Fangio Listener’s Guide, Part II:
The Songs, Explained
That’s me, actually, not Fangio. Read the full story at the reliably awesome Clunkbucket.
Pleased to report that as of this week Fayettenam is not just taking but filling orders for both the 7″ single and the LP. They exist!
Today, in celebration of this fact, some further elaboration to enhance your listening experience. Spoiler alert: lyrics and song explanations beneath the cut!
Fangio Update: 7″ Out Today… Sort Of
So here’s the deal: it’s still indie rock, and sometimes, when you’re doing super-limited, tiny runs of things, pressing plants aren’t always as cooperative as you’d like them to be. So yeah, the actual, physical 7″ single we’ve been promising? It doesn’t quite exist yet. The covers look great though! And we have been assured that the records themselves will indeed be pressed, along with the the LP, in time for the latter’s promised due date of September 7.
In the meantime: order from Fayettenam and Scott will see to it that you get the downloads now to tide you over.
In more exciting news:
Five thousand plus views in a week! We are blowing up in the Hooniverse, on the Autoblog, en français, in Polish (!), on Saabs United, and, most importantly, in Argentina! We can only hope for such love from actual, uh, music critics.
My God Is An Angry God: The Video
Davey does a better job of explaining how this happened than I can. The brief was Grand Prix meets Alphaville. How’d we do?
Fangio Listener’s Guide, Part I:
The Illustrated TimelineIt’s time, folks. Today, a little history to get you up to speed. Bold bits link to images and are worth checking out for contextual immersion’s sake. Enjoy!
1895
October 8: Juan Perón born in Lobos, Buenos Aires, Argentina1899
August 24: Jorge Luis Borges born in Buenos Aires, Argentina1911
June 24: Juan Manuel Fangio born in Balcarce, Argentina1912
March 12: Sixten Sason born in Skövde, Sweden1915
November 15: Augusto Pinochet born in Valparaiso, Chile
Fangio update; Smooth Sounds out now
So yeah, as I’m sure many reading this are aware, it’s July now. But I only called it a “target date,” didn’t I? Not every shot is a bullseye.
New and final release dates, and to quote Scott at Fayettenam, this is a “hard deadline”:
7″: August 10
LP: September 7That’s the cover of the LP above. The vaunted video will be up when the single drops. Yet to come: an exhaustive listener’s guide, a Fangio timeline, downloadable posters, Fangio: the Novelization, a feature-length film. Better not to hold your breath on the last two, maybe. Seriously though, we’re putting together a full-on assault. When it’s over, people who google “Fangio” will see pictures of Saabs. I am bending the fabric of reality to my will!
Meanwhile: in the fine tradition of Inland Empire tribute albums past comes Smooth Sounds: The Future Hits of Wckr Spgt, the Shrimper 20th anniversary compilation. Thirty-six Shrimper alums—including the likes of Refrigerator, the Mountain Goats, Lou Barlow, Franklin Bruno, Simon Joyner, Charlie McAlister, and Jad freakin’ Fair fercryinoutloud—interpret Wckr Spgt songs penned exclusively for the purpose. The one I was assigned afforded me the opportunity to make real a long-threatened idea for something called Joel Division: Spgt songs sung in the manner of Ian Curtis. You need this.
¡Fangio ya viene!
I know it seems like I’ve been talking about this forever, but cut me some slack: it was only this time last year that the songs even started getting written. And now? Well look at that shit, will you?
Fangio—the album-length sequel to a song I wrote for my Casio-powered solo project, Party of One, in 1987, a song that imagined five-time Formula One World Champion and Argentine folk hero Juan Manuel Fangio piloting a Saab 900 Turbo SPG across the Andes mountains on a covert mission to assassinate Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet—currently sits in pit lane, crew scurrying about, final preparations being made before advancing to the starting grid.
There are ten songs, and their titles are as follows:
01 Operational Detachment Juan Manuel Fangio
02 El Narcoavión
03 My God Is An Angry God (Juan Manuel Fangio Castiga los Pecados del Mundo)
04 La Consciencia Intranquila de Juan Manuel Fangio
05 Edwardian Gray
06 Bebe’s Song
07 El Hombre Mas Macho
08 Compared to Their Predecessors, Today’s Politically Motivated Kidnappers Are Total Dicks
09 Los Viejos
10 Beat Your Halfshafts Into Swords (The Radicalization and Redemption of Juan Manuel Fangio)That’s too much music to fit on a single LP, so Fayettenam will release the album in two parts: the first two songs as a 7″ single, the rest to follow on a 12″ LP; all of the songs will be available as digital downloads as well. The single and album sleeves will be silkscreened and gorgeous, you have my word.
Also gorgeous? The insanely, pants-shittingly awesome video I just made with former Jalopnik contributor, Bob Mould backup singer, fugitive from Albanian justice, and all around cars-and-music Renaissance man Davey G. Johnson, during the shooting of which the above photo was taken. It’s for “My God Is an Angry God,” and we’ll be putting it up around the same time the single is ready to go (with a sneak preview possible earlier if you’re paying attention here, hint hint).
Target date for all of this ridiculousness: June. Official countdown starts now.
In the meantime: I’m playing a stealthy show here in Rochester tomorrow night, at Casa del Awesome. Contact Brian for directions and info!
New Aussie Dates, Old Aussie Photos
The Mountain Goats return to Australia and New Zealand in April, and to celebrate I’ve posted some pics from our last trip to the southern hemisphere. The one where we had to get up at six o’clock every morning. Oh man that sucked. See you soon!
Credit Where Credit Is Due
Some might attribute yesterday’s miraculous eleventh-hour rescue of Saab from the jaws of oblivion to divine intervention, some to the remarkable worldwide demonstrations of customer loyalty over the past month, some to the Swedish government’s finally stepping in to back up the loan money, some to the indefatigable efforts of Spyker chief—that “tall, Dutch optimist,” in the words of a friend—Victor Muller in closing the deal. I prefer to think it was the “Save Saab” sticker affixed to my bass last week on national network television that clinched it.
January News and Announcements! (Back to Me)
Big news: Fangio has a home. Look for vinyl and online releases forthcoming from Fayettenam Records this spring. Totally stoked about this. More details soon.
Also notable:
This has been up for a little while now, but here’s an interview I did with our old friend Anisse Gross where I’m asked about Facebook, Auto-Tune, and what kind of car I want to be when I grow up.
Speaking of the last, my Saab and I got briefly famous on the internets a couple weeks ago when we went to Detroit to participate in this. Full report over on Firebird Man, or watch me try to sell you a 22-year-old car over at Autoweek.
In Mountain Goats news, the Cemetery Gates session we did at the end of the last tour is up now and it looks and sounds kind of amazingly great.
Finally, if you’re up late tonight and you have a TV (or if you have the internet any time for the rest of eternity after that), we’re gonna be playing on Jimmy Fallon. If you miss it and you don’t have the internet, don’t worry: I’m pretty sure my mom will be taping it.
Unsolicited and Highly Subjective
End-of-Decade Ten-Best List
Except mine is twelve. And I don’t even claim that they’re the best, necessarily. In fact, I’m fairly certain that I haven’t even heard a lot of the best music that was created in the last ten years at this point. But these are the albums that got under my skin the most, the ones to which I’ve found myself returning again and again, the music that’s become a permanent part of my personal canon. Not counting any of the albums I was personally a part of creating in the last decade—all of which are surpassingly brilliant and together comprise their own ten-best list—and in order from most to least obvious…
