Contacts
Info
A memoir in Mountain Goats songs, by Richard O'Brien. Each episode focuses on a year in my life from 1990 onwards through the lens of a song written or recorded...
show more
A memoir in Mountain Goats songs, by Richard O'Brien. Each episode focuses on a year in my life from 1990 onwards through the lens of a song written or recorded that year by John Darnielle.
show less
Now Here We Are Thirty Years Later
Now Here We Are Thirty Years Later
Explicit
2009: 'Psalms 40:2'
21 DEC 2023 · Sin as hard as you can. Today's episode is about Shane MacGowan, growing up Catholic in England in the 90s, knocking a few teacups off the shelves, and 'the life of the spirit' in John Darnielle's work from 'Stable Boy Song' to 'Satanic Messiah.' It's 2009, and the song is 'Psalms 40:2.'
Explicit
2008: 'Heretic Pride'
24 OCT 2023 · Well, they come and pull me from my house. Today’s episode is about ‘Heretic Pride,’ monsters, pagans, ghost cowboys, how a comprehensive knowledge of unreleased Mountain Goats lyrics might come in handy when you least expect it, and a ‘large, eclectic crowd of gay people’ at the City Nightclub in 1986, enjoying ‘the best sound system in Portland & possibly the entire PNW.’
Show notes
A lot of today’s episode is about what life was like for queer teenagers experiencing homelessness on the streets of Portland in the 1980s - an organisation that serves this community today which Darnielle himself has recommended is p:ear, which stands for Project Education, Art and Recreation. While I was in town, programme director Tony Martinez was kind enough to give me a tour of the building and told me about the amazing work they do, helping young people to get anything from socks and basic hygiene products to food service qualifications and opportunities to sell their own artwork. It all starts with looking at ‘youth as youth, intentionally developing relationships’ as the basis for mentorship, rather than a model centered on transactions or case management.
If you enjoy the episode, I don’t charge for any of my work on this project, but you might like to donate to p:ear - you can do so at pearmentor.org/donate. Or if you’re listening in the UK and want to give locally, the charity AKT works for ‘safe homes and better futures for lgbtq+ young people’: you can donate to them on https://www.akt.org.uk/Appeal/donate. If you make a donation to either organisation, tag me on social media - notrockyhorror on Twitter or Bluesky, thirty_years_later on Instagram - to let me know, and I’ll send you a photo. In Portland I didn’t quite manage to ‘shoot a roll of 32 exposures’ - disposable cameras these days seem mostly to come with rolls of 28 - but I do have spare copies of a good few pictures from my trip which I’d be happy to post out in exchange for your generosity if you get in touch.
References: It turns out my hosting platform doesn't allow me to post as long a list of references as I need to here, given the amount of archival material I used in the episode. You can find the normal list of interviews, live shows, etc onhttps://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRxvAze26mD0l7oh_P-TeAohyXmL_S7Evk9ZVasio4xrqrC2OIPmx7V4tekBdMbHsic8TwmMMI85Ska/pub instead, including persistent links and page number to all the historical newspaper sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRxvAze26mD0l7oh_P-TeAohyXmL_S7Evk9ZVasio4xrqrC2OIPmx7V4tekBdMbHsic8TwmMMI85Ska/pub
Explicit
2007: ‘From TG&Y’ (Live)
28 SEP 2023 · Max Brod Hate Club. Today’s episode is about ‘From TG&Y,’ 2007, writer’s archives, the Mountain Goats fan forums, copying mean lyrics onto your school planner, and how to move a craftsman bungalow down the Santa Fe railroad in the dead of night.
