music

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.

383. Dogs of Clinic 17

Alex Russell Undercard , , , , , , , ,

Whether you think “Dogs of Clinic 17” is about real dogs or not, it is undeniably a song about how far hope can take you.

Track: “Dogs of Clinic 17”
Album: Undercard (2010)

The good folks at the Mountain Goats Wiki excerpted some stage banter between Franklin Bruno and John Darnielle during a performance of “Dogs of Clinic 17” in New York in 2010. John Darnielle says he doesn’t know how to introduce it and then both members of the Extra Lens explicitly say it is actually about the dogs in the title. After some discussion about how that could be true, given the back-and-forth between a dog and a scientist about how many dogs you need for this experiment, John Darnielle says “Franklin, to that I would ask you, what is reality?” I mention all of this not to elucidate what is going on here, because I think you really have to take this one at face value, but to make a case for you to go see John Darnielle live whenever you can. What is reality, indeed.

Undercard closes with “Dogs of Clinic 17,” which we have to assume is really about a group of the five remaining dogs from a group of twenty. The language is more powerful individually than it is when you try to construct a narrative for this one. You really focus in on that lyric that led to the stage banter there and the somewhat chilling notion of a scientist responding to a dog that notices that three-fourths of them are gone by saying “five is plenty.” That said, the verses don’t necessarily connect the way they do on a lot of the rest of Undercard. I don’t think that’s a problem, especially because it allows for the powerful offramp of the last verse. It feels positive and rising, but the final words tell a true tale of what’s coming next.

382. Rockin’ Rockin’ Twilight of the Gods

Alex Russell Undercard , , , , , , , ,

“Rockin’ Rockin’ Twilight of the Gods” shows us one way to respond to a world as it falls apart.

Track: “Rockin’ Rockin’ Twilight of the Gods”
Album: Undercard (2010)

There’s a good video of “Rockin’ Rockin’ Twilight of the Gods” here, where John Darnielle played it as part of a cruise that Barenaked Ladies did called Ships and Dip. We lack the space to unpack that, but what a detail. It was originally a Mountain Goats song and was played a few times before becoming an Extra Lens song and appearing on Undercard decades later. There are no huge differences between the two versions, which is notable mostly because John Darnielle kept the lyric about the “Financial News Network,” which existed when he wrote the song but was a long-distant memory when it came out on Undercard in 2010. The Extra Lens version has a fuller sound, as with most of their music, and that may be a plus or a minus depending on the kind of thing you’re looking for.

Why “Rockin’ Rockin’ Twilight of the Gods?” I couldn’t tell you, but the naming convention shows up again in “Rockin’ Rockin’ Pet Store,” which is at least about a pet store. It’s an interesting song to hear in 2021, as the character hears increasingly dire financial news of the world but clings to the idea that their world is actually blossoming in unrealistic, magical ways. Given the other narrators in this world we can assume the “unrealistic” part, but what a headspace to vacation in for just a moment.

381. Tug on the Line

Alex Russell Undercard , , , , , , , ,

“Tug on the Line” is about a fishing trip where something truly unexpected happens, isn’t it?

Track: “Tug on the Line”
Album: Undercard (2010)

Many years ago, a friend of mine said that he mistook the lyrics of a totally different Mountain Goats song and thought it was about actual cannibals. At the time we laughed about it, but with some distance I begin to question if that was the right response. Who was I to say that wasn’t true? There is at least one Mountain Goats song about literal cannibals, not even as a metaphor, so who could say there aren’t more?

The problem, if there is one, is with jumping off from one point and then being unable to hear anything else. If you take figurative language literally or you read into details too far you start to hear things that aren’t there. “Tug on the Line” is a peaceful, quiet song that I think makes two pretty direct references to eldritch horror. A group of people go out on a boat for a nice day of fishing and find something “shapeless and probably nameless, as of yet.” True horror comes from something you can’t name, but also something you can’t even conceive. You can’t even picture it, it’s so far beyond your understanding.

But then again, is that what’s happening? I think so, but I’m also unable to get past it to see anything else. The second verse literally says “fish that looked like monsters” but I’m open to all possibilities. At first glance, this is a straightforward, if magical, story. But it’s also just as likely the story of how you carry around dark feelings from a day. I’ll never really be sure, and I think that’s part of it.

