In our morning reading: thoughts on the new Mountain Goats EP, revisiting the 90s emo scene, Lisa Hanawalt on comics, and more.
Talking About The Mountain Goats, With The Mountain Goats
It’s been about twenty years since I first heard The Mountain Goats. Friends in college turned me on to what I’m going to refer to as “the hits”–i.e. “Going to Georgia” and “Cubs in Five,” songs that showcased John Darnielle’s lyrical range, urgent vocal delivery, and fondness for lo-fi recordings. It’s something that’s shaped how I’ve listened to them; despite the fact that it’s been fifteen years since the release of Tallahassee, there’s still a strange sense of the new […]
Morning Bites: Mountain Goats Book, Egan talks to Granta, Wild Flag is the new Fugazi, and More
YES! John Darnielle talks about his novel! (Via Largehearted Boy) “I’m working on it really slowly, and at this point, I expect to finish it when I’m 80 or something because I’m being really meticulous about revising it and am really ambitious about it,” he explains. “It’s about a guy who, when he was young, damaged himself very badly and finds himself in a position reflecting on other people who are as young as he once was and are also […]
John Darnielle is a Motherfu**ing Poet!
“So I call Darnielle a poet, and I proselytize. Luckily I won’t need to much longer. Since the spring, his influential death metal reviews, posting inexhaustibly to his blog Last Plane To Jakarta ever since his June 10, 2001 salvo, “Death Metal Rules,” have been exclusively in free verse. This extends a mode that Darnielle first experimented with in 2006, in a cycle entitled, “Thirty Short Poems About My Favorite Black Metal Band.” Amen. (Via Paris Review)
A Map of Every Place Ever Mentioned in a Song by The Mountain Goats
There are many things that make me think “holy fuck, that’s amazing and insane.” Somebody taking the time to make a world map of every place ever mentioned in a Mountain goats song is one of those things.
Bites: Don Amazon, young adult steampunk, 2666 gets the paperback treatment, Johnnie Walker kicks Glenn Beck to the curb, 3rd Ward home cookin’, and more
“Amazon’s a modern day Don Quixote.” (Thanks Gawker) Lit. So now book bloggers have to report the books they get for review or face an $11,000 fine. Ed Champion ain’t gonna stand for it! Is the term”young adult steampunk” at all related to The Pains of Being Heart song “Young Adult Friction”? (Thanks Boing Boing) HTML Giant really likes writer Sarah Manguso A little book named 2666 is now in paperback. Lit Kicks does an eloquent job of summing […]
Bites: Bookslut on Tao Lin, Tao Lin on Bookslut review, J.R.R. Tolkien’s family are gonna get paid, more Proust, Generation X playlists, more
Bookslut reviews Shoplifting From American Apparel. Tao Lin calls this review ‘damning’ via his Twitter. Everything is totally cool between the heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien and HarperCollins. (Thanks Vulture) New Yorker weighs in on Times Square vs. The High Line Sarkozy had more in common with Napoleon than you thought. (Thanks The Awl) Chicago Subtext asks: “What book would Oprah never, ever pick as a book club selection? Why?” I sat long and hard on this one, and came up […]