Show notes
Interviews:
Bill Meyer, ‘Goat Ease,’ Puncture, 1994: http://web.archive.org/web/19990427042719/http://mb1.musicblvd.com/cgi-bin/tw/288145857327820_105_4973
‘The Mountain Goats Can’t Buy A Thrill,’ Puberty, 1993/4: https://web.archive.org/web/20140603113938/http://marcopolio.blogspot.com/
Richard O’Brien, ‘The Sound and the Fury: An Interview With John Darnielle,’ 3:am, 2007: https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-sound-and-the-fury-an-interview-with-john-darnielle/
Reese Higgins, ‘The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle on Internet Addiction, Metal, and the Lifetime Movie Network.’ Washington City Paper, 2013: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/412154/the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-on-internet-addiction-metal-and-the-lifetime-movie-network/
Christian Hoard, ‘The Slow Climb: How the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle Became the Best Storyteller in Rock,’ Rolling Stone, 2015 [paywalled]: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-slow-climb-how-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-became-the-best-storyteller-in-rock-227793/
Tom Breihan, ‘We Took The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle To His First Pro Wrestling Show In 35 Years,’ Stereogum, 2015: https://www.stereogum.com/1788418/we-took-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-to-his-first-pro-wrestling-show-in-35-years/interviews/
Craig Jenkins, ‘Genuinely John Darnielle The Mountain Goats’ frontman on keeping the faith, loving the occult, and sad songwriting.’ Vulture, 2022 [paywalled]:https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/john-darnielle-the-mountain-goats-bleed-out.html
Tom Breihan, ‘We’ve Got A File On You: John Darnielle,’ Stereogum, 2022: https://www.stereogum.com/2195715/john-darnielle-mountain-goats-bleed-out/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/
Songwriters on Process: ‘Julien Baker and Matt Nathanson,’ February 2022: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XHol51wmCjMdUZyzHldMU?si=0aec21182d0140a0&nd=1
Live shows:
Live at the Gold Student Center, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, on 2006-12-02, taped by Chris Bellew: https://archive.org/details/tmg2006-12-02/
Live at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, on 2006-09-20, taped by drworm01: https://archive.org/details/tmg2006-09-20.flacf/
Live at Herbst Theater, San Francisco, CA, on 2009-05-29, taped by rainingvodka: https://archive.org/details/tmg2009-02-24.schoeps_cmc34_16bit/
Live at VPRO on 19
96-11-07: https://archive.org/details/tmg1996-11-07.aud.128mp3/
Web resources:
Japanese liner notes to Get Lonely, featuring Akao Mika interview and translated by Andrew Fazzari, on the Annotated Mountain Goats: https://annotatedtmg.org/mirror/gl-japanese-liner.html
Barry Sanders, ‘Grove House: A California Bungalow Goes to College.’ Pitzer College, https://www.pitzer.edu/archives/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2014/09/Grove-House-History-Barry-Sanders1.pdf
Anna Griffin, ‘Oregon Book Award Finalist Barry Sanders: The purposeful rambler.’ Oregon Live, 2011: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/anna_griffin/2011/04/oregon_book_award_finalist_bar.html
Jason Koebler, ‘It’s September, Forever.’ VICE, 2015: https://www.vice.com/en/article/nze8nb/its-september-forever.
John’s tweets about Matt Nathanson: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1471985074178596865 https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1043621458214309888
And about Kafka/Emily Dickinson in this thread:https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/562732001464434689
And on destroying your archive: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1428104276417474562
John’s stated position on bootlegging, 2004: https://archive.org/details/MountainGoats?tab=about
tMG forum discussion of Hail and Farewell Gothenburg, archived on the Annotated Mountain Goats: https://annotatedtmg.org/hafg.html
tMG forum post about ‘From TG&Y’ studio version: https://web.archive.org/web/20071211211949/http://www.mountain-goats.com/forums/read.php?2,11195
Jake Brown, ‘Obsession, Insanity and Fanaticism,’ Glorious Noise, 2001 - featuring Last Plane to Jakarta material on Syd Barrett: https://gloriousnoise.com/2001/obsession_insanity_and_fanatic
Kafka on books and reading, The Marginalian: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/06/06/kafka-on-books-and-reading/
YouTube videos:
‘The Mountain Goats @ Simplon, Groningen, Netherlands 1995-04-12,’ taped by Gregor and uploaded by notasfarwest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28e-WerYzJM&t=962s
The Mountain Goats - Dance Music, live in London, uploaded by vikramj86: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5B4UVUHeWw
Mountain Goats, Eddie Argos at the Union Chapel, uploaded by Keith TOTP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpO0e5nEvIE
The Mountain Goats - From TG&Y - at Rock for Roe at Pinhook on 1/20/13, uploaded by Ash Crowe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxUv9Qxi7WQ
2006: 'Maybe Sprout Wings'
31 AUG 2023 · The loneliest people in the whole wide world. Today's episode is about ‘Maybe Sprout Wings,’ Frankie Lymon, the ‘high lonesome sound’ of Appalachian folk music, and a depressive episode at the Trinity LABAN Centre.
