The Mountain Goats started making music in 1991. I learned about them considerably later, and they quickly became one of my favorite sources of what I can only call “dark dry bitter hilarious self-laceration you can sing along to.”
Today I bring you four videos – an introduction, of you haven’t met them before, a celebration if you have.
Woke Up New from Get Lonely, directed by Rian Johnson, who also directed the truly excellent Brick:
No Children, from Tallahassee; please note how the audience here is, in fact, singing along with great verve. Also, I really, really love this song, because it is kind of mean and awful and yet so perfectly describes a particular post-break-up feeling that there have been times I wanted to call someone and just play it down the phone at them at top volume. (I didn’t.)
http://youtu.be/JPy_fiv3sAw
Autoclave, from Heretic Pride; if I was going to make myself a warning label, it would include, among other things, the lyrics to this song:
http://youtu.be/RZ-2kbculaI
Sax Rohmer #1, also from Heretic Pride, because “I am coming home/to you/with my own blood in my mouth” gets me every time:
