395. Roger Patterson Van

Alex Russell Black Pear Tree EP , , , , ,

With a seeming difference between the music and lyrics, “Roger Patterson Van” memorializes a musician who passed on.

Track: “Roger Patterson Van”
Album: Black Pear Tree EP (2008)

Roger Patterson was the bassist for a band called Atheist. He died in car accident right as the band was picking up steam, it seems, though I’ll confess I’m not very familiar with Atheist. I’ve tried to piece together what happened from the fan pages and the memorials, but the most helpful pieces are not in the style of police reports but the videos of Patterson playing. I encourage you to dig around yourself. His death is a tragedy, but there’s joy in trying to learn about these figures that John Darnielle is interested in. So much of his art, especially lately, has been about elevating figures that his audience might not know about. I may be representing my own experience, but metal and goth music are not my usual fare.

The tune was one Kaki King was playing as an instrumental that John Darnielle added lyrics to as a memorial for Roger Patterson. There are a lot of memorials in the catalog, but this one is downright jaunty. The construction explains why this sounds like it does, but really, does a memorial need to sound sad? “Nothing left inside now // nothing left to do // empty out the empties // half this stuff belongs to you” is a really incredible description of the physical steps left over after the emotional ones, so even though it’s in the middle of a bouncy, elaborate song, does that change how you take it? I’ve always been fond of this one, even with no connection to the subject. It’s a valuable lesson in the ways we think of grief and the many forms it can take.

394. Bring Our Curses Home

Alex Russell Black Pear Tree EP , , , , ,

“Bring Our Curses Home” finds John Darnielle singing in deeply sad tones about what happens around, and after, a hurricane.

Track: “Bring Our Curses Home”
Album: Black Pear Tree EP (2008)

You want to avoid the obvious when you listen to the Mountain Goats. “Golden Jackal Song” is not about a jackal, and so on. When you hear a song about raining and hiding out in the Superdome, you want to push back on the Hurricane Katrina suggestion, but I don’t think you can do that with “Bring Our Curses Home.” This seems to, indeed, be about the crushing, impossible to truly fathom, hurricane that demolished so much of the coastal Southern United States. I searched it just to check the timeline here and Google’s predicted question is “why was Hurricane Katrina so bad?” I think that’s a pretty fair question and one that has a complicated answer.

In some ways, though, it’s really not that complicated. The government failed to respond to a disaster with true disaster relief, which disillusioned a lot of people who saw things differently after they saw a base expectation not met. If this is about Katrina (and I don’t see how it couldn’t be, though I’d love to have totally misunderstood something this badly) then we see people swimming through a pharmacy first and then getting arrested later. This is the ridiculousness of it all, to arrest someone at the end of the world. John Darnielle describes a “mad scramble” for shoes from two cities he lived in (Los Angeles and/or Portland) and, like everything else, they got wet. It’s not what you’d immediately call a political song, but explore the nooks and crannies. Picture not just what’s happening, but what the aftermath entails.

393. Mosquito Repellent

Alex Russell Black Pear Tree EP , , , , ,

John Darnielle and Kaki King give into the darkness with “Mosquito Repellent.”

Track: “Mosquito Repellent”
Album: Black Pear Tree EP (2008)

Kaki King wrote the music for “Mosquito Repellent,” which is unusual even for a collaboration song. It’s darker than most of the other fare and that grew out of King’s music that John Darnielle had to find lyrics for. He apparently heard the tune and got in this headspace and pictured a character that embraces their own darkness. He’s talked before about how this kind of character is less interesting to him as he’s grown and matured, but it’s the kind of person we hear from in “Standard Bitter Love Song #8.” That one is mad that someone is skating with someone else, this one’s troubles may be deeper and they may not be, that’s not really the point.

This isn’t healthy. No one who says they “hope the bad guys win” is meant to seem healthy, but it’s a relatable situation all the same. A lot of Mountain Goats narrators are a lot harder to empathize with than most narrators in songs, but it rarely gets this dark. “Mosquito Repellent” is certainly notable for that jam behind the lyrics, but the high notes that Darnielle hits and the crashing anger towards the end are what really sell it. All of the Kaki King songs are unique, but this is probably the high point of the Black Pear Tree EP for anyone who is in this very specific, hopefully temporary, mood.

392. Against Pollution

Alex Russell We Shall All Be Healed , , , , , , ,

“Against Pollution” is all about those opening lines, but after the shock it asks you to imagine your own reaction.

