The Father John Misty Thread

funny that john grant also has a song with honeybear in the title

sometime last year a critic I don't always like (steven hyden) said something about this album like "it is likely to inspire rapturous reviews and unreadable thinkpiecess" and after several listens to it...that seems pretty otm

FJM unveils stunning new digital release strategy

http://www.fatherjohnmisty.com/sap/

Those SAP'd renditions are great.

Josh Tillman is on some fuck shit. I loved the three new tracks I heard in the lead-up to the album's release (well, leak), but I should've sensed that I was in for a disappointment when I found myself returning exclusively to live versions of the songs. Like the last album, which featured sterilized, overproduced versions of his demos and live cuts--another clue I should've caught--this one has been so diluted in the studio as to make close listening to his lyrics unpleasant.

But, the thing is, even his lyrics--sharp as they sometimes are--tend to veer into their own sort of excess. Which is to say that, for all their wit, they're sometimes so willfully clever, so self-satisfied that they read like the sass of an adolescent who's just discovered sarcasm.

The lyrics and the overproduction, then, work similarly and together: they often seem pointless--and he pointlessly clever, pointlessly cruel--and they more often seem to miss the point entirely--that, for instance, Tillman comes across as more or less the male equivalent to the person he's bitching about in "The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment". Maybe that's part of the joke, but the sheer, overwhelming amount of sarcasm and self-consciousness (self-obsession, really) makes it hard to read his intentions well, makes it hard to tell whether and when he's being genuine. I mean, this is probably a dumb question, but my confusion maybe epitomizes my response to the album: he's making fun of us on "True Affection", right, with its vocal effects and its pop-electro instrumental? He's mocking us like he mocks the girl who uses the word "literally" too often and in the wrong situations--as Tillman himself mis- and over-applies his needlessly cutting lyricism and his studio bells and whistles. It seems instructive that Tillman, in spite of his apparent disdain for the girl in "The Night Josh Tillman...", chooses to sleep with her anyway.

http://grantland.com/features/father-john-misty-i-love-you-honeybear/

excellent longform profile

xp based on what he sez in the profile, i think he just wanted to mess around with electro sounds on "true affection" and evidently liked the way it came out - that particular song is not a piss-take on the listener altho it is supposed to be about how frustrating electronic communication can be.

also i don't think how faltering in your own actions in spite of your frustration with someone or something - like, sleeping with a guy or girl you are angry with or even disdainful of - is anything other than an incredibly human thing, albeit a very ugly/unflattering one

Debates about authenticity are boring and pointless

prob but we gotta get these posts off

brilliant marketing
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0616/5709/products/fjm_shirt_mascera.jpg?v=1422377034

Can someone tell me what distinguishes the music of Kozelek and this clown from the endless supply of Earnest Singer-Songwriter Dudes that pfork 2015 routinely ignores / ostensibly despises? I mean, apart from narcissistic lyrics that occasionally read like the "outrageous" tweets of an oversharing friend?

this guy doesn't seem particularly earnest as much as painfully self-conscious and hiding behind layers of irony which is more obnoxious

ooh the backlash

don't see any similarities to Kozelek tbh

this guy doesn't seem particularly earnest as much as painfully self-conscious and hiding behind layers of irony which is more obnoxious

that seems to be the difference JD was wondering about

still think Steely Dan is the closest analogue. I guess people found them obnoxious too

(not in terms of jazz-rock chops obviously, but in terms of juxtaposing slick, pretty music with bleakly cynical/ironic lyrics)

this guy doesn't seem particularly earnest as much as painfully self-conscious and hiding behind layers of irony which is more obnoxious

that seems to be the difference JD was wondering about

― Dinsdale, Tuesday, February 10, 2015 11:48 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

bingo

He doesn't seem to be hiding behind irony as much as he just really enjoys irony, moreso in interviews/persona than in the music itself tbh, which is mostly pretty straightforward

I think that's my main issue with it - he's not committed to it. As a result the context, to me, seems less Bonnie Billy and more I'm Still Here or something. It's neither compelling nor especially inscrutable in a way that makes you wanna peel the layers. It just feels like a bad gimmick. Which would be fine if the music he was producing wasn't bland as bread.