Show notes
Interviews:
Tom Lynch, ‘Only the Lonely: Mountain Goats man John Darnielle sings a sad story,’ New City Music, 2006: https://music.newcity.com/2006/09/14/only-the-lonely-mountain-goats-man-john-darnielle-sings-a-sad-story/
Andy Downing, ‘Mountain Goats' Darnielle opens up in `Get Lonely.'’ Chicago Tribune, 2006 [paywalled]:https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2006-09-08-0609080026-story.html
Craig Wright, ‘Mountain Goats' John Darnielle on Chasing Death and Dressing Goth in Portland,’ Willamette Week, 2017: https://www.wweek.com/music/2017/05/31/mountain-goats-john-darnielle-on-chasing-death-and-dressing-goth-in-portland/
Steven Hyden, ‘Celebration Rock.’ ‘20th Century Boss, Part 7: “Tunnel of Love” with John Darnielle.’ Spotify podcast, 2018: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0g1WGiwnjKKcGaYRnKPOuG?si=2b751fe1b0f84e03&nd=1
Craig Jenkins, ‘Genuinely John Darnielle The Mountain Goats’ frontman on keeping the faith, loving the occult, and sad songwriting.’ Vulture, 2022 [paywalled]:https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/john-darnielle-the-mountain-goats-bleed-out.html
Live shows:
Live at Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, on 2005-06-20, taped by Peter Sohriakoff: https://archive.org/details/tmg2005-06-20
Live at Club Europa, Brooklyn, on 2006-09-29, taped by Peter Sohriakoff: https://archive.org/details/tmg2006-09-29/
Live at the Gothic Theater in Englewood, Colorado on 2017-09-16, taped by LMGB Tapes: https://archive.org/details/tmg2017-09-16/
Live at Boulder Theater, Colorado on 2018-09-13, taped by Lance Stack, feat. ‘Duane Allman Slept Here’: https://archive.org/details/tmg2018-09-13.mk4.flac24
Live at Aladdin Theater, Portland, on 2019-09-10, taped by Liz Hamilton: https://archive.org/details/tmg2019-09-10
Web resources:
Japanese liner notes to Get Lonely, featuring Akao Mika interview and translated by Andrew Fazzari, on the Annotated Mountain Goats: https://annotatedtmg.org/mirror/gl-japanese-liner.html
Witchsong, ‘I Don’t Wanna Die In Here: The Mountain Goats in Chicago,’ 2015: https://medium.com/witchsong/i-dont-wanna-die-in-here-the-mountain-goats-in-chicago-df8f1044c75d
Amanda Petrusich, ‘The Discovery of Roscoe Holcomb and the “High Lonesome Sound.” The New Yorker, 2015 [paywalled]: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-discovery-of-roscoe-holcomb-and-the-high-lonesome-sound
Kara Kundert, ‘50 STATES OF FOLK: The Enduring Power of Kentucky’s High Lonesome Sound.’ No Depression, 2020: https://www.nodepression.com/50-states-of-folk-the-enduring-power-of-kentuckys-high-lonesome-sound/
Sandra Brennan, Rovi artist biography for Buell Kazee: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6tcyQ0ycaAsYbjhoDOt1jd?si=hwcOOaKKQ9WHHyWuJTv6lg&nd=1
Pretty Panicks Press postcard, from an art project by Sara Wintz, featuring the first draft of Moon Over Goldsboro: https://annotatedtmg.org/mirror/moon-postcard.pdf
Henry David Thoreau on Solitude, from ‘Walden’: https://commons.digitalthoreau.org/walden/solitude/
Stuart Heritage, ‘This Country: perfect, horrifying TV for anyone who grew up in a village.’ The Guardian, 2017: https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/feb/22/this-country-bbc-perfect-horrifying-tv-for-anyone-who-grew-up-in-a-village
YouTube videos:
‘Seabreeze,’ by Frankie Lymon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yo4UE-p864
‘Brilliant Disguise,’ by The Extra Glenns on 1995-09-21 at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, IL. Uploaded by notasfarwest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2qMQJaRHak
‘Sickbed Blues,’ by Skip James: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgcpuhvjNuw
‘The Song Colloquially referred to as "Nikki oh Nikki" by the Mountain Goats,’ uploaded by Proud Heretic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMAhXEopqHw
Books:
Franklin Bruno, Elvis Costello’s Armed Forces (Bloomsbury, 2005).
2005: 'Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod?'
29 JUN 2022 · Deep in the dream chamber. Today's episode is about 2005, the year I discovered The Sunset Tree: an album that changed my life. It also takes in Keats, Walter Benjamin, amateur Shakespeare productions in Rutland, and the Venerable Bede.
