John Darnielle will have his revenge on Seattle!

So, I thought I'd start with a group that are very dear to my heart - the Mountain Goats. You may have heard of these guys - they've been around the indie rock scene for donkey's years, and have managed to garner a pretty decent following, though still remain pretty much unknown over this side of the ocean (oh yeah - did I mention I'm based in the UK? No? Well now you know!)

As anyone who's taken a listen to them will tell you, the main hook with these guys is emotion. Lead singer/song-writer/head honcho for the band John Darnielle comes from a troubled childhood, and he takes all the crap he's gone through and uses it as ammunition for his tunes. Sometimes this can make it very hard music to listen to - anyone not happy with the idea of child abuse, drugs and broken families should probably stay away from them if you're feeling in a sensitive mood. That is not to throw them away as melodramatic - his troubles lend Darnielle a real power to his voice - here is someone who has been through hell, and has come out the otherside intact, and refuses to bow down to anything that tries to screw him up anymore.

Anyways, preaching aside, here's the lowdown on the music - the Goats are mostly about cut down acoustic work. Most tracks revolve around Darnielle's vocals and guitar work punctuated by sparce drum and bass by the other members of the band. In the last couple of albums they've been experimenting with a more electric sound, and a fuller band have brought them along since the earlier albums which sound like they were recorded in a garage while Darinelle played whatever happened to come into his head.

Hmm... this is starting to sound waaaay to Wikipedia-ish, isn't it? Tell you what - i'm just gonna go give you some tunes to have a listen to - go give them a shot will you? I'll wait...

This Year
Sax Rohmer #1
No Children

...back again? Did you like 'em?

I was lucky enough to see these guys live 1/2 a year ago, and I must say it was one of the most powerful gigs I've ever been to - two parts fantastic music, two parts John Darnielle's fantastically self-depricating sense of humour, and one part therapy session!

If you wanna listen to some more of them, have a hunt down of some of thier more recent albums - they're probably the most accessible of the lot. Specifically I'd recommend 'We Shall All Be Healed' and thier latest - 'Heretic Pride'. Check them out - you won't be dissapointed!

Keep it Ninja,

J



huh, well that went smoother than expected! Maybe this blogging lark won't be as difficult as I'd first thought... now I've just gotta tighten up my rambling so it's actually good. Oh well, no-one's actually reading at the moment, so I can continue to witter like this for a while longer... gotta stop talking like a secondary-school music teacher as well...