all survivors pack

452. Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece

Alex Russell all survivors pack , , , , , , ,

“Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece” is both a reference to a 1956 film and a journey removed from it entirely.

Track: “Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece”
Album: All Survivors Pack (2011)

I think I might have said this before I started, but several hundred songs in, I have to say the most important element in a Mountain Goats song is specificity. I do not have the same interests as John Darnielle, but I don’t need to in order to appreciate his lyrics. I have virtually no background in the kind of music he listens to, but the sort of greater Ozzy Osbourne universe he’s created and the world of Goths both feel very real because of how much he loves them. Do you need to see the movie The Lady from Shanghai to appreciate the song “The Lady from Shanghai?” Not really, no, but it’s there if you want to go deeper.

“Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece” is a reference to the Lon Chaney, Jr. film Indestructible Man, and I’ll confess it’s one of the pieces of ephemera that I’m not familiar with across the world of things that made John Darnielle who he is today. Someday, sure, but life is short, and I’ve been feeling the effects lately of trying to be a completist about things. One must make compromises, and mine on this afternoon is accepting that John Darnielle loves this thing and wants to share a piece of it as a song. The resulting song is a little haunting and a little insistent, as a Mountain Goats song tends to be, but I want to highlight the joy of slight understanding. Before I saw The Lady from Shanghai, the song about it felt mysterious. After seeing it, there wasn’t a lightbulb of recognition. It’s not a password that opens a door, it’s just another lens. It’s your decision if you want to add to your experience.

451. Catherine Antrim’s Kid

Alex Russell all survivors pack , , , , , , ,

The Mountain Goats ask us to return to Billy the Kid and his magical, special shoes in “Catherine Antrim’s Kid.”

Track: “Catherine Antrim’s Kid”
Album: All Survivors Pack (2011)

I think it’s a legitimate question to ask why there are two songs that reference Billy the Kid’s “special shoes” in the Mountain Goats catalog, but you probably already have an idea of your own. He’s a tragic figure, in a way, but also what a weird detail to focus on. An old friend of mine was obsessed with the original “Billy the Kid’s Dream of the Magic Shoes,” a song from 1993 that is exclusively about Billy the Kid and his magic shoes. I am wary of making a statement like this, but I think that song is nonsense. I don’t mean that in a negative way, but I don’t necessarily think there’s something to unlock here. I think “Catherine Antrim’s Kid,” titled after Billy the Kid’s mother, is largely a reference to that song and a mild attempt to double down on something that never really referenced anything in the first place. Billy the Kid, near as I can tell, did not believe he had magic shoes. But who are we to say?

Picture yourself as John Darnielle, nearly twenty years later in 2011. I love that the “follow up” references Paul Westerberg. I don’t have to tell you that Billy the Kid wouldn’t know who that is and that’s the point, but this isn’t just a funny detail. It’s the clearest way to explain the difference between the two versions of Darnielle as a songwriter. “Catherine Antrim’s Kid” is a little bit beautiful, when you can forget it’s about the myth of a murderous outlaw, and it’s got a charm the original just doesn’t have. For all the folks who long for the old days, this one asks you to put that aside.

108. High Hawk Season

Alex Russell All Eternals Deck , , , , , , , ,

 

“High Hawk Season” examines the cast of the cult classic The Warriors as Mountain Goats characters.

Track: “High Hawk Season”
Album: All Eternals Deck (2011)

All Eternals Deck is about a fictional set of tarot cards and each song represents a card. The conceit is easy to identify in songs like “Birth of Serpents” and “Damn These Vampires,” but it’s murky in more direct songs like “Sourdoire Valley Song” and “Liza Forever Minnelli.”

John Darnielle says that “High Hawk Season” is about the plot of the cult-classic film The Warriors. In the film, nine Warriors must escape dozens (and potentially hundreds) of other gangs after someone shoots another gang leader in Van Cortlandt Park and pins it on the Warriors. It’s campy as hell, but it holds up as exciting and filled with machismo. The characterization is thin and your mileage may vary for the narrative, but the drama of the chase in the film is infectious.

The song’s parallels with the movie are obvious. The Warriors in “High Hawk Season” are “young supernovas” and they travel all night towards their own version of happiness. In the film it’s Coney Island, but really it’s a sense of home. The characters are lost through the rest of their journey in New York, often literally as much as metaphorically. There are small moments where you remember that these are kids, despite all the fight scenes and big talk, when they have trouble reading the map and get scared.

Darnielle uses that fear to make the characters his own. “Rise if you’re sleeping, stay awake” became a tagline for the All Eternals Deck tour, and the motto is easy to apply to Darnielle’s world. They see these Warriors who run through the night as their people, isolated and in need of consideration. The harmony and vocals may be unique for the Mountain Goats, but the sense that “the heat’s about to break” sure isn’t.