r/themountaingoats

Everyone here loves low quality concert footage. They are a more important part of TMG's following than they are of any other bands. This video of John, Jon and the late Peter Hughes joining Ska band Sad Snack (their own support act, no less) to sing No Children is I think a vital part of the spirit.

The audio is crunchy, the video is shaky. The taping begins most of the way through the song. Darnielle joins in several bars out, Peter Hughes is just jigging around, and the actual musicians playing noticeably wobble when the Goats walk on stage. Wurster seems a little startled by the whole thing, like somones shoved a tambourine in his hand and thrown him out of a plane. Despite that, this is one of the best videos of No Children on youtube. It's a whole damn room singing along loudly, singing along not quite in tune or in time, being recorded for people to share in that glorious moment of live ecstasy. I'm sure the sound engineering and mixing for Sad Snack is excellent, but theres something about a bad bootleg of a whole room enjoying themselves.

Please share your favourite low quality bootlegs of Mountain Goats songs. They'll put colour in your cheeks.

i’m known in my family and my friend groups as The Mountain Goats Fan. my friend had everyone contribute a song to a Fourth of July playlist and i, as a joke, submitted See America Right. is there a better, more explicitly anti-American (or antinationalist in general) song i could add next time?

a) how strong you can be if you have to;

b) how far you can go with no gas in the tank;

c) there's always a clock ticking somewhere;

Love the song but which is it, only one can be first!

Whenever I listen through The Coroner's Gambit on Spotify, the version of the Alphonse Mambo there is not the one I recognize and would swear I have been listening to for nigh on 20 years now. Searching out the album version of the song on Youtube also yields the same "new" version that I don't recognize. Notable differences:

- This "new" version of the song has prominent harmonica; I would swear the one I know does not, or at least it would be very muted

- It also has John singing in a higher register

- I think it is also a little lower tempo than the version I am accustomed to

Every time this song comes on I wince and recognize it as alien immediately. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills, though, because I cannot find any trace of an alternate studio version of the track anywhere else.

Please, for the love of god, tell me I am not alone out here!

This was said introducing a song at Summerfest that I expected to be "Dance Music" but was something else. Was anyone else there and remember which song it was? Thanks for your help! :)

Been listening to TMG for years, only recently have I been seeing this "book club" speak in YouTube comments under their songs, and in posts on this sub.

Am I missing something here?

Where the phone starts to ring

Does anyone know where the cliffs in the top left corner of the album cover are? It really looked like some near me in East Sussex, but I compared them and I don’t think it’s them.

Hey Book Club! 

Since we are halfway through this year/This Year, I wanted to reflect a little on the experience of reading this book of days so far and would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts. To structure it a bit, I had a couple of questions. Feel free to answer all of them, some of them, or none of them and add your own freeform thoughts.

1. What is your favorite new song that the book has introduced you to?

 

The one that stands out the most to me now is “Store” (April 24), which has joined my general driving playlist. As with many of my favorite TMG songs, I like how its catchy tune hides a darker story and how that story becomes a bit more clear as the song goes on. Also “Ah, the blood!” Is just another all-timer refrain. Very satisfying to sing in the car. 

2. What is something new you noticed or learned about a song you already loved?

 

“The Coroner’s Gambit” (April 11) has long been on my list of favorite songs. For some reason, I had always had it in my head that the narrator was terminally ill and the song was them succumbing. Learning that the death of John’s friend, Rozz,  inspired it has added a different flavor of sadness to the song and to some of its lyrics. 

On a lighter note, I can now never unhear the fact that the first two words of “See America Right” (May 8) are from two different takes. 

3. In the commentary, John discusses many different cultural, musical, or literary inspirations. Was there any source that left an impression on you?

 

I had never heard of Dana Plato before Feb 17 (“Song for Dana Plato”) and reading about her short, troubled life was pretty upsetting, especially the fact that her son also died young. Then June 26 (“Tyler Lambert’s Grave”) rolls around and clobbers me again. That song has now joined my list of TMG songs that have made me cry. 

4. Any song from albums/EPs the book has already covered that you’re disappointed didn’t make it in?

 

I love “International Small Arms Traffic Blues,” especially the lyrics “There is a shortage in the blood supply/But there is no shortage of blood." Doesn't that deserve a day??

i've been listening to Tallahassee as a stand alone album for a couple months and i was looking at some genius annotations and i've discovered i know absolutely nothing about the story behind the music, or ties to previous records, and it'll make more sense, and be even better after i've listened to more, so im looking for recommendations on what album to go to from here, as i've heard darnielle changes sound between records pretty often

Was there any preamble story from John about his willingness to perform it now after so many years of not? thankd

So I started listening to the mountain goats in 2021 when I stumbled on to the song love love love. It is one of my favorite songs and The Sunset Tree is one of my favorite albums of all time. I have tried listening to them ever since starting with listening to them in chronological order a few years back but I kind of stopped after first two album because I felt kind of overwhelmed by their huge discography. I only listened to their album through this fire across from peter balkan a few days ago and I really want to explore more of their stuff, So far I have listened to The Sunset Tree, Beautiful Rat Sunset, Bleed Out, Jenny from Thebes and Sweden and also a few songs from All Hail West Texas. Basically I have listened the first two albums, the sunset tree and the albums that came out after I became a fan. But I still don't know where to go next.