In February, All Hail West Texas was released. The earliest Mountain Goats releases feel like someone recording in a bedroom during a house party, guests rotating in and out, communal and rowdy, consumed with trying to capture the energy of creation in a single take.Ģ002 marked an epochal shift for the Mountain Goats. Even the first proper Mountain Goats full-length album, Zopilote Machine, has the vibe of a compilation or mixtape: Recording quality and volume varies widely from song to song. By ‘99, the first releases-cassettes with hand-drawn cover art-had become impossible to track down, and Darnielle partnered with the label 3 Beads of Sweat to re-release this early material across three CD compilations. The first albums were cheerfully ramshackle collections of recordings from home, live radio sessions and friends’ studios. The limitations and failures of the Panasonic RX-FT500 become a central component of the Mountain Goats sound. Darnielle refers to the boombox as a “second performer” on these early recordings. The internal condenser mic did not actually condense, and it was positioned so close to the machine’s moving parts that it captured a low, droning wheel-grind. He would simply insert a cassette into the machine and hit “RECORD.” Many early songs are punctuated by the audible click of Darnielle stopping the tape. In the liner notes to the 2013 reissue, Darnielle notes that all previous recordings were “to larger or lesser extents, collaborative, featuring other musicians and singers.” Darnielle was frequently accompanied by a bassist/second vocalist, in addition to contributions from friends like Franklin Bruno of Nothing Painted Blue and New Zealand songwriter Alastair Galbraith.ĭarnielle’s preferred method of recording for the band’s first decade was a Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox.

You see this all through Darnielle’s own work: the fixation on the power of a single song, a collection of details that amount to more than a sum of their parts, and an electric joy.ĭespite the decade or so of acoustic cassette recordings, many of Darnielle alone at the boombox, the Mountain Goats have always been a band.

It’s classic John Darnielle: Where other people see a fluffy, sentimental pop song, Darnielle sees only joy-a song that he has memorized every trivial detail about, only to come away more impressed with the simple, pure power of a singalong song. He always includes a different bit of minutiae: a detail about the band’s home city of Gothenburg, the story of their ill-fated recording contract, etc. For years, the cover was a staple in his live set. He is grinning and gregarious, possibly a few drinks in, describing a road trip where his fellow passengers tried to change the radio station when the song “The Sign” by Ace of Base came on: “And I said ‘No, wait, wait wait wait … that’s Ace of Base.’ And they were like, ‘What?’ And I was like, ‘No … that’s my favorite band.’” He makes them pull over at a Sam Goody to buy the album, which he already owns at home, and plays the album on a loop for the rest of the drive. It is the part that comes in most Mountain Goats sets where the band takes a break in the green room while John Darnielle performs a few solo acoustic songs.

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