The Father John Misty Thread

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http://everetttrue.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/father-john-misty-the-unpublished-poems/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

"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.