Don’t you know your creator is running out of ideas

The AV Club always does a great job with their interviews, getting people to talk about what inspires them in a way never comes off as pretentious. Good things (in fact, sometimes great things) have come from these interviews. Their recent interview with Kurt Vile, who’s becoming one of my favorite artists of late, turned me on to an awesome song by Bert Jansch called ‘Poison’. The guitar playing is raw and full of genuine feeling. The singing is one of the best compliments to this style of blues-folk (or “epic-folk” as Kurt Vile refers to it). The connections between these artists, despite the great time between them, is uncanny. They both play sort of ‘end-of-the-world’ folk, which varies between sweet and dire – this Bert Jansch song certainly being closer to the latter. Plus, it has one of the best lyrics I’ve heard in a while, which is “don’t you know your creator is running out of ideas.” Kurt Vile got it right, that line is truly “the most fucked-up thing in the world.” Enjoy this Bert Jansch song above and a Kurt Vile song – appropriately enough entitled ‘Jesus Fever’ – off his most recent album, Smoke Ring For My Halo, below.

–Matt May