vic chesnutt

probably not a lot of fans here but i think his recent passing deserves a mention. just discovered this performance which absolutely blows me away. gave me goosebumps. note guy picciotto from fugazi on guitar.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rPyQFmGmb4

he died? he was on tour.

yup, committed suicide. died on christmas day i believe.

damn.

i never really got into his music but the silver mt zion members got me interested in seeing him live.

can't tell who in the vid is sivermtzion

the vid you posted was very powerful.

i enjoyed his music for ages. i was really moved when i heard about it.

amazing man...

did not know this till now...

one hell of a performance!

a friend of mine will be devastated if he doesn't know yet...

another great clip. his song about the late, great benjamin, lead singer of the bands smoke and opal foxx quartet. i believe this is an extra on the dvd 'benjamin smoke', an amazing documentary well worth checking out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ccy9e6FffzI

its sad, the guy was obviously in a lot of pain, but he also had an undeniably rare talent.

He did an in-studio appearance December 1st on WNYC with Guy.

Here is a link to the show... you can listen to or download it.

VIC CHESNUTT ON WNYC RADIO

RIP

He was also in "Sling Blade", one of my favorite movies of all time.

thanks for that link, ill check it out.

also, i think i need to watch sling blade again. last time i saw that was a while ago and i was unaware of chesnutt at the time. i remember his character tho. gets quite a verbal thrashing from dwight yoakam, if i remember correctly.

Yes. Yoakam also crashes Vic's wheelchair into the door with him in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3BMTig9J8s&feature=related

I wish I would have bought his new LP while he was still alive.

From the sound of it, in his interview, it seemed like he was afraid he wouldn't be able to pay his health insurance. Apparently, due to his condition, his medical bills were ridiculously expensive.

Poor guy.

holy shit, there must have been a great deal of trust between them to film a scene like that.

yeah, apparently he was like 50 grand in debt due to medical expenses. it really can be digsusting how the u.s. treats its citizens.

  On 1/1/2010 at 10:47 PM, Atop said:

one hell of a performance!

yeh... that shit was raw. Ive never heard of this guy, watching that vid was almost hard, felt his pain a bit. fuck

damn that NPR interview is tough.

liked the coward song. very asmz backing. gonna pick the album up.

for the past few days ive been sampling both of the records he put out on constellation and id have to say "north star deserter" is the better of the two. "at the cut" has some great songs tho.

one of my favorites from north star..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbMGmsFjhpM

  On 1/6/2010 at 10:13 PM, Z_B_Z said:

for the past few days ive been sampling both of the records he put out on constellation and id have to say "north star deserter" is the better of the two. "at the cut" has some great songs tho.

 

Good to know!

Before Vic died, I was trying to hunt down either of his constellation LPs on vinyl and couldn't find them.

Btw

I discovered Vic fairly recently ( it was actually because of the NPR interview ) and find it strange that right after I discovered him he goes and kills himself. Fuck.

Also, after lisening to more of his stuff, I noticed a similarity in his voice and Jeff Mangum's (neutral milk hotel). Then, the other day, I saw a quote from Mangum on some website how he was hugely influenced by Vic when he first moved to Athens, GA.

WNYC Memorial show happening right now w/ Michael Stipe, Guy Picciotto and Jem Cohen....

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/freshair/latest

any more info on that show anywhere?

  On 1/8/2010 at 3:23 AM, Z_B_Z said:

any more info on that show anywhere?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13

thats really a heartbreaking interview with stipe, picciotto and cohen. he really was an amazing writer.

I still haven't gotten any of his albums... (and this sounds really lame) only because I'm afraid they will depress me. Is there one that you would recommend that is any less sad than the rest?

I only have the songs that I downloaded for free from the Constellation website and I really like them.

i discovered him in 1994 & only know his first albums. "West of Rome" & "Drunk" are totally depressing but quite funny also. i've heard the recent one with the bird, made with silver mt zion (godspeed mafia), was quite good also. my favorite tracks might be Blatent/latent, Supernatural & Injured bird (with michael stipe). i didnt listen to his latest records being lost in techno, drone & metal for years, but he's obviously a great musician.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFbXYCo5Uu4

im not too familiar with his earlier records but i was sampling something off "west of rome" the other day and was very impressed. id get "north star deserter" and shut it off if it begins to depress you. some of the lyrics on that album just blow me away. like -

i see my soul with tongue

a sword in the sunlight

thrashing and flashing

glossolalia

or

everything blows away someday

everything turns to dust

big ol mountains do

as well as every one of us

and i love

the dust

deceptively simple and deeply moving, especially when sung.

coward

flirted with you all my life

chinaberry tree

are all incredible songs. liking the new album alot. chinaberry tree probably my current favourite.

i want a live album that covers the constellation years.. the live versions seem to up the intensity of the studio recordings. this track here is pretty subdued on the album but live its a different beast entirely-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6nlHfQvg2M&feature=related

studio version

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRUbN54CvCs