music

159. Beach House

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , , , , ,

“Beach House” is about the danger of seals (yes, seals), but it’s also about how love clouds our judgement.

Track: “Beach House”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

The typical Mountain Goats song is about a miserable and/or lonely person processing one or more events that have led them to their current state. This is an oversimplification, but the themes of loneliness, displacement, and fear about not making great use of time and relationships are consistent in the catalog.

It hasn’t always been that way. The early Mountain Goats albums have more “funny” songs, which is always the way John Darnielle describes them. He’s told a story several times on stage about playing songs at an open mic in his early days and hearing someone tell their friend that “this guy is funny.” Obviously present-day John Darnielle doesn’t want to be known that way, but the songs exist all the same. He appreciates the fans and understands the devotion to the “old stuff,” so every now and again he digs into the back catalog and plays something like “Beach House.”

“Beach House” is about seals. The beat is catchy, but really the song will stick with you because 11 of the 16 lines include the word “seal.” The narrator is insistent with someone that they need to respect the power and hatred that is innate in seals. That probably sounds ridiculous to you, but you really need to hear it to believe it. “Now when I say that the seal is vicious, I use the term advisedly,” is a truly inspired line.

John Darnielle says this narrator is “neurotic, but not psychotic” and that they want someone they love to not move away. Many early Goats narrators are in love and don’t know how to express it well, but I can’t think of a worse plan than “you can’t leave me, what if the seals get you?”

158. It’s All Here in Brownsville

Alex Russell Full Force Galesburg , , , , , , ,

Two people travel to the end of the road in “It’s All Here in Brownsville,” but no farther than that.

Track: “It’s All Here in Brownsville”
Album: Full Force Galesburg (1997)

Brownsville, Texas is home to 183,000 people and is the 131st largest city in the United States. It is directly on the United States-Mexico border. More than a third of its citizens live below the poverty line.

Full Force Galesburg is an album obsessed with location. One wonders if the extreme poverty in Brownsville informs the choice to use it for “It’s All Here in Brownsville” at all, or if that’s just a sad detail that changes the way the song comes across. It’s certainly relevant that it’s a border town as our couple wanders around in the heat and ponders the significance of the town in their lives.

“Why do we come down to Brownsville, year after year after year?” The couple from Galesburg wonders this out loud and seemingly finds no answer. This is the last track on the album, but the Mountain Goats often exit albums with their characters pondering rather than finding answers. Songs like “Pale Green Things” and “Alpha Rats Nest” are examples of this, where you would expect people to have figured everything out and yet, it ends up being more complex than that.

“It’s All Here in Brownsville” ends with a repetition of “it’s all coming apart again.” Destruction and destructive thought is rampant on Galesburg, so this ending is only fitting. It’s also a compelling place to leave the couple that’s wandered around the United States all over the album. It’s possible to read this as a love song despite the dark ending, but it seems more likely that they’re going to keep avoiding their doomed state. Warm scenery and extreme gestures like traveling to “where nothing starts” every year will keep you going even when you shouldn’t.

157. Young Caesar 2000

Alex Russell Zopilote Machine , , , , , , ,

A boy king ponders his defensive options and decides on violence in “Young Caesar 2000.”

Track: “Young Caesar 2000”
Album: Zopilote Machine (1994)

“Young Caesar 2000” is straightforward. A twelve-year-old boy becomes king and his kingdom is vast. He struggles with leadership and fails to establish the level of power and respect that he feels he is due. He establishes a plan which has been effective for as long as people have led other people, which is to say that he’s going to kill everyone who disagrees with him until there’s no one left.

It’s a short song that acts as a critique of blind leadership in both directions. You have to feel for the people who cause the narrator to say “now I’m thirteen and no one takes me seriously.” No thirteen-year-old generally should be taken seriously, and considering our king here ascended the throne at twelve, they likely have a year’s worth of example behavior to support removing him. You also have to feel for the narrator. If someone came to you at twelve and supported the natural solipsism of youth by making you the leader of all the world you knew to exist, wouldn’t part of you feel like it was about time?

