Vinyl Vednesday 6/1/2011

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. In celebration of punk rock cartoonist Mitch Clem’s new comic Turnstile Comix AND his new seven-inch with his band The Tigermilks, this week’s installment discusses three bands he introduced to me. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Discount’s Crash Diagnostic (2000) on clear, Jawbreaker’s Bivouac (1992) on black, and The Mountain Goats’ The Coroner’s Gambit (2000) on white.

Place of Purchase: eBay. Here’s the funny thing about bidding: You never know how it’s going to work out. I’ve overpaid for records, the most expensive being a Joe Strummer bootleg that went into triple digits, but I feel like I underpaid for all three of these. I guess the economy doesn’t lend itself to record shopping these days, especially when all three albums are available on compact disc. PISHAW.

Thoughts: Discount was already caput when Nothing Nice to Say started talking about them, and by “them,” I mean Allison Mosshart. Before The Kills blew up, Mosshart was known for Discount’s introspective pop-punk tunes bordering on emo. Crash Diagnostic marked a slight shift away from pop-punk towards something a little more instrospective. At the time it was “more emo;” today it would probably be called more indie rock, as the band started to take on some of Sleater-Kinney’s characteristics by this juncture. It’s still mighty fine though; “Broken to Blue” is my jam.

While I’m sure it would have happened at some point in high school, Clem’s comic about Jawbreaker introduced me to one of my favorite bands (and songwriters) of all time. As I get older, I keep revisiting Blake Schwarzenbach’s discography and finding new things to love. Jets to Brazil definitely sounds better in my twenties. Jawbreaker hasn’t aged much at all, although I’ve started gravitating towards the songs for different reasons. In high school, I was about the lyrics. Now I’m more obsessed with the moods and band dynamics. Jawbreaker was such a great power trio, and I love hearing what each player brings. Bivouac is probably Jawbreaker’s loudest album. Unfun and 24 Hour Revenge Therapy are more grounded in pop-punk, and Dear You has this almost shoegaze-like quality to the guitars. But Bivouac has the throatiest yells, the most thunderous low end, and the rawest guitar tone. That it could still pack in a love song as great as “Chesterfield King” is a bonus. The bassline on “Big” has always been a highlight for me. Lately, though, I’ve taken to yelling “Bivouac!” to myself when I’m bored/tired at work.

I don’t think Clem has done a Mountain Goats strip to date (not tru punx, although TMG is gonna cover Jawbreaker’s “Boxcar” soon for A.V. Undercover), but he used to post these compilations called “Liquid Paper” on his site. One of them featured “Baboon,” from TMG’s seminal lo-fi masterpiece The Coroner’s Gambit. That record kicked off a string of artistic and commercial successes for TMG, as each album found a larger and larger audience in the new millennium. I was subsisting on a diet of pop-punk and Tool at the time, so “Baboon,” which is just such a bitter divorce song [Sample lyric: “I’d be grateful my children aren’t here to see this / If you’d ever seen fit to give me children.”], came on like a shock. But I was intrigued and, after writing an e-mail to Clem, followed his suggestion to pick up All Hail West Texas. Coroner’s Gambit followed soon after.

The Mountain Goats - 'All Eternals Deck'

Never one to rest for long, John Darnielle is back with yet another amazing full-length. Just five months after The Extra Lens dropped Undercard, Darnielle returns with All Eternals Deck, courtesy of his regular thing, The Mountain Goats. Recorded in spurts while on the road, the record has a loose cohesion and a bevy of tonal shifts.

At this point, The Mountain Goats’ M.O. should be understood: Darnielle writes the best lyrics and sings them like a pro. He used to play minimalist acoustic lo-fi recorded on boom boxes, but then he started cooperating with larger indie labels like 4AD and, lately, Merge Records. Bassist Peter Hughes and relative newcomer Jon Wurster (three albums and counting for the Superchunk drummer) provide the rhythm.

Perhaps due to its start-stop creation, All Eternals Deck feels underwritten in spots. Darnielle usually cranks out a couple of songs with big hooks every album. There are always a handful of tunes you know you can scream regardless of your blood alcohol level. Previous winners include “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton,” “Heretic Pride,” and the almighty “This Year.” I only get that feeling from this record fleetingly. In fact, the most rocking tune, “Estate Sale Sign,” left the least impression on me. It’s energetic and what-not, but I don’t get much of a thrill out of it while driving. Good, not great.

But then, the record picks up considerably in its second half, starting with the goofy/awesome barbershop harmony of “High Hawk Season.” “Prowl Great Cain” packs a massively catchy fit of nihilism (“I feel guilty but I can’t feel ashamed / Prowl through empty fields Great Cain”) and a nifty piano line. Much like on The Life of the World to Come, TMG utilizes piano to great effect here, whether it be on the rockin’ murder party “Cain” or the delicate Life throwback “Outer Scorpion Squadron.” “For Charles Bronson” and “Liza Forever Minnelli” deal with encroaching doubts. Between the two is “Never Quite Free,” and its got such a darn nice outro, the kind that could end an uplifting movie about failure.

