The Boys Rock Out With The Mountain Goats / The LC Pimps Another Local Show / Internet Sensation of the Week!

The Bottleneck was full of bookish hipsters last night for the Mountain Goats show, the type who, if they had not been at the show, would surely have been home reading Franzen's Freedom (or twittering about yesterday's bizarre London incident in which Franzen's glasses were stolen and ransomed).

And is there a more literary band out there than the Mountain Goats? Listening to their songs, we're always reminded of Nick Hornby's Songbook evalutation of an Aimee Mann song: "These few words do the job of perhaps as many as seven hundred recently published semiautobiograpical but deeply sensitive first novels." This is true of most all of Darnielle's songs.

Here are a few highlights of last night's set:

--For their second number, the band (yes, it's now a three-piece on tour) launched into "Old College Try" from their seminal album, Tallahassee, eliciting a collective sigh from the audience that sounded like a massive simultaneous hipster orgasm.

--"Psalms 4:20," from the new album, which is inspired by Carthage, Missouri's Precious Moments chapel (the song also includes a Kansas reference, proving that even hipsters will erupt when their state's name is mentioned in a rock show).

--During the mid-set solo section, Darnielle told a story about his shopping excursion in downtown Larryville ("I needed a cool dragon ring"), during which he encountered several establishments tuned to analysis of shitty Jayhawk football. This served as a segue into a heartbreaking version of "Fall of the Star High School Running Back":

"...selling acid was a bad idea.
and selling it to a cop was a worse one.
and the new law said that seventeen year olds could do federal time.
you were the first one, so i sing this song for you,
william stanaforth donahue,
your grandfather rode the boat over from ireland,
but you made a bad decision or two."

--Darnielle bet us all that we couldn't pogo for the entire three-minute set-closer, "This Year," We proved him wrong (Chip: "Actually, I only pogoed for about a minute and fifteen seconds, but I don't think anyone noticed.").

--The encore sing-along of "No Children":

I am drowning
There is no sign of land
you are coming down with me
Hand in unloveable hand
and I hope you die
I hope we both die"

Final comments:

It's not right to complain about a fantastic set, and we're sure that Darnielle gets tired of playing it, but we truly miss the crowd chant-along of "Hail Satan!" from "Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton." Our own personal favorite was also missing, "New Chevrolet in Flames":

"...we cracked a couple coca colas open
mixed them up with vodka and some coffee liqueur
poured in some cold milk and raised our glasses high to old friends
my love for you is ninety-eight percent pure.
but the two percent that remains
has fried the circuits in my brain."

Also, in every crowd, there is at least one person who will shout "Freebird" in between songs (as we all know) but there is also at least one person, somewhere else in the crowd, who will laugh. Both of these persons are morons.

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Each week on the LC we're hoping to promote at least one local show. Last week, as you know, was Hurray for the Riff Raff, at the Gaslight, which we suspect none of you attended (we didn't either...North Lawrence is just too far away).

This week's pick is Cowboy Indian Bear (with new member Katlyn Conroy!), along with Ad Astra Arkestra, and A Lull at the Bottleneck on Friday. Why this show? Because our twitter-buddies at @bearmusic sent us a personal invite, that's why!

Today let's think about Ad Astra Arkestra. If you're a local hipster, you've probably spent some quality hipster-time at Ad Astra Per Aspera shows. How many of you were at that Replay patio gig where they played an entire evening of cover songs? We'll buy you a PBR if you can name at least three of the covers they played that evening. As for us, we haven't yet seen the band's newest incarnation as an "Arkestra," but we can only assume it's at least AS hip, if not hipper, than before.

See you at the Bottleneck on Friday.

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Normally we spend our time reading long and pompous novels, but this week, like the rest of America, we're engrossed in a...thesis:
















Yes, the PowerPoint "fuck list" (as it's known) of a former Duke University student has gone "viral" this week, recounting in explicit detail her sexual exploits with most of Duke's lacrosse, tennis, and baseball players.

Here's a representative example of a section the author calls "memorable moments," in which she details the highlights of each encounter:

"Hooking up on Subject 4's couch, as he lay sleeping ten feet away. The quote: "I just want to come all over you." The subject successfully (and accidentally) marking his territory with reproductive fluid on the couch."

Chip: "I have used that exact quote SO many times, and no woman has yet to deem it 'memorable.'"

Enjoy the full "list" here:

http://deadspin.com/5652280/the-full-duke-university-fuck-list-thesis-from-a-former-female-student/gallery/