The chugging guitar and raspy delivery give “Young Caesar 2000” a revenge song feel. Your first few listens you probably will grin and picture the boy king’s actions. We don’t get to see the actual deeds, but we can assume from history that either the king will succeed in silencing his doubters through violence or he will be usurped by them. Either way, especially with “Caesar” in the name, we know the stakes are high. We also can infer that neither side will win for long, since a society that found a way to crown a boy can find a way to explain a very short rule.

156. Pseudothyrum Song

Alex Russell Isopanisad Radio Hour , , , , , , ,

We only get one side of the story (and not the important side) in the troubling “Pseudothyrum Song.”

Track: “Pseudothyrum Song”
Album: Isopanisad Radio Hour (2000)

Pseudothyrum means “secret door” and is a word you will never hear in any other context for the rest of your life. John Darnielle opened with “Pseudothyrum Song” at a show in 1999. He walked on stage, introduced himself as Rumpelstiltskin, demanded the child that was promised to him, and said that he had no idea why this new song was called “Pseudothyrum Song.” After it ended, he explained that he was actually John, and hello, and then played other songs.

“Pseudothyrum Song” is one that you hope you’ll never identify with in your own life. One character tells another one that they need to get over some emotional baggage so they can move on in their relationship. They may be lovers or friends, but they keep running into problems because of this previous damage. “I think someone was mean to you, for a long, long time,” he says. It’s certainly “he” because this is one of the few songs where a narrator identifies their gender.

Maybe that’s a mistake and maybe it isn’t. John Darnielle says that he deliberately leaves gender ambiguous for his characters so that they can fit the mold you need. In this case, our narrator tells us “I am not that guy” as he describes the supposed aggressor in the other character’s past. We can infer much from this song and it’s up to you how you choose to take it. It’s uncomfortable no matter how you spin it. Sure, this is a different human being than the one that hurt the other character, but the more you listen to it the more you’ll sympathize with the other person.

155. Black Molly

Alex Russell Bitter Melon Farm , , , , , , ,

In the angry “Black Molly,” a narrator makes a dramatic statement about a former love.

Track: “Black Molly”
Album: Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

“Black Molly” was recorded live in Virginia, most likely in 1996. The liner notes on Bitter Melon Farm confirm it was at Tokyo Rose, which means it’s probably this show. Right after, John Darnielle played “Waving at You,” which he’s called one of the angriest Mountain Goats songs. Later in the night, he delivered a 1-2-3 of “Nine Black Poppies,” “Going to Georgia,” and “Raja Vocative.” He opened with “Alpha Omega” and closed with “Cubs in Five.”

There’s a lot that makes this show compelling. Every song he played came out on an official album, which is rarely true these days, but there’s also a through line to the set list. They’re all about pain in relationships. True, a significant chunk of the catalog is, but this show really stands out. Even the songs where he steps off the gas like “Minnesota” and “The Recognition Scene” have dark connections. It’s important to remember that most of the catalog isn’t autobiographical, but it’s clear that on this night in September of 1996, John Darnielle wanted to talk about how things can take a turn.

Every version of “Black Molly” is great, but the crowd here adds a sense that this is a shared experience. A black molly is either a vicious fighting fish or a slang term for speed, depending on usage. Either one works for the furious narrator in “Black Molly.” The character rends their garments and breaks their stuff when they realize someone is in town and coming to visit them. “You were dragging me down again,” they say, as they fire bullets into reminders of their former love like a ringing phone and photographs. This person is unhinged, to be sure, but they’re at home emotionally among the other narrators on that night in 1996.

154. Snakeheads

Alex Russell Palmcorder Yajna , , , , , ,

John Darnielle asks us to consider what we’d risk and what we’ll do no matter what in “Snakeheads.”

