The Mountain Goats

I actually like it quite a bit, but I have never heard any of the previous material. I was jarred a bit by what I actually heard, because my expectations were something very different after seeing the "4AD" on the cover. After I recovered, I decided I enjoy it quite a bit: John's voice takes a bit of getting used to, but I love the stories he's telling on this one, and the conflict. Even if the similes get a bit out of hand, some of them are still amazing. And I still contend that "No Children" is one of the best songs of the year. The whole album (Talahassee) is both disturbing and hilarious, all at the same time.

Sweden
Zopolite Machine
Full Force Galesburg

song search:

"Going To Georgia"
"sept 19 triple x love! love!"
"prana ferox"

(Me, I love the three singles/rarities collections to bits.)

**** MODERATOR: REMOVE BELOW WHEN PROMPTED:
(i hope i never have to hear that leonard cohen cover from the last extra glenns record ever again)
****

john i love you and your crazy ass stories.

two releases last year that did it for me are Ghana and All Hail West Texas.

John, I hear you are playing Macrock this year in Virginia? Is that true?

As far as S/D, search the new one & the one before it, All Hail West Texas, & also the cassette "Yam, the King of Crops." Destroy with extreme prejudice the song where I say I never liked Morrissey, maliciously mispronouncing his name, because I have since come to my senses and am a Mozz booster of the first order

S: pretty much everything, but especially Hot Garden Stomp, Beautiful Rat Sunset, Taking The Dative and All Hail West TX (haven't heard Tallahassee yet)

D: nothing comes to mind

I heart John.

If you don't like any of that, it's pretty safe to say that they ain't your bag, etc., as that represents a wide array of styles.

And "Going to Marrakesh" and "Someone Else's Parking Lot in Sebastapol" from The Extra Glenns' MARTIAL ARTS WEEKEND.

Still digesting TALLAHASSEE. That Scrawl CD just finished playing, so I think I'll throw it in now.

John, come play in Portland sometime.

Search: yes

yay! where? also do a reminder HYPE thread the week before if possible...

there's a whole lot of similes that connect romance to terrorism-kinda stuff but I don't recall any account of actual incidents that would explain why the relationship is LIKE terrorism. I'd kinda like to hear "you shot my cat, you bastard" next to "oh, you are like someone making a bomb" cuz it can kinda sound like zeitgeist exploitation. but the uptempo drummer on that one track was great idea! And I really usually listen to an album at least twice before talkin' about it, but it seems an opportune to bring it up (and it would look weird if everybody was ravin' wildly).

jesus, I gotta go die now. sorry. this wasn't easy for me, folks, so go easy on the flamebacks.

(i.e. don't be sorry for heaven's sake we're all friends here)

In re: "a lot of terrorism similes" I must defend myself howevah: that's just one song as far as I know. And now I should stop reading this thread as it is in poor form indeed to participate in a discussion of one's own writing/music/whatevah

(quickly answering questions before scramming: I really want to go back to Dublin but there just won't be time which makes me really sad because I love Dublin a whole lot, no plans for any pre-Zopilote Machine reissues, hoping to come to Portland sometime this year, and the L.A. show is opening for Tortoise which is funny for a whole lotta reasons)

I will give another listen and see if I have the same reaction.

Thanks for being a good sport. Whew!

1. Cubs in Five
2. Family Happiness
3. The Fall of the Star High School Running Back
4. Going to Port Washington
5. Going to Alaska
6. Going to Marrakesh
7. Golden Boy
8. No Children
9. Billy the Kid’s Dream of the Magic Slippers
10. Itzcuintli-Totzli Days
11. Neon Orange Glimmer Song
12. Anti-Music Song
13. Sept. 19 Triple X Love! Love!
14. No, I Can’t
15. Orange Ball of Hate
16. Are You Cleaning Off the Stone?
17. Standard Bitter Love Song #4
18. Standard Bitter Love Song #8
19. Love Cuts the Strings
20. Seed Song
21. Water Song
22. The Window Song
23. Jam Eater Blues
24. Two Thousand Seasons
25. The Best Ever Death Metal Band from Denton
26. The Sign

...and maybe yes. Though keep in mind my extremely non-canonical vision of Mr. Dylan. ;-)

the L.A. show is opening for Tortoise which is funny for a whole lotta reasons

Yes it is. The funniest of which will be me spraying the crowd with whipped cream and silly string before Tor-Twah take the stage to forcibly loosen them up and make them laugh. Then I'll do the same to the band.

http://www.bravenewwaves.ca/bnmedia/archive_i_mgoats.shtml

I have no further contribution to make to this thread.

