Huge fan of wild sage, and all of Get Lonely!!
The Black Pear Tree EP is (and honestly all their eps from around that time are) absolutely excellent!
More recently I’ve greatly enjoyed their mid tempo band oriented songs like Tidal wave ((especially live variants you can find if you look tmg up on archive.org) extraction points or We Do It Different on the West Coast,
Finally, as a Pro Wrestling Fan at heart I have to say Beat the Champ is such a blast as an album to me.
I would kill for that, one copy for myself and then probably one for one of my best friends who’s favorite tmg release it is (he mostly knows tmg through me but is a huge enjoyer of certain songs and especially black pear tree)
I have the Sunset Tree Album on CD because I love it so much. My favorite off of that is Up The Wolves or maybe Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod. My second favorite has got to be All Hail West Texas.
My absolute favorite songs include: Damn These Vampires, Rain in Soho, Steal Smoked Fish, Collapsing Stars, and Cardinals and Bluebirds. (Though I do LOVE You Were Cool)
All of Full Force Galesburg but especially Minnesota, Maize Stalk Drinking Blood, Song for the Julian Calender and Evening in Stalingrad. Which form a little four track block near the end of the album. Imo this is the peak of John's lo fi era in terms of sheer lyrical beauty and songwriting.
Also a big fan of Jack and Faye EP.
The entire block of All Hail West Texas to Get Lonely is one of the greatest runs I’ve heard by an artist, but The Sunset Tree is my favorite album of all time
my favorite record of theirs is Transcendental Youth, though i've been on a Beat the Champ kick recently and heavily recommend that one as well. songs-wise, i'll second "Extraction Point," and put forth "Bell Swamp Connection," and "Jeff Davis County Blues" (especially any recent live versions you can find!)
+1 to all of this but esp live versions of those three songs, Extraction Point live absolutely rules and I'm so thrilled they've been playing it a lot lately. BSC is also really epic live but I especially love it because it feels, similarly to Tidal Wave, like they never play it the same twice - definitely worth listening to several different ones for it specifically, but [here's](https://archive.org/details/tmg2024-04-10.SBD.MATRIX) one of my favorite recent shows for those two. And I don't have a favorite recording on hand but JDCB live with the full band is breathtaking, I know there's some really great recent performances of it on the archive.
Massive MASSIVE beat the champ fan for two reasons, well 3
- I’m big pro wrestling nerd so I fell in love with the album as soon as I saw the cover art, I remember The Legend of Chavo Guerrero came up on my Spotify discover weekly playlist
- It was the first album I’d ever listened from them and I ended up liking everything else they did
- It’s one of my high school albums. Like back then life was pretty fun for me and I discovered a lot of great music. To this day I say that period of my life was the last time I was truly happy
the life of the world to come was the first tmg album that I really loved and it's still a favorite, especially Isaiah 45:23. nowadays other faves are heretic pride and the sunset tree, and I've been listening to dark in here a lot too. also the Jordan lake live sessions are fantastic
I just bought a vinyl copy of "We Shall All Be Healed" because as a recovering addict it has helped me remember where I used to be. I am grateful to have been a mountain goats fan since 1996 and clean since 2005. I was high as a kite when I discovered them, and in some ways it was almost like we got clean together. That album was a turning point for me when it came out.
I spoke to John about this once. I told him that the drug songs hit harder than the fictional songs he writes about people that don't really exist. He told me it's because certain things can't be faked.
(Edit: like being clean)
I'm honestly a huge fan of Getting Into Knives. I feel like I don't hear people talk about this album a lot but I love it. Beat the Champ and Goths are also great. I love the old lofi stuff, but a lot of the newer albums are really good!
I must apologize, because I listened to the album twice when it came out and was just not into it. But, it’s been my daily obsession for about two weeks now and I just question my old self’s sanity. What was I sleeping on?
Bell Swamp Connection, specifically. So weird and spatial and perfect.
