andrew.pilsch.com

I’ve decided to start self-identifying as a Mountain Goats fan, now. I don’t know why that seems so important to “officially” “declare,” but I’ve always, before, considered myself an appreciator of Jeff Darnielle’s brand of precocious, lo-fi folk music. Like many actual fans, I questioned his move to 4AD. Like others, I thought Tallahassee was not as solid as his earlier lo-fi work. Then Get Lonely happened. I’m not going to suggest that I got into this album at the appropriate moment in my life, but I could (and, this review on PFM suggests that I could make such an observation).

Anyway, thanks to the “magic” of the internets, I am listening to the stuff I missed between writing John Darnielle off as a sell-out and my encounter with his newest album. Somewhere around the third song on We Shall All Be Healed, I had my epiphany wrt my self-identification as a fan of the Mountain Goats. This whole experience, got me thinking, though, about what it means to be a fan, on a cognitive level.

Two Examples:

Example One: If you speak to me long enough, you will clearly grasp the fact that I am a huge Joy Division fan. I would admit this to you, if you cornered me on the street and put the question to me. I have been a Joy Division fan ever since I first heard “Atmosphere.” No worries on that front.

Example Two: I would not consider myself a fan of My Bloody Valentine, despite the fact that: A, I will beat you to a bloody pulp if you suggest that any album other than Loveless is the best record released in the 1990s AND B, I have been listening to MBV (including their b-sides and stuff they released before they were shoegazing) a lot longer than I have been listening to Joy Division.

I have a similar relationship with Bob Dylan, for instance. I just find it puzzling that I draw a line between bands I will talk about obsessively and groups I merely enjoy listening to. The number of times I’ve engaged people in lengthy discussions of whether or not Joy Division still would have ended up sounding like New Order with Ian Curtis alive is higher than you might think, but I just don’t care to debate the question of which live performance of “Moby Dick” from Zeppelin’s 1977 tour is the best (and I’ve heard several).

I guess my point in this whole discussion is that I find myself willing to have such obsessively nerdy conversations with people about the Mountain Goats and I can’t really figure out what it is about the music (except, maybe things that have nothing to do with the music at all) that makes me feel that way. Actually, the idea that it may have nothing to do with the music is starting to seem more important, now that I’m thinking about it. “Woke Up New” by The Mountain Goats really meant a lot to me at a specific (,recent) historical moment and, to continue the Joy Division analogy, so did “Atmosphere.”

What does that suggest about us, as music fans, though, when the actual musicalness of the music we obsess over may not have anything to do with our obsession?

PS: I’ve been reading reviews of post-4AD Mountain Goats records on PFM since posting this and I’ve noticed that most reviews of these records mentions being let-down with each, new album from the position of obsessive fans of Darnielle’s early recordings. I suppose I should quantify: I’m identifying, now, as a fan of these controversial post-sell-out records. I like the richness he brings to his sonic palette on these and, especially following We Shall All Be Healed, I like the more auto-biographical and conceptual tone he has brought to his songwriting.