The Father John Misty Thread

i've never fully been able to comprehend how people who were probably 100 percent in the tank for 9 zillion other indie artists with performative as fuck attitudes who said dumb things find /this/ fuckin dork (which i say as a fan) to be the straw that breaks the rage-camel's back, but w/e i guess

(and if anyone thinks he actually is "offended" by pop stars making pop songs they're taking the most obvious bait. if what enrages you is him dropping the bait in the first place, thats an entirely fair criticism. and i personally wish he'd never opened his bloody mouth about taylor swift, whom i generally like.)

ALL THAT SAID, "leaving L.A." is all his worst aspects taken to sadistic extremes and overall this record is only gonna make people who hate him hate him 9,000 times more. but it feels reeaaaallly appropriate for my beer and missile strike news hangover & my suspicion that we're all gonna die soon

wb sloth! stick around awhile

The Rolling Stone interview where he tries to pretend that "Swift" is the only word that rhymed with "Occulus Rift" was highly stupid. Obviously it was for attention...perhaps he's just trolling. But like if I had never heard him before that, I would honestly not bother seeking him out.

The disproportionate attention given to the TS line is kinda pathetic. Some reviewers doth protest too much.

A divisive record I guess, but I'm loving it. FJM's prior work didn't register with me and his recent SNL performance only disgusted me with what seemed an awkward and self-conscious attempt at, ugh, ironic performance art. But I happened to be bored one day and casually dug into a lengthy interview with him, which prompted me to get past my bias and sample the new album. Strangely enough it's been my main listen for the past week or so, despite it feeling overly long on the first few listens. The record itself doesn't seem at all ironic but then again, I also tend to listen to Jim O'Rourke on just the visceral level. My reaction to Pure Comedy is closer to what sloth has concluded above, in that this album (and the lyrics in particular) is one of the very few things working as I watch in sad horror while the two superpowers on opposite sides of my own country begin to square off.

This guy is worse than Bon Iver and I didn't know that was possible.

so a pop singer said he doesn't like pop songs when in reality he... does? doesn't? it doesn't matter what he means so long as it has been made clear that he is being controversial.

oh wow, i really fell for the bait. what a brilliant trickster.

The mere mention of the name "Jim O'Rourke" on a thread about this imbecile is a crime (and yes I see the context and yes I realize it wasn't a comparison, but I'm thinking more of the scene in A Bronx Tale where Sonny doesn't want the kid in the crap game to have to look at the ugly mobster's face when he's throwing the dice so he covers the ugly mobster's head with a bag)

see, that mention of Jim O'Rourke makes me want to check this record out. really didn't like the title track but i'll give it a chance.

shakey reppin so hard for this dude is o_O

xpost Careful Flappy, I intended no direct comparisons between JO and FJM

so a pop singer said he doesn't like pop songs when in reality he... does? doesn't? it doesn't matter what he means so long as it has been made clear that he is being controversial.

oh wow, i really fell for the bait. what a brilliant trickster.

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Friday, April 7, 2017 3:09 PM (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you fall for it by being cranky enough to repeatedly complain about it on an internet website, not to mention me saying i didn't necessarily think dropping bait was the least bit "brilliant" in the first place

xpost Careful Flappy, I intended no direct comparisons between JO and FJM

― doug watson, Friday, April 7, 2017 3:49 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i realize that, but the mere mention of one of my favorite artists ever is enough for me to listen to Pure Comedy at least once

http://everetttrue.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/father-john-misty-the-unpublished-poems/

#makesyouthink

I get why people dislike this guy but I'm still baffled by why some would spend so much of their energy doing so. I couldn't imagine giving up even one free thought toward, say, "the missing poems of Dave Longstreth."

I think it's because he's a more frustrating figure than Dave Longstreth. Extramusically, FJM is either captivating or infuriating, there's no in between: he can be genuinely hilarious and insightful, or maddeningly pretentious and condescending. This carries over into his music, too—the dorm room philosophy of "Pure Comedy" is so much worse than "Bored in the USA," a funnier, if just as obvious, piece of social commentary—but my main gripe is that his songs are too self-aware. Nothing beats "Real Love Baby," a straight-up pop song written for Lady Gaga. But he can't ethically record pop songs without making them postmodern critiques on consumerism, or something like that.

DL is simpler. You either dig him or you don't. I've never liked his music, and he seems like kind of a dick, so I don't bother with his stuff. He's never inspired the same disparate opinions from me.

i wanna see FJM and Dave Longstreth fight MMA style

either captivating or infuriating
feel like this type of false dilemma is often made by fans (or braggadocio rappers) and that the vast majority in fact find finds fjm neither

I get why people dislike this guy but I'm still baffled by why some would spend so much of their energy doing so. I couldn't imagine giving up even one free thought toward, say, "the missing poems of Dave Longstreth."

― doug watson, Friday, April 7, 2017 11:38 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

i actually like everything about FJM except his music. it's a drag

― flappy bird, Friday, 24 March 2017 21:51 (two weeks ago)

exact opposite for me.

which is probably why i love my J. Tillman albums but haven't gotten around to the last two FJMs.

i hate him

there are some really lovely songs on those Tillman albums tbf

you mean if you like watered-down, generic indie folkTM and you really really really wish Sam Beam would release his earliest, crappiest demos, yeah, totally

I've heard every Iron and Wine album and I don't think "Laborless Land," "Our Beloved Tyrant" and several others are beneath him at all.

my opinion is that he's good and that this album is good

I like this dude's music a lot. I'm listening to the new one for the first time. Some of it is good but man oh man this song Leaving LA is a slog.

This guy is having a huge moment, right? I was in a tiny record store on Friday and no joke like 10 people in a row came in and bought this record, which was retailing for $35 (!) because it was a deluxe first day edition with special artwork. It was pretty impressive - who else in the indie world gets people out for a new record like that right now?

I bought it on CD ($8.99!) and I like the first three or four songs a bunch, but it feels like a loooooong album with a bunch of songs in the middle that feel like first drafts of the first three or four songs.

Heard one of his new singles and it made me wanna hear Elton John's "Honky Chateau" instead. Seems like a normal reaction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggwo_31LFfo

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.