Father John Misty (Josh Tillman), formerly of Fleet Foxes, started his solo career two years ago with Fear Fun. With it he positioned himself as a kind of post-modern Hunter S. Thompson, writing a doomed love story while high on mushrooms, self-loathing and irony. He publicly mocked critics who panned it, and audiences at his shows were often left wondering whether they were in on the joke, or just the punchline.
I liked it – I still do – but I also once described it as “Pavarotti singing nursery rhymes.”
Now, after a period of reflection and reconstruction – he put out a perfume, came unscrewed, got married, and pulled himself together, more or less in that order – he’s back with his second record, to be called I Love You, Honeybear, due out in February 2015.
Exterior signs suggest his puckish nature is undimmed at the core; the link text for his tour schedule is “I’m Coming to Your Town/Bring Your iPhone” and his Twitter reads like horse_ebooks:
Your Mom really was awesome if she packed Gushers in your lunchbox. Don't forget to send good luck messages to your favorite Olympians!
— AIKIKO – FJM (@fatherjohnmisty) January 22, 2014
Bored In the USA is the first single, and as the title suggests, is intended to echo Springsteen’s Born In the USA while also updating it for the modern era. The version below is from his appearance on Letterman, and so has a laugh track, which is accidental but nonetheless perfect.
http://youtu.be/hIFrG_6fySg