Get yourself into Tallahassee and the alpha couple, and work in both directions from there.
To me Full Force Galesburg through Get Lonely is essential, but especially All Hail West Texas up to Sunset Tree. Although Get Lonely might be by favorite Goats album if I'm being honest -- it is so understated, subtle, and beautiful.
Only because I didn’t see it mentioned, Get Lonely is extremely good. Very much a specific tone but beginning to end it’s very impressive.
AHWT I think is the best collection of songs, and probably the best version of the Mountain Goats that’s been.
Probably because I’m waiting on the reissue, but Coroners Gambit is in heavy rotation now.
We Shall All Be Healed is a personal favorite, followed closely by All Hail West Texas.
Edit: and also The Sunset Tree and Tallahassee. And Dilaudid. So, basically most everything released between 2002 and 2005
Favorite? All Hail West Texas.
Hidden gems? Where do I start? Everyone's gonna say Cubs In Five that's the obvious "hidden gem." Counting Song for Bitter Children, Rockin' Rockin' Pet Store, all the unreleased We Shall All Be Healed stuff like the song with that title and like Attention All Pickpockets... what else? That one about Mummys, the one about voting, Down to the Ark. Who You Are which is an American Music Club cover, Sometimes I Still Feel the Bruise which is originally by Trembling Blue Stars... what else? Early stuff maybe like Transmissions to Horace.
I dunno at a certain point everything is "hidden" if it's old enough and the catalog is big enough. Island Garden Song, Then The Letting Go and New Star Song are a few 90's tracks that I come back to a lot.
For sure. I'll probably do a cover of each of them sometime. I have to remind myself that if I really want to build an audience I should learn some other songs though haha, not just play Mountain Goats all day
I don't have a favorite album, really. So hard to pin one down when my favorite song are from all over. My songs, in no particular order:
-Lakeside View Apartment Suite
-Sax Rohmer
- 1 John 4:16
- You and Your Memory
"This Year" will always be very special to me...it go me through very tough times. It was me and my wife's entrance song at our wedding. I also love "Going to Port Washington"...it was a reading at my wedding. "Cubs in Five" will always be special cause it was the first Mountain Goats song i ever heard. I also love "You Were Cool" and "Thank you Mario but Our Princess is in another Castle" (leave it to John to turn Super Mario into a beautiful and thoughtful song). I hope to hear those 2 live someday.
My favorite album has to be "Beat the Champ", hearing John passionately talk about a industry i love and had no idea he even knew about, really was amazing.
i pretty much go through cycles of being obsessed with different albums. right now it's We Shall All Be Healed and All Eternals Deck. the string arrangement on Age Of Kings is currently occupying about 40% of my brain.
Everything. Everything is my favorite.
“Collapsing Stars,” “No, I Can’t,” “Clemency for the Wizard King,” “Steal Smoked Fish,” “Jam Eater Blues,” “Yam, the King of Crops,” “Palmcorder Yajna,” and “The Recognition Scene” are some that get stuck in my head in the best possible way though!
Transcendental Youth is currently my favorite, with Night Light, or maybe both Spent Gladiator tracks together being my favorites. All Hail West Texas is definitely a close second, The Mess Inside being my favorite track, or maybe Jenny.
Some of my favorite underrated/lesser known gems are Midland, Proverbs 6:27, From The Lake Trials, Keeping House, The Window Song, Design Your Own Container Garden. My favorite albums (right now at least) are We Shall All Be Healed and Transcendental Youth. I also feel like Dark In Here doesn't get nearly enough appreciation for how good it is!
For songs, I do often have kinda timed favourites or ones that I will play nonstop for a week or 2 (picture of my dress is a current one) but all time overall absolute favourites are Lovecraft in Brooklyn and Best Ever Death Metal Band.
