Photo by Guy Lowndes

It’s been troubled days for the United States of America, that much is true and their new Messiah of indie folk, Josh Tillman aka FATHER JOHN MISTY, is also infected by it. Following the already quite politically charged Holy Hell back in November, Tillman now has shared another new song to process the election of Donald J. Trump, although he told NPR.org that it’s not a political track ‘There’s nothing political about ‘Pure Comedy,’ unless that’s what the viewer wants, even with all the gratuitous footage of political figures. The video is only ‘about Trump’ in that the video is about human beings.’ Well, we think differently.

On top of it, the third solo album by Tillman under his moniker – which also goes by the name Pure Comedy – is up for a release on April 7 via Sub Pop, and it’s an epic 75-minutes-long release. All details can be found below. The press text describes the content of the new FATHER JOHN MISTY with the following quite poetic words:

Pure Comedy is the story of a species born with a half-formed brain. The species’ only hope for survival, finding itself on a cruel, unpredictable rock surrounded by other species who seem far more adept at this whole thing (and to whom they are delicious), is the reliance on other, slightly older, half-formed brains.

‘Pure Comedy’ – Tracklist:

01. Pure Comedy
02. Total Entertainment Forever
03. Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution
04. Ballad of the Dying Man
05. Birdie
06. Leaving LA
07. A Bigger Paper Bag
08. When the God of Love Returns There’ll Be Hell to Pay
09. Smoochie
10. Two Wildly Different Perspectives
11. The Memo
12. So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain
13. In Twenty Years of So

Following a short video for Pure Comedy earlier which was created by Matthew Daniel Siskin and ‘everyone in America’ as Tillman states, healso released a 25-minute documentary giving insights into the recording process of the record.

The second single off the new album arrives in the form of Two Wildly Different Perspectives, another politically charged piece, this time about the perils of extreme polarization. The clip features kids playing with toy guns and was once again created with the help of Siskin. It is captured with the text ‘More kids are going to die now thanks to the unbelievably selfish immigration policy of places like Saudi Arabia and the USA.’

The third track released off FATHER JOHN MISTY is the gentle Ballad Of The Dying Man which is now also up for

A fourth song released off the new album arrives in the form of the epic 13-minute long Leaving LA which Tillman debuted at Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 show, ending the performance with the words ‘That’s the whitest, most acoustic thing you’ve ever seen.’

Teaser number five goes by the name Total Entertainment Forever and was debuted at Saturday Night Live. The track notably opens with the line: ‘Bedding Taylor Swift every night inside the Oculus Rift/After mister and the missus finish dinner and the dishes.’ Quite a thing, typical Tillman at his best. Watch his performance as well as the other previously released songs right here.


‘Total Entertainment Forever’


‘Leaving LA’


‘Ballad Of The Dying Man’


‘Two Wildly Different Perspectives’


‘Pure Comedy: The Film’


‘Pure Comedy’


FATHER JOHN MISTY