Rhett Miller – “Big Brown Eyes” (Live from the House of Blues)
Posted on | November 16, 2009 | 2 Comments
I shot Rhett Miller from the Old 97’s playing a few songs before his show on October 10th at the House of Blues in Dallas. The amiable front man was nearly too energetic for my camera frame, despite the fact that he was playing to an audience of one. Read Rhett’s 5 records that inspired him here
1. Rhett Miller is probably best known for three things — his boyish charm, his seemingly boundless energy onstage, and the ability to pack a song full of wit and heartbreak. That is never more apparent in his entire catalog than in “Big Brown Eyes”, a song so good that the Old 97’s recorded it twice on 1996’s Wreck Your Life and 1997’s Too Far To Care (which was covered in an earlier post). “Big Brown Eyes” is one of those rare occasions where a song is packed to the bursting point with metaphor and it actually works.
2. Miller starts by perfectly describing a situation of impending doom, as he tries to sell a potential lover on the fact that it is time to get out of town. From the “cherry” burning the edge of the paper, to quoting “Robert’s dad”, the intricate details make this whole thing human – as if you can see Rhett pleading with her to leave with him. After the apparent failure of that option, Miller turns inward to his “box of reds, and a pill or three”, eyes darting around the room to describe the depth of his loneliness. His self-aggrandizing continues, declaring that she “don’t want [him] anymore”, and asking himself “what did I expect?”
3. Rhett Miller does a killer job of inhabiting this song — every time it hits the chorus, you can easily envision him staring at the phone, waiting on it to ring. The now-classic line “you’ve made a big impression for a girl of your size” sums up everything he does best in a single line. Luckily for him, this song was just the beginning. He stated in an interview once that you have to write 100 bad songs before you get to the good stuff, and the evidence of his work ethic shows up even in this early material. Luckily for 97s fans, this trend of great songs has created a career for Miller and friends, and it shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Rhett Miller – “Big Brown Eyes” (Live from the House of Blues)
Rhett Miller – “I Need to Know Where I Stand” (Live from the House of Blues)
Posted on | October 26, 2009 | 2 Comments
I shot Rhett Miller from the Old 97’s playing a few songs before his show on October 10th at the House of Blues in Dallas. The amiable front man was nearly too energetic for my camera frame, despite the fact that he was playing to an audience of one. Read Rhett’s 5 records that inspired him here
1. Kicking off with a flurry of alliteration, Miller tells the story of on-campus love that dissolves into a confusing is-it-or-isn’t-it relationship that “feels like paralysis”. Begging his lover to give him some sort of sign, Rhett jumps forward in time to find himself “killing at a comedy club in Hollywood”, where he runs into the same woman. His affections haven’t changed a bit, and neither has the steely facade of his crush, who tells him that she loves him, but refuses to hug him and leaves him grasping for straws of fidelity. The last setting puts the couple in the “kitchen of a cracker jack box” where Miller finds himself with a less corporeal version of his would-be lover. Blurring the line between real life and a dreamy illusion, he reaches for her as she fades away. With the ultimatum that “the world might end in a minute”, he makes one last ditch effort to solidify his life’s romantic work, apparently, to no avail.
2. Miller has said that his solo songs are usually numbers that don’t fit within the Old 97’s canon. This poppy tune is obviously less twangy than the 97’s normal style, but Miller sells it with an earnestness that follows him wherever he goes. That said, I wouldn’t mind hearing Murry Hammond’s high harmony on this track. Either way, Miller’s cheerfully endearing songs about love and the complete lack of it continue to evolve and inspire.
Rhett Miller – I Need To Know Where I Stand (Live from the House of Blues)
Five Records With… Rhett Miller
Posted on | October 16, 2009 | No Comments
I had the chance to talk to Rhett Miller the other day before his show with Salim Nourallah at the House of Blues. The always exuberant front man of the Old 97’s released his third, self titled solo record last summer, and it is not to be missed. Five Records is an occasional feature of artists talking about the music that inspires them. Read more of these posts here.
“My parents were into the Kingston Trio, and I got into it as a young kid. I think about what I love about playing – so much of it is the energy, to be able to translate a song into this thing that gets everyone in the room. This was recorded at this little folk club in San Francisco, all acoustic instruments, and they just ROCK, just really high energy. The between song banter is so funny – I quote this line all the time — they come back from their encore and he says “You can tell by the speed of our return that that exit was fraudulent.” I just love that.”
“I love Willie, I’ve gone on his bus several times and gotten to be good friends with Mickey Raphael, his harp player. I admire him so much because he is a writer first — he could easily stay home and live off the royalties from any one of his hits, much less all of them. He does lots of weird stuff, but at this point, he’s earned it. He is a great interpreter, he does other people’s stuff and it doesn’t seem like a cash grab.”
“Making this last record with Salim Nourallah, we listened to London Calling a lot. I thought my new record was going to be quiet, and it ended up being very rock and roll. We were torn about the sequencing, something I love to do but something that usually ends up being pretty difficult. This album is a masterpiece, and so is the title track that opens it, which goes into “Brand New Cadillac”, so you have back-to-back rockers. We ended up putting “Nobody Says I Love You Anymore” as the opening track, and it goes into “Like Love”, and they are similar, with the big drum things happening, and it felt so right.”
“Thinking of songs I wish I had written, its easy to say something like “Waterloo Sunset”, which is just genius. Lately, I’ve gotten familiar with several Okkervil River songs that have had that effect on me. It’s really high energy, but so simple at the same time.”
“I really love Telegraph Canyon, from Fort Worth. Their new record is great, really big, very cool. I watched them sound check the other day and they were like “We’re getting some feedback from the tiny dog piano”, like its a completely normal instrument that everyone has. A great big orchestrated adventurous sound.”
Rhett Miller – I Need To Know Where I Stand
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