The sorrowful “Used to Haunt” reflects on someone long gone and how we remember each other.

Track: “Used to Haunt”
Album: All Eternals Deck (2011)

“…People who get what we do feel passionately about it and want others to hear what they hear, but people who don’t groove to it really don’t dig it.” – John Darnielle

“Used to Haunt” plays over the credits of the movie Paper Towns, adapted from the John Green novel of the same name. John Green’s Twitter icon features him wearing the “I only listen to the Mountain Goats” shirt. He has 5.31 million followers and Paper Towns made 85 million dollars. On the day of this writing, Lin-Manuel Miranda posted a playlist on his Twitter called “Stay Alive” that ends with the Mountain Goats’ “Spent Gladiator 2.”

These two guys are two of the biggest people in American culture today, especially to younger people. In both cases, there’s a very good chance their audience hasn’t heard of the Mountain Goats. That’s why John Darnielle’s quote about “Used to Haunt” being the credits song for a major movie is so interesting. He then elaborates about the risks of using a band not everyone will connect with and how that can be alienating. It may not be strictly true that no one just “likes” the Mountain Goats, but it can definitely feel that way.

“Used to Haunt” is about memory. John Darnielle says it’s about “the sweet and the sad parts together.” You can feel the absence as the narrator says “long while since I felt this way // stand by the window, wait for day.” It reminds me of the (much) earlier “Cao Dai Blowout” as a narrator frets over the memory of their father. In “Used to Haunt” the narrator seems more welcoming of the memory, but in both cases it’s surprising and consuming.