jakobnicholas Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Buckner's next album finally gets a release date! August 2nd. Merge Records has a blurb on the 9-song record (below). They used to have an mp3 of Track 01 "Traitor", but now do not. Aquarium Drunkard has it (link below). Anybody who likes Buckner will LOVE the new song I think. Since 2006’s Meadow, fans of Richard Buckner have been clamoring for new material and wondering what was keeping their hero from releasing the new songs he would perform on the road. Well, it’s a long story! First, there was the score to a film that never happened. Then there was a brief brush with the law over a headless corpse in a burned-out car that had all eyes in Buckner’s small hometown in upstate New York turned toward him and his long-suffering truck. Shortly after a move to a safer, less popular corpse dumping ground, the death of his tape machine led to yet another reboot. After Richard called in pedal steel and percussion players and put new mixes on his laptop, his new “safer” place was burglarized. Goodbye, laptop. Buckner says: “Eventually, the recording machine was resuscitated and some of the material was recovered. Cracks were patched. Parts were redundantly re-invented. Commas were moved. Insinuations were re-insinuated until the last percussive breaths of those final OCD utterances were expelled like the final heaves of bile, wept-out long after the climactic drama had faded to a somber, blurry moment of truth and voilà!, the record was done, or, let us be clear, abandoned like the charred shell of a car with a nice stereo.” http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2011/05/03/richard-buckner-traitor/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
people are leaving Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 The mp3 is still up on the Merge site. http://www.mergerecords.com/blog/2011/05/richard-buckner-announces-our-blood-for-august/ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Orkie Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Good track. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
solace Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 can't wait... it's been too long. hoping it's better than Meadow tho, wasn't my favorite of his Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lizish Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 can't wait... it's been too long. hoping it's better than Meadow tho, wasn't my favorite of his yeah - I too have these same hopes. Need a Hill/Since/D+D type of thing. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
solace Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 yeah - I too have these same hopes. Need a Hill/Since/D+D type of thing. i loved Dents + Shells quite a bit too Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nodep5 Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Since is a masterpiece, don't argue it. Meadows left me completely ambivalent. This is a dude that I hope one day people will look at his body of work and crap their pants. Devtion and Doubt, Since, The Hill! what a run! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
people are leaving Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Since is a masterpiece, don't argue it. How can I argue. It's in my Top 100 all time. Master'effin' piece. I would rank the rest as follows :Devotion & Doubt BloomedThe HillDents & ShellsImpasseMeadow Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Vacant Horizon Posted May 6, 2011 Share Posted May 6, 2011 that dude has had a hell of a life. looking forward to the new record. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jakobnicholas Posted May 6, 2011 Author Share Posted May 6, 2011 This is a dude that I hope one day people will look at his body of work and crap their pants. Devtion and Doubt, Since, The Hill! what a run! I agree. I think Impasse ranks up there as well. And Bloomed has some incredible stuff on it. Most of it his obscure-ness is likely because of his loner personality. He usually performs solo....or with a lone person like Anders Parker. Because of his great voice, delivery, songs and guitar-playing, he's worth seeing live. But imagine how incredible a Buckner show would be with the guys from Calexico (who helped flesh out 'Devotion' and 'Hill") or if he could have access to the guys in Wilco for a few weeks to play his songs live. Buckner will get his due someday, even it's triggered by a tribute cd to him decades from now after he dies. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
people are leaving Posted May 9, 2011 Share Posted May 9, 2011 http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2011/05/09/richard-buckner-the-ad-interview/ Aquarium Drunkard favorite Richard Buckner is one of America’s greatest living singer-songwriters, but he’s been awfully quiet for a while now. We recently caught up with Buckner, prior to his show, in the parking lot of The EARL in Atlanta. Buckner gave us the skinny on his silence and the lowdown on the his new record, Our Blood, due out August 2nd on Merge Records. AD: It’s been five years since you’ve put out a record. What have you been up to? Richard Buckner: Well, you know, for years I was putting out a record at least every two years. I’d tour, make a record, tour, make a record…Around six years ago a guy contacted me and he was trying to make a film and wanted me to do the score for it. So I did it and it took, like, a year and a half after my last record, which is usually when my next record would have come out. I thought I’d do some weird little instrumental tour based on the soundtrack and then make my next record. Well, between the lawyers and everything else, this thing never came out and I had nothing to tour on and I didn’t have a new record to make because I had spent all my time on this soundtrack. So I moved to Upstate New York and started working day jobs until I could get my next record out. AD: You’re a notorious nomad. Does this finally feel like home? Richard Buckner: It never does. I mean, my girlfriend and I will look at each other and say, “What are we doing in Kingston, New York?” We just moved up there because she got a job on a sheep farm and we’ve got this place–this weird old grange hall–which for me would be perfect for recording because it’s got these really high ceilings, but we just moved up there kind of sight-unseen. We’re still not sure what we’re doing there. AD: So you’ve lived in every corner of the US and even spent some time in Canada and you’ve never really felt settled? Richard Buckner: Not really. I guess since I grew up in the Central Valley, the delta part of California, that sort of feels like home, but I can’t afford to live there. AD: And you’re still working day jobs? Richard Buckner: Yeah. Different stuff. I was driving a forklift in a warehouse for a while. Before that I was holding a road sign for Con Ed in while they were working on the power lines in the Upstate. January in the Catskills with snow banks and dead deer next to me. I worked for the census last year. Before that I was working at a school for autistic kids. So, wherever will take a freaky longhair who hasn’t had a real job in years. AD: So many people hold you in such high regard as an artist, it’s tough to sort of justify that with the your reality of working these crappy jobs to get by. How do you see yourself? Richard Buckner: It’s funny because I remember when I was holding the road sign for Con Ed it was, like, zero degrees and you’re in your thermals and had your hand-warmers but you could really only be out there for forty-five minutes or an hour and then they’d let you go sit in your car and warm up. And I was sitting there one day and listening to NPR and they were doing a story on the Berlin Film Festival and that film had come out with that soundtrack and I’m like, “My god, they’re talking about my film score on NPR and here I am out holding a sign in the snow next to a frozen animal carcass.” AD: So life as professional singer-songwriter in America in 2011 is… Richard Buckner: Really rough. Not only are there fewer labels and fewer booking agents, but people are just sharing files and not buying records anymore, and people aren’t going out as much anymore–or when they do they’re not buying as many drinks at the club. So everyone is affected. It‘s more of a struggle than it was when I first started. The whole, sort of, paying musicians thing still hasn’t been figured out. The same thing is happening to the book industry now. They just haven’t figured out how to pay artists for their work, how to restructure the system. So it’s difficult on a lot of levels, but that makes people more inventive in a lot of ways, too. Like last year I did some house concerts with a guy named Will Johnson [of Centro-matic and South San Gabriel]. So there are alternatives, but you have to keep thinking. The only money comes from touring. There’s no money in making records. This latest record that I’ve recorded I did entirely at my house. I would have loved to gone into the studio and bring a band in there like I did in the beginning but it’s just not possible anymore. AD: And you typically tour solo or with just one other musician, rather than with a full band. Is that a purely financial decision, or at least partly artistic? Richard Buckner: Well, I tour in my pickup and I can only fit one guy in there. But I’ve done a couple of band tours that were disasters on a bunch of levels. The kind of money clubs pay me, I can’t afford to bring a band out. I’m not going to pay somebody $50 a day–you can’t live on that. I just ate at Waffle House and it was, like, $9 or $10 for a meal. They should pay you that for eating there [laughs]. But it’s like prices are up everywhere except for musicians. The same clubs are paying me the same amount of money for a gig as I was making sixteen years ago. Still, I feel lucky in a lot of ways in that I can tour for