Topic: The Mountain Goats/Will Oldham: where do I even start?? (Read 8961 times)

ScrambledGregs · « **on:** 08 Dec 2007, 18:20 »

I haven't been around on these forums much for the past month due to participating in the National Novel Writer's Month contest (I completed my novel!!), but allow a poor drunk to make a self serving thread.

I currently own Get Lonely by the Mountain Goats and I See A Darkness and Superwolf by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy aka Will Oldham aka Palace Music aka a million other things...

So my question is this: where do I go from here?? They're both the sort of artists that I want to just rush out and buy their entire discography, but I'm finding both artists to have (shockingly, at least for me) deep back catalogs, and most of the albums are hard to find. I'm willing to resort to ordering off their websites/their label websites, but I need some guidance.

Much thanks in advance.

Inlander · « **Reply #1 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 18:31 »

Mountain Goats: get the Sunset Tree and All Hail West Texas. Apart from some radical changes in recording quality and instrumental variety after signing to 4AD, the Mountain Goats discography is actually pretty stylistically consistent. Everything before Tallahassee is recorded onto a boom-box and as such is extremely lo-fi, and is almost always just John Darnielle singing and playing guitar. The tonal quality of the music scarcely changes from one album to the next, but the consistency is remarkably high. However, if you're just looking for a starting point for this period of the Mountain Goats music then I'd insist that you get All Hail West Texas.

The Sunset Tree is from the latter part of the Mountain Goats' career and as such is beautifully recorded, arranged, played, and sung. The song-writing on this album also represents John Darnielle at the absolute top of his game.

Will Oldham is a little bit trickier: do you want the rough & ready creakiness of the Palace/Palace Songs/Palace Brothers/Palace Music era? Do you want the more pastoral country sounds of the early Bonnie "Prince" Billy albums? Or do you want the more lush almost 70s singer-songwriter style of his latter albums? Personally I'd suggest getting the Lost Blues and Other Songs rarities compilation (Palace Music) and Ease Down the Road (Bonnie "Prince" Billy). Other people will recommend I See a Darkness, but I think Ease Down the Road is better.

yossarian07 · « **Reply #2 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 18:46 »

Not too familiar with Will Oldham, but I'm a huge mountain goats fan.
We Shall All Be Healed and Tallahassee are my personal favorites, but Darnielles never put out a bad album.
I'd also reccomend seeing them live if you get the chance. I caught them about a month ago and it was one of the best shows I've been to this year.

McTaggart · « **Reply #3 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 19:23 »

I came in here to say exactly what Inlander said. Out of the last seven albums The Mountain Goats have released All Hail West Texas is the one that I keep coming back to. That's not to say that the rest of them aren't good, there's not really one that doesn't at some point just grab you make you listen.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #4 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 20:06 »

I am of the opinion that "older" Will Oldham is better than "newer", with the dividing line being I See a Darkness.

I'd say his best are Viva Last Blues, Lost Blues and Other Songs, and Arise Therefore.

loyalpeon · « **Reply #5 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 20:15 »

The Goats are glorious live. Just saw them a few hours ago and it was one of the best gigs I've been to, John's simply amazing. (On an unrelated note, the show had drama too - co-headliner Micah P. Hinson proposed to his girlfriend - she said yes - the crowd went wild - but i digress...)

Picking a Goats album to start on is tricky in my opinion - they all have their strengths and weaknesses. I would probably suggest you go for a different route, head to etree and download one of the live sets to start of with (try the Oct 2004 village tavern one or Feb 2004 earl one), taking it from there. If you have your heart set on an album, the Sunset Tree is probably the one to get, with Tallahassee and All Hail West Texas in tied close second (they probably have more outstanding individual tracks than the Sunset Tree, but less consistancy overall).

As to Will Oldham, I'm much less familiar with but Then the Letting Go (Prince Billy) is a great album (strange form of life being one of the best tracks I've heard in... ever).

Anyways, hope that helps.

Valrus · « **Reply #6 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 20:47 »

I started with The Sunset Tree and it certainly made me want to devour the man's entire back catalogue, so I'd endorse it as a next step. I have it and Get Lonely and I'm probably going for Tallahassee next.

Jooooosh · « **Reply #7 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 22:19 »

I found out about the mountain goats through Aesop Rock's new cd, and checked up on them....

is it just me or does the singer sound like Weird Al?

McTaggart · « **Reply #8 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 22:35 »

It's just you.

yossarian07 · « **Reply #9 on:** 08 Dec 2007, 22:57 »

Quote from: Jooooosh on 08 Dec 2007, 22:19

I found out about the mountain goats through Aesop Rock's new cd, and checked up on them....

is it just me or does the singer sound like Weird Al?

I don't see how he sounds like Wierd Al at all, but when he talks at a live show he sounds just Mitch Hedberg.

CarpeNoctem · « **Reply #10 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 00:55 »

As a few people have said, I'd get The Sunset Tree. Anyone who doesn't own it owes it to themselves to go buy/download it.

wakeupshoutloud · « **Reply #11 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 06:20 »

My personal Mountain Goat's favorite is Sweden, so I will recommend that. As far as Oldham goes, I find myself enjoying the Palace Bros/Palace Music material more. But, really, you should aim to check all of it out.

imapiratearg · « **Reply #12 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 08:17 »

I'm downloading The Mountain Goats' Bitter Melon Farm. I think it's one of their "best of" albums or something.

