WATCH: Kurt Vile Takes to the Catskills in New Doc Short “(bottle back)”

Nearing the one-year anniversary of “Bottle It In,” the songwriter takes us behind the scenes of the album’s making.
WATCH: Kurt Vile Takes to the Catskills in New Doc Short “(bottle back)”

Nearing the one-year anniversary of “Bottle It In,” the songwriter takes us behind the scenes of the album’s making.

Words: Dean Brandt

photo by Carlo Cavaluzzi

October 03, 2019

We’ve been jamming Kurt Vile’s lax eighth studio album Bottle It In for nearly a year now, and today Matador Records is sharing a little behind-the-scenes info on the project in the form of a twenty-minute documentary detailing Vile’s experience leading up to its recording. Filmed in New York’s Catskill Mountains, (bottle back) follows Vile as he rehearses the songs that would appear on Bottle alongside Canadian alt-westerners The Sadies and guitarist/producer Matt Sweeney, as well as his band The Violators.

In addition to full-song footage of Vile playing through “Baby’s Arm,” “Bassackwards,” and “Check Baby,” (bottle) provides plenty of insight into the artist’s personal life and how he’s learned to balance raising a family with a prolific output of new music. “I basically would do a whole album cycle, then start a new record and go out again when the record was done,” he says at one point before swigging a beer. “I just get so deep into the record that I can’t stomach that ever again—I’ll puke. I just gotta live my life, make music in between everything else—family world, playing live, and otherwise. It’s just the way I live.”

You can watch the Ryan Scott–directed doc in its entirety below, and stream the new version of “Baby’s Arm” featuring The Sadies here.