slowly i am revealing, (or introducing,) the songs on my holiday mix cd. 'i am a cinematographer,' by the palace brothers is really just will oldham, for the most part, aka bonnie prince billy, one of the most underknown and great artists of our time. the quality in his voice, this crackling sort of tender, all-too-human and very breakable trait, joined with typically poignant lyrics, (such as the quote above,) make any music under the palace heading special.
i remember the first time i heard this song like it was yesterday. i was in san francisco, staying with friends and visiting other friends and my friend julie introduced a group of us to the palace brothers' music. there were several obscure san francisco bands i had come to know over the years, 'they eat their own,' and 13 engines,' come to mind. i did not realize right away palace brothers were not from the bay area and so my opinion that san francisco was the epicenter for cool music in the known universe was just so reinforced by this warbly guy singing lines like, "when you have no one, no one can hurt you." (i guess when you aspire to disaffected, artist, bohemian, cool-guy and are confronted with the real thing, it is hard not to be impressed.)
the below clip is not the best in the cinematography department, but you can definitely get a feel for the vocal quality i mentioned. enjoy!
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