popwreckoning

I was very excited when it was announced last year that The Mountain Goats had signed to Merge. My favorite band signed to my favorite label? What could go wrong? Well, at least Merge did well.  All Eternals Deck is easily the most beautifully packaged Mountain Goats CD to date. Unfortunately, it is probably their worst album to date.

Track listing:
01. Damn These Vampires
02. Birth of Serpents
03. Estate Sale Sign
04. Age of Kings
05. The Autopsy Garland
06. Beautiful Gas Mask
07. High Hawk Season
08. Prowl Great Cain
09. Sourdoire Valley Song
10. Outer Scorpion Squadron
11. For Charles Bronson
12. Never Quite Free
13. Liza Forever Minnelli

If you’re not smiling fifteen seconds into We Live In Rented Rooms by East River Pipe, you have no soul. “Back room deals,” sings F.M. Cornog. “The whole world is built on backroom deals. You better get used to it.” It’s business as usual for Cornog. He’s made a career of singing about the maladies of society. The drifters, the drunks, the homeless drug addicts standing at your favorite off ramp with a cardboard sign. Cornog has been there, which is why he sings about what he does. So have I, which is why I appreciate it. You probably haven’t heard his music, but you should.

The list of musicians that covered his songs is staggering: David Byrne, Okkervil River, Lambchop, The Mountain Goats and others. It’s a sad commentary on the music industry that a musician this talented has gone ignored. Cornog likes it this way, though. He has his wife, his daughter, his dog and a forty hour week job at Home Depot. He’s happy. For a person to come from the kind of lows he has experienced, happiness is a pretty big deal.

Cornog’s gift is stories. “Tommy Made A Movie” is about a guy who sits around in his bedroom making movies inside his head. Cornog says very little about Tommy. All we know is Tommy tries to write, but can’t. He sits around watching porn, and thinks about girls. It’s very, very sad. To the tune of simple keyboards recorded in a home studio I feel my heart breaking.

“When You Were Doing Cocaine” is a simple piano ballad about a guy who let his life get away from him. Cornog sings about what it looked like the guy had, and compares it to the reality. It’s the kind of common life stuff you don’t often hear in pop music. Even The Arcade Fire never have it this dead on. You want to know what life really looks like? Listen to an East River Pipe album.

We Live In Rented Rooms is as good an album as East River Pipe has ever made. This Average Joe making records alone in his bedroom has been responsible for some of the most brilliant songwriting of the last twenty years. Routinely, I put on two or three of his records at a time, lay back, and soak it in.  Buy this album. Then go buy everything else he has ever released. Start with The Gasoline Age, but don’t stop there.

We Live in Rented Rooms is out on February 15.

Track Listing:
1. Backroom Deals
2. Cold Ground
3. Payback Time
4. Summer Boy
5. I Don’t Care About Your Blue Wings
6. Tommy Made a Movie
7. The Flames Are Coming Back
8. When You Were Doing Cocaine
9. Conman
10. Three Ships

I thought I might have been the only one at Sunday night’s Mountain Goats show more excited and amped for Kaki King‘s opening set, but I was surprised to see a few others were wearing the same hat.  She is every bit as good as I’ve read in magazine praise-pieces and heard from Dave Grohl‘s sound bytes.  (Yes, he actually has been quoted to have said “There are some guitar players that are good and there are some guitar players that are really fucking good. And then there’s Kaki King.”)  Man, she owns more guitars than Kimora Lee Simmons owns shoes!  Not to mention, she’s diminutive at a whopping 5-feet tall (!) and I find it hysterical how someone so tiny could have such huge talent and wildly entertaining stage presence.  Basically, King knows she’s a guitar virtuoso and a sarcastic wiseass and isn’t the least bit ashamed of either. Not that she should be, since it seems to work for her.

Her musical talent is undeniable.  This girl can seriously rock out to “emo” songs, to some “hardcore” German rock song (I think she said it was called “Dogs and Horses”. Or was it “Horses and Dogs”?  Either way, it was pretty awful and unintentionally funny), to gorgeously moody instrumental pieces (“Montreal”), to catchy rock ditties (“Pull Me Out Alive”).  Some may argue a lack of fluidity in her set since she played pieces that varied in intensity, style, and genre, and perhaps say it felt more like a talent showcase of “Hey, look what I can do next!” instead of a cohesive set.  Hmm, maybe.

But the aforementioned incohesiveness works for someone as musically flexible as King. If she can play it all, why not work it for the audience and provide a musical pu pu platter to whet our collective appetite while we wait for The Mountain Goats (i.e.- the main course)? I think this was a smart move since I’m fairly certain some previously Mountain Goats-only attendees became King fans by the end of her set, simply by virtue of the fact that she wow-ed them.

Playing a generous mix of songs off her 2008 masterpiece Dreaming Of Revenge, King also performed favorites from older albums like Legs To Make Us Longer and Until We Felt Red, as well as a few well-received tracks off her EP with The Mountain Goats (Black Pear Tree). Between the fret-tapping on her guitars, drum solos during songs, and some dude on stage with an electronic valve instrument (apparently not just a fancy term for a “recorder,” my friends), there was a lot of action on stage. And while these elements solidified her performance, her theatrics and witty stage banter made it all the more worthwhile.

