John Darnielle tells you exactly what’s happening and precisely how it feels. There’s no pretension; the pain isn’t romantic, the regret isn’t a scrapbooked backward glance, the characters aren’t dressed better than us.
What’s being said here needs to be said now, right now: there’s not time to encode it, no time to decrypt it, can’t wait don’t stop tighten the tourniquet.
Hold fast.
The need for searing immediacy births (in)elegant details – the Travelodge, the carpenter ants, St. Joseph’s baby aspirin – details that, well, tell the truth, don’t they? The scary, joyous, unremoved kind.
Palmcorder Yajna’s got youthful self-loathing, born of the nervous anxious glory of one’s escape attempts (from and to what, you already know.) Of the terror that you might not make it out alive.
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A rough diamond of a tune. Nice post also. I wish I could be as eloquent as you when writing about my favourite songs.
Thanks for sharing
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I cannot get the thing to function. Pity. I enjoy your surreal posts and swirling images. This post's enigmatic tension builds nicely to a brilliant non-conclusion, feeding back into itself. Very nice. I wish I could hear the track. OOPS.....here it is......hold on I'm listening. Yeah...OK, good stuff! I dreamt of a camera pointing out from inside the television.... headstones climbed up the hills. Pretty bleak. I like it!
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Yep.I do dig the Goats muchly. Good call...
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so glad that people respond to the mountain goats the same way! i listened to this album all day. of course, now i'd like to beat something with a bat and then go fetal and sob, but hey - that's his charm. :)
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Did you ever download his Daytrotter Sessions? I think John gets better when you take the production away and just give him a mic.
nice post.
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I love those daytrotter sessions - especially "ethiopians" - for the line,
i can't think of one thing in this whole wide blessed world that's more dangerous and frightening then you when you get bored
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I just picked up The Sunset Tree about a month ago, so I am so behind on this band. But, they are definitely something special.
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"i can’t think of one thing in this whole wide blessed world that’s more dangerous and frightening then you when you get bored"
A glorious line indeed - I felt compelled to reiterate :-) Fantastic post as usual, and a poignantly 'immediate' track from a quite intriguing album.
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Certainly worth repeating! Here's that track in all its not-optimistic glory:
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Aaah.. I haven't heard this song in a while. Thanks!
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Merci :-)
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I completely love this song and never heard of them before! Plus, I love their name
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Ongoingly - welcome to the mountain goats, i'm glad you love it! There's tons to choose from if you want more of the band (some lush, some raw). John Darnielle is prolific like you wouldn't believe.
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I like the Mountain Goats and I have a copy of several of their albums but ....two bands you need to also know about. first of all...Herman Dune, a band who opened with a mountain Goats cover when they first played here in Birmingham about 6 years ago at The Old Railway(I booked the gig) and also you need to find a band called DUFUS who were headlining the gig that night. Dufus are one of my favourite bands of all time, find their music.....
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Great choice...the guy sure paints a picture with words. The bleakness of the hotel scene reminds me of "Amateur Night" by Damien Jurado. Lock up all sharp objects and take the shoelaces from your shoes!
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this song is how i fall asleep at night.
every couple minutes, someone says they can't stand it any more.
finally, a song about bathroom methamphetamine addicts, in a grungy motel in pomona. in other words, something we can all relate to. in other words, an escape from reality into the disdainful peerings-in of worthy lives being wasted.
the song speaks of the losers we surround ourselves with, and yet there is an attachment in the words; a not-quite-fully alienated quality to them. perhaps even fondness towards those who have made their decisions.
listen to the live versions on England, and on Guinguette Pirate.
You'll have to listen to Southwood Plantation Road - Some Swedish Trees in order to hear the intro to the song (at least on the Guinguette Pirate version I have)
And on England, 2-75 has the intro for palmcorder yajna on it.