I don’t mean to paint All Eternals Deck as a disappointment because it’s not. It’s surprisingly unified despite being a tour record with four producers. It’s up there with David Bowie’s Aladdin Sane and Jackson Browne’s Running on Empty. Oddly enough, after reading the liner notes, I realized that all my favorite songs on the record were helmed by John Congleton (“Prowl Great Cain,” “For Charles Bronson,” “Never Quite Free,” and “Damn These Vampires,” which is somehow better than every song on every Twilight saga soundtrack).

But coming off such a stellar run of albums last decade – a flawless chain from 2000’s The Coroner’s Gambit to 2009’s Life that is without filler or failure – All Eternals Deck feels like a solid “B.” The first half goes by in a blur, the second half is solid. It’s Mountain Goats. You don’t like this album? Darnielle probably already has something new in the chamber.

MORE FREE MOUNTAIN GOATS SONGS.

Shit son. John Darnielle gave away another free song via Twitter. Click here to check out "Tyler Lambert's Grave." Dude is single handedly justifying Twitter's existence.

Don't forget to check out "You Were Cool," the song Darnielle gave last month. Bless him.

REGARDING NEW MOUNTAIN GOATS.

My buddy Nate just texted to tell me that The Mountain Goats announced details on their new album. The record is called All Eternals Deck, and it is due March 29, 2011 on Merge Records. I'm feeling strangely hopeful for the future.

Hey, America from JD on Vimeo.

REGARDING NEW MOUNTAIN GOATS

As is his way, John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats wrote another awesome song the other day. And as is his way, he's acting like it isn't even that big of a deal, opting to post a YouTube video via his Twitter and declaring that the song won't even get a proper release on the next TMG album. He also uses his Twitter to talk about comic books, metal, and Time Tunnel. I don't want to sound like one of those people who obsesses over his/her idols and thinks, "We could totally be friends forever even though I only know about you through stories and forced perceptions told by the media," but I so thoroughly want to be friends with this man. Hell, I'd settle for living in his neighborhood and maybe, maybe chatting him up at the grocery store for about 30 seconds every two months. That's not crazy, right?

Anyway, here's an mp3 of that song above.

On a semi-related note, Nate Adams is the underground John Darnielle. SHHHHH.

[EDIT: Someone complained about the link having a virus, so I took it down. E-mail me if you want the mp3 for now.]

The Extra Lens - 'Undercard'

When John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats) and Franklin Bruno (Nothing Painted Blue) debuted the Extra Glenns in 2002 with Martial Arts Weekend, the project simultaneously felt like a friendly one-off and a serious musical leap forward, at least for Darnielle. It was a breezy collection of songs written and performed by two friends. But by Darnielle’s pre-4AD standards, it was stuffed with instruments. With a few exceptions, TMG’s lo-fi days consisted of just acoustic guitar and vox, with a smattering of bass. But Extra Glenns gave Darnielle a chance to expand his range, mere months before dropping the truly expanded musicianship of Tallahassee. Bruno, meanwhile, known for loud, angry indie rock tunes with NPB, got a chance to dial it down a bit.

Eight years later and a few letters shorter, the rechristened Extra Lens finally released a follow-up record, Undercard. While it sounds a great deal like Martial Arts Weekend, it feels like a step back musically after all of the indie rock leanings Darnielle embraced on records like Heretic Pride and The Sunset Tree. The lyrics are still sad, but the music itself is brighter, flecked with Bruno’s shimmering guitar and piano parts. Darnielle handles lead vocals, and he sounds exactly like himself. He’s a great songwriter, but he pretty much has two choices as a singer, shouting and whispering. Either way it’s a little nasal.

Undercard is freed from the emotional weight of TMG’s last few records. This isn’t a concept album about dead family members, although it certainly tackles familiar TMG concepts like infidelity and suicide. In a sense, Undercard is the Burn After Reading to The Life of the World to Come’s No Country For Old Men. It’s funnier and lighter and still dark, but also slightly disappointing for those same reasons. Give me intense songs about cancer and drug abuse, man. I just wanna relate.

Still, this is Darnielle we’re talking about. That guy doesn’t fail. So while Undercard might not pack the same resonance as Get Lonely, it’s still a quality effort. Take a song like “How I Left the Ministry,” a pleasant little ditty about a preacher and his neighbor’s wife who get into a car accident while on their way to a hotel for athletic displays of adultery. The lyrics pack in self-loathing and sexual desire, with lines like “The last thing I saw before falling unconscious / Was your right hand tracing a heart on my thigh / And I thought, ‘My God what an infantile gesture’ / And I thought ‘My God what an indescribable high’” delivering a wallop.