Track: “Snakeheads”
Album: Palmcorder Yajna (2003)

We Shall All Be Healed is anxious. It’s an album all about drug use and drug users, and it’s not pretty. John Darnielle spent time among the real versions of these characters and he’s not interested in romanticizing any of them. Some of them are colorful and almost funny, but you can’t walk away from the album with anything less than a deep fear and concern for this world.

We’re off the beaten path of addiction fear with “Snakeheads.” It’s one of the three songs on the Palmcorder Yajna single and it’s an odd duck in the catalog. It’s definitely still a Mountain Goats song, with named but unexplained characters and a destination but no way of knowing what that destination actually will mean. It’s just musically dissimilar to everything else. It shuffles around with a slow tempo and light percussion. It makes you feel the trudging pace of the characters as they head to unnamed islands through the northern part of the United States.

Snakeheads are smugglers who transport Chinese people wherever they want to go but cannot go legally. It’s a curious thing to talk about, since it seems to be something done willingly and for pay, but within a legal space where autonomy and results seem questionable. These characters are real Snakeheads, with cargo that’s hungry and stuck in the dark in Minnesota, but John Darnielle considers the addict’s life in comparison. They’re obviously different, but they’re all stuck outside the law and they are going to do what they’re going to do. A theme across We Shall All Be Healed is an unwillingness to change, consequences and reasoning be damned, and John Darnielle wants us to think about what we’d risk the back of that van for in our lives.

153. Keeping House

Alex Russell Get Lonely , , , , , ,

John Darnielle imagines a persistent memory that can’t be forgotten as a hungry ghost in “Keeping House.”

Track: “Keeping House”
Album: Get Lonely (2006)

Get Lonely is a breakup album to a lot of people, but it’s also an album about abstract loneliness. It’s both, fortunately, and either way it means that Get Lonely is difficult to approach.

Get Lonely has a tremendous amount of pain in it. If you ever get a chance to see John Darnielle sing “Wild Sage” at a live show where people will let the experience happen and no one is too drunk, you’ll see something you can’t see anywhere else. The rockers and the screamers are fun, to be sure, but “Wild Sage” will force you inward to places you may not want to go. Whether that’s attractive to you or not is debatable, but it’s certainly memorable.

Catharsis is really the point of the whole thing. You wallow around in songs like “Half Dead” and “In Corolla” and you come through the other side changed, hopefully for the better. It explains why “Keeping House” is a bonus track on the Japanese version and not an official song on Get Lonely. You need a slower tempo to wallow properly and compare to yourself, so the lively, bouncy “Keeping House” won’t fit.

It’s still thematically appropriate. Much like Get Lonely itself, “Keeping House” goes through the motions of trying to forget someone with no real intention of letting it happen. The character does all they can to stay busy and happy, but it isn’t enough. “So let all the lights blaze, keep your heart light // Play really loud music all hours of the night” reminds us of a time we tried to stave off a memory and failed. You should still try, but don’t be too upset when that someone pops up again in your head.

152. Scotch Grove

Alex Russell The Coroner's Gambit , , , , , , ,

The furious “Scotch Grove” presents annoying pop country music as an instigator for a serious fight.

Track: “Scotch Grove”
Album: The Coroner’s Gambit (2000)

John Darnielle is all about extremes. The Mountain Goats consistently describe the highs and lows of the world and talk about death, love, and the things that get us through the days surrounding those things. Most albums weave their way through the things John Darnielle obsesses over and they spend so much time on the things we don’t like to think about that they become highly concentrated. This isn’t background music and it typically requires consideration. It’s very rarely light fare.

That said, The Coroner’s Gambit is heavy even for them. It’s an entire album about death. The approach varies from song to song, but the most crushing songs in the catalog live here. John Darnielle wants you to focus on your own end here as he presents the end of many characters, often in anger.

