Win Free Mountain Goats Tickets!
It's been a few days since I posted anything, but hopefully giving away free stuff will help atone for it. Let's get right down to the free stuff:
Back in the early days of music blogs, I somehow got wind of the site Largehearted Boy. This was while I was working at my first job out of college, which was boring and involved a lot of free time spent surfing the internet, and Largehearted Boy was the perfect site for that. Lots of links, very little bullshit to wade through, with his occasional personal opinion or commentary. One of these personal opinions was that he wanted the song "Golden Boy" by the Mountain Goats played at his funeral.
Peoples funeral songs always intrigue me. It will be interesting once my friends start dropping off to see who manages to actually instill in their loved ones a deep fear of the consequences should they fail to play their requested song, and who is all talk. But being interested in this stranger who I've never met funeral song, I downloaded it, listened to it and was blown away.
It sounds, in true Mountain Goats style, like it was recorded in one take, in his bedroom, on a tape recorder that may or not be your classic Fisher Price model (pictured above). It's full of advice and admonitions, sung so passionately that you can't help but look up where you can obtain some of these mythical Golden Boy Peanuts on the internet (I checked, they can be obtained.) A friend of mine had them when she went to Thailand. I think she said they were pretty good.
So that is the song that made me a Mountain Goats fan. I've since learned to love his other works, be it in the previously mentioned Fisher Price style, or his more recent works that utilize more instruments and higher production values. I've seen him in concert once before at the Casbah, and though he didn't play Golden Boy, it was fun just to be in the presence of the guy who wrote Golden Boy, if only for an hour.
The Mountain Goats are coming back to the Casbah on Thursday June 15th, and I would love to give you two free tickets. To sweeten the deal, I'd also like to send you two free CDs, by two of the best bands I've had the fortune to come across lately. Fifty On Their Heels is a punk band for people who don't like punk bands, and the Bo Dukes, though they don't have a guitarist, manage to bring both the funk and the pain at the same time.
So that's TWO free concert tickets for the Mountain Goats on June 15th, plus TWO free CDs from San Diego and LA's finest. And all you have to do is leave me a comment with the song YOU want played at your funeral. So get to it! (Make sure you leave an email address in your comment so I can contact you if I pick you.)
I will pick a winner on Monday morning. If you can't wait, you can buy tickets here.
MP3s in the meantime:
The Mountain Goats - Golden Boy
The Mountain Goats - Cut Your Hair (Pavement Cover)
The Bo Dukes - Save The Day
Fifty On Their Heels - Occupation
Comments
Great blog...I'm a SD'er as well. I can't say I've given much thought to my funeral song yet, but the first song that popped in my head was "Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickeral Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" by Sufjan Stevens.
Anyways, I love the Mountain Goats...so free tix or not I'll probably see you at the show.
Cheers,
Matt
Posted by: Matt | June 7, 2006 08:46 PM
My funeral song (and the song that goes through my head in every near-miss-by-a-truck when riding my scooter) is "Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone, by Glass Tiger. It's an appropriate and catch tune, plus my brother got beat up at a Glass Tiger concert once, so it would drive him nuts.
My friend Grace, for some reason, wants the Rockford Files Theme played at her funeral, and I have every intention of following through if she beats me to the grave. I think it's because even if you can make it through the first bit without laughing, there's no way you can make it through the harmonica break.
Anyway, I'm not in San Diego, so give the tix to someone else, but thanks for the Pavement cover, never heard it before. Have fun at the show, I've only seen them once, at an in-store, back in the bedroom recording days. I'd say Palmcorder Yanja is my favorite MG song, or maybe "No Children."
Bb,
Posted by: illnoise | June 7, 2006 10:22 PM
This actually was the subject of a recent discussion ... and the winner was "Do you, do you, do you, wanna dance". One of the upbeat versions (e.g., Dave Edmund), not the slooowww one.
Posted by: BJ from Vienna | June 7, 2006 10:47 PM
i think my funeral song would have to be "dead" by they might be giants. maybe it wouldn't be the best song to guide my loved ones through their mourning, but i'd be laughing my ass off from purgatory
Posted by: Shayne | June 7, 2006 11:16 PM
It's gotta be "Dress Sexy At My Funeral" by Smog. And I will have someone kicking everyone who isn't dressed sexy out for ignoring my wishes...
Posted by: Christopher Mason | June 8, 2006 07:08 AM
Flogging Molly's If I Ever Leave This World Alive, and if it could be pulled off to have this performed live at the grave with actual bagpipes, a drummer boy, and an old irish singer with a thick accent and a slightly mournful voice, that would be even better.
Posted by: lauren | June 8, 2006 09:16 AM
i'm gonna' go with roy orbison's "crying." just to put everyone in their place, you know?
it'll be great to see the goats again...
Posted by: bill mccool | June 9, 2006 07:26 AM
Bob Dylan and The Band's "Tears of Rage" is what I'd want played...somber yet uplifting in the end.
Posted by: Jeff | June 9, 2006 08:13 AM
Hotcha Girls - Ugly Casanova
Nadim.Damluji@gmail.com
Posted by: Nadim | June 9, 2006 01:31 PM
Neil rules. oh, wait this is about the Mountain Goats. They rule too! I'd love to see them in san diego.
Posted by: Reed | June 12, 2006 01:52 AM