frogcommunity asked: are you okay with people getting tattoos of lyrics from mountain goats songs? i really want a line from white cedar, that songs makes me feel at peace.
I am honored when people want to get tattoos of my stuff. I have a whole schtick about “let your tattoo artist help with the idea,” I believe in that, but whatever the case it is an honor for me to know that stuff I made meant enough to someone that they want to permanently have it with/on them.
gayhorse420 asked: The first time I listened to Sometimes I Still Feel the Bruise I was really fascinated by how much it sounded like Mexican folk music like something written by Jose Alfredo Jimenez because of the lyrical content and vocal melody (and also a lot of stuff I can't quite put my finger on). I've always imagined a mariachi arrangement of the song and think I might make one soon, but I also wanted to ask you if there was anything in particular that inspired you in writing the song?
I didn’t write that song! It’s by Trembling Blue Stars.
hemiparetic asked: Hey, I saw you in a show at the Cats Cradle a few years back and I vividly remember you asking the audience to turn off all their recording devices so you could sing a song that was purely for the crowd that night. Which was SUPER cool, honestly it made me feel special being there. I can’t remember a good deal of the words, but I was hoping you could respond with the lyrics? The only thing that really stuck in my mind was the line, “sometimes we mosh”
Sometimes we mosh, sometimes we stretch, sometimes we dance
sometimes we need some help getting dressed
sometimes we put on our own pants
sometimes we’re at 100%
sometimes we need to rest a little while in the tent,
but sometimes we mosh
my name is Daddy, I mosh with Roman when the day is new
if you come to say hi, we could mosh with you
but maybe it’s naptime, and we’re sound asleep
neither moshing nor dancing, just dreaming of sheep
but when we wake up, it’s on once again
fire up the boombox
turn it all the way up to 10
‘cause sometimes we mosh
sometimes we mosh
sometimes we inside skate, sometimes we outside skate
and sometimes…we mosh
austinnormancore-deactivated201 asked: Is it weird if people name their artistic endeavors after something in your music, like if a band named themselves after a lyric or song title? I'm curious to know what your reaction is when you see something like that.
There’s a storied tradition of bands naming themselves after lyrics from other bands/songwriters so that’s obviously an honor. The more obscure the better imo, like in the ideal situation it’s something nobody gets and so then when somebody says “Why is your band called the Mayers and do you mean Mayors?” you could say “no It’s a Sex Gang Children song called Mauritia Mayer, go listen to it it rips” only if the Mayers got really successful I guarantee the singer ends up wishing he’d picked a more boring name because he gets tired of giving this answer especially in an age where there’s Google.
General rule “the more obvious and literal, the worse it is” applies here. If a band has a song that says “I knew the singer from Nebula Clubs,” then naming your band the Nebula Clubs is not so good, let fiction be fiction I think I’ve done this shtick here before but anyway.
moogbastard asked: Do you have a favorite Shakespeare play?
I don’t have a ready answer for this, even though I’m sure I do have one - I think Lear has some of the most stunning poetry he wrote, and like all past-and-future goths I love Titus even though it’s hardly top-shelf Shakespeare next to the heavier hitters. Of the historical plays, we dug deep on I King Henry IV in college so I have fond memories of that but Richard II, which I read on my own but didn’t make a formal study of, is one I remember fondly.
Lots good to say about all the ones I’ve read, how can anybody not fiend for Hamlet, but Lear, you know…if you’re a Shakespeare person, I guarantee that if you make a practice of returning to “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!” every five or ten years, it’ll hit you a little harder every time. Like,
I tax not you, you elements, with unkindness.
I never gave you kingdom, call’d you children,
You owe me no subscription. Then let fall
Your horrible pleasure. Here I stand your slave,
A poor, infirm, weak, and despis’d old man.
But yet I call you servile ministers,
That will with two pernicious daughters join
Your high-engender’d battles ‘gainst a head
So old and white as this!
…the answer is King Lear.
