As our new releases begin to turn towards the Fall season here in the Northeast, some pretty darn good music rears its head. But there's lots in the coming weeks, so check out our 12 Must-Have Albums This Fall to see what we're really excited about. This week, we've got a lot to look forward to. Excitement and curiosity might tell this week's tale the best. Bloc Party had a tumultuous time setting out on their own with solo projects as an emotionally spent group took time off from each other; some thought indefinitely. [...]
Bill Fay is hardly a household name. In fact, he's hardly a name at all. And yet, his music has resonated with some rather important musicians. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy claims no records have meant more in his life than Fay's, and Okkervil River's Will Sheff calls Fay "rock music's conscience". So why has Fay gone virtually unnoticed by the music community at large? The story goes that Fay released two records in the early 1970s on Deram (19702s Bill Fay and 19712s cult classic Time of the Last Persecution, which featured some of [...]
Bill Wie? Fay, Bill Fay. Hij maakte platen in 1970 en 1971 en verdween daarna in de vergetelheid. Tot Wilco besloot hem bij hen op het podium uit te nodigen. Is het folk? Is het rock? Singer-songwriter? Volgens mij is...
Here are a few MP3s of songs from some of the better albums released this week: Black Swan Runners – “West of Ten” from An Aside Ry Cooder – “The Wall Street Part of Town” from Election Special Eyes Lips...
A recluse through much of the last two decades, singer-songwriter Bill Fay has returned with an album of poignant, life affirming joy. Dead Oceans Records, 2012 8.3 / 10.0 Life Is People might just change your view of popular music. British singer/songwriter Bill Fay made only two albums [...]
En écoutant Life Is People le nouvel album (trop fourre-tout) de Bill Fay , son premier véritable depuis 1971 (les disques sortis ces dernières années étaient des réenregistrements de morceaux anciens), j’imagine que la musique de Nick Drake, s’il était vivant encore, aurait peut-être pu ressembler à l’une des multiples directions dans laquelle son camarade longtemps oublié s’épanouit désormais. J’espère qu’il n’aurait pas pris l’option rock pompier ("There’s A Valley" infligée d’emblée, chanson parfaite pour les pathétiques célébrations télé ou "This [...]
Despite being a full blown self proclaimed Wilco apologist, arguably their most popular tune "Jesus, Etc." has started to wear on me over the years. I've carried this to the point of being openly excited about the tune's omission from a recent Wilco show I attended, and actually removing it from my iPod (Purists can relax, I still have the vinyl). That said, It's more the arrangement then the tune itself that has worn on me, and thus hearing another take on the tune is quite the breath of fresh air. The purveyor of the aforementioned [...]
When's the last time you heard that an artist was about to release their first album in 41 years? I haven't even been alive for 41 years, but that's the time it took for Bill Fay to come back to the music scene with a new studio album. If you're unfamiliar with Fay, he's an English songwriter that put out some work in the 602s, but never broke through to attain widespread commercial success. Instead he became a cult folk hero to some, including Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. You may have heard Wilco perform Fay's "Be Not So [...]
Weekend Edition interviews singer-songwriter Bill Fay . LINDA WERTHEIMER: Could you tell us the genesis of this CD? I gather that an American record producer named Joshua Henry found your music in his father's record collection and listened to it as a kid. BILL FAY: That's right; he's dead. He had them before the reissues that you mentioned. I mean, I'd been deleted for 27 years up to that point. You get used to home recording when you've been deleted for 27 years. Like I said to a recent music [...]
Aug 19, 2012, 7:03am
DIY
Bill Fay is a name that may not be immediately familiar in the pantheon of great British songwriters. In the early 1970s, he released two solo albums rich with the song writing tradition established by the likes of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. However, Fay’s tales of existential wonder and ruminations on all aspects of the human spirit failed to truly capture a wide audience and he was dropped by his record label. Those early recordings were left to gather dust, becoming treasured cult relics, as he stepped back from music for almost 40 years of wilderness. ‘Life Is People’ [...]
Bill Fay has released two more singles from his upcoming album, Life Is People, including a cover of Wilco's "Jesus, Etc.". Stripping the song down to a melancholic, piano-driven melody, the cover is both heartbreaking and uplifting. That tingling you feel will go away, but why not make it last just a bit [...]
If you're a Wilco fan, the name Bill Fay will likely sound familiar, as the both Jeff Tweedy and the band have covered the UK-based singer-songwriter's tune Be Not So Fearful in concert a number of times dating all the way back to 2001. In fact, Tweedy's solo acoustic take on the song was included their must-see documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart . As for Fay, his story could be filed alongside the likes of Rodriguez, Gary Higgins and Juddee Sill as another artist whose work gained a fervent cult following among [...]
“Did you see him walk on water?” Thus Ian MacDonald, in an only slightly less than serious frame of mind, recalled a typical question from fans of Nick Drake , many years after the singer’s death in 1974, when MacDonald (who himself was to die tragically in 2003, following a prolonged period of depression) told them he had known Drake during undergraduate days at Cambridge. Later in the essay, ‘Exiled from Heaven: The Unheard Message of Nick Drake’, to be found in the collection The People’s Music, MacDonald observed that sometimes “it’s as if Drake is half-asleep, daydreaming of [...]
Bill Fay - Jesus, Etc. (Wilco cover)
Next week, the cult-favorite British singer-songwriter Bill Fay returns with Life Is People , his third album overall but his first in 40 years. On the warm, lonesome chug "This World," Wilco frontman and longtime Fay admirer Jeff Tweedy shows up to lend vocals. And elsewhere on the album, Fay offers a weathered, elegiac cover of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot classic " Jesus, Etc. ," which Timothy and Elizabeth Bracy named as Wilco's 9th best song on this very website earlier today. Listen to both songs below. Read More...
Stereogum Next week, the cult-favorite British singer-songwriter Bill Fay returns with Life Is People , his third album overall but his first in 40 years. On the warm, lonesome chug "This World," Wilco frontman and longtime Fay admirer Jeff Tweedy shows up to lend vocals. And elsewhere on the album, Fay offers a weathered, elegiac cover of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot classic " Jesus, Etc. ," which Timothy and Elizabeth Bracy named as Wilco's 9th best song on this very [...]
Vuelve uno de mis ingleses favoritos, Bill Fay anuncia disco, con colaboraciones de lujo, como Jeff Tweedy . Además, promete coros de gospel, órganos, cuarteto de cuerda,... Así que escuchemos "This World", y la cover a la canción de Wilco "Jesus, Etc.". Bill Fay es atemporal, " Life Is People " saldrá el 21 de agosto(vía dead oceans ), sin duda será un álbum digno de cualquier buena colección de música.
Photo Credit: Pneyu Back in 2002, Jeff Tweedy brought a host of new fans to Bill Fay's overlooked '70s output when he covered "Be Not So Fearful" in one of the most poignant moments of the Wilco documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart . Now Fay is back to return the favor with a Wilco cover tune on his first proper solo record in 4 decades, Life Is People . Below, hear his solo piano take on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 's "Jesus, Etc.", in which [...]
You could easily pass over this record, thinking it doesnt relate to our times. We dont tend to appreciate the holistic and well made anymore, chasing ever decreasing circles of meta-tinged oddness in our music. But this album makes us face our fears - what if all this tangential shit was, well, just detail? And, what if (as the rest of the world seem to do) we should respect and listen to the elders? These 2 thoughts form the framework of our deepening appreciation of this comeback album of sorts by British long lost balladeer Bill Fay. The [...]
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