Father John Misty unboxes his new LP 'Pure Comedy' (watch), talks image, drugs, religion and more

The packaging on the deluxe edition of Father John Misty’s new album is pretty cool, involving a clear outer sleeve, a die-cut inner sleeve, various booklets, marbled vinyl and more. It’s not quite as elaborate as the I Love You, Honeybear deluxe edition, but it also won’t warp the vinyl like that one did either. Josh took time out of a recent busy morning to make a little unboxing video for it and you can watch that, and check out a few songs off the album, below.

Pure Comedy is out in deluxe and not-so-deluxe-but-just-fine editions on April 7 via Sub Pop. Preorders are available. You can read more about it in a new New York Times feature interview where he discusses his knowingly pretentious image, his pentacostal upbringing and more:

“I have a pretty good idea of what it looks like on the internet today about me,” he said. “I’m symbolic of a thing white people really hate about themselves. And the fact that I appear to be enjoying it is a bridge too far. It’s like, ‘You should be sitting around, hating yourself on Twitter, like all of us.’ Interpretive thinking, as an art form, is dying. We enjoy the dopamine rush of outrage so much more than the slow-burning nutrition you get from thinking with nuance.”

Mr. Tillman’s nearly apostolic enthusiasm for art and ideas — when he talked to me about “the isolation of late-era capitalism,” he wasn’t joking — is likely to be the residue of a late bloom. For instance, he didn’t hear the Beatles until he was 18. (When he did, “I was like, ‘This is [extremely] incredible.’”) His childhood in Rockville, Md., was dominated by religious instruction and fear. “Fourth through eighth grade, I was having demons cast out of me, speaking in tongues, and learning Zionist propaganda at a Pentecostal messianic Jewish cult school.” He said his parents and teachers instructed him to ignore the material world and focus on End Times, which were imminent; his sense of humor was proof that he was possessed by demons.

“I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD by three therapists,” he said. Mr. Tillman has such severe depression and anxiety, he can’t take vacations. In lieu of anti-depressants, he self-medicates with micro-doses of LSD. “Acid really helps,” he said. “I probably shouldn’t talk about this, because Jeff Sessions will come after me.”

Father John Misty will soon be on tour, including a sold-out show at Brooklyn’s Kings Theatre in May.

—