Will Johnson

Trackimage Playbut Trackname Playbut Trackname
Just to Know What You've Been Dreaming 00:00 Tools
Sleep a While 00:00 Tools
Closing Down My House 00:00 Tools
From This I Will Awake 00:00 Tools
Vultures Await 00:00 Tools
Catherine Dupree 00:00 Tools
Blackest Sparrow Darkest Night 00:00 Tools
Cracking Of The Seal 00:00 Tools
Just Some Silence 00:00 Tools
On, Caledonia 00:00 Tools
Your Bulldozer 00:00 Tools
Nothin' but Godzilla 00:00 Tools
As Victims Would 00:00 Tools
You Will Be Here, Mine 00:00 Tools
Hoping Machine 00:00 Tools
Fly, My Sweet Dove 00:00 Tools
A Thousand Other Parts 00:00 Tools
Fly High 00:00 Tools
My Revolutionary Mind 00:00 Tools
Old L.A. 00:00 Tools
Rosanky 00:00 Tools
Talking Empty Bed Blues 00:00 Tools
Scorpion 00:00 Tools
V.D. City 00:00 Tools
It Goes Away So Fast 00:00 Tools
Bloodkin Push (Forget the Ones) 00:00 Tools
Chorine My Sheba Queen 00:00 Tools
Blackest Sparrow / Darkest Night 00:00 Tools
Riding From Within 00:00 Tools
Winter Screen Four 00:00 Tools
Careless Reckless Love 00:00 Tools
Truss of Ten 00:00 Tools
Vehicular and True 00:00 Tools
Angel's Blues 00:00 Tools
No Fear 00:00 Tools
Philo Manitoba 00:00 Tools
Changing World 00:00 Tools
New Multitudes 00:00 Tools
Karcher's Contacts 00:00 Tools
Murder of Tides (Westerlies) 00:00 Tools
Commonly Linked 00:00 Tools
Re-run Pills 00:00 Tools
The Riot Jack 00:00 Tools
Around New York 00:00 Tools
Feel Something 00:00 Tools
Jake Walk Blues 00:00 Tools
Whereabouts Can I Hide 00:00 Tools
Tent of Total Mystery 00:00 Tools
Big Distortion 00:00 Tools
Call, Call, Call 00:00 Tools
In a Motionless Way 00:00 Tools
Back To You 00:00 Tools
Old Kokaine 00:00 Tools
River Koltolwash 00:00 Tools
I Was A Goner 00:00 Tools
San Antone Meat House 00:00 Tools
Emma Jane 00:00 Tools
Dopefiend Robber 00:00 Tools
A Solitary Slip 00:00 Tools
Nameless, But A Lover 00:00 Tools
The Yellow Signals 00:00 Tools
When I Get Home 00:00 Tools
Paradise, Basically 00:00 Tools
You vs. Off The Cuff 00:00 Tools
Necessitarianism (Fred Merkle's Blues) 00:00 Tools
Your Smile Cured Me 00:00 Tools
World's On Fire 00:00 Tools
(Made Us Feel Like) Kings 00:00 Tools
Atom Dance 00:00 Tools
Pulleys 00:00 Tools
Cornelius 00:00 Tools
The Watchman 00:00 Tools
To Place Me On A Stone 00:00 Tools
California 00:00 Tools
Multnomah 00:00 Tools
The Re-Run Pills 00:00 Tools
Freedom's Fire 00:00 Tools
Childress (To Ogden) 00:00 Tools
LIttle Raider 00:00 Tools
Vultures Wait 00:00 Tools
Muddy Water Finds Its Way 00:00 Tools
Healing Hand 00:00 Tools
Nervousness Fangs 00:00 Tools
Forget Everything 00:00 Tools
Every Single Day Of Late 00:00 Tools
Living Well Is the Best Revenge 00:00 Tools
Predator 00:00 Tools
Devil On The Interstate Line 00:00 Tools
Tangle For The Less 00:00 Tools
Don't Mess With Freedom 00:00 Tools
A Carousel Victor 00:00 Tools
It's A Pretty Fucked Skyline Now 00:00 Tools
Ruby Shameless 00:00 Tools
Thug Life pt. 2 00:00 Tools
Gasconade 00:00 Tools
Parade of Choosers 00:00 Tools
A Sin 00:00 Tools
Mandatory on the Attack 00:00 Tools
Shadow Matter 00:00 Tools
Heresy and Snakes 00:00 Tools
Milaak 00:00 Tools
Need Of Trust And Thunder 00:00 Tools
Song of Impossible Things 00:00 Tools
Barack Obama (Someone to Wake) 00:00 Tools
Filled With A Falcon's Dreams 00:00 Tools
In My Veins 00:00 Tools
Hey-O, Hi-O 00:00 Tools
Chimera 00:00 Tools
Hatteras 00:00 Tools
Limited Quality 00:00 Tools
Slip Away 00:00 Tools
The Big Game Is Every Night 00:00 Tools
If We Had Our Say 00:00 Tools
To Coupland Lines 00:00 Tools
D. Boon - Free (A Ninth Grade Crime) 00:00 Tools