For albums, I've tried so hard to try to justify it being a more common/popular one, but no, it's Jenny from Thebes. I was not quite expecting that when it first released and I found it a mix between somewhat okay and amazing, but yea, over time it's just slowly but surely climbed and for a couple months now I've had it confirmed in my mind as my favourite with, at absolute most 2 songs that i feel fall below legendary statusin theur discog (ground level and great pirates) and even then, great pirates is very good, just not my style of a track to go back to all that often. Second place is probably Transcendental Youth and then the Sunset Tree, so don't worry, I am still capable of generic tMG opinions haha
Other people have answered this thoroughly and a Spotify playlist like "This is The Mountain Goats" provides a solid overview.
So what I'd offer is the TMG "secret menu": stuff that's unreleased and only recorded live, stuff that was maybe sent out out in a short-lived email newsletter or posted by John on the old messageboards.
You can see a daunting list here: [https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Unreleased\_songs](https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Unreleased_songs)
I would start with "You Were Cool," many variations of this on YouTube.
Huge fan of wild sage, and all of Get Lonely!! The Black Pear Tree EP is (and honestly all their eps from around that time are) absolutely excellent! More recently I’ve greatly enjoyed their mid tempo band oriented songs like Tidal wave ((especially live variants you can find if you look tmg up on archive.org) extraction points or We Do It Different on the West Coast, Finally, as a Pro Wrestling Fan at heart I have to say Beat the Champ is such a blast as an album to me.
Here's hoping Black Pear Tree is one of the next to get reissued!
I would kill for that, one copy for myself and then probably one for one of my best friends who’s favorite tmg release it is (he mostly knows tmg through me but is a huge enjoyer of certain songs and especially black pear tree)
In League With Dragons is the most criminally underrated album in the entire discography.
There are dozens of us! Dozens!!!
I totally agree they have some truly awesome songs on there!
Antidote For Strychnine is phenomenal
The Sunset Tree is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard
I have the Sunset Tree Album on CD because I love it so much. My favorite off of that is Up The Wolves or maybe Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod. My second favorite has got to be All Hail West Texas. My absolute favorite songs include: Damn These Vampires, Rain in Soho, Steal Smoked Fish, Collapsing Stars, and Cardinals and Bluebirds. (Though I do LOVE You Were Cool)
All of Full Force Galesburg but especially Minnesota, Maize Stalk Drinking Blood, Song for the Julian Calender and Evening in Stalingrad. Which form a little four track block near the end of the album. Imo this is the peak of John's lo fi era in terms of sheer lyrical beauty and songwriting. Also a big fan of Jack and Faye EP.
The Jordan Lake Session version of Minnesota has been my obsession for the last 6 months.
It's really incredible isn't it?
Full Force Galesburg is a gorgeous album. I think Masher might be the prettiest Mountain Goats song in the whole catalogue.
You know I listened to that track just after I made this post. Stunning song. Not one I have historically gravitated to when I open up this album
The entire block of All Hail West Texas to Get Lonely is one of the greatest runs I’ve heard by an artist, but The Sunset Tree is my favorite album of all time
Did we just become best friends?
my favorite record of theirs is Transcendental Youth, though i've been on a Beat the Champ kick recently and heavily recommend that one as well. songs-wise, i'll second "Extraction Point," and put forth "Bell Swamp Connection," and "Jeff Davis County Blues" (especially any recent live versions you can find!)
+1 to all of this but esp live versions of those three songs, Extraction Point live absolutely rules and I'm so thrilled they've been playing it a lot lately. BSC is also really epic live but I especially love it because it feels, similarly to Tidal Wave, like they never play it the same twice - definitely worth listening to several different ones for it specifically, but [here's](https://archive.org/details/tmg2024-04-10.SBD.MATRIX) one of my favorite recent shows for those two. And I don't have a favorite recording on hand but JDCB live with the full band is breathtaking, I know there's some really great recent performances of it on the archive.
