The Mountain Goats

Three cheers for the greatest simile ever written:

"Wax on, wax off..." "But Mr. Miyagi, I don't see how this is helping me do Karate..." "Pubic hair is weakness, Daniel-san!"

Would anyone be up for a Mountain Goats elimination game?

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

^What would we be eliminating?

"Wax on, wax off..." "But Mr. Miyagi, I don't see how this is helping me do Karate..." "Pubic hair is weakness, Daniel-san!"

People who don't like the Mountain Goats.

(awkward silence)

It'd be hard to do every single album...maybe just the top 15-20 songs on last.fm?

And if we do it, we should start a new thread in forum games and leave this one for discussion.

edited 12th Jun '10 8:39:40 PM by newtonthenewt

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

Mountain Goats story: I was listening to Old College Try and thought of Clay and Bloberta's relationship in Moral Orel. I teared up a little.

I know that's kind of sad but dammit, it's a sad album.

edit: and that metaphor is indeed amazing. totally floored me the first time I heard it.

edited 13th Jun '10 8:32:33 AM by MiracleWhipHipster

The mayo-lution will not be televised.

This is the only Mountain Goats song I've ever heard.

I'm sure you can guess why.

I spread my wings and I learn how to fly....

^ Because Aesop Rock? JD also did "Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle" with them.

edited 13th Jun '10 3:55:06 PM by newtonthenewt

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

Just found this tidbit on the Tallahassee minisite.

edited 15th Jun '10 7:44:01 PM by newtonthenewt

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

TLOTWTC film is up for a short time

edited 22nd Jun '10 1:45:24 AM by newtonthenewt

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

I love how John Darnielle talks absolutely nothing like how he sings.

"Wax on, wax off..." "But Mr. Miyagi, I don't see how this is helping me do Karate..." "Pubic hair is weakness, Daniel-san!"

Broom People is the most beautiful song ever where someone sings in the song.

Swordsman Troper — Reclaiming The Blade — Watch

^^ Yeah...I think he sounds different in like every interview.

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

(The topic in which Newton The Newt has a conversation with himself):

Thoughts on listening to Tallahassee: How the hell did people decide they like "No Children" better than "Old College Try"?

edited 24th Jun '10 12:18:01 AM by newtonthenewt

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

This is the most intense performance I've ever heard of any song ever.

"Wax on, wax off..." "But Mr. Miyagi, I don't see how this is helping me do Karate..." "Pubic hair is weakness, Daniel-san!"

They announced the title and release date of the new album today! All Eternals Deck. Rumors of a 20-page booklet may convince me to buy it rather than obsessively listen to You Tube performances.

edited 9th Dec '10 11:16:30 PM by newtonthenewt

She's playing with fire! He's not ready for Nibbly Pig!

Necroing this thread because Mountain Goats discussion was breaking out in "Gateway Albums".

It's a bit of a trend that Darnielle sticks his more filler-ish songs near the end of his albums, only to have the last song be an absolute masterpiece. See "Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, the Triumph Of", "Pale Green Things", "Michael Myers Resplendant".

And yeah, Get Lonely didn't do much for me either. I suppose I've heard enough breakup music that it didn't seem all that unique to me.

In other news: I'm seeing them on April 2nd! I'm excited.

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

I find Pigs That Ran... to be a strange mixture of poignant and hilarious, especially these lines:

Big bus headed southeast from the courthouse
But I'm not headed southeast from the courthouse
Let some mysterious chunk of space debris
Puncture the roof and set me free

But yeah, you're right in that they tend to fade slightly towards the end before ending on an absolute highlight. I think that they actually out-do themselves on this front with Ezekiel 7 And The Permanent Efficacy Of Grace.

Also, damn you for getting to see them live! I have a feeling that my best chance of seeing them, May 24th in Brighton, will be the start of uni exam period, so might be a no go

edited 8th Mar '11 2:50:35 PM by Saeglopur

Listen to Music with Tropers at The Troper Turntable!

