The Father John Misty Thread

RIP to my terrible joke

in any case, this album's real fuckin good

I found her naked with her best friend in the tub
We sang Silent Night in three parts, which was fun
Until she said that she sounds just like Sarah Vaughan
I hate that soulful affectation white girls put on
Why don’t you move to the Delta?

hmmm - the leak i downloaded has some live tracks on it. not sure if it's legit or what the deal is.

i got one with 11 tracks all of which sound pure studio - maybe you found some deluxe ed.?

i think what i found is the opposite of deluxe.

when does this come out?

xp weird

i believe feb. 18 is the announced release date - it's kind of nuts how early this leak is

I found her naked with her best friend in the tub
We sang Silent Night in three parts, which was fun
Until she said that she sounds just like Sarah Vaughan
I hate that soulful affectation white girls put on
Why don’t you move to the DeltaNewark, New Jersey?

― Simon H., Tuesday, January 13, 2015 9:00 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The album comes with a bonus cassette at Norman Records (and, presumably, some other places):

https://www.normanrecords.com/records/151380-father-john-misty-i-love-you-honeybear-

is he the new john grant!?

don't hate FJM but would rather have a new Fleet Foxes record, come out of the shadows Robin Pecknold

holy cats, this is his tenth album! man, i'd never even heard of him until half an hour ago...

is there anything to distinguish this dude from the typical fleet fox bon iver folky songy niceties?

wait i don't really know what "nicety" means. i just mean all those nice and pleasant-sounding artists who are ultimately quite safe and a little boring?

ha!

yes. he is a little different.

xxxp its mostly in his lyrics, which are often hysterical and/or vicious

he has a stage presence/persona that is way more outwardly engaging and fun/funny

xxxpost to scott: his late-2000s stuff as J. Tillman is mostly super hushed, sad, folky stuff, and it is absolutely beautiful, particularly 2009's "Year in the Kingdom" ... but it is quite different from FJM.

this song/video is representative/wonderful: http://youtu.be/OVPet3TWwHw

his discussion on wtf about his previous work as j. tillman is pretty interesting and funny.

admittedly there are a million people doing what he was doign as J. Tillman, and FJM is a good break from that

right. he basically was a fleet foxes/ bon iver type before (based on the 1 or 2 songs I could stand before turning it off) and FJM is really nothing like that.

lyrics for Ideal Husband:

Julian
He's gonna take my files

Every woman that I've slept with
Every friendship I've neglected
Didn't call when grandma died
I spend my money getting drunk and high
I've done things unprotected
Proceeded to drive home wasted
Bought things to win over siblings
I've said awful things, such awful things

And now
Now it's out
And now
Now it's out

Julian
He's gonna take my files

Telling people jokes to shut them up
Resenting people that I love
Sleep in 'til two then doin' shit
Just stay in bed and later lie 'bout it
Obsessing over greying hair
Knowing just what people wanna hear
Binging on unearned attention
I've said awful things, such awful things

And now
Now it's out
And now
Now it's out

I came by at seven in the morning
Seven in the morning, seven in the morning
I came by at seven in the morning
I said, "Baby, I'm finally succumbing"
Said something dumb like "I'm tired of running
Tired of running, tired of running"
Let's put a baby in the oven
Wouldn't I make the ideal husband?

his lyrics can be outwardly funny in a slap stick kind of way – but they can also be really funny/engaging in a way I’ve never heard before (like they lyrics I just posted).

xp and that's honestly at the like, softer end of his sardonic side. "the night josh tillman came to our apartment" from the new album is on a "like a rolling stone" level of bitterness

that letterman song did remind me of john grant. which isn't a bad thing really. i don't really know fleet foxes at all but wiki says he was just drumming for them anyway.

and then he drops a song that is just plain beautiful like I Went To The Store One Day.

i also just heard abt this guy
but the letterman performance was great, i like the theatrical aspect of it

listening to his 2012 album

sometimes he reminds me of Nilsson a bit, he's more explicitly bitter and stuff but the same sort of sense of dread and angst bubbling up in these little perfect studio pop productions

i dig the novelty of an indie guy trying to Say Something but the lyrics to "bored in the usa" get so corny

some of the other pull-quotes here are more promising though

He had to expect that people would have felt that way, hence the laugh track. This part always makes me chuckle: Oh good the stranger’s body’s still here/ Our arrangement hasn’t changed

corny != funny unless you are xposting some distance to the slapstick humor post

I like some songs on Fear Fun. But I think that croup is correct in calling out 'Bored In the USA'. It doesn't work as well for me as similar stuff from Nilsson (or Newman), such as 'Gotta Get Up'->'Driving Along' or 'Love Story (You and Me)'.

