tedfoo on multiply™

John Darnielle, singer songwriter of The Mountain Goats brings you his latest release titled, "Get Lonely." All I have to say about that, is if you don't get lonely by the end of this album, well then, you're not of this Earth strange neurotically happy alien.

Linkage for The Mountain Goats:

http://www.themountaingoats.net/

http://www.mountain-goats.com/

http://www.mountain-goats.com/bio.html

I've been listening to this album during my commute. It's good in the early morning and the evening. I'm not sure about the afternoon, probably pretty good too.

Musically the album is sparse like every MG release. Acoustic guitar, bass and drums. So maybe you're thinking, "Oh, this would be a nice little album to play during a dinner party." Please. Tears will be dripping into your guests' ravioli. It's a coffee and cigarette album. It's one for yourself.

Central to "Get Lonely" are the lyrics. It would seem that each MG album focuses on a theme. Darnielle is no stranger to a concept album."Tallahassee" being the best example. Each song developing the story of the Alpha Couple (a dysfunctional married couple) told through the viewpoint of the Alpha male. More information on the Alpha series can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mountain_Goats#Alpha_Series

"Get Lonely" focuses on the loss of a loved one. One could argue that it is the end of the Alpha series. The dysfunctional alcoholic couple split, the guy sobers up and wanders around for awhile before committing suicide by drowning himself. Well, that's my take.

My favorite line from the album is from the song "Woke Up New":

the first time I made coffee for just myself,
I made too much of it.
but I drank it all,
just 'cause you hate it when I let things go to waste.
and I wandered through the house, like a little boy lost at the mall.
and an astronaut could've seen the hunger in my eyes from space.

It's just that freakin' sad. You've been fairly warned.

Lyrics for Get Lonely (just in case):

http://www.themountaingoats.net/lyrics/getlonely_lyr.html#wokeupnew

The three stars are for "Capote". I'd give zero stars to "The Da Vanci Code if I could but Multiply won't let me.

Tom Hanks usually does a fine job of holding a movie together. Case in point would be Leo DiCaprio's abysmal "Catch Me If You Can". The movie would've stunk if it hadn't been for Tom Hank's persistent and wise-crackin' FBI agent on the hunt for Leo. And you really can just go through the list of Tom Hank movies that would've stunk if it hadn't been for, well, Tom Hanks.

That seems to all end with the craptacular Da Vinci Code. There are only a handful of movies that I have turned off before they finish. After a good solid attentive twenty movies I just simply couldn't convince myself that I cared anymore. I got bored and I turned it off. I think it was the hair. What the fuck was up with his hair? And flagellates. Yuck. It doesn't surprise me that every idiot in the world loved this book.

Now on the other end of the spectrum we had the finely crafted, "Capote".

This movie had the right amount of timing and pace. And Phillip Seymour Hoffman? That guy has some serious acting skills. He's brought us such lovable characters as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, the reporter dude who gets whacked in Red Dragon, and The Big Lebowski's able assistant. He's awesome.

Oh and you should see him do an interview. The guy always looks like he's been on a three week bender in Tijuana and just remembered he was a famous actor and had to do a (yawn) Leno Interview. But shit! He's jumpin on the next flight down and will be back in that conga line by daybreak!

Anyways, Capote was a great movie. Go out and rent it or Netflix it-- however you get your movies nowadays. One warning though. You'll feel awful after you see it. For about two hours. Oh. One other thing. Go out and get "In Cold Blood". The scariest book you'll ever read. You'll start checking to see if you have locked your doors before bedtime. And you'll do that five times over.

Start:	Dec 1, '06 7:00p
End:	Dec 2, '06 02:00a
Location:	Home

Fall on face.

Start:	Dec 1, '06 7:00p
End:	Dec 2, '06 02:00a
Location:	Home

Fall on face.

This one is even better.

On my break at Target I tried one of the display models. Couldn't get it to do anything.That was before the electronics guy said, "That one doesn't work. Try the one on the right."

The Incredibles may very well take the place of Bambi as reigning children's movie in our household.

Basically, an undercover family of super heroes need to save the world again. Incredible animation and action ensues!

It's jam packed with Pixar goodness that made Finding Nemo and Toy Story the mega CGI greats they are. Most of the humor the kids won't get but that's okay, they'll be too stoked by the kick ass animation. I read some reviews by parents on Netflix saying that it was too violent for even their five year old. Oh my! Bah. It's a cartoon treehuggers, as in not real. Lighten up.

It has a stellar cast for the voices too. Craig Nelson (Coach) Holly Hunter, Samuel Jackson, Jason Lee and oh yeah, Sarah Vowell of NPR fame does the voice for the weirdo gothish girl. What more can you ask for?

Go out and queue up in your Netflix account. It's too good to miss out on.

Bright Eyes is the new Death Cab for Cutie which I guess is totally up for grabs because the two frontmen hit the music scene about the same time. Each bring their own brand of rainy day music with a raw sincerity that most emo bands can't seem to muster out of their black eyeliner and "Hot Topic" studded belts.

I found DCFC first and heard of comparisons between the two groups on different blogs for awhile now. I finally decided to buy a BE's album after seeing this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCXGI1f6xts

Catchy tune, eh? The speaking introduction isn't unique to the video, it's on the album (I'm Wide Awake It's Morning) too.

The video was a bit of a revelation for me. Sure, things are bad but there's no use blowing it out of proportion. We're only going to crash into the ocean and die. It's inevitable. Haha.

Oberst hails from the hinterlands of Nebraska where I'd imagine life is about as exciting as the cornfields and flat horizons. His music sounds like a cross between the disaffected lyrics of DCFC and jangly guitars of Uncle Tupelo.

Oberst's vocals are the first thing I noticed on the album. His unnerving shaky voice delivers each half-rhymed lyric that floats heavily over the crashing melodies. Too me it sounds like the whole song could come undone at any point. But he manages to hold it together and make something beautiful out of it.

I recommend the following songs for starters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNXSdk3shzI

And then this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvkvk2IYAvo

The album version of "Poison Oak" has more instruments and is faster.

Oh and I apologize for the youtube links. I'd upload the original songs, but I downloaded them from iTunes and well they're encrypted and Multiply™ seems to know this and won't let it happen.

At my work where Aerosmith and Van Halen reigns supreme, my coworkers would call this, "Music to slit your wrists to."

Start:	Nov 4, '06 6:00p
Location:	Kitchen, dining room, possibly living room.

Beer drinking. Guinness and Harp. Maybe something else too.

Ha! This is a pretty good blog post, via Dooce. An excerpt:

"Pardon me, Pepperidge Farm, but did you just insinuate that my snack cracker is some kind of pussy?"

We'll be brief: Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work.

They wouldn't let me upload the third one because it was a 'protected' file. That is the lame part of iTunes.

The first song is "This Charming Man" (The Smiths) covered by Death Cab for Cutie. It's punky and poppy!

The next song is an unlikely cover of Phil Colin's "Against All Odds" by The Postal Service.

The third one that I bought from iTunes is Bjork's "Joga" covered by Ben Gibbard with Ben Barnett of Death Cab for Cutie. The cover is stripped down from the original. Two acoustic guitars and Ben Gibbard's meditative delivery of the lyrics. The cover is quite a contrast from Bjork's surreal out-of-this-world orchestral strings and whooshy techno futurescape. Both are equally satisfying.

Haha. I just noticed the Phil Collins song came up on the album, "The Very Best of Death Row". Now that's just plain wrong.