Track: “Against Pollution”
Album: We Shall All Be Healed (2004)

“Against Pollution” is not a true story. A whole lot of We Shall All Be Healed is, but this one is just about how you might feel if you found yourself in this situation. A lot of Mountain Goats songs are about things that happen, remarkable or otherwise, in a store. This is, maybe, though I never want to make statements like this that I can’t prove, the only one where someone works behind the counter. It’s a shifted perspective away from the people shoplifting or going through episodes or otherwise having an unrelated experience, and it’s honestly one that’s pretty easy to explain. If someone comes in and tries to kill you, you may have to do what you have to do.

This is an easy statement to make unless you have to interrogate it. The narrator here doesn’t, really, going so far as to say this happened “a year or so ago.” You probably always have a pretty good grasp on exactly when you shot someone in the face, unless you’re the kind of person who didn’t really have to interrogate it. “Against Pollution” is a great song, especially live where the whole thing feels like rain and thunder, but the point I always focus on is how this person feels about what happened. They mention that “something just came over” them and that they went to the Catholic church. This feels disconnected in the song from the self-defense gunshot. Who is this person that would “do it again” and what are we to make of how they talk about this? It’s not fully a judgement, but it’s an interesting look into something you don’t want to imagine for yourself.

391. Cotton

Alex Russell We Shall All Be Healed , , , , , , ,

“Cotton” is about specific cotton for a specific purpose, but it’s also about the things you leave behind physically but not mentally.

Track: “Cotton”
Album: We Shall All Be Healed (2004)

It’s kinda remarkable that a song like “Cotton” has been played hundreds of times live. It’s an outstanding song on an outstanding album, but it’s so personal. John Darnielle has said that it’s about imbuing objects with yourself such that when they go away you feel the pain. I relate to this deeply, and my personal totems aren’t as specific as John Darnielle’s, but the process of how they get there feels similar. John Darnielle’s father owned a desk that the younger Darnielle took to Portland. We Shall All Be Healed is about what happened in Portland. You don’t need me to tell you that it didn’t go all that well in Portland.

I’ve listened to “Cotton” countless times. It is one of those songs. It’s catchy, in the way that songs like this are catchy, but it also rewards deeper study. You’ll get most of the context the first time through, presuming you pick up on what “the stick pins and the cottons” in the drawer of that same desk are used for in this apartment in Portland. You don’t necessarily need to know that it was his father’s desk and that there are complex emotions as something goes from being a childhood memory into a place where you keep your drugs. The strength of We Shall All Be Healed and the best songs on it, like “Cotton,” is that you do not need to be exactly there to be close enough to count. Maybe you did not have a difficult time with specific drugs in specific Portland, but I would bet that there was something you once had that you no longer have. Now, you know.

390. Thanks for the Dress

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , ,

“Thanks for the Dress” is pretty straightforward, but only after you learn what you’re looking at.

Track: “Thanks for the Dress”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

I am truly amazed sometimes at the detail you can find online. Before you read further, especially if you don’t already know, listen to “Thanks for the Dress” and guess at the meaning first. I spent plenty of time studying the humanities and I really love ancient mythology, but I would not have been able to pick out the story of Medea, who married Jason but was betrayed and later gave Jason’s new wife a cursed dress. I can’t imagine John Darnielle thought people who listened to Hot Garden Stomp would get it, but someone left an uncited notation on the Mountain Goats Wiki that explains the reference. This seems to refer to this screening of a film in 2015. Mystery solved, if that’s what you’re in it for.

The sound quality is especially rough on this one, with the samples that open the song very loud and shocking. This does work with the song and it puts you in the right headspace, but still, your experience may be impacted. I started this project years ago primarily motivated by a desire to go through every song, even the ones I didn’t spend much time with during normal listening. One such song was always “Thanks for the Dress.” I can see both sides of the argument about researching meaning in that it is less mysterious now that I see the code but also that it takes on so much more meaning. I’d never say anyone who held either position was wrong, but the title is so much more delicious when you imagine the shift in meaning just a little while later.

389. 15-1

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , ,

Two people take a trip down the highway, or at least hope to do just that, in “15-1.”

Track: “15-1”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

There exists a “15-2” that we won’t really talk about much, but I encourage you to hear it and contrast it with “15-1.” The naming convention is obviously a connection and it may go deeper, but I think the one actually released on Hot Garden Stomp is the better song. I’m surprised to hear a much younger John Darnielle internally rhyme “moonbeams” with “sweet cream” but you have to appreciate it within the context. This feels like a song about young love, about a time when thirty dollars and another night or two with someone is just about as big as you’ll let yourself dream. That never really goes away, but it feels like such a young narrator to me. I’m sure I’m falling prey to the problem of picturing John Darnielle as the narrator, which we must never do, but the high pitch and 1993 just sorta does the lifting for you.