Nilsson could be sincere and moving. FJM does not try for that.

you know, I was going to say the same thing. but then I thought 'Oh wait, he has a song titled 'o i long to feel your arms around me''. and well...

so I am still looking for something sincere because I think that is something I'm missing compared to Nilsson or Grant.

yeah i shouldn't have compared him to a great like nilsson

there's a kind of 70s pro studio vibe to it though, grant kinda has that too

The schism btwn his records as J. Tillman and FJM is really interesting to me, as the Tillman records are more traditionally "sincere"-sounding, yet he is much more engaging in this new persona. (Which he claims to be a more honest representation of where he's at these days, anyway.)

Nilsson doesn't seem like the right point of comparison to me. If we're talking 70s pro-studio gloss + darkly cynical/sarcastic lyrics about sex and drugs and assholes then the obvious reference point is everyone's favorite Coachella 2015 performers

hmmm. FJM songs have so much reverb, though, and it doesn't really sound 70s pro-studio gloss imo. And I don't think you'll see too many drummers drumming along to these FJM songs on youtube anytime ever.

Ideal Husband is great. That second verse is so brutal. I do find his lyrics moving actually.

guys guys you're going waaaaaay too far back for your reference points

consider bright eyes and later bad seeds

ok that was ign'nt since i've only heard bored in the usa

haha very ignorant just after flipping through "bored" again and some other stuff. i think his caustic literalness just reminds me of some of their stuff, but the sound is very different

i'll accept he sounds further back, how about a meaner rupert holmes

He does have some of Cave's black sense of humour but I hear Nilsson all over this. I think it's the arrangements and the general air of 70s LA barfly debauchery. He wears a string section like an old suit that needs dry cleaning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTRpLhyVHqI

Life's a constant disappointment
When you live on celluloid
But my movie expectations are a dream I can't avoid
Waiting for a girl to say the things
That I heard in a film last night
But she doesn't want to play the role
And she can't pick her cues up right
Will I dream? Yes, I might

his hooks would have to be hookier and his attitude more whimsical (if dark) for me to bring up nilsson above 80 other 70s singer-songwriters

As a genre I like "charismatic self-loathing asshole who wrecks everything he touches but has a great arranger".

lol that prob deserves its own thread

I'm into this record. The lyrics are over-the-top and often side on too clever instead of flowing with the music but it nets out positive.

Still hate the style but the lyrics to "The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt" are hilarious.

Watched this guy on the Coachella live stream Friday night. It was my first exposure to him. I hope it will also be the last. Is he serious or not? Is this a parody of an artist that takes themselves way too seriously or is this guy really like that? Lyrically, he seems to be trying very, very hard to seem deep and insightful, or at least 'honest' and direct, but it's just embarrassing to watch. Seemed extremely pretentious. Guess it makes a nice contrast to Gryffin, who was miming behind a Novation workstation in tight white jeans. Maybe you need the salty rim on your fruity drinks these days. I'm baffled though.

Is this a parody of an artist that takes themselves way too seriously or is this guy really like that?

if you start a po-faced indie band to satirize other po-faced indie ppl, at the end of the day are you still a po-faced indie person? Hmmm... Gonna say yeah. In fact your entire paradigm is exposed and you are inescapably corny at that point. so really there is no distinction.

so does "too clever" mean it's not clever enough? what makes a music/pop/indie artist "extremely pretentious" ? is there a sort of posturing going on that makes it inauthentic?

I think he is one of the most authentic artists ever. his music and persona tell you everything you need to know about him. it doesn't matter to what degree he is 'posturing' bc if you can choose how to present youself, why the fuck would you posture that way ?

wow no. 1 on Billboard rock chart (for what that's worth) http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7767985/father-john-misty-pure-comedy-rock-album-charts-number-one

I finally listened to the whole thing and whoever said upthread that every song is like a "last song on the album" is kind of right, except to me it's more like the whole album is just one looooong last song. It feels ambitious, like a concept record. I do miss some of the sonic variety of the previous albums - tempos never really get above a mild trot here, and he relies heavily on relatively small number of certain chord progression/compositional tricks. It's bizarre to me that something this ponderous and wordy is so successful but also great. I was casting about for comparisons and I think the Nilsson/Steely Dan/Randy Newman comparisons are still p apt (altho tbf Nilsson never went so far into this social commentary sorta stuff, and Misty isn't quite the storyteller Fagan is, at least not on this album) - but my brother also threw out Jarvis Cocker, which also struck me as on point. As a pop provocateur he is v satisfying imo.