King would fall to the ground during instrumental pieces and continue strumming her guitar while laying on her back, long after the song ended. When she wasn’t being a total rock star, she shared her open mic nite experiences at Sidewalk Restaurant and the disappointment she felt when her friend landed a deal and she didn’t, but was quick to point out that she’s over that now due to her obvious success — the whole story sounded very Ani Difranco and Suzanne Vega, except there is no beef and King didn’t have to write the song ”Napoleon” like Ani did, haha.

Ever-emotional, she even fell to tears during a few tracks while discussing how much heartbreak sucks and was super-affectionate towards her band mates, all of whom originate from places like Teaneck, NJ and Brooklyn to Tel Aviv.  Her stage presence is so casual and personal, I actually left Webster Hall feeling like I’d just hung out with Kaki King.

As far as a show highlight, perhaps it is unanimous in saying her encore.  King reappeared on stage alone for one last song and as she was strapping on her guitar in the spotlight, Mountain Goats lead singer John Darnielle appeared from the dark and stood behind her pointing at her with a “She’s the man!” look on his face.  They hugged as the crowd cheered in anticipation for his set to follow and he left Kaki to close with an acoustic Smiths cover of “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want“, which funnily enough, only left the crowd wanting more.

Kaki King: website | myspace | @ the Slowdown | @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
The Mountain Goats: website | myspace | Heretic Pride review | @ the Slowdown | @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

A busy test-filled week, a car that wouldn’t start, the weather getting cold and still being tired from a show the night before almost deterred me from going to this gem of a concert. But I toughed it out and ended up having a phenomenal time checking out lo-fi 90s act The Mountain Goats and guitar legend Kaki King.

I must admit that I mostly wanted to go to this show to check out opener Kaki King. I also must admit that I jumped on her bandwagon after learning about her creative guitar skills from the movie August Rush. All the tapping and percussive use of the guitar that kid does is modeled after her and it is her songs on the soundtrack. She didn’t play any of the songs from the movie, but she still had a solid set.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/v/VcFOA2wW5FI]

Not only does she have mad instrumental skills, she has a gorgeous voice to debut and hilarious commentary. The stuff she said in between songs had everybody in stitches. She talked about everything from pizza to hygiene.

Following Kaki King were The Mountain Goats, led by John Darnielle. I had mixed feelings about this band. Darnielle’s voice has a bit of a nasally quality, which can be a little much at times. Also, after the guitar styles of King, theirs didn’t quite compare. I think the Mountain Goats respected her superior skills and consequentially had her join them on several songs.

Nonetheless, they are commendable musicians and I recommend checking out them because they are fun rock and they have great lyrics about social and literary subjects. They just weren’t my cup of tea, but everybody else in the crowd got really into them. I respect what they were doing and loved their Morrissey covers, but I think Kaki King stole the show.

The Mountain Goats: website | myspace
Kaki King: website | myspace

Writing and Photos by: Bethany

Out Today:

Secret Lives of the Freemasons Weekend Warriors
Paint It Black New Lexicon

A Cursive Memory Changes
Down To Nothing Unbreakable
Every Avenue Shh. Just Go With It
Farewell to Freeway Definitions
Four Letter Lie What A Terrible Thing To Say
Bj�rk Declare Independence
Nick Lowe Jesus of Cool (reissue)

While there is no arguing that John Darnielle‘s voice can at times be a touch annoying to new listeners, it also manages it’s moments of brilliance to those who manage to stick around long enough to let it settle in. Backed by outstanding lyrics, remarkable string orchestration and excellent songwriting qualities many modern bands lack, Heretic Pride provides epic-storytelling that you would expect to find in your 300 level humanities class rather than an album at your local record store. But honestly that just adds to The Mountain Goats charm, in the same way that people find themselves attracted to their local librarian, despite her obvious flaws.

But since flaws are most often a result of misunderstanding based on the perceptions of the eye of the beholder, beauty can be overlooked, and wonderful albums can be shelved before given the proper chance to grow on the listener. It’s because of this I offer the following disclaimer: Heretic Pride will grow on you.

Ranging from calm, singer-songwriter cuts to pissed off angst driven rants, The Mountain Goats bring diversity to the table. They at one point change their sound so drastically with “New Zion” that one would swear they were sampling the greatest hits of Elvis Costello rather than cuts from Heretic Pride.

Short of what I would label a few “filler” songs (“Autoclave”and “Lovecraft in Brooklyn”) which detract and ultimately sway a bit TOO far off the course of this album’s general feel, overall Heretic Pride is a fairly well-rounded album. Heavily focused on detailing the surroundings and emotions experienced by the album’s unnamed narrator, we collect a first person view of the epic-adventure through together by the band. Ranging in subject matter from confusion to reflection to the simple art of living in the moment, deep lyrics guide us down paths we’ve all experienced before.

Darnielle finds complicated ways to state simple thoughts, idealizing them, while at the same time forming them into poetic masterpieces. For example, while describing his loss of composure, Darnielle explains, “through the worn radio static I couldn’t hear my stage directions,” rather than simply saying, “Yeah, I got flustered.” Such artistic word choices placed over perfectly patterned strings and piano where guitar and bass would commonly be found expand on The Mountain Goats unique contribution to the current indie scene.

This is a beautiful album full of beautiful visions and perceptions of a less than beautiful world. Look for The Mountain Goats’ Heretic Pride on 4AD, to appear in stores February 19th, 2008.

Links:
The Moutain Goats’ Website
The Montain Goats’ Myspace
4AD Website