Great F*ing Band

Filed under:Personal — posted by jbs on November 15, 2005 @ 11:12 am

I bought The Sunset Tree the other day because I heard the song Dance Music on SomaFMs Indie Pop Rocks.

The Mountain Goats. They are the first new band I’ve heard about since leaving chicago, and leaving the one person whose musical opinion I trust completely.

I was blown away. The downside of our suppurative culture is that, as a writer, there are fewer words I can use to describe powerful emotional experiences than there used to be. So I am left grasping for words to describe the impact that this album has on me. It is playing right now, on my iPod mini, in pretty much a constant loop (even the song I don’t like that much, didaudid, is better than most). The songs are personal and provocative and sad and hopeful. They are the music that you would have the director queue when you know the scene may end badly. Their songs reminded me of things that I had forgotten, and made the bad memorys not quite as terrible as it had been and gave the good ones that warm patina and light like the california sun.

All I can tell you is that there are things I find very difficult to forgive, but I will mend my ways. I too am the last of a lost civilization, and when he broke my stereo I knew that if I were to wriggle up on dry land it would not be soon enough. I can tell you that I know good reasons to freeze to death. You should know that when my lung collapses, I will be listening to Dance Music. For me, I hoped but, the Wolf never came home, but there will be feasting and dancing in Jerusalem next year. You can bet your ass there will.



image: detail of installation by Bronwyn Lace