Undercard is a lesser work for Darnielle and Bruno, but it’s still better than most of the records released this year. Put it another way: Longtime fans might be underwhelmed but still satisfied. New converts can enjoy it with the knowledge that both artists’ discographies are even better than this album.

The Mountain Goats - 'The Life of the World to Come' DVD

Considering how prolific he is with his studio albums, it’s surprising how many quality rarities John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats drops. Recent releases like Black Pear Tree and Moon Colony Bloodbath saw some of his best songs of the decade, yet were relegated to limited edition, tour-only, vinyl-only releases. Obtaining these items is a rush – it’s like being in on a wonderful, beautiful, secret truth – but losing out can be maddening.

I’m glad I reserved a copy of The Life of the World to Come on DVD. Originally screened on a brief press tour, it finally saw a physical release for Record Store Day April 17. Limited to 1,500 copies, the film features Darnielle playing songs from last year’s album of the same name on piano or guitar, with the occasional supporting vocal from former TMG bassist/vocalist Rachel Ware. I already own the album on CD and limited edition purple vinyl (74 of 777). I declared it the best album of 2009. I fall under the designation “super fan” and am quite stoked on watching TMG Classic perform in such an intimate setting.

But you don’t need to know the significance of the venue (Pomona College, where Darnielle had his first piano recital as a wee lad). Nor do you need to know the significance of Ware’s return. Heck, you don’t even need to know the tracks or the Bible passages they reference or that the first song, “Enoch 18:14,” isn’t even on the album. Sure, it helps, but it’s not completely necessary.

Like the best concert films, The Life of the World to Come succeeds by avoiding the genre’s pitfalls (delusions of grandeur, bad audio). Credit for that goes to director Rian Johnson (Brick) and his crew. They filmed two takes for each song using a simple set-up – single portable camera with a dolly for quick movements when needed. Yet the crew captures numerous special moments – that grin when Darnielle starts getting into “Enoch 18:14,” or the way his voice quavers only on his ode to his deceased mother-in-law, “Matthew 25:21.” There are mistakes, but none of them derail the songs. If anything, they enhance the performances.

Supplementing the film is footage of a Q-and-A from Darnielle and Johnson’s press tour, as well as extensive liner notes. Both get funny and/or cryptic at times, as Darnielle is wont to do, but they’re appreciated. My only complaints against the film are minimal – I wish the DVD’s release was wider, and I wish it lasted longer than is probably reasonable on my part. Ninety minutes is a decent running time. Originally used for promotional purposes, Life affirms that the Mountain Goats’ songs work even when stripped to their barest bits, and in doing so stands up as a companion to and independent entity from last year’s album.

The Mountain Goats and Final Fantasy at the Theater of Living Arts

John Darnielle of indie/folk masters the Mountain Goats seems to have a fondness for Philadelphia. He writes for metal mag Decibel, which is printed in Philly. Goats drummer Jon Wurster is from the area. He commands a fanatic cult, but isn’t afraid to play smaller venues like the North Star Bar or local college campuses. And when he does falter live, as any human is bound to eventually do, he makes up for it tenfold. So, obviously, the guy was gonna put on a great show for fans when he hit the TLA Sat., Nov. 28 with Final Fantasy. That’s pretty much a given. But the exact way he would do it – mixing crowd pleasers and deep cuts, playing some songs astonishingly softly for such a medium-sized venue while also going louder than he ever has before – could never be predicted.

See, the Goats have a lot of songs. Fansite Themountaingoats.net counts 525. The band has such a wealth of tunes that Darnielle is able to pull out obscure songs whenever he wants, much to superfans’ delight. That alone ensures that most Goats shows are unique. Throw in the band’s tendency to perform songs with their tourmates, as well the Goats’ recent swelling to a four-piece with the addition of guitarist Perry Wright (The Prayers & Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers; check out The Mother of Love Emulates the Shapes of Cynthia sometime), and the uniqueness of each performance is that much more assured. Nov. 28 was no exception.

The night began with Final Fantasy, a.k.a. violinist/vocalist Owen Pallett. Accompanied by a guitarist/percussionist, Pallett crafted polyphonic wonders using his violin, a keyboard, and enough loop pedals to fight whatever apocalyptic future awaits us. Calling his music orchestral pop doesn’t sound quite right since A) we’re talking about a one-man orchestra, B) Pallett’s tunes have a lot of dance and pop elements, and C) dude is too funny to be pigeonholed. The guy’s classical background shows – he’s clearly talented – but he didn’t come off as pompous while discussing his music at all. Ditto for when he called out some obnoxious, talkative non-listeners, wryly saying, “Were you guys talking this whole time? I didn’t notice because I was so into the music.” Overall, Pallett put on an entertaining show. I anticipate his upcoming 2010 record, Heartland.

