rare J Tillman demos surface (mp3s, zip file)
J Tillman with Robin Pecknold (from Fleet Foxes) at SxSW 2008 by ipickmynose
Henry Ford apparently said “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” This doesn’t have a lot to do with music, but the point being that people don’t always know what they want.
It was 2003 and my friend was seeing J Tillman (myspace) at MACRoCK. This was long before Tillman became a part of Fleet Foxes; in fact, he was still drumming in Saxon Shore at the time.
Tillman was out of a CD-R of his album that he was selling when my friend went to buy it, but he promised to send one if my friend sent his address. What arrived was instead an unmarked cassette demo–literally a demo tape. Not what he asked for, but certainly something he wanted.
And, like a good friend, he’s been teasing me about letting me hear this tape for years. The other day, he finally put the tracks online. As far as I can tell these demos don’t appear anywhere else–at least one track appears on one of his albums but the demo version is different.
J Tillman Demo Cassette (zip, mediafire link)
Here are three of my favorites. They’re all gorgeous, heartbreaking folk. Sparse piano and piano with a bit of reverb, which is not actually that common in his recordings, support his fragile, hushed vocals.
J. Tillman – Queen of Swing (demo) (mp3)
J. Tillman – Untitled #4 (demo) (mp3)
J. Tillman – Ties that Bind (demo) (mp3) *
You can buy his releases from sonicboom and you’ll be able to see him solo in Seattle, Europe and SxSW and as a part of the Fleet Foxes on their tour.
*”Ties that Bind” also appears on Long May You Run, but in a different version from demo.
Update Tillman just posted “Untitled #1″ on his myspace as “Tripwire”. You can update the track title if you’ve downloaded the zip.
Update 2: I managed to get the full tracklist. Edit your mp3s’ info to reflect this if you want to get the real track names:
- Let Me Put You Under Both My Wings
- Tripwire
- Queen of Swing
- Mont Blanc
- Every Word was Split in Two
- The Heart is a Valve
- Ties that Bind
- A Bridge, a Plane, a Kite, a Rope
- Kids
thank youuuuuu
wait, i have a question. what do you mean tillman is ‘a part of’ fleet foxes? i thought he was just touring with/ opening for them
Ariana, J Tillman has been drumming for and singing with the Fleet Foxes as a full-time member for a number of months now. From what I can tell, he’ll continue to play with them, be on their next record, etc.
oh wow, thanks so much for this. i’ve had “queen of swing” for some time, but the rest are great as well.
These are incredible! I know I did already pick up “Queen of Swing” the first time you posted it, and thank you for that as well. These are truly stellar, old school J. Tillman.
This post alone has put you to the blogroll over on Slowcoustic (long overdue regardless)!
Smansmith
I’ve heard of this demo tape for a while now and I’ve been patiently waiting for it to surface. I can not thank you enough…..this made my whole month. No, really.
Laura
youcrazydreamers.com
Just a note that “Untitled #4″ is actually called “Tripwire”. It conveniently showed up in his MySpace player today…. ;-)
Smansmith–thanks. I saw that (see my update)–but I think it’s actually “Untitled #1″ that’s “Tripwire”.
Yes, typed to quickly! “Untitled #1″ it is! It has also been removed from his MySpace player…
No matter, I still can’t really focus at the moment, too excited.
[...] eine bisher unbekannte/ungehörte Demo-Kassete J. Tillmans upgeloaded. Die ganze Geschichte kann HIER nachgelesen werden. Auf dieser Kassette finden sich acht unveröffentlichte Lieder und eine Version [...]
[...] Pour toutes celles et ceux qui suivent J.Tillman, je vous recommande d’écouter les quelques chansons démos tirés d’une cassette sortie en 2003 et gracieusement offert par le site I Pick My Nose. [...]