John Darnielle recently became the latest literary musician — following Craig Finn and Josh Ritter — to stop by Wits, where he performed All Eternals Deck B-side “Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece” before competing in a trivia game with comedian John Hodgman, Neil Gaiman, and others for the Minneapolis Public Radio variety show. Above, enjoy a clip from the musical segment, in which Darnielle prefaces the sullen tune with a story about how its title was inspired by a film scene starring the great character actor Lon Chaney, Jr.
“As with most songs that come from movies that you wouldn’t otherwise have spent a lot of extra time with,” he adds, “I sort of found something to cry about in it.”