380. Programmed Cell Death

Alex Russell Undercard , , , , , , , ,

With a comparison to the inevitable death of all things, “Programmed Cell Death” ponders the act of pondering.

Track: “Programmed Cell Death”
Album: Undercard (2010)

Programmed Cell Death is a term for any genetic process that leads to a cell dying. It’s pretty much what it sounds like from the name. It’s a fitting name for the Extra Lens song “Programmed Cell Death,” especially when you view it as not the result of an accident. Cells create other cells and die as part of the natural division and growth of life. We, as combination of cells, go to the store and buy things and wonder about existence when we aren’t too distracted by our phones. Franklin Bruno called it “a sensitive one” during the only performance of it I could find a recording from, in 2010. It’s maybe even an understatement.

You can’t box in the Extra Glenns/Lens as a band. The strongest theme is infidelity, but also just a sense of introspection, sometimes within the former situation and sometimes not. John Darnielle sings “Programmed Cell Death” as high as it sounds like he can go, with his voice fully breaking on one line both in the studio and live versions. His narrator asks big questions, even for a song by Bruno and Darnielle, including “how much longer are we supposed to stay alive?” It’s all mixed with the mundane, but it has a lot more room to stretch out here than it usually does in a Mountain Goats song. There’s a lot to love about the imagery here, but the real joy of “Programmed Cell Death” is the juxtaposition between the biggest question possible to ask and the tinned fish right next to you as you ponder it.

379. Communicating Doors

Alex Russell Undercard , , , , , , , ,

Franklin Bruno’s “Communicating Doors” shows us a night in a hotel and what happens on nights you “don’t recall.”

Track: “Communicating Doors”
Album: Undercard (2010)

The Mountain Goats Wiki is not exhaustive and is sometimes wrong, which John Darnielle has commented on during live shows and podcast appearances. We live in a world that so consistently relies on online sources and the availability of all information that this seemingly obvious fact can be easy to forget. Just because something isn’t on a list online doesn’t mean that list is accurate, but “Communicating Doors” is the only original Extra Lens song that has no mentions of being played live. This does not mean it’s never happened, but it means no one wrote it down if it has.

Franklin Bruno wrote “Some Other Way,” “How I Left the Ministry,” and “Communicating Doors.” The other two, and “Only Existing Footage” which he wrote with John Darnielle, have all been played live. It makes one wonder what makes this one special. I don’t have a concrete answer and I think it may not necessarily be the right question, as the Extra Lens didn’t really tour that often, anyway. I mostly mention it because I’d love to hear this one live. The instruments are warmer here than they are elsewhere on Undercard and maybe that’s tough to do live. I don’t really know.

The song fits with the themes of the album if you assume this is a halting love affair. That’s how I’ve always read it, with the duo stay in adjoining rooms with an understanding that they will meet in one of them but want to keep the ruse alive that they might not. Mountain Goats songs are often about the end of love, but Extra Lens songs are about the situations that surround those emotions.

378. Cruiserweights

Alex Russell Undercard , , , , , , , ,

Similar to other songs about fighting for money but different in tone, “Cruiserweights” is a standout that will make you think.

Track: “Cruiserweights”
Album: Undercard (2010)

I love the storytelling in “Cruiserweights.” The title tells you this is a boxing story, but you probably already knew that. When you really get into it, though, this is a cousin to the wrestling story in “Blood Capsules.” It’s about the fight, sure, but it’s about the guy fighting as much as it is what happens in the ring. “Take a couple shots right to the liver // then remember what the food was like in prison // stick to the game plan // stall for time,” is among the best writing on any Mountain Goats, Extra Glenns, or Extra Lens song. I don’t know who this is about specifically, not like the very similar “Pinklon” which gives away the game in the title, but it doesn’t matter. It’s a story of someone who knows that if this doesn’t work, their next plan will be much more desperate.

There are a lot of connected stories in John Darnielle’s songwriting catalog, but this theme really is explored through all three of these songs. Boxing or wrestling are jobs, which it’s easy to forget given the spectacle. There’s no spectacle in this gym with a bucket of blood and a “PA system borrowed from the high school.” Someone is watching and someone cares, but no one has more on the line than the guy in the ring. That’s something you can understand when you see him get hurt, but I really love John Darnielle and Franklin Bruno asking you to consider what happens later. “Blood Capsules” is more explicit about the next steps, but both songs really walk you right to the edge to understand that getting punched is not the worst thing that might come next.