I have been known to play guitar [poorly] in the band Kid Omega. All songs posted are for sampling purposes only and will only be hosted for a short time; you should support artists that you like by buying recordings, going to shows, and buying sweet band merch. If you own the rights to a song and want me to take it down, or if you want to submit music for review, shoot me off an email: confoundedfretbuzz [at] gmail dot com
I don't really get to sleep in very often anymore. Even when I would very much like to sleep in, I tend to wake up a lot earlier than I intended. But when Saturn is in retrograde and Betelgeuse finds that special spot on the galactic plane, I still manage to catch some bonus shut-eye. The thing about sleeping in is that it pretty much ensures strange dreams--it's those little windows of sleep that occur after that initial morning flirtation with consciousness that help open your mind to intriguingly implausible scenarios cobbled together in large part from life experiences. This morning, I dreamt about one of my past college history professors attempting to put out an electrical fire started by a vacuum cleaner in my hometown library, which after much excitement I eventually ended up dousing with some sort of lemon-lime soda. My professor's hair was on fire but he didn't notice until I pointed it out to him, at which point he said that the cranial flames had already been doused, which was true, as his scalp was now merely smoldering. My undersized hometown library was saved, and I was the hero. But my soda was tragically lost in the process and I was upset about it.
Things faded to black before the next inexplicable episode began. This time, I proceeded to explain John Darnielle's songwriting method in the first two tracks from All Hail West Texas to my parents in great detail. My dad apparently enjoyed the football allusions in "Fall of the Star High School Running Back," but he had a hilariously difficult time remembering the lyrics to "Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton." This dream seems fairly close to reality, but the chances of it ever actually occurring are about as slim as the library dream.
Some people read a lot into dreams and think we can learn more about ourselves. While I'm going to go ahead and posit that they're not much more then our brains trying to file away memories, a pleasant (unless you're prone to night terrors) diversion from the quiet void (unless you're prone to snoring) of normal sleep (unless you're an incurable insomniac). A third of your life is spent sleeping, so having crazy dreams is sort of a way of getting some of that essentially wasted time back, especially if you can actually remember them the next day. I would love to figure out how to do some lucid dreaming so I could reclaim more of my sleeping hours from empty idleness and dreams that just don't pan out like they could have. If anyone is knowledgeable in these matters, let me know.
Well, I tried to stretch this list to at least five, but being the lazy fellow that I am, I think I'll stick with the four I've got.
4. The Mountain Goats & John Vanderslice - Moon Colony Bloodbath
How could these two get together and not produce something excellent?
"Surrounded"
"Emerging"
3. Britney's Spear - Britney's Spear
In the interest of integrity and full disclosure, I am friends with these guys, and even the guy who recorded them. But I promise that I'm mentioning them here because this EP is honestly really really good.
"Burning Billboards"
"Dream Big"
2. Cory Branan & Jon Snodgrass - S/T
Cory Branan's boys can indeed break a heart. Mr. Snodgrass ain't so bad himself.
"Alone & Distanced"
"Walk Around"
1. John K. Samson - City Route 85
In lieu of there being any new Weakerthans material, I rushed to grab this when it came out. And now the vinyl's on the way (with two t-shirts). John K. Samson wins at lyrics, 'nuff said.
I showed up about twenty or thirty minutes into the opener Final Fantasy's (Owen Pallett's) set. From what I did see, it was a truly virtuosic, impressive performance by essentially a one-man-band. That said it was not really my jam, but I would still rate him over previous tMG openers I've seen such as The Moaners, Kaki King, or Larkin Grimm. The crowd was pretty supportive of his efforts, even if half of them were occasionally checking the time, desperately anticipating the emergence of John Darnielle and company.
[Owen Pallett: truly one of the good Canadian musicians. On the John K. Samson side of the line and not the Justin Bieber one, AMIRITE? Trust me, I'm right. Don't even try to convince me otherwise.]
So, the opening set wrapped up to polite applause and I got up from my fairly decent Mezzanine seat to have a conference with my dear friends from whom I had been so tragically separated by the truly draconian seating practices of the establishment. Taking advantage of the chaos of intermission, we stole away to the floor, working our way quickly past security and getting within a few rows of the stage, awfully close to where the ever-sharply dressed Peter Hughes would soon be damaging ears with the raw power of his thunderingly godlike bass guitar (with an assist from the poor acoustics of the venue). Though we hit a brief snag, Dana (remember Dana?) was able to convince the soft-looking, pliable, and thoroughly nice fellow who asked to see our floor wristbands that it was of the utmost importance that we three should be allowed to remain together. Our close proximity at Mountain Goats shows was a time-honored tradition that simply could not be denied, she said in so many words. Understanding the paramount importance of our continued union on the floor, he acquiesced, throwing his hands up in resignation and shooing us away. Safely on the floor, we eagerly awaited the moment that was sure to come. And then it happened.
