Why Should The Fire Die?

[Tom]

i don't know about anybody else, but i'm getting excited about the new Nickel Creek album.
over at amazon.com they have 30sec samples of every song.
i'm impressed with what they sound like, very raw and earthy.
i have a good feeling just from the clips that this will for sure make it to my year end top 10 albums list already.

so does anybody here have a promo copy, (if so, you are a lucky son of a gun) and want to discuss it?

i noticed on their web-site that they plan to do some "intimate" shows where they will play the new album from beginning to end. i guess great minds think alike =D because that is what my wife & i did with our new album at our first show this year.

[Escuchame]

I'm excited.

I wuv them.

[murlough23]

i noticed on their web-site that they plan to do some "intimate" shows where they will play the new album from beginning to end. i guess great minds think alike =D because that is what my wife & i did with our new album at our first show this year.

Sheesh. What a boring way to do a concert. Part of the joy of concerts, for me at least, is not knowing what songs are going to be played when.

[Tom]

Sheesh. What a boring way to do a concert. Part of the joy of concerts, for me at least, is not knowing what songs are going to be played when.

  now where did i say that was ALL we did? we played another 35 minutes after that; interspersing songs from our four previous albums at random.

but back to the main subject, i wouldn't mind hearing them do their new album-start to finish-at all. it is only a bad thing to do that if you've made an album that doesn't stand up well as a whole. i would agree that singles oriented bands can't/shouldn't do that. but there are many artists that would benefit from that kind of presentation.

and it really isn't a new idea. the "old school" if you will, demanded it.

imagine, if you will, back in the 1800's if Beethoven came out on stage, (everyone expecting to hear his new symphony) and he proceeded to play only excepts from it intermingled with older material.
while it would no doubt be amazing to hear Beethoven play "Chopsticks," the audience is wanting to hear his new composition, in full.

now don't misunderstand me. i'm not saying either method is better or worse than the other. i'm just saying that i for one think artists should on occasion strive to make an album that entertains in a live setting as well as in your CD player.

[Josh]

but back to the main subject, i wouldn't mind hearing them do their new album-start to finish-at all. it is only a bad thing to do that if you've made an album that doesn't stand up well as a whole. i would agree that singles oriented bands can't/shouldn't do that. but there are many artists that would benefit from that kind of presentation.

I agree with you, Tom. Some pieces of music just don't work as well when presented in any other order. Sam Phillips played through A Boot and a Shoe in order when she toured that album (with a few oldies thrown in here and there for good measure), and I was so pleased to hear that she was doing so; I can't imagine listening to those songs in any order other than the one on the record. "One Day Late," in particular, is just so much more powerful when heard after all the soul-searching and heartbreak that preceeds it.

Now, if U2 played through Atomic Bomb in order, that might be a different story...

[murlough23]

Eh. Comparing classical works that were meant to be one thing from start to finish to a bunch of three-to-four-minute songs is kind of off-base if you ask me. While I enjoy the album as a medium and like it a lot when albums seem to have a unified theme, concept, order, etc., I still prefer for a band to mix it up in concert. I've loved Nickel Creek's stuff in the past, but I highly doubt that their upcoming album is going to be such a complete and linear work that it requires being played from beginning to end in order for the songs to be fully appreciated. From the sound of the clips, some of them are going to be instrumentals and a lot of them are just about random things, as they were on This Side. And I've seen them in concert before - the unpredictable setlist was a big part of what made it such a great concert.

Anyway, not to be down on the NC because I love their music. I'm looking forward to this album, but since I'm guessing it won't exactly be in high demand in music stores on the island of Kauai, I'm going to have to wait until after my honeymoon to pick it up. Either that or I can pre-order it. Hmmm...

[plvarona]

I listened to the clips a few days ago, and by and large, I liked what I heard.  On some songs, the instrumentation really grabbed me.  I'd say there's a pretty good chance I'll be buying this one.

[murlough23]

I listened to the clips a few days ago, and by and large, I liked what I heard.  On some songs, the instrumentation really grabbed me.  I'd say there's a pretty good chance I'll be buying this one.

I agree. It sounds like a few tracks try something new, but at the same time, the band isn't totally unrecognizable (something I was wondering about after reading some of their studio journals - drums on a Nickel Creek song??!?!?!) It may not end up being the artistic leap that This Side was, but I have high hopes for it all the same.

Good to see that "Can't Complain", one of the more interesting new tracks played at the concert I attended two years ago, made the cut. Not sure what happened to the rest of the new stuff I heard that day, unless some of it has gone through title revisions or otherwise morphed.

[Tom]

the song "Best of Luck" is featured in the new Paste. it really has a different, darker feel to it compared to older N.C.

there is also a good article / interview with The Watkins and Thile in the new Paste.

hooray for Paste!

[murlough23]

hooray for Paste!

That sounds like a good magazine. You should stick with it.

[dgp11776]

That sounds like a good magazine. You should stick with it.

I would suggest he adhere with your direction, too.

[TW]

it tastes yummy except my lips are stuck together  

[Escuchame]

I've stayed glued to my mailbox, but my copy hasn't arrived yet.

[murlough23]

I've stayed glued to my mailbox, but my copy hasn't arrived yet.