Show notes
Interviews:
Puncture interview with Bill Meyer, 1994: http://web.archive.org/web/19990427042719/http://mb1.musicblvd.com/cgi-bin/tw/288145857327820_105_4973
Washington Post interview with Ivan Kreilkamp, 2004: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2004/02/04/sure-footed-mountain-goats/534c6689-1848-4538-936a-e6da5230e961/
NPR interview with Linda Wertheimer, 2005: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4651778
Interview with No Depression, 2005: https://www.nodepression.com/john-darnielle-where-the-truth-lies/2/
The Sound of Young America podcast interview with Jesse Thorn, 2011: https://maximumfun.org/episodes/bullseye-with-jesse-thorn/john-darnielle-mountain-goats-interview-sound-young-america/
MTV interview with Eric Spitznagel, discussing piracy, 2011: http://www.mtv.com/news/2693865/interview-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle/
SPIN interview with Joe Gross, 2011: https://www.spin.com/2011/04/spin-interview-john-darnielle/
VICE interview with Cam Lindsay, 2011: https://www.vice.com/en/article/bmw7m4/john-darnielle-lived-the-teenage-goth-life-i-never-did
I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, ‘218: In League With Dragons,’ with Darnielle and Joseph Fink, 2019:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4cORAS6IHaVredgdNx8FjS?si=33ed8ee10d224894
Interview with Helena Fitzgerald for her Substack, Griefbacon, 2021: https://griefbacon.substack.com/p/dont-write-songs-chatting-with-john
Guardian interview with Oscar Rickett, 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/31/john-darnielle-being-an-american-is-like-living-in-a-terry-gilliam-world
BOMB magazine interview with Carmen Maria Machado, 2022: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/john-darnielle/
Web resources:
Holly Hazlewood’s review of Dark in Here for Spectrum Culture, quoting the press kit: https://spectrumculture.com/2021/06/24/the-mountain-goats-dark-in-here-review/
Bleed Out Bandcamp page with liner notes: https://themountaingoats.bandcamp.com/album/bleed-out
Carl Wilson’s article on The Sunset Tree for The Globe and Mail, 2005: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/hes-finally-confessed-so-hold-on/article18226562/
Edmund Spenser, Sonnet 75: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45189/amoretti-lxxv-one-day-i-wrote-her-name
Heritage Calling article on Newcastle-Gateshead public art over the decades, including Tyne Line of Txt Flow: https://heritagecalling.com/2016/09/07/55-years-of-public-art-in-newcastle-gateshead/
Darnielle on Berryman’s ‘Tampa Stomp’, featuring the reference to ancient Rome: https://fsgworkinprogress.com/2014/04/28/on-berrymans-tampa-stomp/
Wikipedia entry on Benjamin’s ‘Angel of history’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelus_Novus
John Keats, ‘This living hand, now warm and capable’: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50375/this-living-hand-now-warm-and-capable, and Joel Brouwer’s commentary on the poem: https://romantic-circles.org/editions/poets/prose_commentary/brouwer
Geoff Sanborn’s newsletter episode on The Sunset Tree: https://allhail.substack.com/p/2005-the-sunset-tree
JD’s tweet about The Sunset Tree: ‘a record that changed things for us’: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1519056431126822920
Books:
Bede. A History of the English Church and People. Translated and with an introduction by Leo Sherley-Price, revised by R. E. Latham. Penguin Books, 1968, pp. 127-8.
Alan Bennett, The History Boys. Faber & Faber, 2004.
Antony Sher. Beside Myself: An Actor’s Life. Revised edition. Nick Hern Books, 2009.
Marc Maron, Waiting for the Punch: Words To Live By From The WTF Podcast. Flatiron Books, 2017, p. 40.
Oliver Burke. Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It. Vintage, 2021.
Devil House, by John Darnielle. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.
Live recordings:
Live at KEXP Radio on 2005-06-16: https://archive.org/details/tmg2005-06-16.aud.192mp3/tmg2005-06-16t04.mp3
Live at The EARL, Atlanta, GA, on 2006-11-03: https://archive.org/details/mountaingoats2006-11-03.flac/08-Talking.flac
Live at Club Capitol, Perth, Australia, on 2007-01-02: https://archive.org/details/tmg2007-01-02/tmg2007-01-02t03.flac
Live at 9:30 Club, Washington D.C., on 2009-11-27: https://archive.org/details/tMG2009-11-27.aud.flac16/Tmg2009-11-27t19.flac
Live at Ventura Music Hall, CA, on 2022-04-29: https://archive.org/details/tmg2022-04-29.aud.mv88.flac24/tmg2022-04-29t26.flac
Youtube links:
‘High Barbary,’ performed for the Sing Out Loud series at the Pirate Museum in St. Augustine, Florida: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEgoYPnslC0
PBS Eons: ‘Something Has Been Making This Mark For 500 Million Years’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz1fccY3S84
2004: 'Against Pollution'
19 MAY 2022 · 45 minutes in the pews, praying the Rosary. Today's episode is about 'Against Pollution,' Catholicism, ammonites, and spiritual 2004.
Show notes
Interviews
Casual Magic podcast interview on John’s Hare Krishna years with Shivam Bhatt: https://casualmagic.libsyn.com/casual-magic-episode-31-mountain-goats
Live shows
Live at The 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA, on 2006-08-10: https://archive.org/details/tmg2006-08-10.flac16/tmg2006-08-10t18.flac
Live at The Saturn, Birmingham, AL, on 2021-08-08: https://archive.org/details/tmg2021-08-08/tmg2021-08-08-26.flac
Web Resources
Classic FM article on ‘Coventry Carol’: https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/occasions/christmas/coventry-carol-lyrics-meaning-history/
JD tweet about teaching catechism: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1242608701116162053; also worth noting is this reference to an early Mountain Goats song ‘called “History of the Church Part 2”… about Polycarp rebuking Marcion’:
https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1071071098685534208
Natural History Museum primer on ammonites: https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/what-is-an-ammonite.html
‘The Chambered Nautilus,’ by Oliver Wendell Holmes: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44379/the-chambered-nautilus
Anemona Hartocollis, ‘The Major Findings of Harvard’s Report on Its Ties to Slavery,’ discussing Holmes’s actions as dean. New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/26/us/harvard-slavery-report.html
‘Exclusive: Hammer Horror Stars Reunite at Bray.’ CinemaRetro, https://web.archive.org/web/20100325031535/http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/257-EXCLUSIVE-HAMMER-HORROR-STARS-REUNITE-AT-BRAY-STUDIOS.html/
Books
Graham Greene, Brighton Rock. Vintage Classics, 2011.
Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Vintage, 2011.
YouTube videos
‘Whole Wide World/Against Pollution [Live]’ at the Gothic Theatre in Englewood, CO, on 2021-08-19: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSn6N0Cw_Yg
‘Against Pollution [Live//Halloween//2005]’ – at the Knitting Factory in New York on 2005-10-31, with John dressed as a priest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1kbCQkhezs
Explicit
2003: 'Palmcorder Yajna'
29 APR 2022 · Where they manufactured what I needed. The show is back with a double episode about 'Palmcorder Yajna,' 'Devil House,' a folder full of MSN Messenger chatlogs two decades old, and the unique awfulness of being 13 and online in West Deeping in 2003.
***
Show notes
Books
Devil House, by John Darnielle. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022.
Interviews
Believer interview with Daniel Handler, 2004: https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-john-darnielle/
Pitchfork interview with Tom Breihan, 2009: https://pitchfork.com/news/36406-john-darnielle-tells-the-story-behind-the-mountain-goats-biblical-new-lp/
The AV Club interview with Paul Caine, 2009: https://www.avclub.com/the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-learns-to-trust-other-1798218315
Rolling Stone interview with Christian Hoard, 2015: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-slow-climb-how-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-became-the-best-storyteller-in-rock-227793/
I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, ‘203: Done Bleeding,’ with Darnielle and Joseph Fink, 2019: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6FguuVWylhnxsYsOmPDSTu?si=3d7aebf5ea1f415b
I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats, ‘204: Going Invisible 2,’ with Darnielle and Joseph Fink, 2019:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1w3hnw8e881zr1mohUy8lT?si=63bb43a9e0aa4848
Smarty Pants podcast interview with Stephanie Bastek, 2022: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0u15aKXWzicelZPItsBusO?si=a4faa02396534010&nd=1S
Sound Opinions podcast interview with Andrew Gill, 2022: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/john-darnielle-on-his-new-novel-devil-house/id94793843?i=1000549044737
Q podcast interview with Tom Power, 2022: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-50-q
New Yorker interview with Helen Rosner, 2022: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/john-darnielle-wants-to-tell-you-a-story
Web Resources
We Shall All Be Healed liner notes: https://annotatedtmg.org/wsabh.html
We Shall All Be Healed microsite reconstructions: http://web.archive.org/web/20101208171235/http://www.4ad.com/weshallallbehealed/ and https://annotatedtmg.org/mirror/wsabh-microsite.html
John’s tweet about his hospice work: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1068880460477054977
Geoff Sanborn’s newsletter entry for All Hail the Mountain Goats on We Shall All Be Healed: https://allhail.substack.com/p/2003-we-shall-all-be-healed?s=r
Tom Moyser’s 2012 review of Transcendental Youth in For Folk’s Sake: https://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/19212/album-the-mountain-goats-transcendental-youth
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47311/the-waste-land
Live shows
Live at The Empty Bottle, Chicago, on 2002-11-01: https://archive.org/details/tmg2002-11-01.aud.128mp3/tmg2002-11-01t09.mp3
Live at Berbati’s Pan, Portland on 2003-10-03: https://archive.org/details/tmg2003-10-03.aud.192mp3/tmg2003-10-03t01.mp3
Live at VPRO DAWRS Session Studio DeSmet, Amsterdam on 2004-03-27: https://archive.org/details/tmg2004-03-27.FM/06+-+Interview.flac
Live at KEXP Radio on 2005-06-16: https://archive.org/details/tmg2005-06-16.aud.192mp3/tmg2005-06-16t04.mp3
Live at Herbst Theatre, San Francisco, on 2009-02-24: https://archive.org/details/tmg2009-02-24.schoeps_cmc34_16bit/john_darnielle_20090224_cmc34_d01t06.flac
Live at The Opera House, Toronto, on 2011-04-03: https://archive.org/details/MG2011-04-03.flac/mg2011-12-31t12.flac
Live at City Winery, New York, on 2015-04-11: http://www.nyctaper.com/2015/04/the-mountain-goats-april-11-2015-city-winery-flacmp3streaming/
Live at Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, on 2020-02-20: https://archive.org/details/tmg2020-02-20/10_%5Bbanter+4%5D.wav
Live at Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC, on 2021-12-16: https://archive.org/details/tmg2021-12-16/tmg2021-12-16-17.flac
YouTube clips
‘Palmcorder Yajna,’ live at The Earl in Atlanta, GA on 2004-10-18: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2aMfIFo0ro
Signal Flare #9, featuring ‘Shot, Repeatedly, At Close Range, In the Chest, By Your Love’ (2021): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-nnmmSwizA
‘Rescue Breathing,’ live at Swedish American Hall, San Francisco, 2020-02-20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjl2tqDr3gI
‘Beat the Devil’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j868ThCN9cQ
‘All Devils Here Now’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1NTsVR-FmY
‘You Were Cool,’ live at Carnegie Hall, 2013-01-15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYeeQn65qPw
‘We Shall All Be Healed,’ performed for X Radio in London on 2017-05-25: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTqXAf7engc
Explicit
2002: 'No Children'
29 NOV 2021 · Oh Christ, it's those awful Alpha people again. The final instalment in this season is a double episode on 'No Children,' taking in the Offspring, the difference between a divorce and burning a house down, and the things we can't let go of until they let go of us.
