j tillman robs from the rich, gives to the poor; makes good music; plays Bottom of the Hill 12/12; to rerelease album
I first heard Seattleite and former Saxon Shore J Tillman (myspace) almost two years ago now, but he’s a hard time to track down, given that most of his recordings were only available through Sonic Boom and that he didn’t seem to tour much, if at all.
That wouldn’t be much of a problem except for the fact that he makes fantastic music. Good news, though: Undertow will rerelease/ distribute Minor Works in January so it should actually be widely available. That album includes such gems as “Crooked Roof”. It’s the sort of song that caused me to lose all focus on anything else when I first heard it; it still has residuals of that effect–I just want to sit and listen every time it comes on. It has Tillman’s usual great vocals and songwriting; it also has some of the best orchestration of any song of his that I’ve heard–the banjo, harmony vocals and slide guitars work in perfect harmony.
J Tillman – Crooked Roof (mp3)
Tillman will be at the Bottom of the Hill with ipickmynose-fave David Bazan (myspace) on Wednesday:
12/12 David Bazan, J Tillman @ Bottom of the Hill 9pm, $10, a/a
Now that is a good bill. More tour dates (CA, OR and WA) below the break.
As if that wasn’t enough, J Tillman’s just gone into the studio to start his next album Territory and has a couple songs from that up on his myspace page.
J Tillman and David Bazan:
12/11 – Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland
12/12 – San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
12/13 – Eugene, OR – Indigo District
12/14 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
12/15 – Seattle, WA – Crocodile Cafe
I can’t stop playing that song! I even located some headphones so that I could plug them in to my laptop at school and listen to it discretely during class. I think that counts as some sort of addiction.
[...] Adrian (me): J Tillman – Crooked Roof (mp3) (buy) This is a slow-burner of an obsession for me. No one song got a ton of plays for me this week but this one has gotten as many as any this week plus many more over the last month or so. Like I said this song just destroys me. It’s so beautiful and well-orchestrated that I just want to do nothing else but sit and listen–and I often do as I’ll forget whatever else I’m doing. [...]