Record of the Year: The Sunset Tree by The Mountain Goats
John Darnielle’s collection of songs reflecting on life growing in the presence of an angry alcoholic stepfather is probably his strongest collection of songs yet. Much has been written on his deliberate attempts to not write autobiographically; instead he tries to tell stories through his songs the way a short story writer or novelist would.
But a writer’s perception and ideas do not come out of a vacuum and the fact that the same themes keep appearing in his material …

http://www.mothersagainstnoise.org/

I’ve been neglecting my blogging duties lately, and I hope to get back into a regular schedule. It’s all about discipline. I’m surprised at the amount of traffic I get, considering the only comments I get are spam that I have to delete. And for those who come by regularly, thank you.
I don’t know how I missed this, but the Mountain Goats have posted a couple of rare songs on its Web site. Most notably is a song called “Deserters”, which main Mountain Goat John Darnielle describes as the song …

Jim MacLean, from the old Sacto band Sewer Trout, hanged himself on or about American Thanksgiving. Sewer Trout, at least through my understanding of things at the time, were one of those bands who were part of the original Gilman St scene in the late 1980s. A scene that included bands such as Crimpshrine, Operation Ivy, and yes, Green Day.
Not to sound melodarmatic or anything, but I hate stories about dead punks. It’s like they’ve just given up. Sometimes when you hear their stories, you can be amazed at …