November 2006 Archives
November 26, 2006 Secret Show 12/2
I don't believe I've ever played a secret show, though I used to find the thought of them very romantic. Why secret? Because the room in which it's taking place is very small. Why not move it to a bigger room? Because this small wood-and-stones-and-nice-old-chairs room is special. It's in southern California in a place that's kinda crucial to my personal history. By "personal" I mean "professional" to a large extent, but "my professional history" sounds way dumb. Anyhow. Secret show, 12/2, there will be special guests, head inland from the ocean, if you know me you've already got this one figured out, don't write to ask 'cause I've said all I'm gonna say, if you figure it out and go blabbin' about it to everybody the show probably won't be able to happen so be discreet please i.e. keep your sleuthing private and your humble host who sees in secret will surely reward you, see you there.
November 25, 2006 I Wanna Send This One Out To Japan
It gives me great pleasure to tell you that on December 6th, Get Lonely will be released through Beggars Japan. There will be three bonus tracks: home demos of two songs which were later recorded but not used on the album ("Keeping House" and "Naming Day") and an unusual thing called "They Are Stone Swallowers" which I wrote & recorded when John Vanderslice sent me a four-track machine five years ago or so. Contrary to much lazy reportage that's been done over the years ("their early albums, mainly recorded on a four-track," etc), this song is the only Mountain Goats song ever recorded by me on a four-track. Except for that one song I did that one day at that radio station in Philadelphia, and who knows what became of that one? Anyhow, good to meet you, Japan - hope to see you soon!
November 22, 2006 Looking Ahead
Thanks to everybody for a wonderful and exciting fall season! We had so much fun! Super-special thanks to the good people of Farm Sanctuary for the best afternoon I've ever spent on tour, period. Anyone who happens to be passing through upstate New York near Ithaca, do stop by the farm in Watkins Glen. You'll be glad you did. You have never seen such enormous cows in your life.
We have all kinds of irons in the fire for 2007. The fire is heating the irons as we speak. When the irons are hot enough to seriously mess you up, we will remove them from the fire. Tour dates for March are now up on the tours page; there will be more tours added soon for early next year - at least four more U.S. dates (two solo appearance here in NC) and some other very exciting news. See you out there!
November 15, 2006 The John and Sara Show
Performances of a few songs - one quite old, two new - and a really fun interview are up here(UPDATE: LINK FIXED), on AOL's "The DL" with the magnificent Sara Schaefer. The opening interview bit goes to a black screen for a couple of seconds at the end; I recommend that if you're interested in seeing the performances, you click on their links to the right before the black screen kicks your browser into some other places, because I found it a little hard to navigate back after that. Just sayin'!
November 13, 2006 Post Card
An artist named Sara Wintz asked me, some months ago, if I wouldn't participate in her series of post cards; she was asking for artists to submit a page of original, unrevised work & a paragraph explaining what they sent. It's a very cool project that appealed to me in all my favorite ways - it's small and under-the-radar, it's unusual but not self-consciously so, and it occupies an imaginative space that you wouldn't have thought was empty. My post card is now available; the Pretty Panicks Press, whose Myspace (sorry) is here, say that you should contact them to receive a postcard in this series. Do it! There are few things better than a strange small thing.
