Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

While "This Year" generally gets the most accolades of the songs on The Mountain Goat's arguably most signifcant song cycle, The Sunset Tree , due to its catchy chorus and relatable message, my favorite track on the album is undoubtedly "Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod," although its nearly impossible to pick a song from this stellar set of doubtful, autobiographical uncertainties. The album fits into what I consider John Darnielle's greatest period, the albums that added more instrumentation starting with Tallahassee and stretching to Heretic Pride . Of course, there are also cases to be made for Darnielle's earlier boom box tape recordings. After that, I drifted away from their catalog and am hoping to revisit the later albums more extensively.  I could probably write about most of Darnielle's songs, but "Tetrapod" connects more closely to my life than many of the others because of its relationship to music, growth, and fear. The pain o...

We've been living on aspirin and hope for far too long. A Mountain Goats song gone to seed with an assorted crew of wellwishers and television addicts. Are we trapped in a Santa Monica basement in 1989 or a London flat with Maggie blaring on the telly? No, we are just treading water as we wait for the next circus and the inevitable sea monkeys. Temperamental 90s reverts to the spasmodic 50s as fall sets in. Generational or seasonal shifts increase anxiety. The sad fall inversion aches in the metacarpals and palms of our fragile hands. Here's to another year of going through emotions. Excuse my mixed metaphors.  I'm foundering near the coast without medication or the appropriate adjectives.

13. The Sonics - This is the Sonics (Revox) Who would expect a band that hasn't released a record for more than forty years to rock so hard? This is the Sonics undoubtedly shows that rock and roll is not necessarily a young person's game. The Sonics prove they still have what it takes in spades, delivering a record that has all the power of their early recordings with the levels turned up to eleven. The recording sounds crisp and clean, and the band has power to spare. The mono recording captures the power and passion of a group that sounds psyched to still be playing together and does not lessen the sheer visceral impact of their chosen material and performances. While it does not quite match the intensity of their 60s recordings, the album packs a wallop. Gerry Roslie still has the pipes to belt out frantic rock and roll numbers and Larry Parypa plays some riffs that could teach the youngsters a thing or two. Rob Lind blows his sax with the expected squall. Th...

The Mountain Goats have long been critical darlings, but, more recently, they have found a wider fan base. Always consisting of John Darnielle, and in the last number of years, Peter Hughes and Jon Wurster (Also of Superchunk, Bob Mould's backing band, and the Dead Milkman song, Stuart), they put on a rocking show and turn out album after album of literary indie rock. Since 2002, particularly with the release of Tallahassee and the start of their tenure at 4AD , their output has been far more polished and now consists of more instrumentation. Darnielle's early recordings were recorded on his Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox and are very raw and immediate,  often just nasally vocals and acoustic guitar. Once in awhile keyboards or backing vocals pop up. Albums like Sweden and Coroner's Gambit primarily rely on Darnielle's impassioned delivery and clever lyrics. On All Hail West Texas and Tallahassee , the sixth and seventh albums, Darnielle started exploring album leng...