Present Joys

1. Craig Finn is adorable.
2. This song has never sounded better or been more rocking.
3. I just realized that nyctaper made a recording of this whole show.

Yeah, okay, it’s Jónsi. I can’t decide whether I like him or not, either. But just do yourself a favor and watch the drummer. Oh man, is that incredible or what?

This was the first Mountain Goats bootleg I ever downloaded. I vividly remember listening to it and thinking, “hey, this band’s live stuff is mind-blowingly good; I think I will become obsessed.” This bootleg has got some really good renditions, viz. Tulsa Imperative, a rarity; pre-Heretic Pride versions of How to Embrace a Swamp Creature and In the Craters on the Moon; PPH-harmony-filled versions of Pure Milk and Tetrapod; and a Coroner’s Gambit where death’s “fingernails were glistening”. All in all, one of my favorite Mountain Goats bootlegs.

The Mountain Goats were on Letterman wednesday night. This is a new song from their forthcoming album All Eternals Deck. It’s a very good song called “Birth of Serpents”.

let the camera pull back till the fulness of the frame is clear and plain
peer into the screen until you see it all like a vision in a crystal ball
let it all fill with smoke
is this somebody’s idea of a joke?

let the fixer work till the silver’s washed away and take a picture from the tray
look hard at what you see and remember you and me
and let the truth spring free like a jack in the box
like a hundred thousand cuckoo clocks

from the Oregon corners to the Iowa corn
to the rooms with the heat lamps where the snakes get born

crawl through the tunnel and follow, follow the light northwest
see that young man who dwells inside his body like an uninvited guest
see the tunnel twist
clutch your birthright in your fist

let the camera do its dirty work down there in the dark
sink low, rise high, bring back some blurry pictures to remember all your darker moments by
permanent bruises on our knees
never forget what it felt like to live in rooms like these

from the California coastline to the Iowa corn
to the rooms with the heat lamps where the snakes get born