The Mountain Goats

the Anonymous 4 collaboration rolled out tonight was unbelievably good. I feel the need to hear it all again, since the arrangements were so intricate and perfectly attuned to the songs that each piece had a couple of moments I almost needed a breather after to take them in. Also v nice to see Mr Mountain Goats be so clearly thrilled by the occasion, and Owen Pallett perform in such a different situation, as a fill-in with A4 themselves (he looked increeeedibly nervous beforehand, but to my untrained ears it sounded great). Also thanks for finishing fairly early, as it meant I had time to run up the road and catch all of When Saints Go Machine's set.

v much worth dragging myself out of bed for as I continue to fight a bug, but I feel I'm going to need about 15 hours of sleep now.

Co-sign, especially about the need to hear it all again. If this stuff doesn't get recorded & released I might cry a little.

The quintessential @mountain_goats moment: Someone requests "Fault Lines," JD demurs, claiming lyrical ignorance. Fan hands him her iPhone.

next time i see dude i'm gonna bring a printout of 'song for cleomenes'

woohoo! http://pitchfork.com/news/46347-the-mountain-goats-reissue-old-cassettes/

"The songs you find on this compact disc originally appeared on two cassettes. To elaborate further about that—to say, for example, that the songs originally appeared 'on two cassettes that were released in ____ and ____'—would misrepresent the spirit of their time. These tapes did not have release dates. No one anticipated their coming into the world, and very few noticed or cared. All previous eras cross at some point into the territory of the unimaginable, and so it is with the days of tape-trading. The obscurity in which these songs were incubated and born and brought into their faint light is a state of being which has passed into history."

wow, I still have these cassettes floating around somewhere, but they are nigh-unplayable. Will buy the reissue, definitely.

New album in October:

http://www.mountain-goats.com/archives/2012/07/just-under-1000.html

SO EXCITED for the cassette reissues, somehow missed news of these but will get them today!

Is it possible that the songs with the drum machine and the keyboard are actually his very greatest work?

was listening to one of the recent solo shows and was impressed with the piano playing! very very nice.

xpost some definitely are--cant remember the name right now but whichever has the refrain "it won't be necessary" is all-time

"california song" up there for me

Sweden is just too much.

YOU'RE MEAN TO ME!
WHY MUST YOU BE MEAN TO ME?
YOU SHOULDN'T FORGET, YOU SEE, WHAT YOU MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAN TO ME!

Fantastic piano playing!

hey owen, can you say how involved you were on the new record? (its cool if you wanna just make us wait for liner notes)

actually, sorry for asking that. i know aero and i think yrself have said in the past to not talk directly about the day job

I heard the Desmond Child penned songs on this are great

would usually say "hey let's leave a classic like 'dude (looks like a lady)" alone, but the version here really brings the pain

As far as I know, Steven Tyler is pretty OK with talking about his day job round here

But getting back on topic, no, I contributed nothing to the new Mountain Goats album. They asked me to do some arrangements for two collaborative concerts with a capella group Anonymous 4, in March. I arranged three songs for guitar, voice + SSAA, four for piano, voice + SSAA, and one for voice + SSAA. (There were no string arrangements, as was reported.) I'm pretty sure NPR recorded the NYC performance and iirc the songs "Lakeside view apartments suite" and "Counterfeit Florida plates" were especially strong

(And for the record I'm OK with talking 'bout my day job so long as it's limited to clarifying already available facts and expressing positive opinions i.e. "he's a blessing and an inspiration")

Owen, thanks for making my brother's first ever gig (the Anonymous 4 show at the Barbican) one he'll never forget.

No thanks necessary. I sit at the piano all day and take ILX breaks every hour. It's good living.

owen I didn't realize u did string arrangements on Life of the World to Come until v.recently, and when I found out I was like "oh that's why they're so awesome!" <3 <3

<3 at you but let's keep things on topic. I am so excited for this new Mountain Goats record and you should be too. There is one song on the album called "White cedar" that is so beautiful I couldn't bear to work on it, probably my favourite tMG song of the last seven years.

haha yes of course I am excited! I will probably never reach a point in my life where the idea of a new goats album fails to excite me

bah, after going to the incredible barbican show i was really looking forward to hearing those in recorded form! but on the other hand, now i have something unheard to be looking forward to. (but i'll have to track down those recordings.)

oh, well im very glad i asked then :) there comes a time once in a while where a new mtn goats record feels like a reassuring boost everyone needs

that's rad that you're working with anonymous 4; i dig them

just noticed this, which was announced back in April but looks like it wasn't mentioned here--a "metal covers" set at Hopscotch next month:

The second set, however, will be unlike any in the 20-year history of the Mountain Goats—all covers, possibly all on Fletcher’s beautiful grand piano, all by himself. A lifelong metal fan and longtime columnist for the extreme music magazine Decibel, Darnielle says he plans to spend a portion of the summer arranging and learning covers of heavy metal songs. “The tentative title for this set,” Darnielle says, “is ‘Nearer My Hateful Mankind Plague to Thee,’ but titles are subject to change.
http://hopscotchmusicfest.com/news/post/the-mountain-goats-to-perform-rarities-and-first-ever-covers-sets-at-hopsco/

so the Hopscotch gig was super fun

I certainly hope that the title of the set was changed to These Purges of God

still waiting for a buddy holocaust tribute album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_FsLbCd9FY&feature=context-cha

new album is fabulous as usual, lots of piano and what sounds like a small horn/brass section. strong song cycle & a few flat out stunners. love it

Need to fully absorb it still, but yeah, I can already see myself liking this as much as Heretic Pride and All Eternals Deck, which means this will probably finish somewhere in the second half of my year end top ten.

John needs to become a permanent co-host on Judge John Hodgman.

Is it streaming somewhere at this point?

http://www.maximumfun.org/shows/judge-john-hodgman

The metal episode is the best.

Ah, sorry, I meant the album! (Based on previous comments.) But I'm glad for that too!

Duh doy, I should have picked up on that.

xpost

No, but it is, uh, around.

has anyone ever pitched Deadmau5, Skrillex and SBTRKT remixing Mountain Goats songs?

i certainly hope not.

No, but it is, uh, around.

pet peeve is people phrasing "there's a leak online" like this as if there were some Dumb Ol' Suits who wouldn't be able to understand what "it is, uh, around" would mean

speak for yourself man, I still don't know what we're talking about—far as I can tell some kind of steamer called the Mountain Goat is supposed to be around, but may have sprung a leak? also something about the holocaust

It leaked online and I downloaded it illegally.

No, but it is, uh, around.

pet peeve is people phrasing "there's a leak online" like this as if there were some Dumb Ol' Suits who wouldn't be able to understand what "it is, uh, around" would mean

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Wednesday, September 12, 2012 12:19 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i usually just walk up to a website and be like "um...heeey man...um....are you holding?"

you know where i can get some, um, *420*

yo man you got any of that yam king of crops

To be fair, "know where I can get some, um, Transcendental Youth" does sorta sound like drug slang.