I am a music geek
I seriously underuse this journal/blog thing, so I've decided I could use it to show you two personality traits of mine. Namely my love for good music and my unquenchable desire to foist my opinions on others. So, perhaps the start of a series if I can be arsed:
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats is the brainchild of John Darnielle, singer/songwriter and poet. It's the poetry that shines through in his work, like the music has to shuffle back a bit to make way for the lyrics. No, wait, that makes it sound like the songs are bad - they're not - but they're stripped down to the hooks and there's no three-minute guitar solos. Each of their (many) albums have a defined set of characters and a story, which Darnielle claims he usually doesn't know about until about four songs in. The subject matter is difficult and the delivery is sometimes cryptic, but always masterful.
Well, yeah, mostly. The Mountain Goats have been around for a long time, starting as a full band and then as a solo act and then as a duo and now as the duo but recording with a full band. I loved the new stuff so much that I did the geeky thing and got all the old albums (there's about 10) and listened through, but I don't think they've got the same power as his latest (of which I prefer Tallahassee and The Sunset Tree). Both are dark and powerful to listen to, like a car crashing into a string section in slow motion. The stories are autobiographical and I guess this is why he's able to fill them with such emotion. This gets him compared to the emo craze a lot and if I'm to be honest, he verges emo-ish melodrama at points, but the music's too good for me to care and the tale is told with a wry grin and no angst. Take 'No Children' off the Tallahassee album, which I think is the funniest song about tragedy ever: "I am drowning / There is no sign of land / You are coming down with me / Hand in unlovable hand / And I hope you die / I hope we both die". And it does, it reads like a 16-year old's diary, but you listen to the song and it comes across a bit different. Take 'Dance Music' from The Sunset Tree, which describes how you can use music to seclude yourself from the bad things that happen in the world - sounds kinda heavy, and the lyrics make it heavier, but the song is bouncy and tints the whole mixture with a kind of carefree insanity.
This is getting long and wanky, so I'll cut to the important bits. Firstly, listen to the Mountain Goats, they're really very good. Their two big hits ('See America Right' and 'This Year') really are their best songs in my opinion, but learn to love 'Magpie', 'Dilaudid' and the unfortunately named 'Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod' as well.
Note! The second important thing is that the Mountain Goats are touring Australia next month. They're playing the Corner on April 12th but even better than that, they're doing a free gig (!) at my uni (!) on the 11th. Come along and feel the wow.
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats is the brainchild of John Darnielle, singer/songwriter and poet. It's the poetry that shines through in his work, like the music has to shuffle back a bit to make way for the lyrics. No, wait, that makes it sound like the songs are bad - they're not - but they're stripped down to the hooks and there's no three-minute guitar solos. Each of their (many) albums have a defined set of characters and a story, which Darnielle claims he usually doesn't know about until about four songs in. The subject matter is difficult and the delivery is sometimes cryptic, but always masterful.
Well, yeah, mostly. The Mountain Goats have been around for a long time, starting as a full band and then as a solo act and then as a duo and now as the duo but recording with a full band. I loved the new stuff so much that I did the geeky thing and got all the old albums (there's about 10) and listened through, but I don't think they've got the same power as his latest (of which I prefer Tallahassee and The Sunset Tree). Both are dark and powerful to listen to, like a car crashing into a string section in slow motion. The stories are autobiographical and I guess this is why he's able to fill them with such emotion. This gets him compared to the emo craze a lot and if I'm to be honest, he verges emo-ish melodrama at points, but the music's too good for me to care and the tale is told with a wry grin and no angst. Take 'No Children' off the Tallahassee album, which I think is the funniest song about tragedy ever: "I am drowning / There is no sign of land / You are coming down with me / Hand in unlovable hand / And I hope you die / I hope we both die". And it does, it reads like a 16-year old's diary, but you listen to the song and it comes across a bit different. Take 'Dance Music' from The Sunset Tree, which describes how you can use music to seclude yourself from the bad things that happen in the world - sounds kinda heavy, and the lyrics make it heavier, but the song is bouncy and tints the whole mixture with a kind of carefree insanity.
This is getting long and wanky, so I'll cut to the important bits. Firstly, listen to the Mountain Goats, they're really very good. Their two big hits ('See America Right' and 'This Year') really are their best songs in my opinion, but learn to love 'Magpie', 'Dilaudid' and the unfortunately named 'Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod' as well.
Note! The second important thing is that the Mountain Goats are touring Australia next month. They're playing the Corner on April 12th but even better than that, they're doing a free gig (!) at my uni (!) on the 11th. Come along and feel the wow.