the Mountain Goats

To preface:
This is the first in a planned series of four posts, which may be reduced as my procrastination sees fit. They are being written with the intention of promoting a show so that one of my friends will go with me. Not only is the main attraction one of my favorite bands, but the opening act is also in the top 20. (Bright Eyes with the Mountain Goats opening to stop teasing you.) So without further ado:


The Mountain Goats is an indie-rock band based around the musical stylings of John Darnielle founded circa 1991. The band is constantly evolving and didn't have a real second member (Peter Hughes) until 2003. John Wurster and Franklin Bruno have been along for much of the ride since then too. However, depending on whether it's a tour or studio work, as well as other factors, the members still come and go.

Much to my disappointment the Mountain Goats released an album called The Life of the World to Come, in which every song is named as a Bible verse. I don't even mean they are named things like: the Whore of Babylon, they have names such as Genesis 3:23 and Psalms 40:2. I guess this has something to do with a Meth addiction and Christianity helping Darnielle overcome it, so maybe I'm asking too much. It honestly isn't very preachy and some of the songs are quite good, but I don't like any enough to give an official thumbs up. They also have a new album, All Eternals Deck, which I haven't fully processed yet, so will not be mentioned more than this sentence and the next one. Shit's good son.
Now for some song recommendations.

"Up the Wolves" is thematically about the difficulty of true forgiveness, but also the fulfillment of it as well as the anger associated with false accusations. There are also lyrical allusions to the found of Rome by Romulus and Remus in the chorus. For me it is one of those songs that I feel awesome while singing along with it even though it doesn't necessarily mean anything to me. The lyrics are beautifully written and delivered powerfully. As many who know anything about my taste in music, it isn't the subjective meaning of the lyrics, but the emotional response I get from it that matters to me. Like the old saying/expressions says, the best actors can elicit a response by reading the phone book. Well I think that the best singers are able to express emotions while singing nonsense, or at least lyrics which don't have to mean anything specifically to the listener.



"This Year" is the Mountain Goats' most mainstream and straightforward song. Like a lot of tracks from the album "The Sunset Tree" this is a semi-autobiographical one. Plain and simple it's a song about teenage angst, rebellion, and relationships. Being a teenager is confusing, luckily we have alcohol, hormones, and video games to guide teh youth through these tribulating times.



"Dance Music" is another autobiographical ditty, this one taking place for a younger young John Darnielle. Alcohol and relationships are back in the focus but this time the stepdad is the love-hurt drunk and lil' Johnny is on the defensive.

Sock puppets make this >2:00 song not hurt your emo heart as much.


Here is a live version, included since many live versions posted to the internet are terrible cell phone captures, and this one is pretty good.



"Love Love Love" is a song about love. I feel like that's all that I should write. It is slower and sweeter than most of the Mountain Goats catalog, and sharply contrasts much of the rest of "The Sunset Tree." It is in my mind a great list of the things people do for love, a la Droopie Dog. It is simple, beautiful, lovely, simply beautiful, beautifully lovely, and lovingly simple.

I am giving this version because it represents my introduction to the Mountain Goats. Suffering from a bout of insomnia after a break up one night I was up at about 5AM watching video after video of two brothers communicating via vlogs. I worked the next day at 8 AM and I couldn't achieve a peaceful mind until I happened upon this video. (Song actually starts at 0:33, and for the record the brothers still do a similar video series and they have gotten much better.)



The final song, and the only one which isn't from "The Sunset Tree" is called "No Children" from "Tallahassee". It is a gleefully hateful song. It is the polar opposite of the song "Love Will Keep Us Together," so if you hate that song then you oughta love this one. It tells of a couple past holding on to a loveless marriage. The song's name seems to imply that they don't have any reason to stay married since they don't even have any children. The only reason is because they both hate each other so much and want to make each other miserable by refusing to end the marriage. hat's my two cents at least.



bonus song that I'm not going to write about because this post is getting long enough as it is: