Yeehaw! Great mix. There were about six tracks I have not heard (oh, and muchas gracias for the "No Children" live track - Singing that song outloud is soo cathartic - I've thought the same thing many times). My next-door co-worker is a big MG fan as well and we are both geeking over your liner notes.

OK. I am listening to that No Children track for the second time. It just makes me smile to hear the crowd singing along. I'm a dork.

goldheart mountaintop queen directory - guided by voices

That's my favourite GbV song. The quiet melancholy giving way to desperate melancholy, the whoot noises at the end that sound like a train whistle, the faded quality that makes it sound like it's being played on a gramophone: it evokes in me the same feeling as the one I get when I read Carson McCullers. Sunbaked loneliness or something.

I haven't listened to Bee Thousand in a while. Might do something about that.

Will do.

Muchas gracias senora!

Yep, but that 's not how I know it. They played it live the first time I ever saw them and I got a bootleg of that show and for many years after it was "my favorite R.E.M. song" (I didn't know it was a cover).

I knew of it from my days on the Murmur mailing list -- they covered it a lot during the Green/Out Of Time period. Unfortunately, I never did join the fanclub, so I never got any of the Christmas singles. Last year I had a lot of trouble scrounging for any MP3s of the REM Christmas songs for my Chrismakwazakah CD.

And sadly, I never saw REM until Bumbershoot in 2003. I had a chance to see them in OKC in 1989, but the parents forbade me from driving down there because I would be "alone." Me? Still bitter?

In order to put that song up on buffistarawk, I have to plug lePod into my computer which will mean I will lose my spot in my mega-playlist.

Now I feel really bad.

the legionnaire's lament - decemberists

I really like the opening to this one.

I'm a legionnaire
Camel in disrepair
Hoping for a Frigidaire to come passing by
I am on reprieve
Lacking my joie de vivre
Missing my gay Par-ee
In this desert dry

The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton

The first time I saw the title I thought, "Old 97s? Chomsky? Death Metal????"

Now I feel really bad.

No - not at all. I was going to do it anyway - I was only saying that as an excuse (like I need one) to post my last dozen Pod-Plays.

ION, I have a feeling I am going to be listening to Mountain Goats bootlegs all afternoon.

OK. I am listening to that No Children track for the second time. It just makes me smile to hear the crowd singing along. I'm a dork.

If you're a dork, I'm a dork, too -- I find it incredibly cheering.

The first time I saw the title I thought, "Old 97s? Chomsky? Death Metal????"

Darnielle is a huge metal fan, and it's charmingly bizarre to read his thoughtful, well-informed writing about it when I don't, myself, hear its influence in the Goats's stuff. But my knowledge of the genre is, uh, limited to some adolescent exposure.

(I did get to sing along to the song at Halloween, which was a blast and a half. Horns were up!)

That's my favourite GbV song.

Mine, too, although I spell "favorite" differently. I think "Smothered in Hugs," "A Salty Salute," and "A Good Flying Bird" may be tied for this position, too.

On the recent Jandek tribute, Darnielle's contribution was pretty much the best, combining a love of the original material with a brave attempt to make it more accessible. I'd be happy to post that to buffistarawk for the interested.

I did get to sing along to the song at Halloween

Hail Satan!

I had the "studio" version of that one on my Best of 2002(?) CD. Ima definitely have to check out this live version.

Can someone email me the Rawk password? I misremembered it.

Very happy about the Mountain Goats mix.

I was playing Tallahassee for JZ on the computer this weekend and she was falling for it hard and wanting the background scoop.

I shared the the liner notes with my friend S who is a big Darnielle fan. His reply included:

This is all great stuff. I would be remiss if I did not mention the following tracks...:

1. "Night of the Mules" -- from the Chile de Arbol 7", the first MG record I ever owned, which I bought at the now-defunct (I think) Mod Lang Records in Berkeley CA. Early on, some MG songs would feature a Casio keyboard instead of an acoustic guitar. This is my favorite of those. (Alternate: "Song for Tura Santana," from Zopilote Machine)

2. "Cubs in Five" -- from Nine Black Poppies. This choice depends on how sad or moving you find the lines "The Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league/And the Tampa Bay Bucs will take it all the way to January/And I will love you again like I used to."

3. "Color in Your Cheeks" -- My pick for slept-on deep album cut from All Hail West Texas.

4. "Jaipur" -- From The Coroner's Gambit, minor work by any accounting. It's my favorite "rocking" tape-recorder era MG song.

I am a big dork.

I am noticing a theme here.