a while and then not have to work for six months, where some people you see are stuck in the same shitty job for life. AD: So what’s your definition of success? Richard Buckner: I’m still alive. I can still pay my bills. And I have a label. I have a load of very talented musician friends who don’t have a label and I can’t understand why I do and they don’t. I got lucky with Merge. They’re honest. Most of they labels I’ve been with aren’t honest. You can’t get your statements, you can’t get paid, they disappear…If you really want to meet a bunch of fucking scumbags, be a musician. But Merge is just straight up and they’re the sweetest people. You want talk about success: If I have a label that I can trust and they’re nice and they care, then I’m the luckiest guy in the world. AD: Your next record, Our Blood, is out on Merge August 2nd. Any particular inspirations for it? Richard Buckner: It’s kind of a long story, but in the last three or four years things around me happened, and I’m talking mostly about people, friends and family, dying or going crazy or disappearing for various reasons. The songs have a thread through them that I haven’t really been able to explain to myself yet. Writing’s so prophetic. You never realize what they’re really about until years later. words/ j kress Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lizish Posted May 10, 2011 Share Posted May 10, 2011 wow And I was sitting there one day and listening to NPR and they were doing a story on the Berlin Film Festival and that film had come out with that soundtrack and I’m like, “My god, they’re talking about my film score on NPR and here I am out holding a sign in the snow next to a frozen animal carcass.” same wow about being paid the same amount for a concert as 16 years ago. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brianjeremy Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 I saw Buckner in Atlanta: it was awesome and made me a fan. Seeing him live vs. listening to his records is so different. I've been slowly buying his catalog, and as a whole, it's amazing. Just a few more albums to digest...his music just buries itself in the sub-conscience. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
welch79 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 how have i never heard of this guy?? quick, tell me which album to start with... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
nodep5 Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 how have i never heard of this guy?? quick, tell me which album to start with... Since, then Devotion & Doubt, then probably Bloomed or Dents and Shells Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Since, then Devotion & Doubt, then probably Bloomed or Dents and ShellsI agree with these four, though not necessarily in this order. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
lizish Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 how have i never heard of this guy?? quick, tell me which album to start with... I can only wish I was in your shoes and hearing him for the first time. To me the Hill is the only certified work of musical genius from the last decade. But hey, Since would be the place to start. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
people are leaving Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 how have i never heard of this guy?? quick, tell me which album to start with... Welch79 - For the uninitiated, I have a 24 song collection I can send you later tonight if you're interested. Goner With A Souvenir Lil Wallet Picture The Ocean Cliff Clearing Faithful Shooter Ariel Ramirez 4am Jewelbomb When Love Is Gone Julia Miller Fater Town Blue & Wonder A Chance Counsel Firsts A Goodbye Rye Numbered Coursed Emily Sparks Boys, The Night Will Bury You The Tether and The Tie Song of 27 The Last Ride Elizabeth Childers Once #1,3,4,5,7,17,19,24 - Since #2,6,10,15,21 - Devotion & Doubt#9,18,23 - The Hill#11,16,20 - Meadow#12,22 - Bloomed#13,14 - Dents & Shells#8 - Real (Tom T Hall Tribute) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jakobnicholas Posted May 11, 2011 Author Share Posted May 11, 2011 Goner With A Souvenir Lil Wallet Picture The Ocean Cliff Clearing Faithful Shooter Ariel Ramirez 4am Jewelbomb When Love Is Gone Julia Miller Fater Town Blue & Wonder A Chance Counsel Firsts A Goodbye Rye Numbered Coursed Emily Sparks Boys, The Night Will Bury You The Tether and The Tie Song of 27 The Last Ride Elizabeth Childers Once Pretty good list, though way heavy on "Since" in my opinion. I'd include a couple songs off "Impasse"...an album that many seem to think is one of his inferior records. "Impasse" was made by Buckner at his home, playing all instruments, including synthesizers, except for his wife on drums. 'Loaded at the Wrong Door', 'And The Clouds Have Lied' and 'Count Me In On This One' would all be suitable for a Buckner "Best Of." Also, Buckner has a great tune on a Bloodshot compilation. It's called 'Do You Wanna Go Somewhere'. Nice inclusion of 'The Last Ride'.....one of Buckner's absolute best. "Bloomed" has other greats like '22' and 'Six Years'. It's impossible to chop Buckner down to just 24 songs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
