around on the 6th. should i make reservations or is it JUST a rumor?
this is what i was told word for word:
"There seems to be some secret Largo show on Dec. 6. Me and my friends are
regulars for JB shows and we were tipped to reserve blind tables for Dec. 6,
and that we won't be sorry! So, we've done so, because when Flanagan gets
serious, it's VERY serious. So, it looks like we're in for a treat. Can't
say whether it will be JB or not, but I'll keep you posted. I understand
it's going to be some Very Special Musicians in the house."
no Largo performances up on you tube?
this is a travesty
Quote from: bigideas on December 05, 2006, 10:27:52 PM
no Largo performances up on you tube?
this is a travesty
So this is only one third jon brion but...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAcaUtlj8NE
i think that this is a PTA recorded performance, btw
Quote from: Pedro the Alpaca on December 05, 2006, 10:30:36 PM
i think that this is a PTA recorded performance, btw
it's not
i'm posting a slew of jon brion videos in the next update
Quote from: sickfins on December 05, 2006, 10:10:37 PM
Quote from: bonanzataz on December 05, 2006, 03:33:47 PM
oh horseshit! well, i'll be around on the 6th. should i make reservations or is it JUST a rumor?
this is what i was told word for word:
"There seems to be some secret Largo show on Dec. 6. Me and my friends are
regulars for JB shows and we were tipped to reserve blind tables for Dec. 6,
and that we won't be sorry! So, we've done so, because when Flanagan gets
serious, it's VERY serious. So, it looks like we're in for a treat. Can't
say whether it will be JB or not, but I'll keep you posted. I understand
it's going to be some Very Special Musicians in the house."
i thought you meant january 6th. damn. well. who played? any rumored january dates i should know about?
i'm posting a bootleg of the dec 6th show in the next few days, so you won't really have missed out. i haven't heard a peep about january, though
the non-pta jon brion show (http://www.fairfax-avenue.com/index.php?id=2006/12/27).
paul greenberg deserves to be shot.
can this be put up on youtube?
i have no idea the max size a file can be. i see documentaries broken up into several pieces sometimes.
Quote from: bigideas on December 27, 2006, 06:00:45 PM
can this be put up on youtube?
i have no idea the max size a file can be. i see documentaries broken up into several pieces sometimes.
i'll see what i can do. i've already put a huge amount of work into getting it/uploading it to where it is, but i'll try putting it on google video or somewhere other than youtube where the quality isn't shit.
Quote from: sickfins on December 27, 2006, 06:55:03 PM
Quote from: bigideas on December 27, 2006, 06:00:45 PM
can this be put up on youtube?
i have no idea the max size a file can be. i see documentaries broken up into several pieces sometimes.
i'll see what i can do. i've already put a huge amount of work into getting it/uploading it to where it is, but i'll try putting it on google video or somewhere other than youtube where the quality isn't shit.
ok, thanks.
if it's a huge trouble, then don't worry about it since i seem to be the only one around here still with a slow connection.
news flash. in addition to the billions of other bootlegs i've put up since last posting here, jon brion's show last night at the steppenwolf theatre in chicago is up now. hear him mash-up the lyrics of 'don't think twice it's all right' with the melody of 'lithium', or marvel at how 'back in black' is performed in the style of fats waller. or maybe just listen to it for the heartbreaking version of elliott smith's 'happiness'. or the epic medley of prince songs. fuck, just listen to the whole goddamn thing
www.fairfax-avenue.com
is 'Stop the World' the country song with the lyrics:
"stop the world and let me off"
i wish Jon would make an album and then tour nationally so i could see him.
Can someone upload his album Meaningless? It's impossible to find. I used to have it and upload it for anyone who wanted it, but now that I need it, no one wants to upload it for me!!
Quote from: Stefen on August 18, 2007, 06:17:28 PM
Can someone upload his album Meaningless? It's impossible to find. I used to have it and upload it for anyone who wanted it, but now that I need it, no one wants to upload it for me!!
If nobody else does, I'll upload it for you.
I'm not inclined to loading things onto the interweb, what with my rudimentary skills regarding anything other than internet/Final Cut/Final Draft but I reckon I can figure it out if worse comes to worse.
As you already know, it's a damned fine album that should be listened to by, I dunno, everyone.
Quote from: bigideas on March 11, 2007, 01:21:14 PM
is 'Stop the World' the country song with the lyrics:
"stop the world and let me off"
i wish Jon would make an album and then tour nationally so i could see him.
1. No.
2. I agree.
Yeah, it's one of my favorite albums.
You can just right click on it, select add to archive, then go to sendspace.com (or any other site like it) and upload the whole archive.
a new site emerges from the dust!
fairfax avenue is now the largoverse (http://largoverse.blogspot.com), a news resource for all the artists under the umbrella of largo. enjoy.
much appreciated! any chance those bootlegs will ever be revived?
Quote from: Pedro the Alpaca on July 14, 2008, 09:25:04 PM
much appreciated! any chance those bootlegs will ever be revived?
without a doubt!
http://www.nodata.tv/2009/01/of-montreal-jon-brion-remix-ep-2009.html
Quote from: modage on January 09, 2009, 10:05:34 AM
http://www.nodata.tv/2009/01/of-montreal-jon-brion-remix-ep-2009.html
This works? What do you enter for the password?
nodata.tv
Yeah. I thought it wasn't going to work because of the comments. But it works.
Also, thank you.
So there's no more largoverse, no more fairfax avenue...that geocities (or was it angelfire?) jon brion fansite is also out of business...
All those shows! And sheet music, too! Anyone have any of this saved?
what is Jon doing?
the last i know of is the Synecdoche(sp?) soundtrack and the of Montreal EP thing.
Quote from: bigideas on April 01, 2009, 03:18:06 PM
what is Jon doing?
the last i know of is the Synecdoche(sp?) soundtrack and the of Montreal EP thing.
Rocking. Weekly.
I think there's an adaptation of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest that he is scoring, too... as well as Glago's Ghost, which looks to be the short attached to the next Pixar film - presumably.
polyvinyl has the vinyl of the JB/of Montreal EP for $2 in their garage sale.
http://www.polyvinylrecords.com/store/index.php?id=768
I ordered it. $5.58 including shipping is a good deal. I like to collect this type of stuff.
Quote from: Stefen on May 04, 2009, 12:30:09 PM
I ordered it. $5.58 including shipping is a good deal. I like to collect this type of stuff.
wait........you did read the warning - not for collector's.
the stuff may be slightly damaged, etc.
not the actual vinyl but the cover/artwork may be bent.
Oh, that's fine. $5.58 is still only $5.58.
Plus I really love getting cool shit in the mail. It feels so great opening your mailbox and seeing you have cool shit waiting for you.
Does anyone know much about Jon and his relationship with E/Eels?
It seems he was a producer and pretty involved on Beautiful Freak.
I'm wondering if he wasn't associated with Dreamworks as he worked with E and Elliott Smith.
The Of Montreal REMIX vinyl I ordered came yesterday and it's BRAND NEW. Still shrink wrapped, original artwork, etc. If they have more available, I'd suggest ordering.
Quote from: Stefen on May 10, 2009, 09:27:22 PM
The Of Montreal REMIX vinyl I ordered came yesterday and it's BRAND NEW. Still shrink wrapped, original artwork, etc. If they have more available, I'd suggest ordering.
Cool. No scuffed edges or anything?
Maybe I'll get mine today.
There's a small bend on the corner, but it's hardly noticeable.
mine had multiple corners bent, but i guess i could look at it like i bought a $2 download and got a free vinyl copy.
Hmm, they probably sent them out best to worst.