Shocking news in the music industry: The Mountain Goats switch from 4AD to Merge Records for the follow-up to last year’s The Life of the World to Come (TMT Review) and beyond, officially making John Darnielle the most inoffensive yet sexy figure in music today. Merge also signed Darnielle’s other project, The Extra Lens, who have plans to release their album Undercard October 19, keeping everything under one North Carolinian roof. (Pitchfork helpfully points out that Darnielle and Merge both call Chapel Hill home, while MG drummer Jon Wurster also plays for Superchunk, a band nearly synonymous with “Chapel Hill indie” and comprised of Merge founders, yadda, yadda, yadda — and the circle of life continues).
The Extra Lens are not quite as NC-centric as it may seem, however. John Darnielle and Franklin Bruno initiated the group in the Inland Empire and recorded Undercard in both Carrboro, NC, and Brooklyn. While Darnielle and Bruno purportedly contribute equally to the project, based on this free track from the new album, they, uh… sound pretty much like The Mountain Goats. Still, Darnielle’s voice and Franklin’s arrangements sound decent, if not different — what more can you ask for?
Undercard tracklisting:
01. Adultery
02. Crusierweights
03. Only Existing Footage
04. Communicating Doors
05. Programmed Cell Death
06. How I Left the Ministry
07. Some Other Way
08. Ambivalent Landscape Z
09. In Germany Before the War
10. Tug on the Line
11. Rockin’ Rockin’ Twilight of the Gods
12. Dogs of Clinic 17
• The Mountain Goats: http://www.mountain-goats.com
• Merge: http://www.mergerecords.com
[Photo: Meg Zimbeck]