I think this is in the top half of Hot Garden Stomp, but I can understand why it never found that sweet spot of songs that show up in the solo set every now and again. This one is pretty directly about romantic love, and it’s a little more physical than a lot of them ever got. “Just an old sweet song made new by your body” is not especially explicit, but it takes you to a more specific place than some of the grander emotional directions from some of the other songs. There’s something intimate here that mixes so well with the guitar and the word choice. You could miss this one, but I encourage you to close your eyes and listen again.

388. Feed This End

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , ,

A sweet, complex love song, “Feed This End” stands out among the early tracks of the Mountain Goats.

Track: “Feed This End”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

Every now and again, John Darnielle talks about the times that he thought the Mountain Goats were coming to an end. He references those times to talk about when the band was a hobby and nowhere near a profession. It’s weird to talk about fame or success in a world that’s so bifurcated, but the Mountain Goats of today are unquestionably, wildly successful compared to their earlier versions. The band now is a four-piece, at least the touring version is, and they play rooms much larger than The Duke Coffeehouse where you would have found John Darnielle in 1997. At that show, John Darnielle thanked “Johnny Nall,” known to most fans as Jon Nall, arguably the most “famous” Mountain Goats fan who set up a quasi-official website and transcribed so much of what we have to go on from the early days. It was a different time, is what I’m getting at.

The recording from that night in the coffee shop includes one of the only recordings of “Feed This End” you can find easily online. John Darnielle introduces the song as “a very old love song,” which makes it now a very, very old love song. The recording on Hot Garden Stomp is a little difficult to listen to, as is that live version. This is just the cost of reaching back three decades to listen to where it all began. The sound quality may suffer, but the message absolutely does not. A lot of the early songs can feel slight compared to the recent output, but this one is undeniably sweet. I encourage you to push through and to sit with it until it gets inside your bones.

387. Fresh Cherries in Trinidad

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , ,

“Fresh Cherries in Trinidad” may not be coming to a live show near you, but it’s an interesting sign of the times.

Track: “Fresh Cherries in Trinidad”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

A few years ago, John Darnielle stopped posting on Tumblr. I get the sense that most people did at about the same time. I was never a heavy user, I used it for a writing project for a year and abandoned mine. It’s a quirky platform, with timestamps stored on the archive page but not available on individual pages. This is a long introduction just for one word, but I encourage everyone with an interest in the band to dig through more than this page, where John Darnielle said a little bit about every song on Hot Garden Stomp and if he’d play them again. About “Fresh Cherries in Trinidad” he just said “nope.”

The arc of the Mountain Goats is long at this point. You can trace the emotional intensity from the very first songs to the most recent ones but the music itself is radically different. I think you could find a way to say “Fresh Cherries in Trinidad” is the logical predecessor, but I think you’d be reaching. The early keyboard preset songs are part of the journey, to be sure, but they’re out of place even sometimes on the old albums.

John Darnielle dismissed it with one word, but that’s just in reference to if he would play it at a live show. I don’t think you could do this one justice outside of the style it’s presented it, but there are elements that would work. I like the phrasing of “I feel things occasionally like this.” You can see the songwriter that would emerge, but you should also enjoy what he was doing at the time.

386. Ice Blue

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , ,

“Ice Blue” does a whole lot with very little language.

Track: “Ice Blue”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

It is not strictly correct to say that the Mountain Goats don’t write love songs, but your definition of a love song must bend a little bit for a lot of them. John Darnielle has a habit of saying “this is a love song” before playing something that may or may not be a love song as I understand the term. You can’t really be right or wrong about this sort of thing, but it’s all part of the game. This becomes less true the further back you go, with “Ice Blue” as a prime example.

There are 40 words in “Ice Blue” and that includes a repeated line. My word counter tool estimates the speaking time at 14 seconds. I don’t have the stats on this because even I’m not this crazy, but this might be the least amount of words in a Mountain Goats song. Up against “Going to Japan” from the same album, it sounds like an entirely different band wrote this one. Even with those limitations, you have the perfect choice of a line, the fourth line’s “ha ha ha // ha ha ha.” You might call that lazy, but an extreme pivot to mania in a love song is pretty appropriate, I’d say.

It all culminates in an expression of pure love: “thought that I knew what colors were // before I saw you // ice blue.” It’s simple, really, but when you’re in that moment looking into someone’s eyes, this is how you feel. The songs become much more complex than “Ice Blue” but the thing is, I don’t think you can improve on this if you want someone to picture this exact moment.