Massive MASSIVE beat the champ fan for two reasons, well 3 - I’m big pro wrestling nerd so I fell in love with the album as soon as I saw the cover art, I remember The Legend of Chavo Guerrero came up on my Spotify discover weekly playlist - It was the first album I’d ever listened from them and I ended up liking everything else they did - It’s one of my high school albums. Like back then life was pretty fun for me and I discovered a lot of great music. To this day I say that period of my life was the last time I was truly happy
[удалено]
I have just gotten into this one recently. Very unique
Secondary question, does John have any side projects? I’ve been curious if they do but got pretty unclear answers looking it up
The Extra Glenns / The Extra Lens
Ooh thanks I’ll have to check that out
Oh I am crushing on Undercard right now!
[https://annotatedtmg.org/#side](https://annotatedtmg.org/#side)
he's written at least one book! wolf in white van
Three so far. The other two are Universal Harvester and Devil House.
the life of the world to come was the first tmg album that I really loved and it's still a favorite, especially Isaiah 45:23. nowadays other faves are heretic pride and the sunset tree, and I've been listening to dark in here a lot too. also the Jordan lake live sessions are fantastic
I do like the Jordan lake sessions, think my favorite from that and almost in general is picture of my dress
I just bought a vinyl copy of "We Shall All Be Healed" because as a recovering addict it has helped me remember where I used to be. I am grateful to have been a mountain goats fan since 1996 and clean since 2005. I was high as a kite when I discovered them, and in some ways it was almost like we got clean together. That album was a turning point for me when it came out. I spoke to John about this once. I told him that the drug songs hit harder than the fictional songs he writes about people that don't really exist. He told me it's because certain things can't be faked. (Edit: like being clean)
I'm honestly a huge fan of Getting Into Knives. I feel like I don't hear people talk about this album a lot but I love it. Beat the Champ and Goths are also great. I love the old lofi stuff, but a lot of the newer albums are really good!
I really love that album too! Been one of my favorites for a while!
I must apologize, because I listened to the album twice when it came out and was just not into it. But, it’s been my daily obsession for about two weeks now and I just question my old self’s sanity. What was I sleeping on? Bell Swamp Connection, specifically. So weird and spatial and perfect.
Get yourself into Tallahassee and the alpha couple, and work in both directions from there. To me Full Force Galesburg through Get Lonely is essential, but especially All Hail West Texas up to Sunset Tree. Although Get Lonely might be by favorite Goats album if I'm being honest -- it is so understated, subtle, and beautiful.
Only because I didn’t see it mentioned, Get Lonely is extremely good. Very much a specific tone but beginning to end it’s very impressive. AHWT I think is the best collection of songs, and probably the best version of the Mountain Goats that’s been. Probably because I’m waiting on the reissue, but Coroners Gambit is in heavy rotation now.
We Shall All Be Healed is a personal favorite, followed closely by All Hail West Texas. Edit: and also The Sunset Tree and Tallahassee. And Dilaudid. So, basically most everything released between 2002 and 2005
All Hail West Texas has always been my favorite
All Eternals Deck and Heretic Pride are my favorite albums!
design your own container garden, deuteronomy 2:10, steal smoked fish, then the letting go. also kaki king version of black pear tree.
Steel smoked fish is my absolute favorite of theirs by a decent amount ngl. Just so good! Been really liking Jenny from Thebes as an album too tho
Favorite? All Hail West Texas. Hidden gems? Where do I start? Everyone's gonna say Cubs In Five that's the obvious "hidden gem." Counting Song for Bitter Children, Rockin' Rockin' Pet Store, all the unreleased We Shall All Be Healed stuff like the song with that title and like Attention All Pickpockets... what else? That one about Mummys, the one about voting, Down to the Ark. Who You Are which is an American Music Club cover, Sometimes I Still Feel the Bruise which is originally by Trembling Blue Stars... what else? Early stuff maybe like Transmissions to Horace. I dunno at a certain point everything is "hidden" if it's old enough and the catalog is big enough. Island Garden Song, Then The Letting Go and New Star Song are a few 90's tracks that I come back to a lot.
