“The campy-listening thing, I think, is false. I don’t think that there is any such thing, actually. This happens with age, that at some point you might have told yourself and others that you listened to the Backstreet Boys because it was funny. But in fact, you were enjoying it; it’s just a different kind of enjoyment for you. But I don’t think that ironic-distance appreciation is actually a different or lesser appreciation. I think most of that irony is an attempt to say, “These aren’t exactly my kind of people, and I don’t picture myself sounding like that, but I still like it.” I don’t believe in ironic appreciation. I think if you like something, the core of it is you like it.”
—John Darnielle The Believer - Interview with John Darnielle
A MEN
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with today’s music or that it lacks anything. There has always been, and there will always be, a profound and humbling surplus of great music being made by human beings. Sometimes you have to look harder, sometimes it’s right there in the charts. But “it was better when” is not a look I flex, because people have (literally: read the Greeks) always been saying “music/art/literature/life was better back in the old days.” Sometimes they say the problem’s that it’s gotten cruder, or less grand, or too commercial or whatever. But none of that’s true. People are always making awesome music. Not always in the same genres, so you can’t always be looking for awesome present-day rock music, or awesome classical music, or awesome Western swing. But music itself is a vast eternal conversation and there’s always amazing stuff to be heard. Whether it’s honest or not, I don’t know, that’s not really where my head’s at — many of the great classical composers who wrote deathless pieces of profound feeling were literally Doing It For The Money, but the music they wrote will endure forever, because the artist’s motivation in practicing his/her craft is really not the issue. The only thing that matters is The Stuff They Make and whether I can feel it when it hits. Shout out to my man Wolfgang Amadeus, working on commission for strangers and breaking hearts forever.”
—John Darnielle, in response to “Do you think there’s a lack of sincerity in a lot of today’s music?”
No Children
The Mountain Goats“this here is a song i want you to sing to the one you love when the time comes. you’ll know when the time has come. you won’t like it; you won’t feel like singing. i want you to remember, when the time comes, that i told you that singing would help. it will make you look crazy. there’s nothing like looking crazy to give you the edge.” - john darnielle
I HOPE WHEN YOU THINK OF ME YEARS DOWN THE LINE, YOU CAN’T FIND ONE GOOD THING TO SAY. AND I’D HOPED THAT IF I’D FOUND THE STRENGTH TO WALK OUT, YOU’D STAY THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY
I AM DROWNING. THERE IS NO SIGN OF LAND
YOU ARE COMING DOWN WITH ME
HAND IN UNLOVABLE HAND
AND I HOPE YOU DIE
I HOPE WE BOTH DIE
