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Video: Ben Gibbard: "Palmcorder Yajna" (Mountain Goats Cover)

Like so many of the best Mountain Goats songs, "Palmcorder Yajna", from 2004's We Shall All Be Healed, reeks with bitterness. "If anybody comes in to our room while we're asleep/ I hope they incinerate everybody in it," John Darnielle sneers, before a chorus of "And the headstones climbed up the hills."

Ben Gibbard's take on "Palmcorder"? Not so bitter. Not bitter at all, in fact. Slowly, sweetly, luxuriating in the melody, Gibbard turns what once seemed to be an angry druggie rant into an elegy for anyone so addicted they "dream of a factory where they manufacture what I needed." Fittingly, Gibbard is bathed in soft amber light in this video, from his solo show at Philadelphia's Theatre of the Living Arts last night. (Thanks to reader Sam Sodomsky for the tip!)

Posted by Amy Phillips on Thu: 05-10-07: 04:23 PM CDT | Digg this article | Add to del.icio.us | Permalink
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