Category: Keough, Bill
Providence Monthly reviews Bill Keough’s ‘You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do’
By Adam Hogue
“Therapy without the doctors bills I suppose.”
That’s the way Bill Keough muses about his most recent set of songs off his newest album You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do. The songs on this latest effort come out at various points with biting tone, apathetic reflections, and shades of gray humor that create an album tempered and moody, yet a raucous call for celebration and heartfelt earnestness.
“I went through a two year stretch (during the writing and recording process of the record) where the up-to-then always solid walls of my life were caving in all around me,” Bill says. “Death, deception, divorce, self doubt… you name it, it all found its way to me. This led to a lot of re-self discovery and an honest reckoning of what had transpired and where it had dropped me off at after the tumultuous trip. Perfect timing if one is looking for subject matter for songs for sure.”
The title You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do sets the tone in a Rust Never Sleeps kind of Neil Young-resignation, along with a distinctive ‘90s garage, grunge, post-punk style reminiscent of Modest Mouse or Pixies. With those elements at play, mood becomes a big aspect of this record.
I can’t think of a local record quite as moody or style-focused as this one in recent memory.
With the lead-off track (complete with a music video) “I Am the Lighthouse,” Bill presents a noise-driven collection of music that uses time and space, sparse lyricism, and chaotic guitars to bring stark reality to the forefront, but allows it to linger over lush musical arrangements. The tracks “Bed” into “Gentle Smile” offer the best expression of Bill’s Frank Black approach to lyrics spat out between long forays into dual guitar interludes that follow unexpected chordal changes.
“I feel it’s vital to present a story in a series of songs where attention to sequencing of the songs from beginning to end plays an important role,” Bill says. “It sets a tone and lays a fluid foundation for the mood, whether it’s the one you intended or what the listener walks away with and comes back to. My songs are deeply personal. I have no reservations in parting my ribs to share my heart in hopes that it might strike a chord with anyone willing to listen and relate on their own level. It’s what’s always been special to me about music, hearing that song that hits you in such a way you never expected.”
Along with his 75 or Less Records counterparts, Bill falls in with artists given the artistic space to be themselves both in the studio and out. Listening to You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do plays like an album meant to be heard recorded. Yet, each song can clearly be imagined to take on a life of its own, unafraid to exist as something unique to what is heard on the album.
“I keep it pretty simple [live],” Bill says, “just an electric acoustic guitar and a few pedals heading back through my amp. I have not had the joy of playing with a full band for the last few years although nothing is more euphoric than that experience for sure, musically. I definitely fall into the category of a recording artist who plays their songs live. It used to be the opposite back in the day.”
Bill Keough is currently working on another video from the album to be released soon.
Video for Bill Keough’s ‘I Am The Lighthouse’
Bill Keough’s ‘You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do’ Review in Motif
Bill Keough – You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do (75OrLess Records)
Veteran local music Bill Keough kicks off his second solo album, You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do, with a storm of foreboding uneasiness in “I Am the Lighthouse.” On “Gentle Smile,” Keough drops a shimmering slab of noise-pop guitar. “Drinking Myself into the Pavement” has an early ’90s grunge vibe with lyrics about, believe it not, drinking too much. “Maybe It’s You” has kind of a freewheeling ’80s indie guitar swing feel, with vocals functioning as a prayer-like outré. The closing title track is not just my favorite here, it is one of my favorite tunes for 2017. It reminds me of a Dinosaur Jr. circa Green Mind-era guitar collage. On You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do, Keough builds upon 2014’s The Slow Get Up (75OrLess Records) while dragging the listener deeper down into a fuzz tone squall.
Bill Keough You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do
75OL-255 Bill Keough – You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do
$8.00 S&H Included
Digital download and streaming available here
Track Listing
1 – I Am The Lighthouse
2 – Beds
3 – Gentle Smile
4 – The Battle For Feelings
5 – Things Have Been Going On
6 – I’m Taking Off
7 – Drink Myself Into The Pavement
8 – Maybe It’s Just You
9 – Audrey Meadows
10 – If You Were Perfect, You’d Be Boring
11 – You’ll Disappear, Just Like They All Do
Produced by Kraig Jordan at Plan of a Boy in Providence, RI
Mastered by Tom Buckland
A bastard child of PJ Harvey and Bob Mould; a darker, sketchier Frank Black with inside your head vocals and cross-hatched riffs; a heavy handed Mark Bolan out on the town drinking by himself… Bill Keough: a long time fixture in the RI music scene as both a promoter and musician, this is the follow up to his 2014 solo release “The Slow Get Up”.
Bill Keough’s Video for ‘You’ll Disappear’
Bill Keough ‘The Slow Get Up’ review at The Noise
Drone-y and kinda minimal post-punk with an almost Krautrocky tidiness to the beat. It’s pretty audacious to open up with a song as repetitive as “I Know Where You’ve Been,” but Keough actually cracks the mold halfway through for a ripping guitar solo and some snotty, corrosive vox. And that’s the trick, here. You think it’s one thing, and then it’s something else entirely. “Self Doubt” has the ’80s indie-roar of Husker Du, “3:32 AM” is pure Pixies, “Back to Punk Rock” has the ragged beat and space-acid guitar of Chrome, etc. Something new around every corner, anchored by Keough’s mopey, Black Planet sensibility. “Deliver the Goods” is the killer of the bunch, though. It sounds like somebody hit Marc Bolan in the head with a frying pan seconds before T Rex hit the stage but he played the gig anyway, blood dripping through his corkscrew hair. I didn’t expect much, given the cover – it’s a dude’s hand, that’s it – but I got plenty. This dude knows what’s up.
All 19 of the 2014 Releases
Bill Keough ‘I Know Where You’ve Been’ video
Bill Keough’s ‘The Slow Get Up’ review in Motif Magazine
Longtime local music scene fixture Bill Keough has finally recorded his solo debut album, The Slow Get Up, and it proves to be worth the wait. I can’t even put my figure on why I enjoy it more than his work with Galvanize (which I enjoy as well,) but it’s like Keough just nailed it here. The general vibe of the record is late ’80s – early ’90s underground rock, which is not to be mistaken as saying ‘grunge’. Tunes “Self Doubt” is closer to Nada Surf than Nirvana. “I Know Where You’ve Been” reminds me of early Silkworm. “Tough Physics” reminds me of early Queens of The Stone Age. Throw in a great cover of PJ Harvey’s “Victory,” and The Slow Get Up makes for a hell of a kick ass record.
Bill Keough – The Slow Get Up
75OL-195 Bill Keough – The Slow Get Up CD
$7.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
Track Listing
1. I Know Where You’ve Been (video)
2. Self Doubt
3. 3:32 AM
4. Back to the Punk Rock
5. Deliver the Goods
6. Lean
7. Tough Physics
8. This Concerns me
9. Hit and Run Machine
10. Victory
11. Continuous Reasons to Continue
a bastard child of PJ Harvey and Bob Mould…a darker, sketchier Frank Black…inside your head vocals and cross-hatched riffs…angst riddled, heartfelt, a bed of nails sprinkled with flowers…life related via blindfolded kisses and aimless hugs…burrow down deep to the center of the songs and stay awhile…
Credits
Bill Keough – Guitars, Vocals, Keyboards
Dave McCaffrey – Bass
Daniel Ulmschneider – Drums
featuring
Mark Cuter – lead guitar, slide guitar, backing vocals
Kate Conroy – violin, backing vocals
Tom Buckland – backing vocals
Kraig Jordan – guitar, keyboards
Produced, engineered, and mastered by Kraig Jordan.
All songs written by Bill Keough except ‘Victory’ by PJ Harvey.