The Mountain Goats Wiki Information at StubPass.com

Your Location: Edit

All Locations

Enter Your Zip Code

Set Location

All Locations

Event

Help | About Us | Contact Us

1.0 History

2.0 Members

3.0 Former members and collaborators

6.2 Going to ... series

6.3 Pure ... series

6.4 Orange Ball series

6.5 Quetzalcoatl series

7.0 In other media

8.0 References

QUICKSEARCH

The Mountain Goats Wiki Information

The Mountain Goats is a Durham, North Carolina-based band led by American singer-songwriter John Darnielle. Darnielle began recording in 1991, and is known for his highly literate lyrics and (until 2002) his lo-fi recording style. ^[1] The Mountain Goats' recent albums have comprised the core trio of Darnielle, Peter Hughes on bass guitar, and Jon Wurster on drums. ^[2]

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS TICKETS

EVENT	DATE	AVAILABILITY
Guster & The Mountain Goats Tickets 7/25	Jul 25, 2025 Fri, 7:30 PM
Guster & The Mountain Goats Tickets 7/26	Jul 26, 2025 Sat, 7:00 PM
Guster & The Mountain Goats Tickets 7/27	Jul 27, 2025 Sun, 5:30 PM
Guster & The Mountain Goats Tickets 7/29	Jul 29, 2025 Tue, 7:00 PM
Guster & The Mountain Goats Tickets 8/1	Aug 01, 2025 Fri, 6:00 PM

History

In 1991, Darnielle began performing under the name The Mountain Goats in Claremont, California, where he attended Pitzer College and worked as a psychiatric nurse. The band's name is a reference to the Screamin' Jay Hawkins song "Yellow Coat". 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 the urgency of writing. ^[3] Songs not recorded adequately to tape within days of being written were 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 number 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 relocated to Durham, North Carolina and 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.

In 2007, the band recorded tracks for its next album at Prairie Sun studios. ^[4] Entitled Heretic Pride , the album was released on February 19, 2008. ^[5] It was produced by John Vanderslice and Scott Solter. Franklin Bruno and Erik Friedlander returned to the studio with Darnielle and Hughes, and they were also joined by Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster (who appeared during portions of the Get Lonely tour in 2007) and vocalist Annie Clark of St. Vincent.

On February 3, 2008, The Mountain Goats released a song called "Down to the Ark" that was commissioned by Weekend America . ^[6]

On March 19, 2008, Darnielle posted on the band's website that their Australian tour would be canceled due to "personal health reasons". ^[7]

Darnielle is featured on Aesop Rock's song "Coffee" from the 2007 album None Shall Pass . Aesop Rock also released a remix of the track "Lovecraft in Brooklyn" from the album Heretic Pride .

In 2009, Darnielle and Vanderslice released Moon Colony Bloodbath , ^[8] a concept record about organ harvesting colonies on the moon. The EP was produced in a limited vinyl run of 1000 and sold during their "Gone Primitive" tour.

The Life of the World to Come , the 17th studio album by The Mountain Goats, will be released on October 6, 2009. The third track, "Genesis 3:23", was released as a free download via the band's website on July 28. ^[9]

Members

John Darnielle – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboard
Peter Hughes – Bass
Jon Wurster - Drums

Former members and collaborators

Rachel Ware – bass, vocals (1992–1995)
The Bright Mountain Choir
The North Mass Mountain Choir
Franklin Bruno – piano
Lalitree Darnielle – banjo
Alastair Galbraith – violin
John Vanderslice
Erik Friedlander – cello
Scott Solter
Alex Decarville
Richard Colburn – drums
Christopher McGuire – drums
Nora Danielson – violin
Maggie Doyle – keytar
Kaki King

Discography

Related bands

The Congress (John Darnielle with Mark Givens and others)
The Extra Glenns (John Darnielle with Franklin Bruno)
The Seneca Twins (John Darnielle with Lalitree Chavanothai and Chris Butler)
The Bloody Hawaiians (John Darnielle with Joel Huschle, Mark Givens and Caroline)
The Salvation Brothers (John Darnielle played drums for the band's live sets)
The Comedians (John Darnielle with John Vanderslice)

Song series

Scattered among the releases are song series: thematically interconnected ruminations on a single theme. Each EP and album is a project to be understood alone and as a part of an interrelated whole. Releases would often contain quotes, mostly in Latin, that gave hints to the theme of the piece.

Alpha series

Songs in this category concern the same fictional couple, described as a lower-middle-class man and woman who originally loved each other genuinely, and held generally ordinary concerns for one another's well-being, but whose relationship has degraded for a variety of reasons, most often a series of fights or drug and/or alcohol abuse, possibly both. Whatever the causes for their current situation, their love has not so much died as warped into the sincere, all-consuming desire of each of them to see the other drink themselves to death; thus, to facilitate this "walk down to the bottom", as described in the liner notes, the couple keep whatever liquor they can afford on hand for each other and stay together.

The album "Tallahassee", being entirely about the Alpha couple, begins with the pair buying a run-down house in the eponymous capital of Florida, and follows their mutual degradation and descent into a spiral of mutual self-destruction. The album ends with a vision of the house burning and both of them being consumed in flames. Other songs not found on Tallahassee, usually including the word "Alpha" in their titles, deal with similar situations, if not specifically the same situation. Though there is no officially established order of the Alpha songs' complete continuity, John Darnielle has said that "Alpha Omega" is the last song in the set. The song depicts the end of the Alpha couple's relationship, with the narrator finding a note from their departed mate while eating boiled peanuts for breakfast. It is unknown which of the pair is the song's narrator.

The songs below are all part of the series:

Alpha Aquae
Alpha Compunction
Alpha Desperation March
Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina
Alpha Gelida
Alpha Incipiens
Alpha Negative
Alpha Omega
Alpha Rats Nest
Alpha Sun Hat
Alpha in Tauris
Alphabetizing
Design Your Own Container Garden
Ethiopians
First Few Desperate Hours
Game Shows Touch Our Lives
Going to Dade County
Have to Explode
The House that Dripped Blood
Idylls of the King
International Small Arms Traffic Blues
Letter From a Motel (or if you prefer: Letter from the Alpha Motel (or if you prefer: Letter from the Alpha Privative Motel))
New Chevrolet In Flames
No Children
Oceanographer's Choice
Old College Try
One Winter At Point Alpha Privative
Peacocks
See America Right
Southwood Plantation Road
Spilling Toward Alpha
Tallahassee
Twelve Hands High [was originally titled: Fit Alpha Vi]

Going to ... series

The 45 songs in this category are generally about needing to get out of a place and/or thinking life will magically improve by moving somewhere new. The characters are not always the same from song to song. Some of the songs, as pointed out by John Darnielle during live performances, are written from the perspective of a fictional stalker.

Although all the songs in the "Going To..." series were written by John Darnielle, not all of them are actually credited to The Mountain Goats proper. For example, the songs "Going to Marrakesh" and "Going to Lubbock" were both performed by Darnielle's side-project with Franklin Bruno, The Extra Glenns and released under that band's name.

The songs contained in the "Going To..." series are as follows:

Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina
Flight 717: Going to Denmark
Going to Alaska
Going to Bangor
Going to Bogota
Going to Bolivia
Going to Bridlington
Going to Bristol
Going to Buffalo
Going to Chino
Going to Cleveland
Going to Dade County
Going to East Rutherford
Going to France
Going to Georgia
Going to Hungary
Going to Jamaica
Going to Japan
Going to Kansas
Going to Kirby Sigston
Going to Lebanon
Going to Lubbock
Going to Maine
Going to Malibu
Going to Marrakesh
Going to Maryland
Going to Mexico
Going to Michigan
Going to Monaco
Going to Morocco
Going to Norwalk
Going to Palestine
Going to Pomona (Or: Going Through Pomona)
Going to Port Washington
Going to Queens
Going to Reykjavik
Going to San Diego
Going to Santiago
Going to Scotland
Going to Some Damned English City
Going to Spain
Going to Spirit Lake
Going to Tennessee
Going to Utrecht
Going to Wisconsin

Pure ... series

The songs in this series are as follows:

Pure Crystal
Pure Gold
Pure Heat
Pure Honey
Pure Intentions
Pure Love
Pure Milk
Pure Money
Pure Sound

Orange Ball series

The title of this series comes from a book by Don DeLillo in which the sun is repeatedly described as an "orange ball". The songs contained in the "Orange Ball" series are as follows:

Orange Ball of Hate
Orange Ball of Love
Orange Ball of Pain
Orange Ball of Peace

Quetzalcoatl series

Quetzalcoatl ("feathered serpent" or "plumed serpent") is the Nahuatl name for the Feathered-Serpent deity of ancient Mesoamerica, one of the main gods of many Mexican and northern Central American civilizations and also the name given to some Toltec rulers, the most famous being Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl. The songs included in the Quetzalcoatl series are as follows:

Quetzalcoatl Comes Through
Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums
Quetzalcoatl is Born

In other media

The band's music has been featured in the Showtime television series Weeds . "Cotton" was prominently featured in the season one episode "The Punishment Light", and "International Small Arms Traffic Blues" was featured in the season four episode "Yes I Can." ^[10]

The songs "No Children", "Old College Try", and "Love Love Love" were each featured in separate episodes of the television series Moral Orel s third season, which has featured major running themes of alcoholism, regret, and domestic discontent.

Author John Green is an avid fan of The Mountain Goats. He mentions them briefly in the text of his 2008 book Paper Towns as well as quoting the song "Game Shows Touch Our Lives" in the novel's epigraph.