The Wall Street Journal-20080216-WEEKEND JOURNAL- Picks -- Mountain Goats- Rock Stories- A Veteran Band Polishes Its Rough Style on Its New CD -Heretic Pride-
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WEEKEND JOURNAL; Picks -- Mountain Goats: Rock Stories; A Veteran Band Polishes Its Rough Style on Its New CD 'Heretic Pride'
Full Text (271 words)John Darnielle, leader of a veteran band called the Mountain Goats, writes songs that unspool like short stories, and his new album, "Heretic Pride," is full of desperate characters and evocative settings. The song "New Zion," for instance, is about a religious cult (a thematic preoccupation for Mr. Darnielle in recent years, he says.) But the song doesn't sound ominous; a leisurely organ leads the way to clean, bright guitar chords. Mr. Darnielle, who is based in Durham, N.C., says his songs are often conjured by the towns he visits on tour, or by newspaper articles. "There'll be some little unimportant detail in a story and it'll get to me, sort of start nagging at me, and I'll take out my guitar and start working," he says.
The first Mountain Goats releases in the early 1990s were rough hewn, captured on cassette recorders. Now, substituting a laptop for his boombox, Mr. Darnielle goes for a more polished sound. He typically sends his guitar and vocal tracks to other members of the Mountain Goats (a shifting cast) who write their own parts. On "San Bernardino," about a couple who give birth in a bathtub in a highway- side motel, cellist Erik Friedlander sent back a score that layered urgent pizzicato over a languid melodic line. Stylistically, Mountain Goats songs range from chamber suites to rock workouts, but a constant element is Mr. Darnielle's voice. During the driving "Sax Rohmer GBP 1" (named for the pulp fiction writer who inspired the song), Mr. Darnielle sings an insistent chorus -- "I am coming home to you" -- that seems to originate in his sinuses.
