The Mountain Goats: “From TG&Y”
I went to see the Mountain Goats play a couple weeks ago. It was rescheduled from a prior date when John Darnielle had been sick and had to cancel – if he had made it the first time, it would have been a full band concert, which I was really looking forward to, but as it was, he drove down by himself and played solo. As such, the show was loose in form – no set list, numerous requests entertained, songs decided upon and played off the cuff, lots of between-song patter… it was a good time.
The Mountain Goats: “Philippians 3:20-21″ and “Matthew 25:21″
The Mountain Goats: The Life of the World to Come. Worth your money.
Yesterday the Mountain Goats released a new album (and played on the Colbert Report!), which is always cause for joy and celebration. It’s called The Life of the World to Come and all the songs are named for bible verses (which I’ll include with the links below) and you should buy it. But now that I’m no longer listening to an illicit watermarked copy of this record, I can share its awesomeness with you and try to convince you of that fact (the buying it part).
It’s in general a very mellow album, especially in comparison to Heretic Pride, but not jazz-inflected like Get Lonely – just very meditative, with lots of piano and softly strummed guitars. However, it’s frontloaded with a few more upbeat songs, and here’s one of them:
The Mountain Goats: Philippians 3:20-21 (right-click to download)
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
There’s also a track in which the narrator recounts visting his mother-in-law, who is dying of cancer, for the last time. As I have several friends who’ve dealt with this (both recently and in the past), every time I hear the song, I think I should send it to them. But then I can’t figure out if it would provide them any comfort or solace or if it only seems like a good idea because I haven’t lost my parents yet. So here’s my slightly more passive way of sharing. I’m thinking of you.
The Mountain Goats: Matthew 25:21 (right-click to download)
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
The Mountain Goats/Limesix: “In Corolla”
The Mountain Goats: Get Lonely
The Mountain Goats‘ Get Lonely is the best breakup record ever. If you get left by (or leave) someone and end up wanting to do nothing more than lie on the floor in a puddle of self-absorption and denial, or drive around endlessly feeling sorry for yourself, or eat yourself into a stupor, etc. etc. etc., then this is the album that should accompany your profound funk.
Sadly, it came out around my tenth year of marriage, and I’m not planning on ending that anytime soon, so I kind of have to catapult myself backwards through time when I listen to it and pretend I’m 18-22 and trying to get over a broken heart. It’s not that hard, actually. The record I used at the time was Seam’s Are You Driving Me Crazy? and so Get Lonely now kind of shares a space in my mind previously reserved for that one.
Anyway, it’s kind of a concept record about getting over and not getting over someone, and feeling like you can’t live without them, and all that kind of fun stuff. It has some of the most poignant lyrical imagery in a career full of poignant lyrical imagery, and it also has one of my very favorite (and saddest) lyrics ever: “The first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it. But I drank it all, just cause you hate it when I let things go to waste.”
But this post isn’t about that song (“Woke Up New”), or even specifically about that album – it’s about the last song on the album, “In Corolla.” It’s a quiet conclusion to a quiet record (and maybe my favorite Mountain Goats song ever) – our narrator has given up, essentially, and sinks into a swamp (metaphorical or otherwise) as he says goodbye to his departed love. It’s completely depressing, so of course, I decided to learn how to play it, which I hardly ever do. Then I went into the studio and recorded a version of it as a kind of countryfied rave-up. It’ll be on a limesix EP I release in the near future, but here’s a rough mix of it, side-by-side with the original. Hope you enjoy:
The Mountain Goats: “In Corolla” (right-click to download)
limesix: “in corolla” (rough mix) (right-click to download)
The Mountain Goats: “Thank You Mario But Our Princess is in Another Castle”
The Mountain Goats & Kaki King: Black Pear Tree (you can find it, if you're so inclined, but I'm not putting the whole thing here)
If you read this blog over any period of time (and I continue writing it for any period of time), it will eventually become completely and totally obvious that I love the Mountain Goats, despite a good friend’s contention (when I suggested he listen to Tallahassee, unarguably their finest album) that they sound like Barenaked Ladies. He is wrong.
If you told me, however, that you just couldn’t get past his voice (a nasally bleat that, frankly, if you were unkind, you could probably liken to a Mountain Goat), I’d say I understand, but I’d pity you. I don’t think there’s a single better lyricist working in short form pop songs out there (although Craig Finn comes in a close second) – while listening to a new Mountain Goats album, or even sometimes one I’ve heard dozens of times, I’m frequently struck by a particularly strong phrasing or piece of imagery.
Which brings me to this song – a collaboration with Kaki King from the Black Pear Tree EP, which I’d like to say I paid money for but remains unreleased save for a limited run of vinyl editions I didn’t have an opportunity to purchase because their tour didn’t come anywhere near me. I’d like to think that at some point, labels and artists will just figure out – SELL EVERYTHING DIGITALLY, EVEN THE OUT OF PRINT AND BACK CATALOG STUFF!!!! But I digress.
This song is, on the surface (and who knows, maybe that’s all there is in this case), about Toad from Super Mario Brothers, waiting alone in Bowser’s castle so that he can tell Mario, when he finally arrives, that the princess is somewhere else. You will never have felt so sorry for Toad, and that’s why John Darnielle is better at writing lyrics than you or I or Bruce Springsteen or Bono (natch) or that dude from Fiery Furnaces or Jack White or whoever.
The Mountain Goats: “Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle” (right-click to download)