(You Were) Just Barely You 00:00 Tools
One More Dreamer For The Summer 00:00 Tools
Caught Between Us 00:00 Tools
All Along 00:00 Tools
Are You Ready for the Shutdown? 00:00 Tools
Good Intentions (feat. Whitney Oviatt) 00:00 Tools
Let Me In 00:00 Tools
A California Love 00:00 Tools
To The Shepard, To The Lion 00:00 Tools
Thousand Other Parts 00:00 Tools
You're Gone 00:00 Tools
Let It Fade Away 00:00 Tools
Chalked Lines-Waxed Sun 00:00 Tools
To Be In Love With You 00:00 Tools
St. Maria 00:00 Tools
Between You and Me 00:00 Tools
Who's Telling You Now? 00:00 Tools
Love's Not Strong 00:00 Tools
All Our Deeds (Sure Find Their Ways) 00:00 Tools
I Did A Terrible Thing 00:00 Tools
Right By You 00:00 Tools
Better Days 00:00 Tools
who's telling you now 00:00 Tools
What Will Be 00:00 Tools
Song for Amy 00:00 Tools
Color of a Lonely Heart Is Blue 00:00 Tools
Inclined 00:00 Tools
Say 00:00 Tools
You & I 00:00 Tools
Small Leads 00:00 Tools
I, The Kite 00:00 Tools
I, The Kite (live on KRCL) 00:00 Tools
Thug Life, Pt. 2 00:00 Tools
Lenore's Lullabye (Molina & Johnson) 00:00 Tools
From Red to Blue 00:00 Tools
Murder Of Tides 00:00 Tools
On and On 00:00 Tools
Chalked Lines / Waxed Sun 00:00 Tools
Paper & Fire 00:00 Tools
Upton to Riverhead to Mastic 00:00 Tools
How to Cry 00:00 Tools
Chalked Lines/Waxed Sun 00:00 Tools
So Long 00:00 Tools
It’s a Pretty F'd Skyline Now 00:00 Tools
Almost Let You In 00:00 Tools
Let Me Down 00:00 Tools
Not Ready 00:00 Tools
Better Luck Next Time 00:00 Tools
Through Thick and Thin 00:00 Tools
Sometimes Love Gets Away 00:00 Tools
Everything's Not Gone 00:00 Tools
How to Cry (DJ Emuhunter Remix) [ Bonus Track] 00:00 Tools
Going Back Song (Baptist Generals) 00:00 Tools
Will Johnson - Closing Down My House 00:00 Tools
This Is It 00:00 Tools
This Old Town (Demo) [ Bonus Track] 00:00 Tools
Go On 00:00 Tools
The Scorpion 00:00 Tools
Why Don't You Do It 00:00 Tools
Playing to Win 00:00 Tools
This Old Town 00:00 Tools
Bloodkin Push 00:00 Tools
To The Shephard, To The Lion 00:00 Tools
Remember When 00:00 Tools
For Two 00:00 Tools
I Know 00:00 Tools
Twenty Cycles to the Ground 00:00 Tools
Burning Neon 00:00 Tools
Devil On The Interstate 00:00 Tools
just to know what you've been 00:00 Tools
Late At Night 00:00 Tools
Prove Me Wrong 00:00 Tools
Flashes and Cables 00:00 Tools
I Won't Fight 00:00 Tools
The Schizmatists' Curse 00:00 Tools
So Go On 00:00 Tools
Mulnomah 00:00 Tools
Chorine, My Sheba Queen 00:00 Tools
Will Johnson - Just to Know What You've Been Dreaming (from the archives) 00:00 Tools
Alabama Crusade 00:00 Tools
What You've Been Dreaming 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act I Scene 1: So she… (Elmer, Men's Chorus, Frank, Bully) 00:00 Tools
Blackest Sparrow - Darkest Night 00:00 Tools
Iso Residue (acoustic) 00:00 Tools
Trust To Lose 00:00 Tools
Patient Patient Man 00:00 Tools
Home 00:00 Tools
Atlanta 00:00 Tools
Hatches & Secrets Galore 00:00 Tools
Blood Can Push 00:00 Tools
I Heard the Bells 00:00 Tools
Hatchets & Secrets Galore 00:00 Tools
34 Blues 00:00 Tools
Intro 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act I Scene 2: Who's the man among us has not battled for the Lord? (Men's Chorus, Rev. Baines, Elmer, Frank, Eddie, Lulu) 00:00 Tools
Why 00:00 Tools
Never Talking To You Again 00:00 Tools
Governess / Villainess 00:00 Tools
Reflection 00:00 Tools
Uinta 00:00 Tools
Just to Know You've Been Dreaming 00:00 Tools
To Copeland Lines 00:00 Tools
On Caledonia 00:00 Tools
Let You Win 00:00 Tools
Filled With A Falcon's Dream 00:00 Tools
Feel Too Young to Die 00:00 Tools
"Scorpion" (Live at American Songwriter) 00:00 Tools
I Did A Terrible Thing (by The Paper Chase) 00:00 Tools
You Will Be Here, Mine (live) 00:00 Tools
Under Wing 00:00 Tools
Darker Side 00:00 Tools
Hey-O, Hi 00:00 Tools
Nothing But Godzilla 00:00 Tools
storytime 00:00 Tools
Commadore 00:00 Tools
It’s a Pretty Fucked Skyline 00:00 Tools
Middle Distance 00:00 Tools
Bus Stop 00:00 Tools
"You Will Be Here, Mine" 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act I Scene 4: Vessels of service, great and small (Chorus, Ice Cream Vendor, Revival Worker, Revival Singer, Child, Sharon, Elmer, Keely Family Singers, Lulu, Frank) 00:00 Tools
Phico Manitoba 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act I Scene 3: When you hear the truth do you know it? (Elmer, Frank, Lulu) 00:00 Tools
WOXY.com Lounge Act - Will Johnson 00:00 Tools
Governess-Villainess 00:00 Tools
Glacial Slurs 00:00 Tools
Rerun Pills 00:00 Tools
Take the Maps and Run 00:00 Tools
Never Divide 00:00 Tools
Iso-Residue 00:00 Tools
Governess/Villainess 00:00 Tools
I See Through You 00:00 Tools
Gas Blowin' Out Of Our Eyes 00:00 Tools
Fly My Sweet Love 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act II Scene 3: Is belief a gift? (Frank) 00:00 Tools
What Do You Need 00:00 Tools
gas blowing out of your eyes 00:00 Tools
Hey-O, Hi- O 00:00 Tools
05-Karcher's Contacts 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act I Scene 5: And God said, "Build me a tabernacle!" (Sharon, T.J. Rigg, Men's Chorus, Rev. Baines, Elmer) 00:00 Tools
Cross Path 00:00 Tools
Thug Life Pt 2 00:00 Tools
07-River Koltolwash 00:00 Tools
Nothin But Godzilla 00:00 Tools
10-The Yellow Signals 00:00 Tools
Philo Manitoba (Daytrotter Session) 00:00 Tools
Its A Pretty Fucked Skyline 00:00 Tools
[Track 11] 00:00 Tools
[Track 6] 00:00 Tools
Filled with a Falcoln's Dreams 00:00 Tools
Philco Manitoba 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act II: Introduction 00:00 Tools
tuning 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act II Scene 1: Knock, knock. Here I am with the goods. (Elmer, Sharon) 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act II Scene 6: Oh, Lordy (T.J. Rigg, Worker 1, Worker 2) 00:00 Tools
Twenty Circles To The Ground 00:00 Tools
You Vs Off The Cuff 00:00 Tools
The Re-Run Pills (Daytrotter Session) 00:00 Tools
Emma Jane (Daytrotter Session) 00:00 Tools
Sleep Awhile 00:00 Tools
Chalked Lineswaxed Sun 00:00 Tools
Closing 00:00 Tools
Just To Know What You've Been Dreaming - Will Johnson 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act I Scene 6: Sweetheart? Eddie? What are you doing? (Lulu, Eddie) 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act II Scene 5: Dear God, look into my heart (Sharon, Elmer) 00:00 Tools
What You Reckon, What You Breathe 00:00 Tools
Murder_of_Tides 00:00 Tools
D.Boon-free 00:00 Tools
Upton To Riverhead 00:00 Tools
Going Back Song 00:00 Tools
Blood Can Push (Lounge) 00:00 Tools
Vultures Wait (Daytrotter Session) 00:00 Tools
Call Call Call 00:00 Tools
WOXY.com Lounge Act 00:00 Tools
Just to Know What You've Been Dreaming (from the archives) 00:00 Tools
Awakening the Body, Pt. 1 00:00 Tools
It's A Pretty Fucked Skyline 00:00 Tools
Fly My Sweet Dove 00:00 Tools
Scorpion (Live at American Songwriter) 00:00 Tools
The Treaty Loose Talk 00:00 Tools
D. Boon-Free 00:00 Tools
11_Fly_My_Sweet_Love 00:00 Tools
Rock And Roll Eyes 00:00 Tools
Bastrop 1 00:00 Tools
Independence Day 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Act II Scene 2: Left, left; left, right, left. (Tour Guide, Women's Chorus, Elmer, Sharon, Frank, T.J. Rigg, Eddie, Lulu, Rev. Baines, Mrs. Baines) 00:00 Tools
Lenore's Lullaby 00:00 Tools
Elmer Gantry: Epilogue: Dr. Binch. Great pleasure (Elmer, Dr. Binch, Chorus) 00:00 Tools
Blackest Sparrow 00:00 Tools
01_Catherine_Dupree 00:00 Tools
Closing Down My House - Will Johnson 00:00 Tools
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Will Johnson is the frontman of both the Alt-Country bands Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel. He played drums in the band Funland prior to these groups and has played solo throughout his career. He recently released an album with Magnolia Electric Co. frontman Jason Molina under the name Molina & Johnson. He is also the performing drummer for the band Monsters of Folk.Will Johnson’s latest solo album, Swan City Vampires, is distinguished by its immediacy and intimacy. Crisp, measured acoustic guitars cushion the Austin-based singer-songwriter’s equally precise, conspiratorial vocals, while keening pedal steel, droning electric guitars, and the occasional askew keyboard add color. The results fall somewhere in the cracks between Neil Young and Crazy Horse noise hurricanes, road-worn folk songs, and low-key alt-country barnstorming. More tellingly, Swan City Vampires begins with a bracing, two-minute instrumental track, “Paradise, Basically.” Jagged electric guitar chords ripped apart by distortion and static dominate the song, aggression that’s tempered by an unsettled, minor-key piano melody hovering just underneath the surface. It’s not necessarily the easiest entry into an album, but make no mistake: This tone and sound—which Johnson describes as “pretty ugly”—is entirely deliberate. “The album is a little reckless out of the gate, with the first song, and I wanted that to be the case,” he says. “I wanted there to be some discomfort, some uncertainty and some oddity.” In one sense, this approach is the result of Johnson’s diverse musical collaborations—including Monsters Of Folk with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst; Overseas with David Bazan and Matt and Bubba Kadane; and a duo project with the late Jason Molina. However, Swan City Vampires’ tension and doubt more obviously reflect the changes Johnson himself went through, both personally and professionally, as the album took shape. In early 2014, his mother passed away, while later that year, his band of nearly 20 years, Centro-matic, called it a day. Both of these events are referenced directly on Swan City Vampires. The melancholic, piano-curled “(Made Us Feel Like) Kings” is an elegy for his group’s musical achievements, while “The Watchman” is a tribute to his late mother. The latter song is particularly poignant: It blooms from slightly frayed acoustic guitar and lilting sonic whirrs into a barrage of electric guitar pelted with distraught keyboard zaps—conveying the messiness of emotional catharsis, where grief and relief combine in imperfect ways. “When the record was coming together, I was dealing with loss and a lot of uncertainty,” Johnson says. “It was a strange time, emotionally. I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted the album to transmit. There was a lot of raw emotion flying around. For the first time, I didn’t have some sort of grand picture or plan for the whole record. I wanted to get as much down as I could and figure it out later.” Perhaps as a result, Swan City Vampire’s recording sessions were brisk and economical. The album was recorded and mixed in two separate three-day sessions with different engineers—John Congleton (The Paper Chase, St. Vincent, Modest Mouse) and Britton Beisenherz (Monahans)—with additional contributions from Phosphorescent’s Ricky Ray Jackson and Johnson’s long-time creative foil, drummer Matt Pence. It marked the first time Johnson had ever done a record in this split-session fashion. “I was a little self-aware that it might have a patchwork quilt kind of feel to it,” he admits. “But it wound up still feeling cohesive to me once I put all the songs together and sequenced them.” What makes this cohesion even more remarkable is that Swan City Vampire’s songs were written during different points in Johnson’s life. Several date from as far back as six years ago, when he was living in a little frame house in Bastrop, Texas, before he was married and became a father; others emerged more in the present-day, “right near the finish line” of the album. “There are some different perspectives, I suppose, in the writing,” he says. “The writing itself came from different viewpoints—or different vistas.” However, Swan City Vampires does have some common thematic threads, including working through restlessness and major life changes, and trying to figure out what’s next after the familiar’s been displaced. Yet more than ever, Johnson is comfortable embracing the unfamiliar—as he does on the forthright “You vs. Off The Cuff,” when he sings the lyric, “How perfect it is to see you again.” “I’ve never sung a line like that,” Johnson says. “It made me uncomfortable demoing it for the first time, but in a good way—in a way that I was finally unafraid to sing a line like that. There have been a lot of phases of my songwriting life where I probably would’ve rolled my eyes and turned away from that. But for whatever reason, with all that was going on in my personal life, at the time it felt exactly right to sing a line like that.” Some nice words… “Will Johnson is one of my favorite songwriters on Earth, and this album is as literate and addictive as any of his previous work. These songs are honest and specific while remaining open to multiple layers of interpretation. The melodies are beautiful and memorable, and Will’s voice is a complex and delicate instrument. As a long-time fan, it makes me happy to know that Will is still challenging himself to make music that truly can be called art.” – Jason Isbell “Swan City Vampires, the new solo album from former Centro-matic frontman Will Johnson finds him in peak form. At times as beautiful and melodious as he’s ever been, at others with a primal immediacy beyond anything I’ve ever heard him do. Raw and urgent, this album is a thing of immense beauty that only gets better with each repeated listen. This could end up being my favorite album he’s ever made.” – Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) “Swan City Vampires is another fantastic release from Will Johnson. It’s melancholy, hazy but hopeful. It’s tuneful, complex, and beautiful. At times it seems to me like a fever dream, but with sudden stunning moments of clarity. I’ve been listening to it a lot in the early mornings, but I think it’s also a dusk record, as it’s shadows reveal new things each time. Scary like a vampire, pretty like a swan, buzzing like a city. Will again delights and surprises.” – Craig Finn Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.