Show notes
06/22/13 Live show at Bottletree in Birmingham, AL, with banter leading up to ‘Alpha Chum Gatherer’: https://archive.org/details/mountaingoats2013-06-22.flac16/mountaingoats2013-06-22t11.flac
BBC News article on grammar schools and social mobility: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44081733
Wikipedia entry forWill It Blend?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_It_Blend%3F
Interview with Daoud Tyler-Ameen for NPR on ‘No Children’: https://www.npr.org/2018/10/10/653349496/the-mountain-goats-american-anthem-no-children-dysfunction
Tumblr post on the Alpha couple as ‘one flesh’: https://johndarnielle.tumblr.com/post/119711150476/hi-tallahassee-has-been-one-of-my-favorite-albums
Fandom page on ‘No Children,’ referencing live banter which is quoted throughout: https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/No_Children
Fandom page on the Tallahassee album, containing liner notes. Quotes from live introductions to individual songs can be found on their respective pages here: https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Tallahassee
‘John Darnielle explains his cultural influences,’ including The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Vulture, 2014: https://www.vulture.com/2014/09/john-darnielle-explains-his-cultural-influences.html
The Annotated Mountain Goats site for Tallahassee (archived), with quotes from a 2005 interview with Transition Video Magazine: https://web.archive.org/web/20201112032352/https://kylebarbour.org/tmg/tallahassee.html#fn:southwoodjohn
-And for the whole Alpha series: https://web.archive.org/web/20201111235658/https://kylebarbour.org/tmg/series.html#alpha
Tumblr post on narrowing the focus of the album: https://johndarnielle.tumblr.com/post/46335170309/the-sleeve-that-held-the-boarding-pass-from-my
Article on Tallahassee by Jim Fisher for Salon.com, archived here https://www.scribd.com/document/52894439/tMG-Interviews
Interview with Chris Willman for Variety, 2021: https://variety.com/2021/music/news/no-children-mountain-goats-tiktok-john-darnelle-video-1235100275/
Kickstarter page for ‘It’s Complicated: A Feminist Zine on Loving Misogynist Art’: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/niina/its-complicated-a-feminist-zine-on-loving-misogyni
Lalitree Darnielle’s response to ‘It’s Complicated’: https://blog.lalitree.com/post/24473496489/its-complicated-project-welcome-to-the-its
Tumblr post on ‘Going to Georgia’: https://johndarnielle.tumblr.com/post/54507637224/hi-so-i-totally-get-that-you-dont-play-going-to
Tumblr post on the genesis of the Alpha series: https://johndarnielle.tumblr.com/post/53493520474/why-did-you-write-so-many-alpha-songs-did-you
Fandom page for ‘One Winter at Point Alpha Privative,’ discussing the problem with poems: https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/One_Winter_at_Point_Alpha_Privative
I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats episode 109, on ‘Younger’: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0DNMpmyrpy0NzJI4zLuwlv?si=f7e06a015b5143d3
Zine interview with Cory Brown, c.1999 about the fan appetite for divorce content: https://www.flickr.com/photos/caliclimber/9136546010/in/album-72157604938464838/
Geoff Sanborn’s newsletter on Zopilote Machine, which quotes a radio interview where Darnielle explains the alpha privative: https://open.spotify.com/track/3i5OukPST8wDQXwqH2fbhm?si=2322aad2592245ec
the cool beans! #4 interview with Matt Kelly, 1994, archived here: https://www.scribd.com/document/52894439/tMG-Interviews
Alex Russell’s post on ‘One Winter at Point Alpha Privative’: https://afewthingsmaybeseveralthings.com/2020/04/19/231-one-winter-at-point-alpha-privative/
-And on ‘Design Your Own Container Garden’: https://afewthingsmaybeseveralthings.com/2018/07/22/201-design-your-own-container-garden/
Interview with Carsten Wohlfeld for Luna Kafe, 2003: http://www.lunakafe.com/moon78/usca78.php