That anger is what makes the album so compelling. People die in Mountain Goats songs and John Darnielle is not afraid to confront mortality elsewhere, but he’s rarely this driven. The narrators in “Baboon” and “Jaipur” are downright mad and the person in “Family Happiness” might be the angriest Mountain Goats speaker. John Darnielle’s voice cracks and squeaks all over the album and it’s wonderfully affecting, though you need to approach the whole thing correctly.

“Scotch Grove” is right at home. It’s named for a city in Iowa, two hours east of where John Darnielle lived. One wonders where the fascination for this small town comes from, but it helps to have a setting. One character simmers towards another one, but this scene is closer to an explosion than most. With a reference to Bluebeard, we know that murder is on the table and John Darnielle’s delivery and strumming suggest that it might be imminent.

150. Pure Gold

Alex Russell Ghana, Songs About Fire , , , , , , , ,

One lover tries to keep another one by warning them that the way out of their love is on fire in “Pure Gold.”

Track: “Pure Gold”
Album: Songs About Fire (1995) and Ghana (1999)

There are many “pure” songs and they are not strictly connected. They may not share exact characters or locations like the Alpha songs do, but they are similar in that they all feature exactly two people talking about exactly one thing.

John Darnielle is on the record about his characters being interchangeable by nature of having no stated gender. It’s easy to describe a Mountain Goats narrator as “he” because John Darnielle sings in first person and is male, but by design he almost never tells you that the speaker is a man or the recipient of the message is a woman or anything of the sort. Most characters could be anywhere across the spectrum of gender and could be speaking to anyone.

It’s often ambiguous if the characters are lovers or friends. In “Pure Gold” we can assume because one character says they often hold the other one, but sometimes we don’t even get that much. Rachel Ware adds vocals to a few lines and reinforces that it is two people communicating, but really it’s just the narrator asking someone not to leave. “Hey, don’t touch the door, because the door will surely kill you” is a striking opening line, but it’s also a look into this narrator’s situation. It’s a love song, kinda, but it’s a close-to-the-end-of-love song.

Relationships across the Goats catalog are often in states of disarray. It’s no surprise that the “Pure Gold” couple struggles, but it’s interesting as a look into unreliable narrators. John Darnielle often uses song structure to point out that we only get one side of the story. We know from the lyrics that the other lover here doesn’t see the exit as such a dangerous thing, no matter how many times they’re told that the door is literally on fire.

149. Pure Honey

Alex Russell Philyra, Protein Source of the Future...Now! , , , , ,

“Pure Honey” asks the most unimportant question in the catalog but will keep you guessing just the same.

Track: “Pure Honey”
Album: Philyra (1994) and Protein Source of the Future…Now! (1999)

In November of 2016, John Darnielle played a set for charity in Chicago. It is one of very few instances where you can hear “Pure Honey.” You should check it out.

“Pure Honey” is a stupid song. Songs like “Going to Maine” and “The Monkey Song” are similar songs that sound silly when compared to most of the 500+ song Mountain Goats catalog, but a song is allowed to be stupid or silly. These aren’t insulting terms. John Darnielle describes them the same way. You just have to be honest when you’re singing a song about the dangers of seals or a funny ode to ancient British people.

John Darnielle sometimes mentions his early career and talks about how he didn’t like being “the guy with the funny songs.” He was a poet first, so one can understand the fun of people laughing along with something silly competing with “serious” craft.

The best Mountain Goats experiences have both. “New Chevrolet in Flames” has a bunch of jokes in it, but it’s about two people who shouldn’t be together and delay the end of their experience by lighting a car on fire for fun. There are tons of these songs in the recent past, but the early songs tended to be shorter and had less room to explore their ideas.

Keep all of that in your head as you listen to someone pay $200 for John Darnielle to play “Pure Honey” in 2016. It is a song that entirely exists for a repeated joke and the absurd idea it conjures in your mind. Did this person just want to tie a $200 donation to something that silly or is “Pure Honey” something more to them? Could be either, but I personally don’t think either is any more fitting than the other.