Okay, I'm swearing off this thread before I "bring the negativity" to Darnielle LoveFest '03.

Live it's a lot of fun (even when kicked off stage & forced to play on the pavement outside the venue). Can't wait till the forthcoming UK gigs & SxSW show, 'cos it's been a long time.

Enough already.

Loved your cover of "I saw the Sign"

horace, mostly similar, but the newest album "tallahassee" has a much more polished full band and studio production, and there are surely songs on there that you could play on the radio. john peel gets away with it, anyway, but that may not seem any guarantee of radio-friendly production. (i wasn't sure i liked it as much as the other albums i have at first but it's really grown on me.)

i say YES to "cubs in five" and "best ever death metal band out of denton" and i note that "anti-music song" is on that best-of cdr and that i kind of like it myself and never thought it implied any real dislike of morrissey, whom i quite like, on john's part. i only have a few of the albums and i can't really pick a favourite out of them, they're all good.

That really would be the best thing that could ever happen to a Tortoise fan.

I HAVE A VISION. I thank the Holy Prophet Dan for showing the way and Nicole for the encouragement.

[Likely enough I will simply do the honorable thing and leave after the Goats take their bow, thus beating the traffic -- assuming whoever I'm with wants to leave as well.]

afaik youtube-dl.org will not make a facebook video visible

Sorry I should’ve provided more steps

But I won’t

I tested them tho and they work

For The Snakes still not public, but two other new home songs are:

Exegetic Chains

Until Olympius Returns

new tape is out (and on bandcamp!)

I recorded ten songs in ten days into my Panasonic RX-FT500. The album is now LIVE on Bandcamp; a limited edition of 1000 cassettes is in production and you can order one on Bandcamp, too. https://t.co/RCftMZ5CpD

— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) April 10, 2020

Also: gone.

said there will be more made, discouraging ppl from paying eBay prices

Yup, onto a third printing now.

feel a bit iffy about making such calls in praesentia creatori but this new release is probably my favourite first-listen to any of their albums

he's still on here? I thought all his posts were from the early days of ILM.

Yes, incognito, local custom is to not discuss it too much.

Went back to All Eternals Deck today. Such a great album, some of my favourite TMG songs. High Hawk Season is incredible.

Amazing consistency.

TMG makes me feel more like a human and less like the ego piece of shit that I guess I am

New album in October:

https://themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/album/getting-into-knives

New Song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Otp5VzITCgs

My cousin "got into" knives and his instagram turned kind of creepy full of demonstration videos of fancy artisan knives cutting objects in half.

I like how the last 4 or so full-band album titles each seemed geared toward some demo of fandom (wrestling, goths, D&D/MtG, Cold Steel).

this is cool

and I have to tell you in case anybody misses it: the organ on the new song? That swelling, throbbing, miraculous Hammond B3? that's CHARLES HODGES. THE GUY WHO WROTE THE "LET'S STAY TOGETHER" ORGAN LINE. "TAKE ME TO THE RIVER." "LOVE AND HAPPINESS." ~THAT~ GUY pic.twitter.com/UDK8fcIRHO

— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) August 11, 2020

wow

More on said song, including Whiney cameo (really)

because I have waited months to talk about our new stuff here's a thread about what's happening on this song. please do subscribe to our YouTube channel I hate to ask but I'm supposed to. https://t.co/vZ20jK2jZR

— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) August 11, 2020

Appreciating the COVID haircut game here:

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,pg_1,q_80,w_1600/srn0ph9rmqihdynupab9.jpg

A marvelous song.

...are those not pre-COVID haircuts, from a time when people could rub their faces on each other in a room?

also from a time when you could visit a stylist which they have all clearly done?

now I'm zooming in to figure out if that's a seam on Hughes' shoulder or they've all been composited in

ENHANCE

Forced perspective. JD is at the back of the room and he is also eighteen feet tall.