"total entertainment forever" is an amazing song

I'm not going to listen to that song but from reading the lyrics I don't see why Arcade Fire are (rightfully) called out for this shit and FJM gets a pass:

Bedding Taylor Swift
Every night inside the Oculus Rift
After mister and the missus finish dinner and the dishes
And now the future's definition is so much higher than it was last year
It's like the images have all become real
And someone's living my life for me out in the mirror

No, can you believe how far we've come
In the New Age?
Freedom to have what you want
In the New Age we'll all be entertained
Rich or poor, the channels are all the same
You're a star now, baby, so dry your tears
You're just like them
Wake on up from the nightmare

Come on
Oh ho oh
Oh
Oh ho oh

No gods to rule us
No drugs to soothe us
No myths to prove stuff
No love to confuse us

Not bad for a race of demented monkeys
From a cave to a city to a permanent party

Come on
Oh ho oh
Oh
Oh ho oh

When the historians find us we'll be in our homes
Plugged into our hubs
Skin and bones
A frozen smile on every face
As the stories replay
This must have been a wonderful place

called out for what? the taylor swift line? being concerned about a generation consumed by escapism?

no no, just the clichéd criticism of contemporary society/technology

didn't mean to sound like an idiot btw, I'm fairly sure I heard the song when it was released and it didn't do anything for me, that's why I'm not keen to revisit

apart from the Swift/Rift reference those lyrics could have been from the 60s

I'm a big fan of "i hate to say it but each other's all we've got" at the end of the opening track on the album, not just the line, the way he delivers it. Listening to some of the rest of the album, he must be a big Vonnegut fan i'm guessing.

His delivery is a BIG part of the appeal. Win Butler does not come close. Win Butler's not in the same universe.

yeah they do totally different things imo

no doubt, I happen to find FJM's delivery more intolerable - listening to the song now and if ever there was a voice too clever for it's own good...

but I shouldn't comment so much on stuff I don't like

"total entertainment forever" is an amazing song

― Treeship, Monday, 30 October 2017 14:16 (four hours ago) Permalink

http://i66.tinypic.com/2ezpg04.jpg

I am simple, and easily amused.

Here's Father John Misty (Josh Tillman) during a chapel service, from my 1999 Montrose Christian School yearbook. pic.twitter.com/vsWsoVafnv

— C.D. Carter's good account (ironically) (@CDCarter13) November 17, 2017

idgi

he's been p upfront that he was raised in a weird Xtian fundie family

It's the wording of the caption that gets me.

"I'm recording sweet solos for the Lord." "How does--" "Shh."

he was just jammin for the Lamb

Sort of related, but was just thinking I'd totally be into a FJM Christmas album.

Elton John's been mentioned a few times itt, "Ballad of the Dying Man" came on shuffle recently and before I skipped it I was struck by how reminiscent it was of a Captain Fantastic track

New Single:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n38R1JTEAPo

Apparently the new album is a Concept Album about being Fucked Up In A Hotel (or, in other words, the most FJM thing FJM has ever FJM-d)

I was interested in his thing at first but the longer he keeps up with this schtick the grosser it seems and it’s retroactively ruining my enjoyment for his earlier material.

"total entertainment forever" is an amazing song
― Treeship, Monday, 30 October 2017 14:16 (three months ago) Permalink

were you high bro

"it’s retroactively ruining my enjoyment for his earlier material."

Yes, I'm experiencing this.

more like father dumb shitty

"total entertainment forever" is an amazing song
― Treeship, Monday, 30 October 2017 14:16 (three months ago) Permalink

were you high bro

― trife's rich padgett (rip van wanko), Saturday, February 24, 2018 8:39 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I wasn’t but I am sort of mystified at my positive first reaction to it now.

he's not doubled down, but quadrupled down on the meta-josh-fjm schtick. tiresome.

One of the 2 new songs; Just Dumb Enough To Try is fantastic IMO.

'"Josh Tillman has said the new album is “the real I Love You, Honeybear but without the cynicism”'.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/files/2018/04/fjm.jpg

new album is great. Definitely feels like a "smaller" record than "Pure Comedy" even though there's still a lot of big-sounding orchestration and slow piano balladry. Lot of great, funny lines, that's for sure.

Jason Isbell's here as well
And he seemed a little worried about you

They're co-headlining this summer!?!? Maybe they'll duet that song?

man I really like God's Favorite Customer.

He's Back...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES2WW4JJ_84

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdkzXL-KO5w

Two hour long Barbican show from earlier tonight. Many new bangers debuted. He legit sounds like Manhattan Transfer on a couple. Not a bad thing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIPp53FTYpU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o93hYhytAmI

the album from this year is really great. Stunning live show too.

This is pretty damn great:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGk0QUXXj-4