Mountain Goats Tour Recap: Now with bare feet!

So there's this band called the Mountain Goats that we've seen, oh well over a dozen times and tend to obsess over a lot. Their latest tour just wrapped up this week at Brooklyn's insanely intimate Bell House. If you failed to see them, well then you truly failed. Here's what you missed:

1. Bare feet! Sometimes musicians like Final Fantasy or Andrew Bird play in their socks, mostly because they have to twiddle lots of knobs and looping pedals with their toes. But John Darnielle deals solely with a guitar making this new development in lack of footwear inexplicably awesome. I read a supposed explanation that it's because Amy Grant does the same thing and JD totally digs her. So that settles that: the freer the feet, the closer to God,

2.An extra member! Perry Wright (of The Prayers and Tears of Arthur Digby Sellers) plays additional guitar adding more bombast than ever before. No word on how permanent his addition to the band will be, but he sure rocked out. Hard.

3. Piano! It's no surprise really given the pretty piano-heavy arrangements of their latest and 17(!) album The Life of the World to Come. And this is no crappy Casio either. It's like for real. And was actually purchased by....

4. Owen Pallett. Mr. Final Fantasy himself couldn't bear to hear the Mountain Goats play on instruments unworthy of their music. What a guy. Oh and he even played violin on certain tracks. His plucky rendition of "Going to Bristol" is brilliant, brilliant I say. Sadly he injured his finger (disassembling said piano the night before the last show of the tour) and thus couldn't play violin for that one concert. I saw his finger up close. It was all icky and purply looking. Here's hoping it heals soon. (The video quality is iffy but the sound is that matters here)


5. Owen Pallett's hair. That boy has locks of wonder. Whether its gelled back or naturally swooping forward, it is always perfectly coiffed. I'd love to have a sleepover with him where we could give each other braids and guacamole facials. After his hand heals of course.

Download the WHOLE Webster Hall show here, courtesy NYCTaper.

My cat is more internet famous than me.

Dear Readers,

The indie-verse works in mysterious ways.

It's been a loooooong two days. Yesterday I flew down to Florida to visit my grandma for the Thanksgiving holiday, with the intent of catching the Mountain Goats show in Orlando. However upon deplaning I was greeted by the most saddening voicemail ever from co-blogger Julie: the show was canceled on account of John Darniele getting sick! NOOOOOOOOOO! EPIC FAIL. Get well soon JD! (However a concert did end up going on. Final Fantasy played and Peter Hughes did a solo set, as did various other performers. A seperate post is pending to justly describe the awesomeness.)

BUT I was also greeted with a super-awesome email from Tim Harrington, the zany and wonderful lead singer of Les Savy Fav. I didn't recall signing up for a LSF mailing list or personally emailing him, so I was colored confused. I click the mouse. Here's what the message said:

Hey You guys remember how you sent me pictures of your cats lo those many months ago? Well, I've finally posted the BEARDO episode I used them for- it is kind of an endurance joke but your cute cats are all up front- Thanks So much, I hope you enjoy!

OH YEAH! Now that he mentioned it I *DID* send him a photo of my beloved Mudpie. There she is at the 0:37 mark. Good job on making it on Pitchfork before me, Mudpie. You are clearly hipper than your owner.
Watch her here:

You know how sometimes you get songs stuck in you head. And the only way to exorcise yourself of them is to impose them on someone else? Well now is one of those times. Here are a few random earworms currently running through my brain - and hopefully yours will be next.

Took You Two Years to Win My Heart - Final Fantasy
Such a heartbreaking melody, and oh can't get enough of those strings.

Lolita - Throw Me The Statue
Completely addictive twee-pop, replete with handclaps, glockenspiel and lyrics about wanting that special (younger) someone.

Skeleton Key - Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
I don't know much about this band. But I do know they've written a pretty perfect pop song.

The Power of Love

When we heard Final Fantasy cover Mariah Carey earlier last year, well we thought he couldn't get more diva-liciously awesome. But oh god were we wrong. Check out his take on Celine Dion's (yes you read that correctly) "The Power of Love" The performance was a part of the 33 1/3 book series' evening dedicated to "Let's Talk About Love - A Journey to the End of Taste". It's shockingly pretty, but then again what do expect from someone with a voice of gold and violin of steel?

The Power of Love - Final Fantasy (Celine Dion cover)

I now have a new-found appreciation for Mariah Carey

It was only a matter of time: Final Fantasy aka Owen Pallett aka the dude who arranges strings for the Arcade Fire and plays pretty, orchestral pop songs of his own takes on Mariah Carey and fulfills our every, oh you know.

What's so amazing about this cover is how brilliantly the melody adapts to the violin...oh and the glorious do, do, dos.

It's a sweet, sweet fantasy, baby.

Fantasy - Final Fantasy (Mariah Carey Cover)