Saturday, July 29, 2006

hail satan!



Sometimes I like to grow mini obsessions with groups where they dominate what I listen to for a while. Since February The Mountain Goats have been mine. The group is basically just John Darnielle, his offbeat voice, and his often furious acoustic guitar. They have a new album coming out on August 22nd, and there is a song from it that was released. I also posted a classic.

Woke Up New - Mountain Goats
While I can't say Darnielle is really blazing new trails and trying new things with this song, he definitely doesn't disappoint. He keeps his voice as intimate as possible throughout this song as he sings of the aftermath of a breakup. The delivery (especially the hushed chorus of "what do I do/without you") keep this song endearing. This is a good thing because the lyrics would have been fairly melodramatic without Darnielle knowing how to deliver them. When Darnielle says lines like: "the first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it, but I drank it all, just cuz I know you hate it, when I let things go to waste," you can hear that this isn't a song about a guy who is sad, but about a guy trying to adjust to a new life.

Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton - Mountain Goats
Just a story about a group of guys trying to make it as a Death Metal band. Well, there is more to the song, some themes of youthful conviction and nostalgia (kinda makes me think of the band Brian Adams was a part of in the song "Summer of '69"). But we all know the real reason to listen to this song is the chanting of 'Hail Satan!" at the end of it.

1 comment:

Sami Hamdan said...

I actually don't bash how the film was made, just that it bastardized a perfectly good book. I also point out after the one sentence that I did this, that I haven't seen the movie. You and Dom are both pretty Barry-like, he's cooler though because he quit the band to play drums