By Pallett’s own admission, opening for the Mountain Goats is intimidating given his fervent fanbase (of which I consider myself a member). Pallett’s set wrapped up by 9:50 p.m., and by 10:10 I was losing my patience. I needed a Goats fix. When the houselights dimmed at 10:15, the crowd, and me, collectively lost its shit. The Goats hit the stage and tore into…

Wait, I don’t know this song. How do I not know this song? I just listened to 18 hours of TMG tunes. I should know this song. Think, think. This song is so awesome, with its boisterous arrangement. Wurster looks like he’s having such a great time. They’re singing about handball. How many Goats songs are about that?

That’s right, the Mountain Goats opened with “Hand Ball,” originally from the compilation Our Salvation is in Hand, later compiled on the rarities collection Protein Source of the Future...Now!. They did it with a full band too, which shows how much Wurster has integrated into Darnielle and bassist Peter Hughes’ dynamic. Darnielle has always had a knack for loud acoustic ditties – have you heard “Cubs in Five?” – but Wurster and Wright pushed that aspect harder on songs like “Palmcorder Yajna,” “This Year,” and “See America Right.” “Romans 10:9,” one of the poppier songs from new album Life of the World to Come, turned out surprisingly, wonderfully heavy. It was perhaps my favorite performance of the night. Of the five times I’ve seen the Mountain Goats, this was their most rocking set.

Of course, an ebb and flow can do plenty for a live show. The Goats added softer songs like “Deuteronomy 2:10” and Life outtake “Enoch 18:14,” after which Darnielle went solo for a bit, knocking out obscurities like a so-far-unreleased cover of the Chiffons’ “One Fine Day,” “From TG&Y,” and “Song for Dana Plato,” all of which went over well with the crowd. After that, Darnielle went even deeper with “Going to Michigan” by the Extra Glenns, a band he was in with Nothing Painted Blue frontman Franklin Bruno. Pallett came out to play the guitar part from “Going to Bristol” on his violin, and it was good. Damn good. There was a bit of respect and nerd love between the two performers, as Pallett would come back for performances of “Hebrews 11:40,” “This Year,” and “No Children.”

The rest of the band came out to wrap up the regular set, concluding with rabblerousers “See America Right” and “This Year.” “This Year” gets a little bit louder and faster every time I see it live, which, given that it’s one of the most beloved, best TMG songs, is always welcome.

After a two-song encore of “Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace,” which featured Hughes’ bass at its heaviest, and “No Children,” I felt ever so slightly disappointed. See, I interviewed Darnielle a little while ago via e-mail. He dodged a few of my questions, one of which was a show request for his cover of “Dirty Old Town,” as my girlfriend and I have a lot of memories attached to that song. Since Darnielle didn’t outright shoot me down, I wondered, nay hoped, that maybe he really would play the song. He didn’t. But then the band came out for a second encore and played a full band version of “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton,” which is, scientifically speaking, the greatest Mountain Goats song of all time. Some people might say “Going to Georgia” (which I’ve heard live, suckaz) or “Going to Maine,” but those people are wrong, and perhaps even insane. The show opened to strains of Dio and closed with raised fists and shouts of “Hail Satan!” Decibel, and a lot of Philly’s Mountain Goats fans, would’ve been proud.

Set list

Hand Ball
Old College Try
Cotton
Palmcorder Yajna
Romans 10:9
Deuteronomy 2:10
Enoch 18:14
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One Fine Day (Chiffons cover, went solo)
From TG&Y
Song for Dana Plato
Going to Michigan (Extra Glenns cover)
Going to Bristol (with Owen Pallett)

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Hebrews 11:40 (back to full band with OP)
Psalms 40:2
Song for Dennis Brown
See America Right
This Year (with OP)
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Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
No Children (with OP)
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The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton

Vinyl Vednesday 11/25

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it kinda is. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds! Since Thanksgiving is this week, I thought I’d discuss three of my all-time favorite records, not that I don’t love my vinyl collection in general. Gratitude abounds.]

Records: Jawbreaker’s Dear You (1995) on baby blue marble, The Mountain Goats’ Zopilote Machine (1994) on black, and X’s Los Angeles (1980) on black with media kit.

Place of Purchase: Zopilote Machine and Los Angeles were purchased on eBay. Dear You was a present from my girlfriend. She’s awesome.

