Wild Sage - Original Cover!

I've got a little time on my hands lately, so I'm noodling around with more songs. Here is my faithful rendition of "Wild Sage" by the Mountain Goats, from their album Get Lonely.

Last blogged on November 23, 2011.



Artist: Sooze
Written by: John Darnielle
Year: 2014, (2006, original)
Rating: Hot!

Wild Sage

And when somebody asks if I'm okay
I don't know what to say
And along the highway
From cast-off innumerable seeds
Wild sage growing in the weeds.

One of my very favorite songs. Makes me cry almost every time I hear it. It names a lifelong conundrum of mine: am I okay, or am I not okay? Usually, the answer is both, simultaneously, just like wild sage growing in the weeds. But how should I answer the question today?

Artist: The Mountain Goats
Year: 2006
Rating: Hot!

Sax Rohmer 1, Redux

Last in my head on June 13, 2011.

The lyric resounding in my head this morning:

Every moment leads toward its own sad end...yeah.

Artist: The Mountain Goats
Year: 2008
Rating: Hot!

Sax Rohmer 1

I am coming home to you
with my own blood in my mouth
and I am coming home to you
if it's the last thing that I do.

Artist: The Mountain Goats
Year: 2008
Rating: Hot!

Half Dead

One of the simplest, most relatable break up songs ever. Though I'm not breaking up with anybody (kenahora!*) I happen to be cleaning out a bunch of junk in my room today. As the lyrics indicate, the most effective way to manage such a task is to "act like a machine" while you're sorting through stuff. I'm not interested in being machine-like, but coming across my ex-girlfriend's house key was more of a mildly-amusing curiosity than a trigger for grief, which felt good. Artist: The Mountain Goats Year: 2006 Rating: Luke Hot *"kenahora" is the Yiddish equivalent of "knock on wood" - basically, an incantation to banish the evil eye. Pronounced "cun-a-HU-ra."

Heretic Pride

Title track from last year's album. Typical, brilliant John Darnielle - an uplifting song structured around a grim lyric: the character is proud to be alive even in the moments his body is being dragged across the town square and into a ditch.

Artist: Mountain Goats
Year: 2008
Rating: Luke Hot

Autoclave

I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam
And no one in her right mind would make her home my home
My heart’s an autoclave

Only John Darnielle could make a potent metaphor out of medical equipment.

Artist: Mountain Goats
Year: 2008
Rating: Luke Hot

Love, Love, Love

Yummy.

Artist: Mountain Goats
Year: 2005
Rating: Luke Hot

You or Your Memory

The video cuts off the first line of the song:

I checked into a bargain priced room on La Cienega...

Pensive, simple song opening the autobiographical album The Sunset Tree. The reference to Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers dates the scene to the '80s or early '90s, probably when John Darnielle was in his late teens/early 20s and reflecting on the events that the album describes. I've always thought about the song as a half-assed suicide attempt (what harm could baby aspirin and wine coolers do?) and a marker for the character to make changes in his life.

Artist: Mountain Goats
Year: 2005
Rating: Hot!