For the Krishnacore Bands is an unreleased song by the Mountain Goats. A version of it was released to Mountain Goats newsletter subscribers on July 24, 2017.
Contents
Lyrics[edit | edit source]
You stuck by the scene, but did the scene stick by you? In a few cases, yes Maybe in one or two You routinely got called out by Maximum Rock 'n Roll And you weren't ever going to fit in At the Fireside Bowl Back in the day, punks Practically declaring war As if there were anything More orthodox than hardcore As if there were anything more orthodox than hardcore You stuck to your guns when you were running out of ammo Even on package tours supporting metalcore guys in cammo Find more common threads than you'd expect to in these places Always see the holy name light up a few new faces And back in the day, punks Still with plenty of shit to say Covertly cashing in On dead stock of your early demos on eBay Where were they on the night you first shaved your head? Drinking beer in a field someplace With all creation overhead And where were they when the locals were ganging up on you? Lining up to join some nearly-identical crew You stuck it out for several years or maybe you moved on Nobody's really sure where Jayadvaita's gone Some say he's a stoner now Creeper Dave swears that's true But when you point one finger at the Krishna punks I've got two fingers up for you And back in the day, punks Singing the same old song About the kids who brought the banquet to the matinee But preached just a little too long Yeah, they preached just a little too long
Comments by John Darnielle About this Song[edit | edit source]
- In the newsletter containing the download link, John wrote "here's a personal favorite song I wrote earlier this year, exclusive to subscribers of this newsletter until some joker uploads it to YouTube but y'all get it first -- who knows if or when it'll ever see daylight in any other form. It furthers my recent interest in bridges that modulates and I think also features one of the kids chiming in at some point."
- " I know I spent some time trying to figure out how to play this song, which is not among the most requested, in the bottom ten, even, because hardly anybody's ever heard it. But, uh, it's about -- Well, let's talk about hardcore for a second. So you have punk rock, which is essentially the outgrowth of some trash rock stuff that's been happening largely in Cleveland and the Midwest and stuff in the sixties, and the New York Dolls in the early seventies, right. And you have the punks, but they're really just rock bands with funny hair, right -- I mean, I love their music, but they're just rock bands. But the outgrowth of the punks is hardcore, which are not just rock bands, because many of them can't play, right. And so, but, but they believe very strongly in the things they believe in, and their feeling is that they- they can power through on the strength of their convictions, right. And, uh, and, and many people buy into this for good reasons, because it's a very heavy scene to be into when everybody believes the same thing and is yelling the same words at the same time, and, you know, it's a very heavy scene, right, the hardcore scene. It also is the sort of scene in which, um, orthodoxy can really sort of take hold, right, everybody's yelling the same words at the same time. That kind of looks like a fascist rally sometimes, right. it feels like a fascist rally, the thing -- The dirty secret those of us on the far left, like myself, believe -- don't -- I know, but the thing we tend to ignore is that one thing about that nationalistic fascist urge is that it feels good. That's why people do it, because it feels real fine to all be yelling the same thing angrily at the same time, right. So here's the hardcore scene, it's getting more, especially in the U.S., because the U.S. has been specialized in orthodoxy since at least 1700, right, and so, uh, so there's all these hardcore bands. They are for the most part leaning left, but not always. Um, and, uh, and then out of a city well-known to everybody here, there's a movement called straightedge that comes up, right, and it's a -- many many positive things about straightedge that are very good, but there's also a very firm orthodoxy, you can get kicked out of your local straightedge scene if you break edge, right. And, and out of this scene comes a thing that most of you have never heard of, called Krishnacore, right. Um, and that is when some of the straightedge punks decide that they want to join ISKCON, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, founded in 1967 by A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, uh, and which I used to be a member of. And, uh, that's where I get on board, right. And there were not that many Krishnacore bands, but they made a big noise, because they were very controversial among the punks. Because they did not drink and they did not smoke and they did not, you know, they mainly just showed up to the show and handed out free food and then played some blistering punk rock. But at what point do you say, you're in our scene but you're not of our scene, because most of what we do you're against? But I always was sympathetic to the Krishnacore bands, because I, at heart, am a zealot, right. And anybody who sort of finds a thing and they just follow it, those are my people." 2019-04-26 - 9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.
- "I was sitting around one day, I was thinking about two things: I was thinking about Krishnacore, and I was thinking about Craig Finn. What would it be like if Craig wrote a song about the Krishnacore bands? This is called 'For the Krishnacore Bands.'" -- 2019-04-28 - Wilbur Theatre - Boston, MA
Things Referenced in this Song[edit | edit source]
- Krishnacore is a genre of punk music influenced by the Hare Krishna religious tradition.
- The Fireside Bowl is a bowling alley in Chicago that also served as a punk music venue during the 1990s.
Live Shows this Song Was Played at[edit | edit source]
- 2017-07-03 - The Empty Bottle - Chicago, IL
- 2019-04-26 - 9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.
- 2019-04-28 - Wilbur Theatre - Boston, MA
- 2019-05-16 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL
- 2019-09-13 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
- 2020-02-21 - Swedish American Hall - San Francisco, CA
Videos of this Song[edit | edit source]
- 2019-04-26 - 9:30 Club - Washington, D.C.
- 2019-05-16 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL
- 2019-09-13 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
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