Thoughts: My copy of Dear You on baby blue marble vinyl is my favorite record. There, now you know that every future installment of Vinyl Vendnesday will be a lie. But dang it all, it was a really cool present, ya dig? And it plays perfectly! The cover’s a little worn, but I’ve always been a sucker for those sort of lived-in qualities. It makes me feel connected to something. Dear You is my favorite Jawbreaker record. I love those dark, swirling chords and depressing lyrics. Yet as down as songs like “Accident Prone” or “Jet Black” get, I get a little giddy about being able to tap into that world whenever I want. This is one of those albums I’ll start singing along to without realizing it.

I’m the sort of music nerd who wants to get every record my favorite artists have ever put out on vinyl. Being a Mountain Goats fan, that’s probably going to be impossible, but every once in a while, I score a big find. I lucked into a copy of Zopilote Machine on vinyl, featuring one of the Goats’ best songs, “Going to Georgia.” The price wasn’t too steep, and it’s easily the oldest TMG release I own on wax. I’m not going to argue that it sounds better in this format – it’s still just a guy with a guitar and a boom box – but it’s still nice to have and pretty to look at.

I made a decent amount of money temping, which I promptly squandered on an eBay addiction. Having been an X fan since high school, I decided to double-up my collection by getting their best albums on vinyl. Los Angeles is one of my favorite X records, channeling old rock ‘n’ roll riffs through a punk perspective. The best punk bands secretly knew how to play their instruments, as Los Angeles shows, and the quartet still puts on a great show. I was particularly excited to get this album on vinyl, as it was a promo version with a lengthy media kit. My copy came with glossy photos, Xeroxed newspaper reviews, and a neat folder to hold it all. It’s pretty cool.

Interview: John Darnielle (The Mountain Goats)

[I've been sitting on this article for about a month. Now that punknews.org has finally run it, I'm happy to introduce to you my interview with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. It was a huge honor to talk to the guy, even if it was from the awkward distance of e-mail.]

For almost 20 years, the Mountain Goats have been turning out literate, evocative folk-rock. Their latest album, The Life of the World to Come, is among their best yet, coupling religious images with stories both personal and fictional. It's their, I believe, 434th full-length release, and the group shows no signs of artistic fatigue. I was able to secure some talking time with frontman John Darnielle during a break from touring, via e-mail. He was awfully coy in places - especially when I asked him some questions about his appearance on The Colbert Report - but pretty open on others. Here now are his thoughts on touring, Barbara Streisand, anniversary shows, and the Bible.

Hi. Hey. Hello. How are you?

I'm doing great! Got home from a short European tour the other day and have been working in the kitchen ever since, I really love to cook and bake so it's good times for me right now.

How long did it take you to write the songs for The Life of the World to Come? Did you decide going in to incorporate the Bible for every song, or did the idea spring itself on you? How did reacting to the Bible affect your lyric choices, as of opposed to, say, discussing your relationship with your stepfather in The Sunset Tree?

It sort of came together gradually throughout 2008, and by early '09 I was well into it - first there was this song on the Black Pear Tree EP, "Supergenesis," which was the first Bible-related song I'd written in a while, and I noticed while I was writing it that it kind of woke me up in a way other writing wasn't - I used to write a lot more Bible-driven songs, way way back when in the cassette days. So, around the same time, I wrote "1 John 4:16," and it was a pretty emotional song for me, and I thought, there's something going on here - keep looking at this. And then I learned about a Biblical translation I hadn't known anything about, Young's Literal Translation, and I get pretty excited when I think about translation generally speaking, really inspired. So at that point I was kind of off to the races.

You described your new album as 12 hard lessons the Bible taught you. “Matthew 25:21,” “Philippians 3: 20-21,” “Hebrews 11:40,” and “Isaiah 45:23” all deal with declining health. Are they all about your mother-in-law? Other people? Care to explain their meanings? How did the Bible help you deal with loss?

I try to avoid doing too much "here's what this song is about" stuff with songs, because once a song's writer does that, it kind of puts the song into a coffin and nails the lid shut - no more fun playing with this song and its meanings, listener: the Author has spoken, nothing more to see here, keep movin'! At the same time, I like to be a good sport, so I'll take one: "Philippians 3:20-21" isn't about anybody I knew personally - it's for David Foster Wallace, whose work I don't even know that well but who had such a profound and positive effect on so many people, who was one of those guys about whom, when you get exposed to how he thinks about people and their essential eventual goodness, you think, man, if there were a God, God would have to like this dude, because this dude is so full of goodness and love of life and love for other people, compassion for their struggles, insight into both the good and the bad about people, into the raw humanity that makes the whole world hum. So then he goes and hangs himself, and you think, you know, how could a kind God not give a guy like that the basic equipment needed - the right brain chemistry, I mean - to be able to even bear being alive? You know what I mean? Suicide, the fact that people get to that point of total despair and hopelessness at all, that's like the harshest interrogation of the concept of the Christian God there is. Born-again types have a very simplistic explanation of the whole thing that involves cartoonish concepts like tempting demons and so on, but of course that shit is just infantile. How could a merciful and benevolent and loving God create a good, talented, giving person with a time bomb in his head? How can a good God unleash Hell inside a good man's head? This has troubled me since I worked in mental health. Naturally, if you're an atheist, this one's easy, unless you're a more creative atheist who's able to say "OK, let's posit 'God': how do things work if we do that?" Unfortunately we kind of don't live in a time when people are really able to do a lot of "if x then y" thinking, which in my opinion is what punk rock was all about in the first place, but that's another subject.

