A truly excellent album, Hec. They played "Game Shows Touch Our Lives," "See America Right," "Old College Try," "Oceanographer's Choice" and "No Children" off of it tonight -- introducing the first one listed, Darnielle talked about the couple at the heart of the album as being caught in a Choose Your Own Adventure story to which they'd lost the book, which I quite liked.

"Oceanographer's Choice," "See America Right," "Pet Politics" (the Silver Jews song) and "Against Pollution" from We Shall All Be Healed they did with The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers, who opened and are touring with Darnielle and Peter Hughes. TPATOADS* made the Goats into a six-man ensemble with keyboards, drums, and multiple guitars -- The Mountain Goats, which as Darnielle noted, used to just be him singing into a boombox, sounded like an honest-to-God rock band.

And with "Against Pollution," with which they closed out the main set, they just tore the roof off the joint. Darnielle put down his guitar and just rocked the mic, and his spaz charisma turns out to translate hellaciously well into rockstar. As one of the friendly local rock critics I was there with put it, "That's when the show went from good to AWESOME." It's the second time this year I've gotten to see a band I like transforming into something else on stage, pushing itself to another level, and it's just breathtaking. I'm sure they will do the same songs with TPATOADS on Monday, but let me tell you, I cannot wait.

* As Darnielle posted on the Mountain Goats site in re a previous joint tour, "We're proud to be bringing Durham heartthrobs The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers along with us for most of these dates, even as we, along with most of the NATO countries and several prominent religious leaders, lament their choice of a bandname."

ETA: Excellence cross-posting!

bon bon needs to hear the mash up of "Peter Gunn" by Emerson Lake and Palmer) v. "Where's Your Head At" - Basement Jaxx.

We were just listening to Basement Jaxx at home this afternoon, but not loving the newest album. Up now-- Bob Bob's friend's band "The Stereo Future" which I am kind of digging.

Stealing liberally from other, better Halloween mixes, I burned the following disc to play while broadcasting Murnau's Nosferatu through the front window to scare the kiddies.

1. Them! Main Theme
2. M83 – “Birds”
3. Beat Happening – “Black Candy”
4. The Meteors – “She’s A Zombie Now”
5. Boris Karloff – “The Haunted Strangler”
6. Gergiev/Kirov Orchestra – “La Sacre du Printemps, Part II, The Sacrifice: Ritual of the Ancestors
7. Roky Erickson – “Night of the Vampire”
8. Kip Tyler – “She’s My Witch”
9. Hella – “Magixburg”
10. Bela Lugosi/Ed Wood – “Beware”
11. Jandek – “Om”
12. Neu! – “Negativland”
13. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – “Whistling Past the Graveyard”
14. Cramps – “TV Set”
15. Berzilla Wallin – “Conversation With Death” [N.B. a variant of “O Death”]
16. Can – “Aumgn”
17. King Tubby – “King Tubby’s Badness Dub”
18. [unknown Texas Prison Work Gang] – “Go Down Hannah”
19. Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue – “Where the Wild Roses Grow”
20. Dock Boggs – “Gloryland”

Black Widow's "Come to the Sabbat" originally made the cut (what with the chanted chorus of "Come to the Sabbat! Come to the Sabbat! Come to the Sabbat! Satan's there!"), but I decided that it was probably a bit too much for the religious-minded.

I love Gloryland. The one time I saw Dr Ralph Stanley play, he and his band did such an amazing version of it, the crowd went crazy, and they did an encore of the chorus for us. And this was in Manhattan.

Tonight's Mountain Goats show (what? shut up, I'm a completist) featured the band in costumes and of course a version of "The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton" -- you think they're gonna pass up the opportunity to get a room full of people to shout "Hail Satan!" on Halloween? But the verse that goes "The best ever death metal band out of Denton/ never settled on a name/ but the top three contenders/ after weeks of debate/Were Satan's Finger, and The Killers, and The Hospital Bombers" ended instead with "...Satan's Finger, and the Fleshy Friends of the Demon, and the Hospital Bombers." I have to admit, I laughed.

Yeah, I love "Gloryland," too. Dr. Ralph Stanley's version, though, is far more uplifting than Dock Boggs's version, what with the soaring a capella harmonies. Boggs hammers the "all life is suffering" undercurrent to the song and sings like he believes that Heaven in a convenient lie in a voice ready for the grave. Since my disc and the movie were the same length, though, "Gloryland" would have been playing during the final scene, when Nosferatu meets his end due to Lucy Harker's sacrifice. I substituted Radiohead's "We Suck Young Blood" and saved "Gloryland" for the blue screen after the movie.

Mr. Industries, I believe that Nosferatu himself would do a more uplifting version of any given song than Dock Boggs. Which is part of Boggs's appeal. (Have you heard the NY-based The Boggs, btw? I've only heard a couple of tracks and am of mixed mind.)

I believe that Nosferatu himself would do a more uplifting version of any given song than Dock Boggs. Which is part of Boggs's appeal.

Amen to that.

(Have you heard the NY-based The Boggs, btw? I've only heard a couple of tracks and am of mixed mind.)

Nope, but with a name like that, I'd sure be interested to hear them.

Their CD is on eMusic here: [link]

Christ, put me down in the "no" camp. It's ok to be disrespectful of your material if you're funny, like, say, the Holy Modal Rounders, but there's no excuse for condescending to your material because you think you're too cool for it. I say, based on five 15-second song samples: lame.

Peter Guralnick talking about his new Sam Cooke bio yesterday on Fresh Air and today on Leonard Lopate. Some of the bits I caught were interesting, but I listen at work & miss a lot when it's busy, and it's been busy since July.

Misha, other New Yorkers, Bay Area Buffistas, & those in the DC area take note: also on Lopate today was the director Edward Hall, whose Propeller Theatre company will be doing The Winter's Tale at BAM this week, followed by Berkeley and then DC (I think that's what he said, could be the other way around -- check local listings) in the next couple weeks. They did A Midsummer Night's Dream at BAM last year & it was amazing. Great company. Don't miss them. Misha, I think Katherine got tickets for us (not sure which day). Let me know if you'd like to see it with us.

It's ok to be disrespectful of your material if you're funny, like, say, the Holy Modal Rounders

I like to think of it as a higher respect: the kind that says the material can take it, and I'm going to imbue it with the energy & spirit I get from it, not deaden it with reverence. The latter approach being pervasive among folkies & the reason I find it hard to say I like folk music even though personal icons like Richard Thompson, Peter Stampfel, & Zimmy have deep folk roots. I wish emusic would get some more Rounders & solo Stampfel.