TheFuriousWombat · « **Reply #13 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 10:53 »

The Mountain Goats have an incredible discog. He/they have made at least 42 albums (the number I have by the band) and it's quite likely higher. It's a mighty oeuvre to be sure, and an impressive one. I personally prefer The Sunset Tree and Sweden over All Hail West Texas. A vast majority of the work can only be found in very low quality bedroom recordings which is unfortunate since there's a whole bunch of really good stuff there that will probably never be redone in a studio.

monkandmovies13 · « **Reply #14 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 16:17 »

My first TMG album was The Sunset Tree, and I fell in love. Next, I got Tallahassee, which has one of my favorite songs of all time on it, No Children. Then yesterday I got All Hail West Texas, which I listened to a couple times and I am becoming a little bit obsessed with it.

You really will just want more and more with them. Darnielle is definitely one of the best songwriters working today.

jodizzle · « **Reply #15 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 16:45 »

Tallahassee is my favourite Mountain Goast album. I could listen to No Children over and over again.

My boyfirend has alot of their albums, but that's the one I like most.

McTaggart · « **Reply #16 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 17:35 »

Quote from: ebony_willow on 09 Dec 2007, 16:45

I could listen to No Children over and over again.

When I saw them play in january they finished no children. Everyone sang/yelled along. It was a great way to finish a great show.

Inlander · « **Reply #17 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 18:17 »

Incidentally, there's a new Mountain Goats album coming out in February (I'd noticed it'd been a few months since the last one!) and the explanation of the release date on the Mountain Goats website reminds me why I love John Darnielle so much:

Quote

the new album is called Heretic Pride and will be out on February 19th, 2008 . . . We are really excited about this album, and we wish it were out right now, but there is a law against releasing albums in December unless you are Queen. Any album you see released in December is actually by Queen, no matter what it says on the cover. Then in January everybody is recovering from having listened to too much Queen. Hence, February. See you then!

ScrambledGregs · « **Reply #18 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 18:40 »

Huh, my birthday is February 18th.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

Jackie Blue · « **Reply #19 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 19:29 »

Will Oldham also wrote better song titles before he became Bonnie "Prince" Billy, ie "Exit Music (For a Dick)" and "Boy, You Have Cum in Your Hair and Your Dick is Hanging Out".

Fun fact: word around Louisville (Oldham's hometown and well-known indie rock spawning pool) is that the name Bonnie "Prince" Billy came from the fact that Ear-X-Tacy, the most famous new/used record store in Louisville, used to file the various Palace albums under "the artist sometimes known as Will Oldham" due to his numerous pseudonyms (and that at least two of his albums, Arise Therefore and Days in the Wake, were originally released without any attribution at all, simply with the titles printed on them).

Also, but I'm pretty sure everyone knows this, Will Oldham took the picture for the cover of Spiderland.

uhh_me? · « **Reply #20 on:** 09 Dec 2007, 20:10 »

i also think his brother took the album cover photo for Tweez.

as far as suggestions go,
TMG: The Sunset Tree
WO/PB/BPB: Viva Last Blues and Ease Down the Road

Misereatur · « **Reply #21 on:** 10 Dec 2007, 12:01 »

I tried really hard to like Oldham and The Mountain Goats. Really. I just get so bored when I listen to them.

I'm sorry guys.

Valrus · « **Reply #22 on:** 10 Dec 2007, 15:44 »

im going to say you need to kneel down on the cold hard ground and applky suction to myg gentuitals

SeanBateman · « **Reply #23 on:** 10 Dec 2007, 16:37 »

Quote from: TheFuriousWombat on 09 Dec 2007, 10:53

The Mountain Goats have an incredible discog. He/they have made at least 42 albums (the number I have by the band) and it's quite likely higher. It's a mighty oeuvre to be sure, and an impressive one. I personally prefer The Sunset Tree and Sweden over All Hail West Texas. A vast majority of the work can only be found in very low quality bedroom recordings which is unfortunate since there's a whole bunch of really good stuff there that will probably never be redone in a studio.

You should upload a lot of those.

Like, all the ones I don't have.

Maybe just do a torrent for me.

Please?

Scandanavian War Machine · « **Reply #24 on:** 10 Dec 2007, 16:46 »

by torrent he means "the sendspace thread, so everyone can enjoy it"

SeanBateman · « **Reply #25 on:** 10 Dec 2007, 17:04 »

ScrambledGregs · « **Reply #26 on:** 11 Dec 2007, 08:46 »

Wow, thanks!! I just wish they wouldn't have put so many fucking live shows in that torrent...

SleeperCylon · « **Reply #27 on:** 11 Dec 2007, 13:04 »

The Sunset Tree is the only Mountain Goats album I like.

TheFuriousWombat · « **Reply #28 on:** 11 Dec 2007, 16:10 »

Strange, since several of them have a very similar feel to that album. Care to elaborate?

MobyDickhole · « **Reply #29 on:** 11 Dec 2007, 19:11 »

The mountain goats have some AMAZING songs in their earlier discography, but I don't really know if there's a single real standout early album of theirs... But still, if you get a chance, or feel like torrenting some of the throwbacks, i suggest it.

The Sunset Tree is my favorite album of theirs. There is not a dull moment. It makes most of their other stuff sound like crap.

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Author Topic: The Mountain Goats/Will Oldham: where do I even start?? (Read 8961 times)

ScrambledGregs

yossarian07

yossarian07

CarpeNoctem

wakeupshoutloud

monkandmovies13

ScrambledGregs

uhh_me?

SeanBateman

SeanBateman

ScrambledGregs