What kind of reaction have the new songs gotten so far?

Pretty good I think! I think people hear that this is a pretty emotional record, for me, and I think for the band too - that there's something at the core of it that's kind of freshly-wounded and raw, something physical in the feeling we're going for.

Would you describe yourself as spiritual or religious? What are the top three things you’d change about the Catholic Church, if given carte blanche? What does the Bible mean to you?

These last two questions would require a little more space than I can really stretch out for, but - I mean, yeah, I'm as spiritual as a person who's not sure there's any such thing as "spirit" can be. I think I know what people mean when they describe their "spirit," whether that's actually a construct within one's personality or the essential part of one's self that you share with the world (or not) - the part of you that's uniquely you, that either never dies or which dies forever when you do - I think there is such a thing as that, whether it's an eternal thing or just the most adamantine aspect of your personality. And I think it's an important thing, that concept of The You Which Is Uniquely You. The Church - I mean - part of its charm is its resistance to change. I am not a practicing Catholic though I do go to Church sometimes - I can't call myself Catholic because I don't believe what they believe, but I think it's kind of lame for me to say to the Church "you must change!" in order to please me. I am free to worship or not as I see fit; if the Church doesn't share my beliefs, no-one's forcing me to stay in it. The whole question is a lot more complicated than that, obviously, because of cultural identity (esp. heavy with Catholicism) and how one thinks about doctrine (fluid or rigid? dogmatic or descriptive?), but I think at the end of the day I'm kind of Old School Catholic, which means I don't think the Church should change its teachings to make anybody happy. The Church should be who she is. If over time the Church's understanding of dogma becomes more inclusive of more people, then I think that's great, but the Church isn't the scene or anything. It doesn't have to change for anybody, and it kind of shouldn't.

How has having a steady three-piece affected your songwriting? I know you’ve been playing with Peter Hughes for a while, but do you write differently knowing that Jon Wurster will be around for tours? How much do Peter and Jon contribute to the music overall?

The songwriting process stays essentially the same, though we have tried a thing or two that involved writing the song in the studio - not the lyrics; the lyrics I write in solitude, usually, even if it's the dug-out solitude of whatever corner I can find in a dressing room. Peter and Jon write their parts and the songs grow and change in response to what they see and hear and feel in the skeleton I bring to the table - I write the chords and the melodies and the words, but there's more to a song than that stuff, and the "more" is what they do: sort of putting muscle and skin and spirit into the bones.

You’ve been known to put out high quality vinyl. All of your 4AD stuff has stayed in print, and you’ve released some incredible tour-only vinyl and color variants. What’s your favorite record find and why?

I am more of a pack-rat than a "seek out essential items" dude but this very, very obscure midwestern vanity pressing thing by a band called the Cause that my wife and I found at the Ajax store in Chicago years ago, when we were first dating - that's a huge find, because it's very much its own off-in-space thing. I have a near-complete original run of Man is the Bastard vinyl, much of it bought directly from Wood himself, I take some pride in that. Especially the Born Against split 8", one of my favorite records ever.

Could you talk about your experience on The Colbert Report? Do you get a lot of TV requests?

What can I tell you - it was fun, we enjoyed ourselves!

Is there anyone left on your short list for collaborations? Perhaps a Boz Scaggs duet?

Mostly classical musicians right now - I have a whole lot of ideas for strings and I am hoping to work more with Miranda Cuckson. I would like to work with the choreographer Trisha Brown - would like to write music for her to choreograph. That's a dream though, she's a titan in her field. Me singing with Boz wouldn't be a very good idea, I don't think. He is a truly great singer whom I admire tremendously. I'm good at what I do, but I'm not in his league. Like, at all.

Call it now: What is the best Mountain Goats record? What’s your favorite song to perform? Have you ever thought about performing an album in its entirety? Maybe do an All Hail West Texas tribute when it turns 10, or teach your newer fans the wonders of Sweden?

