Darnielle said something in an interview...

that's an especially cocky statement (what JD said), and I'd like to hear what his reasons are. In fact, i think it'd be cool to have more of this in general when it comes to music. I'd also like to hear more "our latest album is ok, we've done better in the past" from musicians.

From my standpoint as a newcomer to the mountain goats, I like his latest albums the best anyway. I think the increased musicality adds another dimension to the lyrics, complementing them very well.

That line is the best thing George Lucas has come up with in the last couple decades.

There is a line, though, with on one side artists talking about their work and their attitudes towards it, and on the other hand them talking about their views on fans who don't agree with them.

I consider All Hail West Texas to be my favourite for a lot of reasons (including of course the fact that it was the first MG album I bought). I like The Best Ever Metal Band because I heard it live first, where its ending is a smiling slap in the face, an incredible rush where the song grows and speeds up until you realise that it actually the same speed it's been throughout, it's all an illusion done through the maaagic of words. I like Running Star because no-one ever writes a neutral song about football stars. I like Color in your Cheeks because it's a song about caring, and caring doesn't mind whether it's about a student commune, or the last survivors of the zombie plague. I like Jenny because who could not like That Line? And I like Source Direct because it reminds me of a dead friendship. I don't think any of those are the wrong reasons (and I would speculate that John doesn't either, he had a specific point of view in mind when he was saying that).

Apart from anything else, I don't think someone can write songs such a wide variety of subjects and approaches and declare that they've been definitively superseded.

This is a specifically complicated method: I wouldn't care so much that the guy from The Mountain Goats thinks I suck, but I don't like that the guy from Last Plane To Jakarta (and ILX) agrees with him.

That said, for my own entertainment, I'm going to assume that John has shrieked "I WAS AN ENGLISH MAJOR!" and thrown a glass across a room to end more than one argument with a producer or bandmate.

ihttp://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5300/doodlings96johndarnielle8mo.jpg

This is the most appalling priggish bullshit. There are no "objective standpoints" in art appraisal, and making a claim to authority by citing your college degree, or saying you're the best judge of your own work because you wrote it, is just bragging. It's also plain wrong... from a number of objective standpoints!

It has to get a little frustrating when your fans demand (and you're partially known for) your earlier shit that was more novel and lo-fi when you've been laboring over the lyrics.

So OTM it hurts.

There's some truth in the observation that an artist's last baby is always (in his or her mind) the best. However, the idea that artists can't judge the quality of their own work with a little hindsight is, from my experience, highly questionable. Often, audiences and critics come around to the artist's own views on such matters, even if it takes decades or centuries. Art and music history teems with examples.

I am impressed at what Farrell knows.

I have not heard the band.

Haha! This made my week.

"I think anybody who doesn’t think my new lyrics are the best ones I’ve ever written either likes the old ones for the wrong reasons, or hasn’t listened to the new ones well enough. I can say that as an English major guy, that this is my best work, from a number of objective standpoints. There’s nothing you can do about those people; they were looking for something to be mad about. So I guess I gave them their Christmas present."

than just -

Sometimes it's nice to have the artist say, "This is what I was going for," because integrating his or her vision with your interpretation can simultaneously open up facets in the work previously hidden to both of you AND allows you to forge your own private (one-way, no stalking plz) relationship to the artist via your distillation of the piece.

but I agree with what you're saying as it applies in general to usefulness/validity of artists expressing about their own (almost always) weird and suprising and (alot of times singular) opinions about their work. and I don't think its nice/fair to really dig into this since it was written by a member, but I can only imagine how different this discussion would be had it come from another artist, or say, Momus with equal amount bias coming in from the complete opposite direction. therefore, fuck this thread.

The fact that the first punctuation mark in this sentence is a comma rather than a semi-colon has a rather important semantic impact on the meaning of this sentence that people seem to be ignoring in their haste to play a rousing hand of Smack The Uppity Artist.

XPOST: Dan, punctuation in interviews is often randomly assigned by the writer. And the semantic distinction is pretty hair-splitting at best.

What if he wants to worry about it? What's it to you? If he doesn't like how you like it, can you still like it?

I think Momus has been super duper OTM on this thread, but I personally can appreciate and get something out of what an artist says about his art; something that may not have anything to do with what I get out of their art.

Also, if you want to understand his print interviews, you really have to listen to a radio interview he's done to kind of understand how he talks. He has this sort of half-joking in a 100% serious, no-irony way but also bullshitting with friends mannerism that's endearing and makes him able to say "as an english major" without coming off as an ass in the slightest.

BTW, when I put out my album, I will be perfectly happy to say all manner of things about it, likely without any concern for the opinions of any message board participants. As hurtful as that may seem.

OTFM

Darn!3lle's such a sharpshooting schmendrick and it's awesomely funny in a live context. nonetheless like most artists he's given to ants-in-his-pantsiness when perceiving a poor comparison of new with old stuff.

what would Dylan say? probably just mumble through a combative interview. i've certainly heard Nick Cave say something similar along the lines of 'if you don't think the new album (Abbatoir/Lyre)is a masterpiece then you haven't listened to it enough.'

If you have a magic formula for transcribing the rambling incoherencies of musicians into AP style English in a way that eliminates all ambiguity and grammatical confusion, I'd love to hear it. Until then, anyone who's never had an interviewer start one clause and end a different sentence and had to figure out how to punctuate it either hasn't done many verbal interviews or isn't honest with their quotes.

Tee hee hee heee. I just had to get back on this dumb thread.

-- js (roc...), January 4th, 2006.

Um. Given that I can't even vaguely understand what this sentence means, I feel that perhaps the problem may lie within.

Nick Cave OTM!

Although it might be funny if Rolling Stone ran an article where Billy Jo Armstrong interviewed Jon Caramancia (apologies for butchering his surname).

Still, B- NEEDS MORE COMMAS.

xxpost

The "start one clause and end a different sentence" bit does need some revision, though.

LET'S TAKE IT OUTSIDE!

As a hypocrite major, I would never jump on another artist's words in an article or forum, especially after having once started a public hissy fit over a mildly negative review of one's album in Pitchfork. Oh, shit...

"The film is really about what we all dream of, an allegory; we had to use a mechanical horse in that shot."

ROFFLES