It turns out jbrandt was right. The Mountain Goats… very much my thing, and inspiring in a writing-wise sense:
Also, tangentially, for some reason, this is the song I imagine Kenneth from 30 Rock starting his shows with when he starts going out and singing in smoky bars and clubs after he becomes fallen in New York City, takes to deep atheism and hard drink and crazy women, and then exiles himself to some shack in the depths of New Mexico for a few years till he can wean himself off nanodrugs and sexbots, and then finds the only thing that makes him feel anything at all is to sing out all his existential sorrow and the bravery it takes to face it down day after day.
Which is a comforting thought, at least for those who live in a similarly weird reality.
Aw, good. I’m glad you’re enjoying his records. If you get a chance to see him play, go for it. (I know he hits Australia every so often, but I don’t know about Korea… You could just zip over to Australia for the night, right?)
That album up there, _Tallahassee_, got me through a very rough summer. Well, that album and a 20%-off-if-you-buy-12-bottles-of-wine-at-once deal at a local liquor store. And Nikki. We spent a lot of time listening to the Mountain Goats and drinking wine and talking, and a few years later we have a baby who is quite awesome.
If there are records of his you can’t find and would like to listen to, drop me an email.
Thanks, man! I’m enjoying him, and can see how it would get someone through all kinds of stuff. (“Cotton” did that for me, a year ago, I recently realized… among other songs.)
Thanks for the offer. Now I gotta check out John Vanderslice. And by the way I checked and the Minister of Science on the colony planet in Patricia Anthony’s Conscience of the Beagle is indeed named John Vanderslice. Funny, huh?