The Goats took the stage and there was much rejoicing. Right from the get-go, there was a heavy emphasis placed on material from the new album, and given that they're touring in its support, that's hardly surprising. To echo the sentiments of another reviewer, this meant that things dragged a bit for a while as quiet new song after quiet new song was played. It was certainly different to see John at the piano, however, and it was all the more rewarding later in the set when he dug back into the archives to play some old favorites and some obscurities. I love me some "Quito," so that song's always a highlight. I got about as into it as some tired dude with a shaved head and a winter jacket draped over one arm can get, and John seemed to notice, so that was nice. If a show's going well the band gives off palpable energy and the crowd gives it right back. Everyone's psyched and in that moment nothing can be wrong. You had best believe that the room got to that point and stayed there for some time.
"Going to Bristol" with Owen Pallett plucking away on the violin was pretty darn awesome. I will admit my previous ignorance of "From TG&Y" but I'll be damned if that didn't immediately resonate with me (and before those of you in the know about this song ask, no, I don't go around huffing spray paint--shame on you for even considering that). John gave one hell of a monologue before "Song For Dennis Brown," which injected some candor into the evening that had been somewhat lacking to that point. "This Year" was fantastic as always, and that was when my throat gave out. The encore's inclusion of "No Children" was a fitting and crowd-pleasing closer if ever there was one.
The absence of a second encore was for once something I couldn't get upset about, considering that we had a train back to Worcester to catch and needed to hightail it out of there by 10:30. All in all, it was a great show as I have come to expect. Any bones I had to pick are trivial and bringing them up again is just going to make me sound whiny.
Here's the thrown-together-at-the-last-minute setlist, painstakingly culled from The Mountain Goats forums because I couldn't find it on setlist.fm yet:
1 Samuel 15:23
Old College Try
Cotton
Psalms 40:2
Isaiah 45:23
Deuteronomy 2:10
Enoch 18:14
Genesis 30:3
From TG&Y (solo)
Blueberry Frost (solo)
Mole (solo)
Dance Music (solo)
(Owen comes out)
Going to Bristol
(everyone else comes back)
Hebrews 11:14
Quito
(Owen leaves)
Song For Dennis Brown
Genesis 3:23
This Year
Encore:
Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace
Romans 10:9
No Children (w/ Owen on piano)
I'm hopeful that someone present that evening taped the show, and I greatly look forward to hearing it so I can reminisce for years to come, a practice that I have been so lucky to follow with the two preceding Mountain Goats shows I have attended. Thanks in advance to whoever you may be.
Please don't get the idea that this is rapidly devolving into some glorified Mountain Goats fan blog (as near and dear to me as the band may be). This post simply serves as an addendum to yesterday's entry on The Life of the World to Come, which if I had been thinking clearly enough at the time, would surely have gotten tacked onto the end of that post. Better late than never I suppose, and thus I present to you now (in the event that you have not already viewed it) The Mountain Goats' performance on The Colbert Report from about three weeks back. There was an interview of John prior to the performance, which you can find here. After all, I wouldn't want to overwhelm the page with multimedia and so crash the machines of those brave few out of my legions of followers who are still running Windows 3.1, right?
I'll admit it. I had a few misgivings about this record before it came out. As much as John Darnielle protested on The Mountain Goats website that he had not experienced some religious revival and was still as much of a lapsed Catholic as ever, and that the new record would not be some uber-religious screed, I had my doubts ["I come from Chino where the asphalt sprouts"].
Should I have feared? No. After all, Darnielle has been seasoning his music with varying degrees of religion for his entire career, be it "Trans-Jordanian Blues" (from On Juhu Beach), "Blues in Dallas" (from All Hail West Texas), "Genesis 19 1-2" (from Devil in the Shortwave), or "I Corinthians 13 8-10" (from Nothing For Juice). Of course, the fan favorite "Golden Boy" deals heavily with themes of the afterlife, cynically portraying heaven as a place as bleakly overrun by commercialization as this mortal coil we know so well. There are other examples in the catalogue I could point to, but by now I'd like to think I've made my point that he has dealt with religious themes frequently throughout his career and always come out the other side without seeming overbearing.
So onto the album. The release of "Genesis 3:23" for download on the 4AD website during the summer worried me. I was afraid that QC had slipped, because to be honest it felt sorta like a rehash of BNL's "The Old Apartment," and given the very close proximity of Darnielle and BNL on the Ships & Dip V cruise this past February, I thought that maybe he'd been tainted by the troubled and fading Canadian band who so owned the late 90s. If this was indeed the case (and in retrospect I don't really think that it is), it's only really apparent on that one song. And yes, Darnielle is allowed to delve into subject matter that other people have tackled before in his own way; if musicians were required to come up with a completely original topic to write a song on every time, that would just be unmanageable.