Daytrotter radio session, 2007, featuring ‘Ethiopians’: https://archive.org/details/daytrotter1.mp3/03+Ethiopians.mp3
Interview with Alexander Sammon for Mother Jones, 2017: https://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/02/john-darnielle-mountain-goats-novel-universal-harvester/
Document collating otherwise unavailable interviews: https://www.scribd.com/document/52894439/tMG-Interviews
Interview about horror with Sam Costello for Dark, but Shining, 2007: https://web.archive.org/web/20070208201251/http://www.darkbutshining.com:80/?p=863
Leslie Jamison, ‘The Empathy Exams.’ The Believer, 2014: https://believermag.com/the-empathy-exams/
‘Alpha Negative’ banter in 04-20-2014 Chicago live show at Old Town School of Folk Music, https://archive.org/details/tmg2014-04-20/09-WokeUpNew.mp3
Julian Barnes, ‘A candid view of Candide.’ The Guardian, 2011: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/jul/01/candide-voltaire-rereading-julian-barnes
Jon Blistein, ‘Offspring’s Dexter Holland Finishes Ph.D, Thesis on HIV Research.’ Rolling Stone, 2017: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/offsprings-dexter-holland-finishes-ph-d-thesis-on-hiv-research-193282/amp/
Matthew Singer, ‘In The City: The story of Portland’s original all-ages gay nightclub.’ Willamette Week, 2014: https://www.wweek.com/portland/article-22975-in-the-city.html
JD tweets about the City and the friends he made there: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1303463222851362821 and https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1303463222851362821
Books
Peter Coviello, Long Players: A Love Story in 18 Songs. Penguin, 2018.
2001: 'Riches and Wonders'
2 NOV 2021 · I want to go home, but I am home. Today's episode is about 2001, and the song 'Riches and Wonders.' It looks at millennial housing insecurity, playground insults, bad landlords, and the predations of the Colo mice.
Show notes
06-17-2007 Zoop live set, featuring ‘Cobscook Bay’ and ‘Leaving Home’: https://archive.org/details/tmg2007-06-17.Zoop
09-08-2021 City Winery, NYC live banter before ‘Genesis 3:23,’ featuring discussions of revisiting old homes and the mice of Colo: https://archive.org/details/tmg2021-09-08/tmg2021-09-08-15.flac
Comments on ‘Leaving Home’ in the Ghana liner notes: https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Leaving_Home
Interview with Gabriella Paiella for Electric Lit, 2014: https://electricliterature.com/interview-john-darnielle-author-of-wolf-in-white-van/
Interview with Chris Willman for Variety, https://variety-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/variety.com/2021/music/news/no-children-mountain-goats-tiktok-john-darnelle-video-1235100275/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#aoh=16355430760789&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2021%2Fmusic%2Fnews%2Fno-children-mountain-goats-tiktok-john-darnelle-video-1235100275%2F
Transcript of John’s talk at the 2016 Festival of Faith and Writing: https://ccfw.calvin.edu/podcast/obsessions/
NPR interview with Terri Gross, 2015: https://www.npr.org/2015/09/11/439189592/as-a-lyricist-and-novelist-the-mountain-goats-lead-man-writes-about-pain
NPR interview with Linda Wertheimer, 2005: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4651778
Pitchfork interview with Tom Breihan, 2009: https://pitchfork.com/news/36406-john-darnielle-tells-the-story-behind-the-mountain-goats-biblical-new-lp/
‘Closed Doors,’ my autobiographical poetry sequence in Subtropics, with an epigraph taken from the Breihan interview: http://subtropics.english.ufl.edu/index.php/2019/01/15/closed-doors/
An interview with Hannah Whiteman about the sequence: http://subtropics.english.ufl.edu/index.php/2019/01/14/richard-obrien/.
‘Millennial insecurity is reshaping the UK economy’ – Sarah O’Connor in the Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/66149ea8-158a-11e8-9e9c-25c814761640.
