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Underground > Radio & Music >

The Mountain Goats

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14:28 / 04.12.06

My admiration for John Darnielle has increased over the course of his last few albums, and "The Sunset Tree" in particular, to the extent that he now unquestionably tops the extremely short list of currently active song-writers who I consider to be worth a damn.

What with all the unbridled praise I've offered up to him over the years, you'd think the least he could do would be to visit the UK once in a blue moon to play for me.. oh well, maybe next year.

Haus of Mystery

14:46 / 05.12.06

'The Sunset Tree' is one of the most emotionally charged albums I've ever heard. 'Song for Dennis Brown', and 'Pale Green Things' send shivers down by spine. Even as I type this in fact.

16:40 / 05.12.06

Yes.

It's such an incredible album, I'm still at a loss to find anything to write about it. It speaks for itself far too well.

14:03 / 27.03.07

Mountain Goats interview over on 43 Folders.

17:33 / 27.03.07

Oh, and Darnielle has been tapped to write a book on Black Sabbath in the latest batch of 33 1/3 books.

He's got a thing for heavy metal -- it should be interesting.

12:40 / 28.03.07

Sweet! I've never been terribly bothered about those books in the past, but that one should definitely be worth reading (which album is he doing?? fingers crossed for 'Volume 4'..).

In other news, I note that the Mountain Goats website has a thriving new forum, and it is spiriting to learn that the Mountain Goats core fan-base consists largely ageing indie nerds and angry 17 year old girls from the Mid-West... two demographics whose recognition of Good Music is not to be questioned! A fine mix, to be sure.

15:25 / 28.03.07

Black Sabbath: Master of Reality - John Darnielle

"Sweet Leaf" and "Solitude."

Full list here.

17:29 / 28.03.07

ooh... that's my no.2 Sabbath album. Great.

13:12 / 03.04.07

Great interview with John Darnielle on Dark But Shining, where he talks exclusively about monsters and horror movies.

I've never before consciously noticed the overt horror imagery creeping into Mountain Goats songs, but... yeah, now it really makes sense:

"I think writing songs is kind of a monstrous activity, really – that when the Frankenstein monster yells at the flames and waves his hands to get them away, he’s actually singing a song about the fire. That is how I think of the whole process of writing, kinda."

MattShepherd: I WEDDED KALI!

23:24 / 14.10.07

I've just been catching up on a pretty good show called "Weeds," and one of the songs on one of the first-season shows floored me -- looking into it, I discover it's called "Cotton," by this band right here.

Is this song typical of them? If so, I think I'm in love.

07:33 / 15.10.07

Yes, 'Cotton' is a fairly Mountain Goaty Mountain Goats song, from towards the end of the album "We Shall All Be Healed".

There are at least ten albums worth of similarly wonderful songs awaiting you, so... dig deep!

The unbeatable trilogy of "Talahasse", "We Shall All Be Healed" and "The Sunset Tree" would all make great places to start and are available nice and cheap from 4AD. If you like what you hear, you can then spend some highly rewarding years exploring the woods of the pre-4AD lo-fi stuff...

08:23 / 21.11.07

So, new Mountain Goats album, "Heretic Pride" is due for release on Feb 19th. Wouldn't normally go out of my way to post such needlessly anticipatory type news, except that I'm sure Barbelith types will join me in celebrating the fact that, OMG, it has **the most exciting pre-release track-listing ever** ;

01 Sax Rohmer #1
02 San Bernardino
03 Heretic Pride
04 Autoclave
05 New Zion
06 So Desperate
07 In the Craters on the Moon
08 Lovecraft in Brooklyn
09 Tianchi Lake
10 How to Embrace a Swamp Creature
11 Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident
12 Sept 15 1983
13 Michael Myers Resplendent

OMG part.2 comes via the fact that after what seems like decades of fruitless waiting, The Mountain Goats are finally making a brief visit to the UK, and I have a ticket to see him/them at The Union Chapel on Dec. 18th. The front pew is mine!

13:21 / 21.11.07

Are they touring with a drummer?

I saw 'em and they borrowed the opening act's drummer for their last couple of songs.

That tracklisting looks way cool. Marduk, Lovecraft, Michael Myers, Swamp Creatures - I think it's another concept album.

About my favorite things.

Haus of Mystery

10:19 / 22.11.07

Michael Myers Resplendent

As if I didn't love them enough already.

Dec 18th? I've got a sneaking suspicion that's the same day as Jeffrey Lewis is playing, but if not I'm a-there there there.

11:03 / 22.11.07

That tracklisting looks way cool. Marduk, Lovecraft, Michael Myers, Swamp Creatures - I think it's another concept album.

About my favorite things.

There was some talk a while back that the next album would be a collection of "monster" songs, but that was apparently dropped last I heard, with a few remnants turning up on "Get Lonely". Could be some of it has been reinstated here though...

Were this album to link together the various extraordinary things hinted at in the titles into some kind of mind-boggling narrative concept with the usual 'Goats mastery of song-writing and performance in place, it would be, well... immediate shoe-in for my favourite record ever I suspect.

We should remember though that previous unusual Mountain Goats song titles have not always been immediately reflective of their content, witness the likes of "Palmcorder Yajna", "Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod?", "Oceanographer's Choice" and so forth.

"Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident" sounds pretty specific though!

The UK Mountain Goats shows are taking place as part of a showcase bill with a couple of other singer-songwriter types by the way, with tMG second on the bill, although I have it on good authority they will be doing a full hour's set.

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