Well, OK, this is five questions - taking them more or less in order: my favorite record is always the new one, which is not because it's the one being promoted, but because I'm always most interested in what's newest, what's freshest - I mostly lose interest in an album once I've moved on to the next one, I sort of say "here are the songs I loved best from that record and here's what I learned how to do from writing them and playing them and recording them and touring with them, living with them" and then move along, keep goin'. Swim, shark, or die! you know? So, my favorite stuff is the newest songs that nobody's heard yet, and my second favorite is the new album, and after that -- I don't know; I mean, I have an affection for The Sunset Tree because it's meant a lot to a lot of people, and that means a lot to me, and it was hard to write, so I got something from the whole process. And I'm super proud that with Get Lonely, we did what we felt instead of trying to do "Sunset Tree II" or anything - we followed our hearts and I'm proud of doing that and of the record we made. I have no interest at all in doing a pat-self-on-back thing like presenting an old album in its entirety, to me that's "hi I'm an old man now dwelling on past glories," fuck that in my opinion, no disrespect to anybody who's into it. OK maybe a little disrespect because seriously, art is about growth, not K-Tel commercials for the great hits from when life was simpler and we were all in high school. I don't go to anybody's "playing their classic album" shows, I hate the whole concept, it's like very major label Las Vegas. Though I would go see Streisand do Je M'Appelle Barbra but that's different because it's a whole different world. I don't think good rock music should be about ideas like "classic." The idea is keeping it new.



You’ve dropped so many more non-full-length tracks since your trio of rarities compilations in 2002. Any thoughts on doing another rarities collection?

There really isn't any point in doing a rarities collection now that everything's free, I don't think. Back when we started putting together the three singles comps, people who really wanted to hear those songs couldn't, or had to work super-hard to get their hands on dubbed copies. That's not the case any more, so the utility of the rarities comp is questionable now.

Your entry in the 33 1/3 series, on Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, doubles as a short story, in which a troubled youth describes the album in his vernacular while dealing with treatment in an adolescent psychiatric center in 1985. Have you ever though of writing/releasing more fiction?

Yeah I am working on another book.

Vinyl Vednesday 10/28

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it kinda is. This week’s installment focuses on spoOoOoky releases, in honor of our Lord Satan and the coming of All Hallow’s Eve. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: The Cure’s Pornography (1982) on black, The Mountain Goats’ Satanic Messiah double seven-inch (2008) on black, and AFI’s Decemberunderground seven-inch box set (2006) on clear.

Place of Purchase: Pornography was snatched up at Siren Records. Satanic Messiah was a tour-only, self-released record that I picked up when I saw the band play with Kaki King on “The Last Happy Night of Your Life” tour. Decemberunderground was a Hot Topic exclusive.

Quality: All three of these albums have gotten play this month, with special attention given to Pornography. With 13 full-lengths and counting, I can never truly decide what my favorite Cure release is, although Pornography is always near the top. It’s arguably their darkest and most nihilistic release, and it’s an album I generally associate with addiction. Maybe it’s because the first time I heard it was around the time my cousin overdosed. I stayed up one night playing it over and over on a walkman while I sat on my roof, completely freaked out. As the sky burned from black to orange, I finally packed it in, but I’ll always remember that night.

Satanic Messiah, by contrast, has no choice but to carry a happier story. See, I’m a bit of a Mountain Goats fanatic, so when the band followed up their seminal work Heretic Pride with Satanic Messiah just a few months later, I squealed with joy. What’s more, they gave the record away for free, although donations were/are certainly welcome. I was lucky to get a physical release on tour, though, as the record is extremely shiny. SO. SHINY. Like this year’s The Life of the World to Come, Satanic Messiah is an understated piano-based collection. It features four tasty tunes, one of which is about the wonderful coming of the Antichrist, even though you could mistake it for being about Jesus, which is part of the reason why the song is so effective.

Ah, but the most joyful of noises are reserved for Decemberunderground. Oh sure, the lyrics talk about bleeding and suicide and stuff. But the music made the album into a gothic/glam rock/techno party. My roommate Eric and I danced a fit to this record quite thoroughly in 2006. I listened to it again last week in honor of the Morningstar, and I fell in love with it all over again. “Miss Murder” totally cops a feel off of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” and I love it all the more for it. Plus, the box set comes with a sweet bonus track, “Fallen Like the Sky,” and a poster.

Vinyl Vednesday 10/21

[Vinyl Vednesday is a new weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it kinda is. This week's entry comes from Michelle "Killdozer." She is my special lady friend. Also, she is super cute.

Ahem... E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: The Mountain Goats & Kaki King’s Black Pear Tree EP (2008) on black vinyl, Tom Jones featuring Tori Amos’ “I Wanna Get Back With You” (1994 (P)/1995 (C)) on black vinyl, and a remastered and expanded version of Minus the Bear’s They Make Beer Commercials Like This (2008) on rainbow vinyl.

Place of Purchase: Black Pear Tree EP was purchased on The Mountain Goats and Kaki King’s “The Last Happy Night of Your Life” tour Fri., Nov. 7, 2008 at the TLA in Philadelphia. The “I Wanna Get Back With You” single was a gift from my significant other, Joe Pelone. They Make Beer Commercials Like This was purchased at Repo Records.

