Father John Misty Welcomes Us to the ‘Cultural Low Watermark’ in New Song, ‘The Memo’

After an eventful week that included riding the coattails of Ryan Adams, Taylor Swift and Lou Reed all at once and accusations that he cribbed his latest music video from Funny or Die, Father John Misty has shared a rather timely new song.

“The Memo” opens with Josh Tillman musing, “Gonna steal some bedsheets / From an amputee / Gonna mount ‘em on a canvas in the middle of a gallery / I’m gonna tell everybody it was painted by a chimpanzee / But just between you and me / Here at the cultural low watermark / If it’s fraud or art / They’ll pay you to believe.” Certainly, the new song serves as a pretty on-the-nose filter through which to reflect on Tillman’s headline-stealing moments as of late. Listen to the entire track below:

After Ryan Adams debuted his full-album cover of Taylor Swift’s 1989, Tillman promptly and slyly released his own renditions of “Blank Space” and “Welcome to New York” in the tone of the Velvet Underground. He later yanked the songs after the late Reed appeared to him in a dream and told the singer, "Don't summon the dead."

Then, on Friday (Sept. 5), Funny or Die claimed Tillman’s latest music video for “The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment” ripped off the comedy website's own video with Dave Franco. Tillman responded by admitting he did imitate the clip and that it’s “no longer possible to satirize the media.”

“The Memo” is Tillman’s first song since his second Father John Misty album, I Love You, Honeybear, which arrived earlier this year.