If your copy of Paste hasn't arrived, then you may have to cut off your subscription.

[DvChWi]

I just bought this today, which is strange since I didn't think it was supposed to come out until Tuesday.  I'm listening to it now, so I'll see how it is.    

[Josh]

Well, Dv, you mustn't keep us waiting too much longer... HOW IS IT?

[DvChWi]

Well, Dv, you mustn't keep us waiting too much longer... HOW IS IT?

Ta-da!

[DvChWi]

By the way, does "Best of Luck" remind anyone else of the New Pornographers, or am I crazy?

[murlough23]

I bought this on Friday, and my first listen to it was while driving around Kauai, contemplating a tropical sunset. I've listened to it 2 or 3 more times since then, and while I don't think it outdoes This Side, I think it's stronger and more cohesive (if less traditional bluegrass - they've gotta annoy the purists, after all!) than their self-titled. My favorite track is "Best of Luck", followed closely by "Doubting Thomas", "Can't Complain", and "Scotch and Chocolate". I like that there are more instrumentals, but not enough to be overwhelming. My only major complaints are the less-than-two-minute tracks that seem incomplete, and too few lead vocals from Sara and Sean. (Sean and Chris can be difficult to tell apart, but I think I'm hearing mostly Chris on this record.)

Regarding the issue of these mostly being "relationship-gone-wrong" songs, I think that's intentional, because the theme of the album seems to be the death of romance and how to keep that from happening. The title track kind of makes it all come together, and a lot of the songs named after people ("Eveline", "Helena", "Anthony") seem to be little vignettes of why these things go south.

Having said that, I do wish a few of the other songs I'd heard live ("Honest Men Make the Best Liars", "Jacksmith", "Itzinay") had made the album.

[murlough23]

I just read AMG's review of the album. While I agree with their rating and the overall glowing nature of their review, I still wonder if we're listening to the same album. Sure, it expands Nickel Creek's sound and it's bound to frustrate the purists... but the folk version of Kid A? Come on now, it's not anywhere near that weird... or as intense and explosive as the review would lead you to believe. I don't find the album to be that difficult to adjust to at all. In fact, I think it's somewhere in between the self-titled and This Side, stylistically, with a few new twists and turns here and there. So, I don't know what the AMG folks are smoking.

And "Eveline" isn't that great of a song. I find it to be a bit of a confused mess. I actually think the middle of the album (tracks 7-9) is a bit of a rut.

[bloop]

but the folk version of Kid A?

Yeah, calling it the genre's reply to Kid A was an odd choice as it is more accessible than that record.  Mr. Monger was apparently trying to say that it'll have a similar response from the purists as Kid A had from rock purists, but I don't see Nickel Creek as being nearly so controversial as that - to the point that the album is still being debated and frequently referenced in other reviews 5 years later.

So, yeah, it's pretty far off as a comparison, but there is a point there.

[murlough23]

So, yeah, it's pretty far off as a comparison, but there is a point there.

I saw the point they were trying to make - they just made it poorly. I think comparisons like that place false expectations on an album when people read them. Granted, most of the general public won't read such things before buying an album, but if I had read that AMG review before buying the album, while I would still like the album, I'd probably be led to have unrealistic expectations of how much the band had grown. They have grown, but I wasn't expecting them to completely jump the tracks genre-wise and mystify everyone in the process. They genre-bend a bit but remain true to their folk/bluegrass core, for the most part. Radiohead's core genre noticeably shifted on Kid A, and I agree with you that this doesn't happen every day and Radiohead's big move will be talked about far longer than Nickel Creek's small move will.

Having said all that, I will admit that I do long for another rousing instrumental like "Smoothie Song" or "Ode to a Butterfly". I guess "Scotch & Chocolate" kind of works in that regard, and I hate to be a purist, but man, they were really good at that.

[bloop]

I thought bluegrass purists didn't like them before Why Should the Fire Die?.  

Of course, I also think that in the near-future, they'll look like they had all the foresight of the 60s folk purists had in dealing with Bob Dylan (if they don't have egg on their face already).

[murlough23]

I thought bluegrass purists didn't like them before Why Should the Fire Die?.

The self-titled more or less sated the purists. It was This Side that threw them for a loop, but you know, they could have been expecting it to be a one-album anomaly, kind of like fans of Jars' self-titled thought Much Afraid must have been when anticipating If I Left the Zoo.

On another topic, time to do another list thingy. Favorite Nickel Creek tracks, all? Here are mine:

1) The Lighthouse's Tale
2) Green and Gray
3) Beauty and the Mess
4) Smoothie Song
5) Best of Luck
6) Doubting Thomas
7) Spit on a Stranger
8) Ode to a Butterfly
9) Scotch & Chocolate
10) When in Rome
11) Somebody More Like You
12) I Should've Known Better
13) The Hand Song
14) Can't Complain
15) This Side

Random side tidbit thingy: Yesterday, while on hold with Wells Fargo bank, I heard Nickel Creek's "Cuckoo's Nest". I thought you weren't supposed to actually like the music they play while you're waiting on the phone!

NP: "Tomorrow Is a Long Time", Nickel Creek

[Tom]

[murlough23]

Get your fresh, tasty, piping hot reviewage right here!