the mountain goats

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.

151. New Chevrolet in Flames

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

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.

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.

148. Pure Milk

Alex Russell Hot Garden Stomp , , , , , ,

 

One character tries to convince another to take a midnight ride during the snappy “Pure Milk.”

Track: “Pure Milk”
Album: Hot Garden Stomp (1993)

With a finger-snap beat and the old Casio groove behind it, “Pure Milk” is absolutely a highlight of the early era. It’s the only song from Hot Garden Stomp that you might hear at a live show, but even then your odds are very low. There are a few great performances online you can dig up that show what a modern “Pure Milk” sounds like. It’s different now, with more intensity and fierce guitar, but the improved quality also changes some of the charm.

I’ve said before that no one should start their Mountain Goats journey with the truly old songs, but you might be able to start your journey through the early Goats with “Pure Milk.” The narrator slurs the first verse about getting drunk and stealing tractors to ride into town. John Darnielle embodies his eerie speaker here and you feel the simmering emotions within the character as you listen to it. The chorus of “put your hand on the goddamned radio” feels like a frustrated command.

Some of the early songs are interesting as experiments. Sometimes the charm isn’t in the finished product so much as the joy you feel from John Darnielle. “Pure Milk” is a fully realized idea and the song is that much the better because of it. Like the other “pure” songs, the narrator has a brief idea to get across to one other character. It starts with bravado and a concrete plan but breaks down over the second verse. The narrator’s confidence is shaken by a moment of hesitation. Sometimes that’s enough to derail a plan, but we leave this scene before we know how it ends. Catchy as it is, it’s the fear within it that makes it so hypnotic.

147. Pure Sound

Alex Russell Ghana , , , , , , , , ,

 

A chance meeting on Taylor Street tells us everything about one person and nothing about the other in “Pure Sound.”

Track: “Pure Sound”
Album: Ghana (1999)

“Pure Sound” was released in 1995 on Goar Magazine #11. Just about any search for more details becomes recursive. You will only find Goar Magazine #11 mentioned in relation to the two Mountain Goats songs on it (“Pure Sound” and “Creature Song”) and vice versa. 1995 was 22 years ago at the time of this writing, but it may as well be totally lost to time for all the good research will do you.

Both songs live forever on Ghana, the compilation of many loose tracks up to 1999. Ghana spans a lot of time and even more distance thematically, which makes it difficult to approach as one work. Rather than thinking of “Pure Sound” as an oddity, you can consider it as one of the “pure” songs, which are grouped as intense, brief looks at conversations.

“Pure Sound” never made the rotation. You won’t find it on fan lists of their favorite songs and you won’t hear it at live shows. It doesn’t have room for the full band to blow it up into an experience but it also doesn’t seem like it would benefit from the intense, three-song guitar solo sets that John Darnielle does now. It seems right at home in the mid-to-late 90s version of the Mountain Goats, where sad narrators realize their fate too late.

The narrator meets with someone, but the meeting is accidental. John Darnielle delivers “I was in between times” with his trademark whine and the desperation of the moment becomes apparent. So often we don’t get any window into the other character and “Pure Sound” is no different. The narrator is smitten, so much so that they hope they can halt time to extend the experience of an accidental meeting on Taylor Street, but of course, they can’t.

146. Pure Love

Alex Russell Bitter Melon Farm, Songs for Petronius , , , , , , , ,

 

A repetitive Casio keyboard and a desperate narrator entreat a lover to not go through with a mysterious plan on “Pure Love.”

Track: “Pure Love”
Album: Songs for Petronius (1992) and Bitter Melon Farm (1999)

“Pure Love” is 25 years old at the time of this writing. John Darnielle played it in October in Colorado, which you can check out here, and mentioned that it was the second time it had ever been played live. It would be impossible to describe it without using the word “obscure.”

It’s played on the old Casio keyboard that makes many appearances in the early Mountain Goats work. When John Darnielle played it in Colorado he played it on piano, which is fitting considering the upcoming album is the first to be entirely without guitar. He’s been slowly heading that way more and more and it will be really fascinating to see the result of an all-piano album.

The keyboard songs aren’t a good place to start if you’re a new fan. “Pure Love” especially is a little grating, if we’re being honest, though the playful, repetitive tune matches the lyrics well. “It won’t be necessary,” John Darnielle repeats, as he pleads with another character. The other lover, we can assume, is up to no good. The narrator presumes as much in the first verse and is more direct in the second as they ask their lover to remove a ski mask. Crimes and potential crimes abound on Mountain Goats albums, and even if this is a metaphorical one, it’s one our narrator fears.

Across the five songs on Songs for Petronius you will notice lots of repetition. None of them use the device like “Pure Love,” where the narrator’s resolve cracks as they keep saying “it won’t be necessary.” You must always question the reliability of your narrator, and you know, I think it just might end up being necessary in this case.