...are those not pre-COVID haircuts, from a time when people could rub their faces on each other in a room?

― Steppin' RZA (sic), Tuesday, August 11, 2020 4:52 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

also from a time when you could visit a stylist which they have all clearly done?

― Give me a Chad Smith-type feel (map), Tuesday, August 11, 2020 5:06 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

not that I would know but I have it on fairly good authority that none of these people have visited a stylist in 2020 and that this hair is 100% "what happens when you just let it go"

(The pictures were taken last week. When your gig means you have to do a picture, even in a pandemic, you just sort of have to cross your fingers.)

Matt knows how to work his own pomade.

'Getting Into Knives', eh? Am I gonna have to ban the Mountain Goats now too?

(j/k, looking forward to this!)

the sound of this song (arrangement + production) reminds me of the Okkervil River album I Am Very Far - orchestral, live-sounding, lightly gothy. I like that sound a lot.

Another song from the new album:

https://www.mergerecords.com/the-mountain-goats-are-ready-to-get-famous

fyi before clicking: it's a 29-second clip on Spotify if you don't have an account with that company

fyi before NOT clicking: there are other things on the page including words from John and a link to a page with links to non-Spotify places to listen to and buy the song and also buy the new album

good looking out: https://themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/get-famous

Okay, this is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qH7nWoRXSKo

New track from the album up:

https://themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/track/picture-of-my-dress

About it, plus a sad note about its recording:

On New Year's Day 2019, now a distant world away, Maggie Smith, author of "Good Bones," tweeted a plotline for an imaginary buddy movie about a divorced woman driving around the US with her wedding dress, taking it all around the country. I thought to myself: what if she's taking it to places she didn't go when she was married, what if she's showing her dress the life she didn't live? I hunkered down and a couple hours later I'd written "Picture of My Dress." In March of 2020, also now a distant world away, we recorded the tune with Matt Ross-Spang at Sam Phillips in Memphis. Playing on the track are the Mountain Goats -- John, Peter, Jon, and Matt -- plus Bram Gielen and Chris Boerner for that extra sweetness. We were assisted in the studio by one hell of a nice guy named Matt Denham, who died unexpectedly this week and we are all torn up about it because he was a real one so I am sending this out to you, bud. Everybody else give an extra head-nod while you listen to the studio attaché with the gentle way, a song like this can only be the result of everybody in the room being on the same wavelength and his contribution was a special energy that this world will miss but the next one is presently richer for. Enjoy!

An obituary for Denham can be found here. Based on the many notes on the tribute wall via this page, he was deeply loved:

https://www.colemanfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Matthew-Denham/#!/Obituary

The online show tonight was very lovely. Look forward to next week's too.

Also really loved the show tonight, and having the chat to get excited with was a great touch. Can’t wait for next week’s stream.

Looking forward to next week’s as well. Absolutely loved the Springsteenified Heel Turn 2 outro

New album is very rewarding. Lots of big tunes on it. I keep yelling along to Get Famous. Bell Swamp Connection and The Last Place I Saw You Alive are as goosebumpy as MG songs can be

Don't sleep on "Great Gold Sheep" and "Rat Queen."

Trueee

Wow---two in one year, this year, has my head bouncing back toward a particular fave as well (for instance)---from my P&J Top Ten comments:
The Mountain Goats--- Transcendental Youth No need to tunnel back into your Mountain Goats stash for comparative purposes; this album stands (leaps, eats tin cans) on its own terms, which acolytes and novices alike will recognize--not because it's a re-hash; just that all these coded hoodrat catacomb testimonies make unmistakably American sense. if you are a The Hold Steady fan but getting a bit frustrated with creative lovehandles, rest assured this contains no fat, does bring plenty crucial lyric and sonic detail, with hungry underdog cunning, zig-zag wandering and straight-ahead momentum. Also, if you're frustrated by good horn sections wasted on, say the Byrne/St. Vincent thing (yeah I'll listen again, or maybe not), well you've come to the right place, as Elvis would say. Kind of a King Creole urban twilight pang-vibe here, times art-rocking MGs leader John Darnielle's metal-compatible spirit too.