Quality: There is absolutely nothing more divine then playing Black Pear Tree EP on your record player on an overcast, cold, and rainy Saturday morning. The vocal quality is impeccable. I love the haunting and sad sounds of the piano, organ, bells, and lesser guitars, which at times echo like you are sitting in a big cold room with John Darnielle. I love the sound of keys being pressed and the organ taking breaths. (I have created my own photograph for the making of “Black Pear Tree.”) Then, when Kaki King plays, really rocking only on “Mosquito Repellant” (still acoustically) I can hear her fingers progressing to each new string. I kind of hope that John Darnielle will use Scott Solter and Baucom Road in Monroe, North Carolina forever. Note: If you dislike TMG, you will still love this EP. And if you dislike Kaki King, as I did, you will still love this EP.

I get excited every time I take They Make Beer Commercials Like This out of its sleeve. I have to admit this is mostly for aesthetic reasons as this album is my least favorite Minus the Bear release. It’s just so damn pretty on rainbow vinyl! I’m not certain the remastering makes this record significantly better, but maybe that’s because I’m spoiled by digitally remastered music often (and by my favorite artists). I can say on track one, “Fine + 2 Points,” I do notice a low end I did not previously hear and still cannot really hear on the digital version of this song. The guitars, electronics, and keyboards still sound very Minus the Bear; that is, they sound generally exquisite. I can appreciate the intricacy of their music more on tracks like “I’m Totally Not Down With Rob’s Alien” and “Pony Up!”. Last, it’s always cool to get a bonus track from an artist you adore.

I could have easily picked the “God” single Joe got me as my favorite single for this list. But, instead I picked Tom Jones’ “I Wanna Get Back With You” featuring Tori Amos because this has a much more interesting story. I knew about the “God” single on vinyl, and thought I knew everything about every one of Tori’s releases (or releases on which Tori is featured. I have two versions of the “Blue Skies” single by BT featuring Tori Amos!). Yet, Joe totally blew my socks off with this one. I had no idea that she sang a song with Tom Jones in ’94 or’95! Honestly, when I listen to this single, I only listen to the Tori Amos track because I think Tom Jones is laughable. It’s kind of a lot of effort to go to when you play just one track from a vinyl album, but totally worth it because it’s so rare and has such meaning for me that Joe would find this for me.

Vinyl Vednesday 10/14

[Vinyl Vednesday is a new weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it kinda is. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: Adam Ants’ Friend or Foe (1982) on black, The Mountain Goats’ The Life of the World to Come (2009) on translucent purple, and a re-release of Sunny Day Real Estate’s LP2/“Pink Album” (2009) on pink marble.

Place of Purchase: All three came from Siren Records in Doylestown, Pa. I recently stripped down my CD collection, as I A) am running out of room, B) needed cash to fuel my music obsession, and C) don’t listen to System of a Down or Coheed and Cambria that much anymore. In today’s economy, Siren only does store credit, though. Given that the owner gave me $150 in store credit, though, I was OK with this.

Quality: Adam Ant's tribal drumming post-punk boasted some pretty great hits (“Stand and Deliver,” “Physical (You’re So)”). Friend or Foe is arguably the last completely essential Ant record, and also his first solo outing since the dissolution of Adam and The Ants. The record dips a little in spots, but it’s bolstered by hit singles “Friend or Foe” and “Goody Two Shoes.” He does a good job with the Doors’ “Hello, I Love You,” although I prefer the Missing Persons’ version.

The Life of the World to Come is far and away my favorite album of 2009. I like it so much I wrote 1,300+ words on it. My girlfriend noticed one copy of the album on vinyl that was different from the others: A limited edition purple pressing, individually numbered (Mine is 074 of 777). A devout TMG fan but also a loving girlfriend, she tossed it my way. It’s a beautiful gatefold, and the recording sounds pretty full. Granted, it was probably recorded digitally, thereby reducing the difference between vinyl and CD, but the effort is still appreciated. Not a fan of having to flip the record every three songs or so, but I’ll deal.

“The Pink Album” is the only SDRE album I don’t have an original pressing of on vinyl. It’s always been my least favorite album of theirs, so I never put much effort into obtaining it. Prior to hearing this remaster, it sounded like an unfinished album to me, which, given that the band broke up before LP2’s completion, it kind of is. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have bothered with this re-release (with two bonus tracks) if I didn’t have store credit. But I’m glad I hopped on it – the remaster sounds amazing, bringing LP2 much closer to sounding like a finished album. Plus, it’s on colored vinyl. Plus plus, it came with a sticker and a button. More bands should do this. Now I’m seriously considering checking out the remaster for Diary as well.