people are leaving Posted May 11, 2011 Share Posted May 11, 2011 Pretty good list, though way heavy on "Since" in my opinion. I'd include a couple songs off "Impasse"...an album that many seem to think is one of his inferior records. "Impasse" was made by Buckner at his home, playing all instruments, including synthesizers, except for his wife on drums. 'Loaded at the Wrong Door', 'And The Clouds Have Lied' and 'Count Me In On This One' would all be suitable for a Buckner "Best Of." Also, Buckner has a great tune on a Bloodshot compilation. It's called 'Do You Wanna Go Somewhere'. Nice inclusion of 'The Last Ride'.....one of Buckner's absolute best. "Bloomed" has other greats like '22' and 'Six Years'. It's impossible to chop Buckner down to just 24 songs. I put this comp together a few years ago when Impasse, in my opinion was not the equal of Rick's other records. I've since changed my stance a bit and have warmed up to some of the songs, including a couple you mentioned. As for Bloomed, both songs you mentioned for anyone else would be a career best. They're that good. Also, I do concur that it's impossible to scale Rick's oeuvre down to a mere 24 or thereabouts. I've been a fan since I say him fronting The Doubters in Berkeley circa '95 or so. Do You Wanna Go Somewhere from Sir Dark Invader vs. The Fanglord ? Great record. I need to revisit Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brianjeremy Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I think I can wade into the "what's his best album/where to start" debate now...I've gotten all of his albums except for The Hill (I do have a mp3 copy broken up into different tracks). I really like Dents and Shells, Impasse and his self-titled release. All are freaking great in my opinion. Been really digging his s/t release since purchasing it last week. release? Is there a digital version available? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dustbowler Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 Welch79 - For the uninitiated, I have a 24 song collection I can send you later tonight if you're interested. Goner With A Souvenir Lil Wallet Picture The Ocean Cliff Clearing Faithful Shooter Ariel Ramirez 4am Jewelbomb When Love Is Gone Julia Miller Fater Town Blue & Wonder A Chance Counsel Firsts A Goodbye Rye Numbered Coursed Emily Sparks Boys, The Night Will Bury You The Tether and The Tie Song of 27 The Last Ride Elizabeth Childers Once #1,3,4,5,7,17,19,24 - Since #2,6,10,15,21 - Devotion & Doubt#9,18,23 - The Hill#11,16,20 - Meadow#12,22 - Bloomed#13,14 - Dents & Shells#8 - Real (Tom T Hall Tribute) A nice gesture to someone who wants to hear Richard's music, but sharing music this way is the reason he's working crappy jobs holding signs on the road in the winter. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cryptique Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 A nice gesture to someone who wants to hear Richard's music, but sharing music this way is the reason he's working crappy jobs holding signs on the road in the winter.I doubt this very much. Sharing music probably increases his concert ticket sales to an extent that far exceeds any money that Buckner himself might lose from the few discs he doesn't sell due to music sharing. Studio recordings are not where artists typically make their money anyway. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
dustbowler Posted May 19, 2011 Share Posted May 19, 2011 AD: So life as professional singer-songwriter in America in 2011 is… Richard Buckner: Really rough. Not only are there fewer labels and fewer booking agents, but people are just sharing files and not buying records anymore, and people aren’t going out as much anymore–or when they do they’re not buying as many drinks at the club. So everyone is affected. It‘s more of a struggle than it was when I first started. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Vacant Horizon Posted May 20, 2011 Share Posted May 20, 2011 If you really want to meet a bunch of fucking scumbags, be a musician. But Merge is just straight up and they’re the sweetest people. good point. when i was in a touring jam band in the mid 90s it was like pulling teeth to get paid. what a nightmare. we were also approached by random indie labels that were just totally shady. that's the side most of us fans don't see. i think buckner is one of those guys that could live off a subscription service to fans. i'd pay $50 a month to keep in touch with him, finance records, etc. if he got a bunch of folks doing that, he'd have steady income and be able to rest between tours rather than work shitty jobs. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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