drawings and John Darnielle
I was listening to that Mountain Goats album again today (Get Lonely), and it really is not anywhere near as good as it had a right to be. when I saw them a few months ago with Toby, it was just John Darnielle and one other guy (I can't remember his name) and they played through the entire album, did "Barracuda" and talked about Heart (after Toby expressed to me his love and desire for covers), and a bunch of older songs... and it was unbelievable. the setting was perfect, it was the first night of the tour, the first time the songs had ever been played for an audience, the content and tone (quiet, loneliness, death) of the album is as you may know my cup of tea artistically, and his delivery was emotional at a Xiu Xiu level. it was wrenching, intimate in every way, genuine. also they rocked really hard and were extremely funny. it was one of the best concerts Toby and I had ever been to.
the record is... very good. but it's subdued, to the point where it sounds like a young songwriter maturing in a dull way (ie. Paul Westerburg) at times. the polite instrumentation, with plinking pianos and such, helps this feeling along. when the understatement works, it's killer. "Get Lonely", "In Corolla", and a bunch of the other songs really get me. but when he did "In Corolla" live - the culmination of the whole album, which he sang straight through plus one Heart-related interlude - I was torn apart. I nearly cried. if you listen to the album - despite this, I still reccomend it - I think you'll see how that might've been the case. the shit he was singing was just from the wells, from the bottom, about getting divorced and his family and all this stuff - and the words had physical difficulty escaping his lips.
and regarding his lyrics: his level of specificity, on every level, is un-fucking-believable. I should send some comics to him.
obviously these were therapeutic (they were done in a row one night when I was having a terrible time), so thank you for looking.
I'll be compiling them for a 25 cent mini to sell at the MCAD mini-con. it'll be assembled using a weird new folding and cutting method I was taught today, in which you print on one side, fold a bunch, make one cut and there's no staples (or sewing) involved.
and to continue bringing you SWEET videos, I bring you this. some kid's editing project for school.
the record is... very good. but it's subdued, to the point where it sounds like a young songwriter maturing in a dull way (ie. Paul Westerburg) at times. the polite instrumentation, with plinking pianos and such, helps this feeling along. when the understatement works, it's killer. "Get Lonely", "In Corolla", and a bunch of the other songs really get me. but when he did "In Corolla" live - the culmination of the whole album, which he sang straight through plus one Heart-related interlude - I was torn apart. I nearly cried. if you listen to the album - despite this, I still reccomend it - I think you'll see how that might've been the case. the shit he was singing was just from the wells, from the bottom, about getting divorced and his family and all this stuff - and the words had physical difficulty escaping his lips.
and regarding his lyrics: his level of specificity, on every level, is un-fucking-believable. I should send some comics to him.
obviously these were therapeutic (they were done in a row one night when I was having a terrible time), so thank you for looking.
I'll be compiling them for a 25 cent mini to sell at the MCAD mini-con. it'll be assembled using a weird new folding and cutting method I was taught today, in which you print on one side, fold a bunch, make one cut and there's no staples (or sewing) involved.
and to continue bringing you SWEET videos, I bring you this. some kid's editing project for school.