Wednesday, March 29, 2006

I Am a Cold Rock. I Am Dull Grass.

Back in November, I posted about the upcoming re-issue of the Will Oldham tribute album, I Am a Cold Rock. I Am Dull Grass. Well, after a bit of a wait, the disc finally arrived a few weeks ago.

As with every tribute album, it's a bit hit and miss. However, the highs here are pretty damn good. I knew the covers from Mark Kozelek, Calexico and Iron & Wine be good stuff. However, the question was how good the other unknown artists' covers would be. Well, I'd say they're pretty damn good. Some are poor but most of them are good enough to make it a fun album to listen to.

My two favorite tracks are Pinetop Seven's "Sufjan Stevens-like" cover of "A Minor Place" and Sodastream's country folk version of "Southside of the World". If you are a fan of Oldham, it's a good disc to pick up. I'm not sure how long the offer will last but for the first several orders, Tract Records was also including a compilation disc of the artists that performed on the tribute album.

Pinetop Seven | A Minor Place
Sodastream | Southside Of the World

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was really feeling rivulets' version of "you will miss me when i burn"... -KHMatthew

Flatlander said...

Matthew, you're a madman. I thought this was a pretty obscure album but you nailed a great track within an hour of me having this post up. Nice.

Tanner M. said...

Adrian Crowley's West Palm Beach is where it's at for me.

Flatlander said...

t,

Was that track on the first release? I think they changed a few of the tracks between the original and re-issue. Or is it off a different album?

Anonymous said...

I've had the first release of that album since the get-go, and really dug it for a while, so it's nice to be reminded of it. Not sure if I'm going to buy it again, although, the Kozelek track sounds tempting. I too loved the version of "West Palm Beach". - KHMatthew

Tanner M. said...

Yeah, i got it a couple years ago now, i havn't looked at the track listing, but it's definatly a bummer if west palm beach isn't on there... for that matter it's my favorite track on "sings palace Music" as well(one of the best releases of 04!)

Flatlander said...

t,

I agree with you on the genius of "Sings Palace Music". My favorite off that one is "Gulf Shores".

Matthew is going to hook me up with the version of "West Palm Beach" in exchange for Kozalek's "New Partner". If you have gmail and want it also since it's not on the old version of the album, let me know.

Have you heard Doveman's version of "New Partner"? Another good one.

Tanner M. said...

heythanks for those mp3's - i dig em'

Flatlander said...

Cool. I'm glad you like them. Doveman is a one-trick pony but ooooh, what a trick!