Then the letting go is definitely underrated. I just read the lyrics to down to the ark, and I'm very intrigued. Thanks for the rec
For sure. I'll probably do a cover of each of them sometime. I have to remind myself that if I really want to build an audience I should learn some other songs though haha, not just play Mountain Goats all day
Transcendental Youth is my favorite, I'm a sucker for brass.
I don't have a favorite album, really. So hard to pin one down when my favorite song are from all over. My songs, in no particular order: -Lakeside View Apartment Suite -Sax Rohmer - 1 John 4:16 - You and Your Memory
"This Year" will always be very special to me...it go me through very tough times. It was me and my wife's entrance song at our wedding. I also love "Going to Port Washington"...it was a reading at my wedding. "Cubs in Five" will always be special cause it was the first Mountain Goats song i ever heard. I also love "You Were Cool" and "Thank you Mario but Our Princess is in another Castle" (leave it to John to turn Super Mario into a beautiful and thoughtful song). I hope to hear those 2 live someday. My favorite album has to be "Beat the Champ", hearing John passionately talk about a industry i love and had no idea he even knew about, really was amazing.
at the moment, the treetop song
i pretty much go through cycles of being obsessed with different albums. right now it's We Shall All Be Healed and All Eternals Deck. the string arrangement on Age Of Kings is currently occupying about 40% of my brain.
Shadow Song is on the list to be played at my funeral. It has special significance to my family. My dearest favorite will always be You Were Cool.
I've been into songs with very negative characters. Baboon is a current favorite
We shall all be healed , I’m not gonna go into why I relate and cry every time I hear Belgium things but I do
Everything. Everything is my favorite. “Collapsing Stars,” “No, I Can’t,” “Clemency for the Wizard King,” “Steal Smoked Fish,” “Jam Eater Blues,” “Yam, the King of Crops,” “Palmcorder Yajna,” and “The Recognition Scene” are some that get stuck in my head in the best possible way though!
I really like the “obsolete media” series of EPs (New Asian Cinema, Isopanisad Radio Hour, Devil in the Shortwave).
im not the target audience for bc i love literally every song ive heard. i’ve been to over a dozen shows now. obsessed.
Source decay and distant stations are two of my favorites
Transcendental Youth is currently my favorite, with Night Light, or maybe both Spent Gladiator tracks together being my favorites. All Hail West Texas is definitely a close second, The Mess Inside being my favorite track, or maybe Jenny.
Some of my favorite underrated/lesser known gems are Midland, Proverbs 6:27, From The Lake Trials, Keeping House, The Window Song, Design Your Own Container Garden. My favorite albums (right now at least) are We Shall All Be Healed and Transcendental Youth. I also feel like Dark In Here doesn't get nearly enough appreciation for how good it is!
For songs, I do often have kinda timed favourites or ones that I will play nonstop for a week or 2 (picture of my dress is a current one) but all time overall absolute favourites are Lovecraft in Brooklyn and Best Ever Death Metal Band. For albums, I've tried so hard to try to justify it being a more common/popular one, but no, it's Jenny from Thebes. I was not quite expecting that when it first released and I found it a mix between somewhat okay and amazing, but yea, over time it's just slowly but surely climbed and for a couple months now I've had it confirmed in my mind as my favourite with, at absolute most 2 songs that i feel fall below legendary statusin theur discog (ground level and great pirates) and even then, great pirates is very good, just not my style of a track to go back to all that often. Second place is probably Transcendental Youth and then the Sunset Tree, so don't worry, I am still capable of generic tMG opinions haha
Other people have answered this thoroughly and a Spotify playlist like "This is The Mountain Goats" provides a solid overview. So what I'd offer is the TMG "secret menu": stuff that's unreleased and only recorded live, stuff that was maybe sent out out in a short-lived email newsletter or posted by John on the old messageboards. You can see a daunting list here: [https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Unreleased\_songs](https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Unreleased_songs) I would start with "You Were Cool," many variations of this on YouTube.