Yo La Tengo, Etc.

Though I continue to wish that more of the show meant more to me than it did (just because I wasn't previously familiar with the band), seeing Yo La Tengo last night was still a blast. Lots of loud, lots of soft, better lights than I've seen during a concert in ages, and a hilarious mixed-bag of a crowd. (The quote of the evening that best summed it up--thanks, DS--was, "I think they thought it was 'Yo La Dave Matthews.'") The band came out for a first "gimme" encore (like ya do), then were actually lured back out two more times for two actual encores, which was a refreshing thing to see from any band. And, ain't nothin' hotter than a chick drummer.

Any other fans of Kanye's "Jesus Walks" in the house? This McSweeney's list really made me laugh, mostly because I think the lyrics it's riffing on are so brilliantly hilarious in the first place.

Is "awesomest" a word? If so, I nominate this as the awesomest thing I've seen all week: the Mr. T. rubber duck (link via You Can't Make It Up).

Though I don't know the Mountain Goats' music all that well, I've been dipping into John Darnielle's blog periodically during the past week or so. I'm fascinated by his fascination with thrash/death metal. I don't remember which issue of The Believer he was interviewed in, but I remember reading his description of some band that's exclusively focused on writing anti-Christianity songs, and his appreciation of the twisted purity in it. I just love hearing people talk about the minutia of some weird little corner of a genre that they're fixated on, because it means they just don't give a damn if anybody else is interested in it and are consequently free to roam around in the parts of it that fire their imagination and speak to a part of their soul that's underserved by "acceptable" pop culture (either mainstream or indie). It also reminds me of the way I talk about movies like The Wisdom of Crocodiles and Birthday Girl, movies I've lumped together in a category of my own invention--that is, a kind of deeply flawed Eurotrash erotic thriller that becomes captivating and almost hypnotically beautiful precisely because of its failure to cohere as anything resembling an actual movie. Anyway, "Last Plane to Jakarta" is a fine read, and I guess the Mountain Goats have a new CD out that's supposed to be great.