The Mountain Goats: Live, Like they Mean It
I feel like I’d be doing you, the reader, a disservice by going too long between posts about the Mountain Goats. You know, because of them ruling and all. But since they haven’t released anything since The Life of the World to Come, and I haven’t seen them live in the past month, and I haven’t recently recorded a cover of one of their songs, I kind of have to make up a reason to post. So here we go!
A little over a year ago, a good friend who doesn’t appreciate the Mountain Goats like he should but is aware of my abiding love for them pointed me to this site, where there were available for download not one, but TWO live shows of very high audio quality and also incredibly high levels of awesomeness. So for two or three weeks they were basically all I listened to – in the car, at work, at home. It was the first time I had heard the current configuration of the Mountain Goats (with drums) live, and it reminded me that, unlike many bands, the Mountain Goats live are a completely different beast than on record. Partly because of John Darnielle being erudite and talkative and funny, but mostly because live, the songs are full of emotion and life – they push and pull and breathe in a way that the studio versions of them simply can’t capture.
Anyway, I still listen to both of these shows (or portions thereof) pretty frequently, and last night my wife drove my car and put one of them in, so today I’m having a Mountain Goats listening fest (Protein Source of the Future, Now, at the moment), and you could be too. Here are a few songs from those live bootlegs to help you along.
The Mountain Goats: “This Year” (live) (right-click to download)
The Mountain Goats: “Lovecraft In Brooklyn” (live) (right-click to download)
The Mountain Goats: “See America Right” (live) (right-click to download)