Putting this on for the first time, I'm moved to wonder whether Belle & Sebastian is a reference point! I mean that in a nice way obviously. (There's a non-nice way?)

wau @ Rat Queen

i need to check this out, "get famous" was a real bummer for me, so on the nose and obvious we live in a society stuff, kinda weird for such a great lyricist

Don't know how far back you want to go w the jangle, morrisp, but you might like Fields/Aquamarine, which is a reissue of the album and EP by the Individuals, who were one of the Hoboken Three, along with the Bongos and dBs, back in the late 70s and maybe early 80s, real good and you can read all about them on bar-none.com, along with other releases of related interest, like ones by the Feelies and Alex Chilton.
Also I'd try the Bongos and dB's, and reissue comp of pre-dBs' incarnation the Scruffs, along with Big Star, the Shoes' Black Vinyl Shoes, the Bangles, the Records, 20/20, prob a lot more on YouTube etc. I haven't thought of.

And speaking of the dBs, Holsapple and Stamey have reworked some band material for the mostly acoustic Our Back Pages in Omnivore's MusiCares Covid-19 Relief Fund series (which also incl. an NRBQ set):
...Signature dB’s songs, including “Black and White,” “Big Brown Eyes,” and “Happenstance,” are ably propelled here by lyric and guitar energy alone, and the hooks remain — it’s easy to find one’s self singing along. Tunes such as “Dynamite” and “From a Window to a Screen” are revealed as precursors to the music the two made together later, as they feature “dual lead,” close-harmony vocals as essential elements. Others, such as Peter’s “Today Could Be the Day” and “Molly Says,” were originally recorded by the band after Stamey’s departure, so this marks the first time he’s gone on record with them. When going through the material in preparation for mastering, they even discovered a forgotten track, “Depth of Field,” and completed it for this release; although a version had appeared on a Stamey solo record, it fits in here because it was originally written and rehearsed contemporaneously with the rest for The dB’s’ second album, Repercussion.

Another song, “Picture Sleeve,” is both old and new. A song by this title was in the band’s sets circa 1978, but all that anyone could remember, years later, were the first few lines, some chords, and the subject matter. Using those elements as a jumping-off point, it was rewritten for a Record Store Day single release three decades later, and a duo version is part of this release. Peter’s classic ballad “Nothing Is Wrong,” a staple of their live duo sets, was overlooked during the original sessions and sadly missed. Fortunately, it’s included on this new collection in a version The dB’s themselves recorded during a rehearsal in New York City in 2008.

“We’re still proud of the electric versions of the songs,” Stamey insists, “but a sturdy song should be able to handle a bit of reinvention from time to time...In most cases, it’s a trip back in time to the songs’ origins of being written on acoustic guitars in apartments or hotels..."

A few special guests joined Holsapple and Stamey on the sessions: John Teer (Chatham County Line) and Libby Rodenbough (Mipso) both contribute violin, and Andy Burton (Little Steven, John Mayer, Cyndi Lauper) plays keys on “Nothing Is Wrong” with, of course, Rigby (drums) and Holder (bass). The mastering by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound is a homecoming of sorts as legendary mastering engineer Calbi had previously mastered the pair’s influential Mavericks outing as well as Falling Off the Sky, the last dB’s album. For the most part, it’s Peter and Chris around the campfire at Modern Recording in Chapel Hill, N.C., grabbing whatever was in the room at the time: a toy piano, a ukulele, a banjo, a harmonium, an upright or an old Silvertone bass, and of course, guitars, guitars, guitars.

In addition to 1991’s Mavericks (RNA Records), Holsapple and Stamey also paired up for 2009’s hERE & nOW (Bar/None). For more insight into the genesis of some of these songs, see A Spy in the House of Loud: New York Songs and Stories (University of Texas Press), Stamey’s 2018 “songwriting memoir.” Be on the lookout for A Brand-New Shade of Blue, Chris’s new audio-and-songbook collection, currently slated for a summer 2020 release.

O shit, sorry! Was meant for Rolling Reissues!