Every Thursday, Pop Addict presents infectious tunes from contemporary musicians across indie rock, pop, folk, electronica, and more.
The Mountain Goats: All Eternals Deck (Merge, 3/29/11)
The Mountain Goats: “Damn These Vampires”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/The-Mountain-Goats-Damn-These-Vampires.mp3|titles=The Mountain Goats: Damn These Vampires]An old but proven adage is to write what you know. Though the maxim applies aptly to writers and poets, it doesn’t always play out so well for music. But when the The Mountain Goats surfaced in 2001, it decided to go with what it knew, and immediately made a name for itself as a masterful band of literary troubadours.
Through the years, it continued the trend, crafting such notable releases as Tallahassee in 2001, The Sunset Tree in 2005, and Life of the World to Come in 2009, among others. The trio of John Darnielle, Peter Hughes, and Jon Wurster (in addition to numerous guest appearances) arms itself with poignant and bookish lyrics, concrete imagery, and gut-wrenching pathos, all backed by a swath of indie-folk versatility and integrity. The band has established itself as an architect of musical design that is both sparse and minimalist, as well as explosive and frenetic. And more often than not, Darnielle and his cohorts pull it off without ever being contrived or hackneyed.