‘Millennial housing crisis engulfs Britain.’ Michael Savage in The Observer, drawing on research from the Resolution Foundation: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/28/proportion-home-owners-halves-millennials
‘The ‘frustrated’ housing aspirations of generation rent.’ Report by Kim McKee and Adriana Mihaela Soaita: https://housingevidence.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/R2018_06_01_Frustrated_Housing_Aspirations_of_Gen_Rent.pdf
‘Millennials are screwed.’ Michael Hobbes, Huffington Post: https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/
Interview with Kyle Munson for the Des Moines Register, 2017: https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/columnists/kyle-munson/2017/02/25/john-darnielle-wanted-write-iowans-so-he-came-up-creepy-rural-elegy-different-sort/98192656/
All Hail West Texas liner notes, discussing the houses in Colo and Ames: http://web.archive.org/web/20200911212129/https://kylebarbour.org/tmg/ahwt.html
Salon interview with Mike Appelstein, 2013: https://www.salon.com/2013/08/03/mountain_goats_john_darnielle_im_not_interested_in_back_in_the_day_we_are_always_in_the_present_moment/
New York magazine profile by Stephen Rodrick, 2009: https://nymag.com/arts/popmusic/features/55031/
‘John Darnielle: From Self-Destruction to Self-Construction.’ Articulate, Season 5, Episode 19: https://articulateshow.org/videos/john-darnielle-from-self-destruction-to-self-construction/
Interview with Leah Weathersby, Amazon, 2005, collated here, discussing leaving nursing: https://www.scribd.com/document/52894439/tMG-Interviews
Interview with Christian Hoard for Rolling Stone, 2015, discussing Durham: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-slow-climb-how-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-became-the-best-storyteller-in-rock-227793/
I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats episode 108, on ‘Riches and Wonders’:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7eXljkDV29uaocghNM0ubP?si=b3e16a05a1564e23
04-20-2004 live performance of ‘Riches and Wonders’ at Go! Studios, Carrboro, NC: https://archive.org/details/gostudios2004.mp3/09+-+Riches+and+Wonders.mp3
Explicit
2000: 'Cobscook Bay'
11 OCT 2021 · I put the pieces all together, but I don't know what they mean. It's the year 2000, I'm writing mean things about my classmates in a homemade newspaper, and you're falling off that cliff somewhere in California, which I've never seen. Today's episode looks at 'Cobscook Bay,' Robert Aickman, and Rozz Williams, and has a content note for suicidal ideation.
Show notes
John’s introductory comments before the first live performance of ‘Cobscook Bay,’ https://archive.org/details/tmg2007-06-17.Zoop/2-05_Alibi_06-17-07.mp3
Liner notes for The Coroner’s Gambit on The Annotated Mountain Goats:
http://web.archive.org/web/20200824091232/https://kylebarbour.org/tmg/coroner.html#fn:rozz
2003 VH1 interview with Gil Kaufman, archived here: https://www.scribd.com/document/52894439/tMG-Interviews
c.2000 interview with Cory Brown: https://www.flickr.com/photos/caliclimber/9136546010/in/album-72157604938464838/
2007 interview about horror with Sam Costello for Dark, but Shining: https://web.archive.org/web/20070208201251/http://www.darkbutshining.com:80/?p=863
Interview Magazine: ‘John Darnielle’s Cartography of Grief’, with Matt Mullen: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/john-darnielle
2017 interview with Elijah Taylor, for Birth Movies Death: https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2017/04/02/the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-talks-his-new-book-universal-harvester
2017 Mother Jones interview with Alexander Sammon: https://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/02/john-darnielle-mountain-goats-novel-universal-harvester/
2019 performance of ‘The Water Song’: https://archive.org/details/tmg2019-12-07#
2013 Salon interview: https://www.salon.com/2013/08/03/mountain_goats_john_darnielle_im_not_interested_in_back_in_the_day_we_are_always_in_the_present_moment/
Geoff Sanborn’s essays on The Coroner’s Gambit: https://allhail.substack.com/p/2000-the-coroners-gambit
And All Hail West Texas: https://allhail.substack.com/p/2002-all-hail-west-texas
A. E. Stallings on rhyme: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/69202/presto-manifesto-
Anna Borges’s article for The Outline on suicidal ideation: https://theoutline.com/post/7267/living-with-passive-suicidal-ideation?zd=1&zi=2sucjfn7
Spectrum Culture article by Holly Hazelwood on The Coroner’s Gambit at 20: https://spectrumculture.com/2020/02/05/holy-hell-the-coroners-gambit-turns-20/
NPR interview on Goths and West Coast death-rock with Lars Gotrich: https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2017/04/25/525383835/the-mountain-goats-on-growing-up-and-growing-older-in-goth?t=1633514777444
09/08/2019 live performance of ‘The Coroner’s Gambit’ at City Winery, NYC, with discussion of Rozz: https://archive.org/details/tmg2021-09-08/tmg2021-09-08-11.flac#
Rob Delaney interview discussing suicidal ideation: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/performance-art-rob-delaney-interviews-john-darnielle
Books
Robert Aickman. Compulsory Games, edited by Victoria Nelson, with a blurb by John Darnielle. New York Review of Books, 2018.
Seamus Heaney, ‘John Clare’s Prog,’ in The Redress of Poetry. Faber & Faber, 1995.
A memoir in Mountain Goats songs, by Richard O'Brien. Each episode focuses on a year in my life from 1990 onwards through the lens of a song written or recorded...
show more
A memoir in Mountain Goats songs, by Richard O'Brien. Each episode focuses on a year in my life from 1990 onwards through the lens of a song written or recorded that year by John Darnielle.
show less
Information
| Author | Richard O'Brien |
| Organization | Richard O'Brien |
| Categories | Music Commentary |
| Website | thirtyyearslater.substack.com |
| richardtobrien@gmail.com |
Copyright 2024 - Spreaker Inc. an iHeartMedia Company
