Farmer John Misery: “I Ride for Nickelback”

Father John Misty, a bearded ouroboros whose new album Pure Comedy is due out in April, has thoughts about Nickelback. Sure, we all have thoughts about Nickelback and, unless you’re The Chainsmokers, those feelings tend to be less than positive. Even police in Canada tried to use Silver Side Up as a deterrent for a while, before backing down and apologizing in the most Canadian move of all time. Nickelback are, all told, a difficult band to defend. Because they are bad.

In an interview with the NME, however, Misty says that he’ll defend the banal quartet any day of the week. “I will ride for Nickelback, OK?” he told the British magazine. “Because this whole Chainsmokers thing I read about recently, when I was wasting time on the internet, and someone wrote some article about how horrible Nickelback is or something.”

He’s not into the deep cuts: “‘How You Remind Me’… That’s a fucking great song. Have you heard that song? It’s great.” But that utilitarianism is very much the point for Misty. “That’s the problem with the internet and social media and stuff,” he said. “The stuff that you like, you can’t say what it is that you like about something. If you like something, it’s supposed to be beyond the intellectual. But I will ride for Nickelback. I want that on the record. ‘Farmer John Misery: I ride for Nickelback.’”

There are problems with Misty’s analysis. First of all, you can say what it is that you like about something, you just have to, well, say it. He doesn’t quite get around to that here. And, yeah, this is all part of an aesthetic for the artist: uncaring but passionate, a lover of pop music, a dash of kitschy hedonism to go with his refinement.

But that’s all fine. He wanted it on the record, so here it is. Farmer John Misery will ride for Nickelback. 

Just don’t defend the fucking Chainsmokers.

Lead image by Bryan Parker via Father John Misty on Facebook.

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