The Mountain Goats are one of the more unusual bands to find shelter under the ever-expanding umbrella term of
indie rock. Hyper-prolific and militantly
lo-fi, there are over a hundred
Mountain Goats songs scattered across compilations and label samplers, most of them recorded (by choice) on a department-store boom box. Although many musicians have contributed to
Mountain Goats releases, by far the person most identified with the outfit is singer/guitarist John Darnielle. (In fact, many
Mountain Goats tracks feature only Darnielle's nasal bleat and his primitive yet frenzied acoustic guitar.) Taking the name from the
Screamin' Jay Hawkins song "Big Yellow Coat," Darnielle donned
the Mountain Goats moniker in 1991 while working as a nurse in a California State hospital and began releasing cassette-only albums for the Shrimper label.
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The Mountain Goats are one of the more unusual bands to find shelter under the ever-expanding umbrella term of
indie rock. Hyper-prolific and militantly
lo-fi, there are over a hundred
Mountain Goats songs scattered across compilations and label samplers, most of them recorded (by choice) on a department-store boom box. Although many musicians have contributed to
Mountain Goats releases, by far the person most identified with the outfit is singer/guitarist John Darnielle. (In fact, many
Mountain Goats tracks feature only Darnielle's nasal bleat and his primitive yet frenzied acoustic guitar.) Taking the name from the
Screamin' Jay Hawkins song "Big Yellow Coat," Darnielle donned
the Mountain Goats moniker in 1991 while working as a nurse in a California State hospital and began releasing cassette-only albums for the Shrimper label.
Despite attracting a devoted underground following (or, possibly, because of it)
the Mountain Goats continued to release songs in cassette form only for many years, using tape hiss as, virtually, an additional instrument.
Lyrics are also essential with
the Mountain Goats. Highly literate and full of metaphor, many of Darnielle's songs fit together to form a larger narrative than they would alone. The "Going to..." series, the "Songs for..." series and the "Alpha" series (which chronicles a dysfunctional couple) are some of
the Mountain Goats' more notable song cycles. But many of
the Mountain Goats' songs stand alone and present Darnielle's skewed take on the mundane. Besides innumerable compilation tracks,
the Mountain Goats have also released many 7" singles for over a dozen labels. Their full-length albums include Nine Black Poppies and
Zopilote Machine (both released in 1995),
Sweden (1996),
Full Force Galesburg (1997), and Nothing for Juice (1997). Protein Source of the Future...NOW! and
Bitter Melon Farm (both 1999 releases) collected many early tape tracks and singles.
Sweden and
The Coroner's Gambit appeared a year later.
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