the window song

by the time i heard this song i was already a fan of the mountain goats. but it was this song that i was not going to just be a fan. i was going to be a fan. i wasn't going to buy the few cds that i managed to find in 78s. i was going to buy every damn cd if it killed me, i was going to rack down all the vinyl there was to be tracked, i was going to spend hours, countless hours, sifting through the internet and peering hopefully into my pan for a few previously unheard songs. i was going to devote time every day for thinking about the mountain goats, and talking about the mountain goats and, you know, actually listening to the mountain goats.

and it was this song that did it for me. more specifily, it was one line of this song. oh yeah, the wavering quality of the guitar is a thing made of awesome, and the rachel/john dynamic is as stellar as always, but it was not these things that planted the seeds of obsession in my heart. no, the blame for that rests soley on the eggshells line. you know, "i could have walked on eggs right then and not broken a one of them." the 'a' in there grabbed me and shook me and got right up in my face. "look here," said the a, "this is not the kind of band who would settle for 'and not broken any of them,' or 'and none of them broke,' no, no, no. this is not that kind of band, not that kind of band at all." i understood what the 'a' was saying to me. i understood that the mountain goats were not the kind of band to settle for anything short of total commitment from me. i love that 'a.' that 'a' is where it all began for me.

shake!

alibi

i once heard someone say that this song reminded them of belle and sebastian. now, everytime i hear it, my brain insists on wondering what a twee john darnielle would look like. (he looks a lot like not-twee john darnielle, except he's wearing one of those brown leather jackets with suade elbow patches. i've always wondered what the point of those patches were. i can't image what in the job description of an english professor involves work on ones elbows, enough elbow work to warrent patches to protect the leather. is protecting the leather even what they're there for? twee john darnielle also has a beatle haircut, and an unrequited crush on pph).

do you now what i really like? the line repition in the song. ("i've been waiting all day, i've been waiting all day!") it's not the words themselves, just the way he sings them. the breathlessly excited tone of voice. it's a happy innocent young kind of vibe, which contrasts really nicely with the not so happy, uninnocent, less young words ("nobody saw me come in, nobody saw me come in!).

i like to think that the "almost" in this guy's almost airtight alibi never ever ends up biting him on the ass, and he never faces any consequences.

alpha rats nest

i've never really understood the "the night is lovely as a rose" line. everytime i hear it i turn it over in my mind, trying to uncover a deeper meaning, but none has found it's way too me yet. i suspect it's all very obvious, and i'm not looking at it right. this whole song is full of very obviou metaphos really. no, wait, obvious isn't the word i want here. umm, clear? shallow? uncomplicated? i think i'll go with uncomplicated. in verse one we have "we will do best vampire routenes," ok, ok, cool. and then, right after that rose line, "if i see sunlight hit you-" and right here, even though i know what's coming next, my brain always thinks it's going to be a follow up on that rose line, but no. it's "if i see sunlight hit you i am sure that we'll both decompose." we're back to the vampire thing. it's not very complicated, you see? we pretend to be vampires, i'm surprised you don't go to ash when the sun hits youre ass. but then, i wonder, he says if sunlight hits -you- then we shall both decompose. does he suggest that they are so co-dependant upon one another that if one goes down they both go down? this fits in with the alpha code of conduct thus far. so are the metaphors uncomplicated or complicated? i don't know. i just wish i knew what was up with that rose line.

standard bitter love song #1

when i search for this song in itunes i find i have two live versions, one from the walker lounge in 1993 (in 1993 i was 7 years old and not alowed to use the toaster unsupervised, so i wasn't at the walker lounge), and one from the zoop request show in 2007, (in 2007 i was 20 years old and a very poor university student, so i was not at the zoop request show).

what do we hear when we play the 93 take? a very polite smattering of applause. the 07 version? screaming and cheering and stamping and hoopla. but who cares about that, i don't care about that, what i care about is the fact that that first word, that glourious, glourious, drawn out i, it's there in both of them. i love that extended i. i've got no manners, and you've got no manners, (no manners at all), and that 'i' is the bestly sung first word of any song, anywhere.