On the whole, it's a very quiet, spare work, reminiscent of 2006's Get Lonely. To be honest, I much prefer the more "boisterous" Goats songs, and if you're craving that, you're not going to find much of it here. However, "Psalms 40:2" is a real barn-burner that will appease those folks who tend to shy away from much of the quieter stuff. The vast majority of the album embodies a sort of understated desperate darkness, dealing with some heavy material such as the death of his mother-in-law in "Matthew 25:21," which is absolutely devastating.
Did I like Heretic Pride better? Most definitely.
Is this a good album in its own right? Yes. Comparing the two is apples and oranges.
I've been bored with the layout of the ol' blog for some time now and have done some subtle tweaks over the last few days, but I'm planning a more thorough redesign that hopefully I'll have time to do this upcoming weekend, particularly if the weather's godawful (and knowing Worcester, I'm pretty much guaranteed one crummy day this weekend). A fresh look does not good content make, but it's a start I suppose. If I have a canvas to work with that doesn't look awful, I'll probably be more liable to put more effort into my posts.
In the meantime, I invite you all to watch this:
Just bought my ticket for Nov. 29 in Boston. Excited? Hell yes.
Keep truckin' folks. Now I've got a book to slay and a paper that I will write in its blood. Sorry if that was graphic.
Tuesdays are only good for one thing, in my book. And that, my friends, is new records. Here are some key dates coming up:
September 22 Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk Admittedly I only just found out about this indie supergroup of Jim James, M. Ward, and the one and only Conor Oberst (via Rainn Wilson's blip.fm page no less), but the concept alone has piqued my interest. Latter-day Traveling Wilburys? We'll see.
Not wowed by this, but holding out hope for better cuts. "Say Please"
September 29 The Swell Season - Strict Joy Thoroughly enjoyed the film Once and the accompanying Oscar-winning tuneage provided by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. The man's got some serious pipes and the two of them are quite the team, even if they've moved on from the whole March - July romance thing.
This song isn't from the new album, but it's an awesome live Van Morrison cover they did that I listen to all the time. Enjoy. "Into the Mystic"
October 6 The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come I'm a pretty big Mountain Goats fan, which is to say that I'm only mildly obsessive (unlike this guy). Bible verses as titles? Maybe a bit presumptuous. But I'll give JD the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, the cover art is SICK.
Reminds me of BNL's "The Old Apartment." A solid though not outstanding track. "Genesis 3:23"
Lucero - 1372 Overton Park It's been far too long since Ben Nichols and company's last effort, 2006's Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers. Must say that I enjoy the whiskey-soaked, Southern rock-meets-country-meets-punk Americana purveyed by 'em and can't wait for their newest installment to drop.
Today's post was inspired by this excellent video, which if you know me I've probably already forced you to watch. For the optimal Satanic experience, if you haven't seen this video before, you should view it before perusing today's selections. Enjoy, and remember to be on guard for wickedness at all times.
This semester (being an American History major) I'm taking a class on the Civil War, referred to by many of our Southern brethren as "The War of Northern Aggression." My roommate has repeatedly asked that I one day in class refer to the war in said Southern manner, as of yet I have failed to follow through on this request, tempting as it may be.
So on a somewhat related note, last week I woke up in the middle of the night with an idea to compile all the songs I have that can be connected to The War of Northern Aggression and compile them into a playlist. More recently, I thought "why not post some selections from this amalgam of songs on my blog and thus flirt with making this something like a proper mp3 blog?"
Since I went down to New York last weekend to see The Mountain Goats play (which, by the way, was friggin sweet), I thought it would be fitting to start with some relevant selections from John Darnielle's vast catalogue. Doubtless there will be further installments in this series of songs. Hope you enjoy this fusion of awesome tunes and American History.
Who could forget Union general William Tecumseh Sherman's (who by the way, was one mean, angry, ragged dude) March Through Georgia in 1864, burning Atlanta, not to mention laying waste to whatever is 40 miles from Atlanta.
I don't really get to sleep in very often anymore. Even when I would very much like to sleep in, I tend to wake up a lot earlier than I intended. But when Saturn is in retrograde and Betelgeuse finds that special spot on the galactic plane, I still manage to catch some bonus shut-eye. The thing about sleeping in is that it pretty much ensures strange dreams--it's those little windows of sleep that occur after that initial morning flirtation with consciousness that help open your mind to intriguingly implausible scenarios cobbled together in large part from life experiences. This morning, I dreamt about one of my past college history professors attempting to put out an electrical fire started by a vacuum cleaner in my hometown library, which after much excitement I eventually ended up dousing with some sort of lemon-lime soda. My professor's hair was on fire but he didn't notice until I pointed it out to him, at which point he said that the cranial flames had already been doused, which was true, as his scalp was now merely smoldering. My undersized hometown library was saved, and I was the hero. But my soda was tragically lost in the process and I was upset about it.