hmm Oldham is an interesting point of comparison - particularly "Sings Greatest Palace Music". I'm not interested in peeling layers in general though. it's the songs that count.

he does have an I'm Still Here beard

and I see that he pooped on my spotify as I slept last night

xp Do they, though? There are far, far better songwriters who put out records last year that don't seem to get the same attention, mostly because their music doesn't lend itself as easily to lifestyle reporting. I also don't think it's a coincidence that Kozelek's star seemed to rise in proportion to his trolling.

kozelek's trolling better described as "bread bowling"

xp Do they, though? There are far, far better songwriters who put out records last year that don't seem to get the same attention, mostly because their music doesn't lend itself as easily to lifestyle reporting. I also don't think it's a coincidence that Kozelek's star seemed to rise in proportion to his trolling.

― Jimmywine Dyspeptic, Tuesday, February 10, 2015 12:44 PM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If you make yourself equal to a compelling character in an indie flick people start to care. Your backstory or whatever else on the outside needs to fuel your musical output and is more important than how interesting the music itself is.

with FJM the persona and all its attendant bells and whistles ultimately benefit the music & lyrics, so it isn't bothersome to me

yeah I find it a compelling character, much like Bonnie Prince Billie (or Dylan or any other number of "I can't tell if this is a joke" ironists) in that respect

I think most importantly the songs are confident and colorful, and the arrangements are big but detailed and not boring. Also it's very well-sequenced. "Holy Shit" and "I Went to the Store One Day" are a great closing pair.

Just got the vinyl, which came w a cassette of demos (incl a cass mccombs cover)

What song did he cover?

nobody's nixon

Great choice. Love that song, love the EP it's from.

lol @ the canned audience in Bored in the USA - figured that was just a Letterman gag

on first couple listens - this has a more uniform sound than the previous one (dude sure loves his string section), and I don't hear anything as immediately catchy. it feels v langurous, albeit in a predictably bitter and mysanthropic way. the last few songs seem like the peak.

(not in terms of jazz-rock chops obviously, but in terms of juxtaposing slick, pretty music with bleakly cynical/ironic lyrics)

steely dan lyrics way more oblique than this dude. the juxtaposition you identify here is literally everywhere in music

well I didn't say it was unique

agree that the Dan's stuff is more oblique

I think I probably find the persona more interesting than I would've otherwise because I was already very familiar with his much more po-faced output as J. Tillman.

I guess the other reason I brought up the Dan is because the sonic territory FJM is mining here sounds p explicitly LA 70s, albeit from more of the country-rock end then the jazz-rock end

can't escape this dude's music playing in coffee shops

Have started enjoying this more once I have stopped worrying whether it is any good or not, if that makes sense?

Sometimes self satisfied, undeniably, but this > "and then he drops a song that is just plain beautiful like I Went To The Store One Day".

http://www.citypaper.com/music/music-boxes/strum-und-twang/bcp-strum-und-twang-fuck-father-john-misty-fuck-bob-dylan-listen-to-zane-campbell-20150303,0,6672882.story

Guy who has produced unknown Maryland artist Zane Campbell writes guest article for Baltimore City Paper ripping into Father John Misty and others

He starts like this:

First things first: There is no more room in the United States for even one more Father Chode or Father John Misty or whatever the fuck the newest know-it-all trippy sensitive white yuppie songwriter rehashing the ’60s is called. Will the bros and rich kids please stay the fuck out of country and folk music, for crying out loud? You have fucking ruined it beyond all repair with your literary allusions and private-school educations and insecure fake tough-guy shit. Don’t come back either. You aren’t funny or tough or witty and you are clogging up the inboxes of all the booking agents and critics with your reverb-drenched non-singing guitar-noodling ass horseshit and creating more traffic on the roadways while “going on tour.”

I know this dude has a clear motive, but he's not wrong.

laughable authenticity policing bullshit

Yup

Fjm is the worst tho

This is narcissism of the smallest difference.

No bros or rich kids in country music! Enough is enough amirite