OK, not so new. But Get Lonely is out tomorrow, so get psyched with this quirky and lovely video. From the press release:
If The Sunset Tree (which chronicled the fraught, violent relationship between Darnielle and his stepfather) derived its power and energy from an unblinking exorcism of personal demons, Get Lonely is perhaps the quiet, haunted aftermath. It’s a reflective, intimate record; the mood is one of bittersweet resignation rather than cathartic release.
Mountain Goats’ “Woke Up New” video was directed by Rian Johnson (Brick), and according to some dude on YouTube: “The entire thing was done with only two hidden cuts. Everything else was live and no post-production compositing or something. Straight from Rian Johnson’s mouth.”
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mind: blown
i highly doubt that was only done with 2 cuts. seems quite impossible.
If it was only cut twice then it makes it all the more amazing, but like Daniel there, I can’t see that being possible. Great vid.
The sheer amount of planning that it would take to make that blows my mind.
All it is is them taping previously recorded material playing on a TV screen. My guess is the cuts are at the beginning and the end, where they go from Darnelle watching the one TV, to zooming in on the TV itself, and then back out from it at the end.
The rest of it is just recorded and played back, and then re-recorded with another camera pointed at the screen with John or the bass player (whos name escapes me) nearby, and then that is re-played and re-recorded. Repeat ad nauseam.
Tons of planning and it’d be possible. Beautiful work.
Eeeeeexcellent. “Cubs in Five” by the MGs is one of my favorites songs ever:
(Chorus: And the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league
And the Tampa Bay Bucs will make it all the way to January
And I will love you again
I will love you
Like I used to.)
Anybody know of a good recording of it? Mine is an mp3 that sounds like it was recorded through a 10-foot long paper towel roll.
MacBuckets, the official release of “Cubs in Five” is on Nine Black Poppies. That album, as with every album (I think) recorded before 2003 was recorded on a boombox. You could check Nine Black Poppies to see if that recording is better, but it’s probably the same.
It’s part of the charm.
It’s very “Lucas with the Lid Off”… would love to see a making-of doc on this.
Now that’s what I call fast service. Thanks, A.
Having recently bought Nine Black Poppies on CD, I can vouch that yes, “Cubs in 5″ has terrible sound quality, but is such a fun song that it doesn’t matter. Other songs on the album are in stereo and sound normal. It’s quite odd.
“Having recently bought Nine Black Poppies on CD, I can vouch that yes, “Cubs in 5″ has terrible sound quality, but is such a fun song that it doesn’t matter.”
Thanks for the info. I’ve never seen it performed live (small sample: 2 shows) or heard it on a live-show recording, either. Maybe it’s for the best. Maybe if there was a great recording of the great song, it would cause the universe to implode through force of sheer over-greatness.
Whenever I’ve seen MG live, fans always request the song and Darnielle always refuses to play it. In fact, at the last show I was at, he took the stage and announced that he would not be playing Cubs in Five, so don’t ask.
he played it at pitchfork!
He Played it wonderfully at Pitchfork. And he chooses not to play it most of the time because at first it was an ironic joke that the cubs (his team) never win, but its getting out of control, so he doesn’t play it anymore, but did just because he was in chicago. Also, amazing video.