New Mountain Goats’ Album Swims Up With “Autoclave”

I saw the Mountain Goats just a few months ago in October at Studio B with a very good friend of mine, Caroline. It was a pretty great show. John Darnielle, the songwriter and lead vocals of the Mountain Goats entertained the crowd with his well-known banter and ended with an encore of “I Saw The Sign” by Ace of Base. Although, I thought the audience kinda sucked and reminded me of the same scene I’d imagine to be cheering on DMB, the music continued to speak for itself and I was glad I could go.

So what? This is old news. Wrong. They have a new album (Heretic Pride from 4AD) coming out. And in that show they played a new song called “Autoclave”. John told us that autoclave is that liquid stuff that nothing can live or survive in. Well, so they thought. Scientists found that yes; one creature can live there. And even though I was at a music show, I ended up attending a short science class. So point? Well, the new single has a line that says “my heart’s an autoclave” and it was inspired by this new scientific advancement.

“Autoclave” is obviously written well and shares their well known theme of loneliness. (Which isn’t that big of a surprise since their 2006 album was called “Get Lonely”.) The chorus is “I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam; and no one in her right mind will make my home my home. My heart’s an autoclave.” It has a great hook along with instruments that will be probably be played live by near strangers (such as a keyboard, drums, and female vocals).

Without a doubt, if you like the Mountain Goats, this is a great song to get you excited for their album. If you are new to the Mountain Goats, “Seed Song” from Protein Source of the Future… Now! or “This Year” of The Sunset Tree will be best.

The Mountain Goats – Autoclave
Take a listen, tell me what you think. I like dialogue.

Be Kind Rewind

After about a year of hearing about it, it was finally released. Last night, I went to go see Be Kind, Rewind, the new Michel Gondry film. I was relieved that it wasn’t all fluffy clouds floating in the air (as in The Science of Sleep) or time confusing (like in Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind). But maybe, that is what I wanted?

Without a doubt this is his most commercial film yet. Without his unique post-production style, it left the whole film kind of boring. The beginning was slow, the end resolution, was quite unresolved. Overall, it was very family-friendly, thus being very commercial. Any director, even David Schwimmer (the Friend’s actor and director of “Run, Fat Boy, Run”), could have done it

Another issue I have is it also seemed the creators took out important or interesting content to make it easier to shoot or to avoid more plot holes. An example would be when Black’s character, Jerry, loses his magnetization as quickly as it came. The director now did not have to make sure Jerry would always have to react to metal. Another disappointing shortcut was the montage of all the movies they “sweded”. Although the montage was good, I was expecting to see more of the “sweded” movies than what was actually seen. That is why the making of Ghostbusters was the funniest part.

Another issue: Race. I thought they brought up the issue of race (when dealing with Driving Ms. Daisy, and when casting Fats Waller) with out resolving it or making it funny. Instead, it made that issue and intended commentary awkward and dry.

There are three positives. First, Mos Def. (period.) He was great, he had his laid back attitude, this innocence and brought a new character alive. When he was mad but didn’t want to be, you felt it and understood why. (Also a side-note, originally Dave Chappelle was cast to play that role.) Secondly, it was easy to watch and follow; on the flip side it was boring with no surprises. Lastly, it was a decent length movie. On the other hand, they cut out or shortened parts that could have made it more interesting, such as the aforementioned short-lived magnetization, the montage of the re-made movies, along with a potential love-interest.

So what bothered me the most??
It’s either:
A. Undeveloped subplots
B. Or, lack of depth/being so straightforward.