Brian Fallon - Painkillers (March 11, 2016) Album • Page 9

Actually fuck it, I love Mojo Hand - the chorus harmonies and the guitar solo are perfectly executed

 

The outro of Mojo Hand with those "bom bom bom bom" backing vocals is my favorite part of the record.

 

Mojo Hand is awesome

The whole album is great, my favorites are Foolish Things, Smoke, and Red Lights.....

Last I heard he was going to bear down on writing a new album this winter, but he only currently has one song written. Maybe we'll get something in late 2017 ??

And DEAR GOD yes, when can I get those 5 B-Sides digitally? Taking forever.

 

Love me some Mojo Hand. Phenomenal song. It's definitely an outlier, but I think it works great with the other songs if it's dropped into a different slot in the track list.

Brian Fallon is probably my favorite musician going today, and Painkillers is incredible - but it def continues his frustrating habit of leaving arguably the best tracks off of albums. A fully fleshed-out, Butch Walker produced version of Georgia would really put that album over the top. Have Mercy. Blue Dahlia. She Loves You.

 

The bridge of "Mojo Hand" is one of the best moments of the record.

I loved how much of a "sing along" atmosphere these songs created when I saw him in June. The Horrible Crowes songs were cool to see too, but I enjoyed the Painkillers stuff more because people just seemed to get really into it. I feel like it's already an underrated record. Probably going to end up in my top five.

 

Great show on Friday night in Dallas and the biggest crowd he/Gaslight has ever gotten here (although many were undoubtedly there for Ryan Bingham).

He played all of Painkillers except for Mojo Hand and Long Drives plus Georgia and what I think are basically the 4 best off of Elsie - Ladykiller, Hurricane, Mary Ann, and Crush. I love Elsie but really preferred the Painkillers stuff.

3 things to note:

1) He played a pretty drastically rearranged version of Painkillers including a long guitar intro, very bass-heavy, very different, was almost unrecognizable in spots - look for it on Youtube if you're interested, I'm sure he's probably playing it that way every night.

2) First time hearing Georgia. What a great song! Could easily have been one of the top 3-4 songs on Painkillers. Loved it.

3) Closed with Behold the Hurricane solo - just him on acoustic/harmonica

Great show overall, but he had some weird fan interactions - not sure if he was drunk (seemed it, maybe) but sorta reminded me of Ryan Adams where he talks to the audience even though they're annoying him (rather than ignoring)......never goes anywhere good.......tries to do it in a "funny" way but just kinda comes off like a dick, trying to embarrass some guy because he was yelling something out between songs, wasted 5 minutes on that. Sorta felt like there was a blowup boiling right under the surface - not the first time I've felt that way at his shows.

But that was just 1 very minor negative. Everything else - AWESOME

 

Damn, can't find a video of that new Painkillers version yet but it sounds awesome.

 

It was sorta similar to this version, maybe it's less drastically different than I thought at the time, but at least musically it seems pretty different. Our version had a much longer and different intro too.

 

This is my AOTY, and cements the fact that I'm totally okay with whatever Fallon wants to do.

Elsie pt2? That may be my favorite record of all time, so bring it on.

Another solo outing? Sure. I'll take another potential AOTY.

Gaslight reunion? Awesome. They're a top three band for me and I love all their records (including Get Hurt), so that would be great.

I understand this post is out of left field. But it needed to be said. I'm pretty sure Brian Fallon is my favorite songwriter out there. And this record has held up all year to my at least every other day listening to it front to back.

 

Yeah Brian has proven that he can do no wrong in my eyes. One of the few artists I actually go back to all of the albums depending on how I'm feeling. All of his records exist laterally in my eyes, no single one outdoes another and they all hold up.

 

Finally met Brian (and Ian!) on Saturday night after their show in Boston. They were in a rush, but they were both as friendly as you'd imagine and Brian was nice enough to sign my copy of Georgia.

 

That's sick! I was at the show at literally front row and it was amazing. I saw him tell a girl to meet him towards the left side of the building and was so sad they got to meet him haha

 

It was only me and a couple from Montreal waiting for him outside, it was the smallest group I've seen waiting for him/Gaslight. He took pictures with all of us as well, he's the best!

 

...Wait guys...Brian has a son?

Watching the Lowlands festival set and he talks about his 3 year old kid.....does that mean he's been a father for 3 years without me knowing or is he like, dating a girl with a kid who he's now referring to as HIS kid....

 

huh, TIL

Huh, TIL (after some quick googling)

Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem)

didn't watch the video but " Brian told Piper all about his Darth Vadar-loving 3-year-old son ".

also quick googling found the baby registry with years that would match up, but i feel creepy having found that.


Surprised there's nothing on Get Hurt that references kids, but I might just be missing it

 

I didn't hear that come up in the interview.

 

He actually has two now. He just had another one with someone that isn't his ex-wife, that's all I know though. But yeah, I (and I think most fans) have only known for a couple months. He just kind of mentioned it off-hand in an interview, but it's not very surprising given how private he is about his personal life.

I guess he mentioned at one of his solo shows that Mary Ann from the Horrible Crowes album was actually about his fears of becoming a father. So his first-born was probably born around that time.

 

I'm kinda surprised this never crept it's way into his music or other stories. I don't think bands need to go around sharing their personal lives, but sometimes it's just such a part of who you are its just naturally obvious

 

Is there anywhere to get digital versions of the bonus tracks from the box set?

 

Guess he's started writing again for a next record. Hopefully we can hear something new by next year.

 

He did an interview and mentioned it'll be a much different album. He said Painkillers was his Petty, Glossy Rock record but he'd like to get in the same conversations as Isbell, Cohen, Dylan.

 

Yeah, I don't think Painkillers was Glossy Rock at all. He originally was calling it Americana. Either way, Bruan's good at bunch of different styles so I'm not worried. Hope he puts out a solo album in 2017 and alternates back and forth between Gaslight/Solo/or whatever else he wants to try.

 

I definitely see what he means though, especially after hearing what he wanted to accomplish with that record. The production is top notch on that record, and it feels pretty cleaned up to me. I'd be really interested to hear him in a more "messy" sound. When I listen to Southeastern I can hear the amp hums and things like that, stuff they intentionally left in there.

 

Smoke doesn't sound too cleaned up to me. I feel Brian has always struggled with comparisons and and succeeded at writing music.

I didn't feel Get Hurt was like Pearl Jam's No Code. He just couldn't straight up say we are trying some new things. He's so passionate about studying and making music and he's trying to translate it to us all.

I think no matter the style of music it'll be good.