The Olivia Tremor Control - Hideway

Okay, okay, so I've already made an entry about this song, but this current post will be far from a rehash. Besides, it's not like the mp3 links in that post work correctly anyways. The place where I used to host my files suddenly changed their individual upload limit from 10 megs to 2 megs, making any file I've previously uploaded only play for 10- 30 seconds. Lame.

So in that entry I've already expressed how much I love the song. It's one of my top 10 ever actually. One thing though that's perplexing is what the song is actually called. I referred to it as "Hideaway," however on the actual Black Foliage booklet it says "Hideway." Now in any other case I'd just admit to making an error, but on the OTC mp3 page on Elephant Six website, the song is "Hideaway." Which one is it? To balance it out I guess I'll have one entry for each.

A thing I didn't mention about the song in the last entry is that the acoustic guitar on it is played by Of Montreal's Kevin Barnes and the Late B.P. Helium (Brian Poole/ Brian Helium.) Another fun fact is that by the end of the song 10 acoustic guitars are playing simultaneously. As the song progresses, two guitars are added at a time to the mix. It's a subtle change, something that you wouldn't even notice without knowing before hand, but if you listen closely, you can definitely tell when guitars are added.

The Olivia Tremor Control - Hideway

"Don't hideaway, hideaway from your imagery
Don't hideaway, hideaway from all your daydreams
(or your nightmares)

What is to fear when surrounded in apathy
When putting down words is just like pulling teeth away

And I know some kind of rain will fall
But it can't rain everyday

Don't hideaway, hideaway from your intricacies
and don't hideaway, hideaway from all your obliques
(it's all out there)

There's no need to fear all those things in your histories
When putting down words is like putting things away

So long seku, goodbye wren"

The album this song comes from, Black Foliage: Animation Music, the second of the Olivia Tremor Control's only two albums has one of the most interesting concepts of any record I own. From the album's linear notes:

"The ideas as Black Foliage began was to take a section of the guitar line from Black Foliage (now called itself) and make a set of animated departures stemming from that bass guitar melody, twisting it to many variations". It goes on to state that elements of songs were reconstructed and sampled to use into the subsequent songs, with an example of track 1's vocals being reworked into the second track, with that reworking them being modified again to fit into track 3. The album continues on like this until the end. It's a really fascinating listen, incredibly different from their previous album Dusk at Cubist Castle in structure. That base album was recorded on a mere 4-track, and after its completion was further edited by the Elephant Six Orchestra, which featured Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum and Julian Koster, as well as Robert Schneider of the Apples in Stereo. It's really fantastic.

Lastly I noticed that my Best Of The Olivia Tremor Control mix from the previous post is still working, so for that, go here. It features some of the best pop songs the band has ever written, some that in my opinion are good enough to be held in the same stature as those from the original British invasion (+ the Beach Boys.) But go buy the actual records of course. They're both modern day classics.

The Olivia Tremor Control - Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle @ Amazon.com

The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage: Animation Music @ Amazon.com