The Mountain Goats is a band led by prolific American singer-songwriter John Darnielle. Darnielle began recording in 1991, and has become known for his highly literary lyrics and, until 2002, his lo-fi recording style. Currently, when the band plays live, it comprises John Darnielle and Peter Hughes, but Darnielle has worked with a number of other musicians when recording albums under the Mountain Goats name. In 2007, drummer Jon Wurster played a portion of the Get Lonely tour.Darnielle began performing under the name The Mountain Goats (a reference to the Screaming Jay Hawkins song "Yellow Coat") in 1991 in Claremont, California, where he attended Pitzer College (class of 1995) and worked as a psychiatric nurse. Darnielle released his first album, Taboo VI: The Homecoming, on Shrimper Records. Many of his first recordings and performances featured Darnielle accompanied by members of the all-girl reggae band, The Casual Girls, who became known as The Bright Mountain Choir. One of this group's members, Rachel Ware, continued to accompany Darnielle on bass, both live and in studio until 1995.
The first five years of the Mountain Goats' career saw a prolific output of songs on cassette, vinyl and CD. These releases spanned multiple labels and countries of origin; many were unavailable to the majority of fans until recent reissues.
The focus of the Mountain Goats project was on the urgency of writing (Brown, "Sermon on the Mount", June, 1999.). If a song wasn’t recorded adequately to tape within days of being written it was often forgotten.
Darnielle graduated from Pitzer College in 1995. Most of what could be considered classic Mountain Goats conventions (boom-box recording, song series, Latin quotes, and mythological themes) were abandoned in favor of a more thematically focused and experimental sound. This period was marked by Darnielle's collaborations with other artists including Alastair Galbraith and Simon Joyner.
2002 saw the release of two Mountain Goats albums: All Hail West Texas and Tallahassee. These albums mark a distinct change in focus for the Mountain Goats project, being the first in a series of concept albums that explore aspects of The Mountain Goats' canon in depth.
All Hail West Texas featured the resurrection of Darnielle's early boom box recording for a complete album. Darnielle considers this album to be the culmination of his lo-fi recording style.
Tallahassee, recorded with a band and in a studio, explores the relationship of a couple whose lives were the subject of the song cycle known as the Alpha Series (see Alpha Series below for a full list of songs in this cycle).
Martial Arts Weekend, also released in 2002 under the band name The Extra Glenns, is a collaboration with Franklin Bruno on several previously unreleased Mountain Goats songs. Since that recording, Bruno has joined Darnielle in the studio along with bassist Peter Hughes, who is the second official member of the band and accompanies Darnielle on tour. These three musicians form what may be considered the Mountain Goats studio band.
In 2004, the Mountain Goats released We Shall All Be Healed. The album marked a couple of changes for the Mountain Goats. It was the first time Darnielle worked with producer John Vanderslice and the first album of directly autobiographical material. We Shall All Be Healed chronicles Darnielle's life with a group of friends and acquaintances addicted to methamphetamine in Portland, Oregon, though the album is set in Pomona, California.
In 2005, the Mountain Goats released their second Vanderslice-produced album, The Sunset Tree. Again autobiographical, Darnielle tackles the subject of his early childhood spent with an abusive stepfather. Darnielle had previously dealt with this subject in what he often refers to as the only autobiographical song he had written before 2004, the unreleased song "You're in Maya."
In 2006, the Mountain Goats issued Get Lonely, which was produced by Scott Solter, a man perhaps best known for his engineering work with Vanderslice on various projects, including prior Mountain Goats records. In 2007, Jon Wurster played drums on the last leg of the Get Lonely tour.
The Mountain Goats recorded a new album, tentatively due for release in early 2008, in September '07 at Prairie Sun studios. It was produced by John Vanderslice and Scott Solter. Apart from including John and Peter, this album continues the recent trend of inviting Franklin Bruno and Erik Friedlander to the studio. New guests are Jon Wurster on drums and Annie Clark from the band St. Vincent. Also of note is that Sarah and Rachel, members of the so called "Bright Mountain Choir" from past albums, will be gracing three of the studio tracks ("New Zion," "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature," and "Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident"). According to some folks over on the band's official message board, John Darnielle said the new title was Heretic Pride at a recent concert at Studio B in Brooklyn, though no official announcement seems to have been made.
Taboo VI: The Homecoming is the first release by The Mountain Goats. John Darnielle had this to say of the album: "When I wrote and recorded Taboo VI, I had no idea that anyone outside of a few friends would ever hear it; neither did I hope that anyone outside of those friends would ever express any interest in it. A couple of the things on it (Going to Alaska, Eleven Bands, Solomon Revisited, the Hank Williams song) are things I'd stand by if pressed, though I wish I'd've known how to sing better back when they were recorded. While I completely understand the collector's urge, I would offer the following caveat to anyone trying to hunt down Taboo VI: it's not what you think it is. Its successor, the Hound Chronicles, represented an abrupt and total change in direction, and is the stylistic starting point for all that followed. While I can't and wouldn't disown Taboo VI, I'd like to offer this note of caution to those who like the later stuff and are trying to get their hands on my first efforts: you probably won't like it much, and if you pay an inflated price for it, you'll probably feel cheated. Having said that, if you still feel inclined to hunt it down, I do hope that you enjoy it on its own meager terms. It means well and didn't want to hurt anyone. Except for maybe that one guy. I hate that guy."
The first ever release by this very important and great freaked out psychedelic band.
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