Topic: The Mountain Goats

[Cuellar]

The Life of the World to Come was the first one to get me into the band and I can't recommend it highly enough; it's as devastating as The Sunset Tree, although for very different reasons, and a great representation of different aspects of the band's sound. Plus it's all about Death and God.

I avoided this one because of the god stuff I'm afraid to say, but I really shouldn't have. It's got some beauties on it, and some crushing bits:

And you were a presence full of light upon this earth
And I am a witness to your life and to its worth

- Matthew 25:21

Dunno why exactly, but that bit punched me in the gut. Struggle to listen to that song.

[Famous Mortimer]

I keep forgetting it's the same guy W

Listened to that one a few weeks ago actually. I don’t remember who made me aware of archive.org, but this site is amazing. It is an attempt to archive everything, including live music performances. Look at this!

https://archive.org/details/etree?and%5B%5D=Mountain+goats&sin=

I’ve only used it for the Mountain Goats, but I bet there’s a fucking ton of stuff on there. Reminds me of being a teenager and seeing out shit bootleg copies of live albums and listening for how songs are different live, or which bits stay the same.

What a resource.

Edit: look, here’s a show I was at! https://archive.org/details/tMG2018-04-14.bootleg/03_howToEmbraceASwampCreature.flac

For my brother-in-law's birthday, I bought him a hard drive and filled it with Grateful Dead bootlegs from archive.org, and he seemed rather moved by it. But now I've opened up his eyes to it, he's really into that audiophile thing of getting the best possible quality copy of every show. Much as I like long songs, I just can't get into the jam band thing.

Hold on, this is about the Mountain Goats, who I remember as a tape label band from the 90s then completely forgot about until a couple of years ago. I was listening to something of theirs the other day and it was great, though.

[Brian Freeze]

The Mountain Goats are featured on the latest epsiode of the Song Exploder podcast in case anyone might be interested.  I cant put up a link cos im a useless twat on my phone.