See America Right

341. See America Right

Alex Russell See America Right, Tallahassee , , , , , , , ,

Several drunken bus rides and some brief mentions of much worse things populate “See America Right.”

Track: “See America Right”
Album: Tallahassee (2002)

The Mountain Goats Wiki lists more than 250 performances of “See America Right.” It’s been played 15 times, minimum, in Chicago alone. The Mountain Goats have spent somewhere north of eight solid hours playing “See America Right,” the under-two-minutes single from Tallahassee. It’s undeniable in retrospect, but one has to wonder if anyone involved could have imagined that at the time. “No Children” is the standout, obviously, but “See America Right” is the single for a reason.

The guitar is muted but driving, with drums behind it that make you feel like you’re running. John Darnielle delivers the vocals with a robotic drone and some vocal effect that isn’t on any other song I can think of. He embodies one of the Alpha Couple members, furious and drunk, as they meet up with the other one and bring home a case of vodka. Much of the album hints at what happens directly here. It’s such a short song, but it’s the clearest picture of this narrator possible. It’s crammed full of similar, drunk, desperate moments, but it all paints a complete picture.

“I was getting out of jail” does some heavy lifting as a lyric, but “my love is like a dark cloud full of rain // that’s always right there up above you” is as direct as possible outside of the chorus of “No Children.” John Darnielle answered a question about the ending here and explained why it sounds so robotic and terrifying, but if you’ve followed the story to this point you know that it needs to feel like a howl in the night.

201. Design Your Own Container Garden

Alex Russell See America Right , , , , , , , , ,

One half of the Alpha Couple reflects on different, if not happier times, in “Design Your Own Container Garden.”

Track: “Design Your Own Container Garden”
Album: See America Right (2002)

A container garden is any garden in a pot or a container. It’s a way to describe anywhere a plant could be grown other than the ground. It’s a stretch, but the phrase “Design Your Own Container Garden” might refer to the Alpha Couple, who have uprooted themselves from the west coast and relocated to their miserable future in Florida. It might also just be a phrase John Darnielle saw in a catalog, thus a similar play on “See America Right,” the title of the single the song exists on.

The narrator drives out to a specific intersection in Los Angeles. As of this writing, it features a fried chicken chain restaurant, a check cashing place, and a storage center. The details don’t matter, but the specificity helps us picture that this corner matters. We have those in our lives, too. This member of the Alpha Couple doesn’t care about LA, they care about what happened when they were in this spot.

They mention “old friends, old friends” and later call them “here ghosts, old ghosts.” You can’t go home again, John Darnielle tells us again and again, but you can wander around where home used to be and feel the feelings that are left behind. “Design Your Own Container Garden” is filled with death imagery, as the narrator talks about feeling like a buzzard and walking through wreckage. It’s the “space we left behind” to this character, and it’s clearly not something they view positively now. It makes sense to be a b-side because it doesn’t fit tonally with Tallahassee, but it’s also interesting to wonder when in the timeline we are. Is this after everything, or does this character already feel sad even though they don’t know the worst of what’s to come?

151. New Chevrolet in Flames

Alex Russell See America Right , , , , , , , , ,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFHT4YQd3JU

The Alpha Couple has some fun in suspect ways in “New Chevrolet in Flames.”

Track: “New Chevrolet in Flames”
Album: See America Right (2002)

A fan asked John Darnielle why he never plays “New Chevrolet in Flames” at live shows. The response was simple. John Darnielle says that it is a b-side and isn’t as good as anything on Tallahassee and that the studio version says all he has to say about it.

I’m not a musician, but “New Chevrolet in Flames” sounds a lot like “Alphabetizing,” a song from 1993. If they’re different at all it’s not in a way that I can determine. It’s possible that’s deliberate and it’s possible that it’s just a function of John Darnielle writing ~1000 songs in nearly three decades and not caring about the similarities between one of his ancient tracks and a b-side.

Lyrically, “New Chevrolet in Flames” is more complex than “Alphabetizing” and strikes a different tone than its brothers and sisters on Tallahassee. It’s funny and shies away from the desperation that comes across directly on “funny” songs like “No Children.” It’s a weird song, as it looks at the Alpha Couple in one of their lighter moments. They drink Colorado Bulldogs (and tell you how to make your own in the first verse) and decide to buy a car while wearing their finest threads.

As they light the car on fire and either stay in it or leave, depending on how darkly you view the song, they probably experience some kind of relief. It has to be a gleeful moment for two people who fairly relentlessly don’t experience glee. It comes from a terrible place, but it’s a fun moment when you don’t consider the consequences. It’s hard to not love that moment if you’re able to abstract it.