This made my week (Mountain Goats content)
A story about one of my favorite songwriters who happens to love metal.
If you like The Mountain Goats, you may realize that John Darnielle is a huge metal fan. Despite being a folk/indie musician, he routinely writes songs like “Marduk T-Shit Mens Room Incident” and “Sarcofago Live” (which is on his Satanic Messiah EP).
This morning, Maggie discovered the following post on John’s LastPlaneToJakarta.com website:
“RIYL Onward to Golgotha Which One Assumes You Do
not to get all 160-characters on you but the enucleation label is completely killing it right now, esp. the father befouled/helcaraxe split: tone for days”
For those of you who were not aware, Helcaraxë is a band that I’m in. So I sent an email through his website saying how awesome it was to hear that from one of my favorite songwriters, and in less than an hour he wrote back!
Wow! This is a very pleasant surprise indeed. I just ordered two of your
albums from the illustrious blackmetal.com yesterday — “Broadsword” and
“Triumph and Revenge,” so I’m looking forward to hearing those later in the
week.
So these are your riffs? Just wow – your tracks on this split have a What
The Game’s Been Missing vibe to me. The whole thrash revival got me down so
bad — album after album of loving the first track, getting bored in the
middle of the second, and tuning out by the third. (A few exceptions, of
course.) And the arty USBM that’s got all my indie peers excited, I can’t
get pumped for that – I need stuff whose sound gives me the thrills you only
get from people who’ve decided to actually pursue a unique and personal
vision. That thrill is something I got from both bands on the FB/Hecaraxe
split, and it’s exciting and inspiring for sure. Great work!
Hope our paths cross at some point – if you’re ever touring this way, let me
know! We have a great metal club down the road in Raleigh, the Volume 11
Tavern.
All best to you!!
jd
Comments
So cool. You absolutely need to somehow figure out a way to make an acoustic Helcaraxe/Mountain Goats show happen.
That’s awesome. Seriously one of the best songwriters ever.
this is VERY cool. i’m definitely a huge MG fan. i remember when three of my heroes e-mailed me back upon me writing to them: will shortz, sasha frere jones and miles kuroski.
anyway, my boyfriend is a huge metal head so i’ll have to tell him to check you out.
Will Shortz? The crossword puzzle guy? Your hero? Please refer to my username.
Cool story Bill.
Jay said:Will Shortz? The crossword puzzle guy? Your hero? Please refer to my username.
THAT made you turn on me?? he’s one of my heroes because he’s wildly intelligent and amusing. he holds probably one of the coolest degrees around and uses his mind better than most of us can imagine. i love him for his mustachioed intellect and big brain.
don’t you know i’d rather do a crossword puzzle than most other things?
Quick, everyone! It’s caption time!
“What descriptive term do you get when take a phrase for ‘making money,’ swap the vowels in the first word and add a T, and swap the first and last letter of the second word?
That’s right: GIANT TOOL, which, coincidentally, was my nickname all throughout elementary, high school, and college. And my master’s program. And my marriage."
You should have held off with your caption, Hutch. Now I have no desire to make one because yours cannot be trumped.
i’m e-mailing will and linking this thread.
and we’ll see who i invite with my plus one to february’s crossword puzzle tournament.