"Pigs That Ran..." is a song about asserting yourself in the face of insurmountable opposition when you have almost none of yourself left to assert, but dammit you're asserting it anyway.

And if it's any consolation, it seems like this band is pretty much always touring, so there will be more opportunities to see them in the future.

edited 8th Mar '11 2:57:59 PM by merton

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

Yeah, that's a pretty solid interpretation of it. I always figured it to be a song about running away from the inevitable despite the fact that you know that the repurcussions of your past actions are going to catch up with you in the end.

Actually, listening to the last four tracks of We Shall All Be Healed, I think that they might buck the trend of last few tracks fading - they're all pretty solid, and Cotton is an incredibly beautiful and poignant song about trying to bury the past.

Oh, undoubtedly I will get another opportunity to see them eventually. Darnielle is probably one of the most prolific song writers of our generation, give it a year and a half and there'll be another album and another tour

edited 8th Mar '11 3:04:16 PM by Saeglopur

Listen to Music with Tropers at The Troper Turntable!

I can only hope 2014 brings with it a new Mountain Goats album. I found them this year and I'm running out of new material to listen to.

I dislike a lot of the really old recordings, but I like the original No I Can't (as opposed to the redux) and All Hail West Texas, which was made in the same year as Tallahassee I know but is still made in a lo-fi format. It's mostly because there are some songs that just start off with other things and then the song picks up and the notes blur together due to the poor quality of the recording and I really don't like that.

My favorite albums are tied between The Sunset Tree and Get Lonely, but I pretty much like every album from All Hail West Texas up until around All Eternals Deck where it's just one or two select favorites that I really like enough to memorize.

Come sail your ships around me, and burn your bridges down.

For Tallahassee, I disagree about the usual Mountain Goats pattern- I think the best tracks are near the end, especially since they all build up to a climax (a duo of a climax- Old College Try and Oceanographer's).

For the Sunset Tree, I think that the most vital portion of the album is the series of song detailing the abuse John suffers from his stepfather. Before, in the previous tracks, it was only hinted at, but in these tracks you see it explicitly.

It starts with Up the Wolves, with John becoming resolute in facing down his stepfather's abuse and making it out alive on the other side. Then, Lion's Teeth- which is his stepfather beating him badly in the car. John fantasizes about the police coming to save him from his stepfather, but in reality they don't. This leads into Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod. The sad thing about this song is that it can fit anywhere on the timeline of the album. It's just a regular day for John. It's the pivotal song of the album, and yet it's about a routine thing in John's life. Then, Magpie comes up; it's about how tense a house can be when one is living with someone like that. It's about trying not to step on eggshells. Magpie... I'm not a huge fan of the song, but I think it illustrates that concept perfectly.

The Sunset Tree is probably my favorite album of theirs. Probably because of my personal connection to abuse. I love the liner notes to the album.

---

Made possible by my stepfather, Mike Noonan (1940-2004): may the peace which eluded you in life be yours now

Dedicated to any young men and women anywhere who live with people who abuse them, with the following good news:
you are going to make it out of there alive
you will live to tell your story
never lose hope

edited 15th Nov '13 11:47:15 PM by cutewithoutthe

I'm reviving this thread to mention that the Jordan Lake Sessions volumes 3 and 4 - part of a series of recordings recorded at the Manifold Recording recording studio last August - are apparently close to being released. Volumes one and two released last December, so volumes 3 and 4 have been coming down the pipe for a while now.

Rumblings are pointing towards a November 5th release on the band's Bandcamp page.

Since this thread went inactive, The Mountain Goats have released six full-length albums. One of them was a lo-fi cassette recording, two of them were concept albums (about wrestling and goths, respectively). On top of the Jordan Lake Sessions, the band have released videos from a "Durham Sessions" concert, held in John Darnielle's place of residence. John has also written two books in this time period.

What have you guys been thinking about the Mountain Goats' recent output? Been liking it, hating it? Have you been bumping the classics?

And what's your opinion on No Children becoming a tiktok meme?

Come sail your ships around me, and burn your bridges down.