na: the mountain goats
The first time I heard the Mountain Goats I was living on Long Island, a suburban no man’s land if ever there was one. This was way back before eMusic, when the only way to find out about great music was either through the local record stores (Long Island had none), magazines (I got plenty), or college radio. One night late on WUSB, the Stony Brook University station, I heard the following chorus:
“And the Chicago Cubs will beat every team in the league
And the Tampa Bay Buck will take it all the way to January
And I will love you again! I will love you like I used to!”
I don’t even like sports and I was sold. A few days later I trekked into big, bad New York City to buy Nine Black Poppies, and my love affair with the Mountain Goats has been strong and steady ever since.
Those unfamiliar with the treasure trove of early records that hit the site today might be a little taken aback by how primitive they are. It’s just John Darnielle’s voice and his guitar, recorded into a cheap portable cassette player. A few months after I got Poppies, I remember excitedly playing it for a friend of mine. After the first song he wryly responded “Wow, I see he spared no expense on the recording.” That, to me, was missing the point — it was precisely because the albums were so rough and unvarnished that I fell in love with them. It was like this hotline straight to someone’s heart — the longing and hurt and romance and humor all coming out with no barrier between. It felt human, and the humanity of it was what I loved. The songs were smart without being arch, and honest without being teenage emo.
It’s hard to pick a runaway winner of the albums that showed up today, but my two favorites are Ghana, which collects a bunch of MG rarities, and Nothing for Juice. The latter starts with the wrenching “Then the Letting Go,” and moves straight on into the magisterial “Alpha Double Negative: Going to California,” the plaintive “Going to Reykjavik” and the frenetic “Going to Scotland.” A bit of trivia about those “Going To…” titles: the couple that features prominently in them is the same couple that the entirety of Tallahassee is about. After they burned each other out in a blaze of bad words and broken hearts over that album’s brutal, brilliant quarter-album, Darnielle decided to lay them to rest for good.
Because I suspect the Mountain Goats are the kind of band people form strong bonds with, I’d love to hear stories about the first time you heard them. Any strong memories you associate with them? Any one song that resonates a little louder with you than the others?
I don’t know that I’d heard them much before I first saw them play in Ames, Iowa (where John was living at the time, I think). A tiny on-campus bar & grill with a stage elevated about 6 inches above the floor.
John Vanderslice, who I had also not heard much before, opened.
A fantastic show. Tiny and intimate, just like the early Goats albums.
I love Tallahassee from start to finish, one of my favourites. I can’t remember where I heard it but I had a mp3 dub of it that kept on getting repeat plays on my computer and when I was back in Australia on holiday I went to my favourite record store Big Star and bought a copy.
I used to play it at work a few times and some people really liked it and some couldn’t get their ears around his voice. I like it, very distinct like CAlvin Johnson but in a totally different pitch mind you.
I keep on missing him live when he comes to London too… dang!
Not to try to out-indie geek you or anything, but I always thought Tallahassee was about the couple from the Alpha series, not the going to series. Sometimes they overlap, but I think most of the going to titles are independent…
Interesting - i’ll have to confirm. i e-mailed John when Tallahassee first came out, so I’ll go back and check my notes!
I think I ordered the first Ajax single, back in the days when Ajax mail-orders were my favorite part of the month, and was pretty impressed. Then I got the Transmissions to Horace tape–contained in its entirety on Bitter Melon Farm–and I was totally sold. “No, I Can’t,” followed by “Alpha Desperation March”–WOW. (I’ve always wanted to hear a version of “No, I Can’t” sung by a woman, which would give it a very different sort of tone…)
In the division of his comedy songs: I’ve always loved “Seed Song,” now compiled on Protein Source.
Secret favorite Mountain Goats album: Sweden. Was just talking with a friend today about what a total killer that album is.
My favorite MG song changes daily, but right now, I’m partial to “Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod” off of The Sunset Tree: “And then I’m awake and I’m guarding my face / hoping you don’t break my stereo / because it’s the one thing that I couldn’t live without / and so I think about that / and then I sort of black out.” Looking forward to checking out the “new” titles here. Sort of softens the blow of Epitaph leaving.
You guys should do a “20 best Mountain Goats songs” in the tradition of your previous lists with Pavement and Spoon.
My first introduction (later than most of you) was “No Children” from Tallahassee. I have followed 4AD’s releases pretty closely for about twenty years, and I heard this song on a sampler flash-site. I must have listened to that song 20 times in a row; I had literally never heard anything like it.
The rest of Tallahassee also blew my mind, and is still my favorite of theirs/his.
I remember thinking at the time, “wow, what a weird band for 4AD to sign!” But I think 4AD fans have been saying that every few years ever since Throwing Muses and Pixies joined when 4AD was of the premier goth and atmospheric rock music labels in the world. A few albums in, I think it has been a strangely good fit.
Yeah, as an above commenter pointed out, Tallahasse is about the ‘Alpha Couple’ the dysfunctional vodka swilling stars of the Alpha series. The ‘Going To…’ series is based around another character entirely.
I guess I came a little late to the Mountain Goats party, too. I was introduced to them through the Atom and His Package album, Redefining Music, on which he covered 3 MG songs (Seed Song, Going to Georgia, Alpha Desperation March). Tallahassee was the first album I got around to buying, but I really think Sunset Tree and All Hail West Texas (which I don’t think is on emusic) are my favorites. I think The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton, off of the latter album, has gradually become my favorite MG song.
Oh, and even though I like Mountain Goats better than Atom and His Package these days, Atom’s albums are still well worth owning, too!