Alright, so I've pinned one of my coworkers as a potential maniacal Mountain Goats fan, but he's never heard of them.

Now, we all know that you have to digest the Mountain Goats discography one album at a time, like a series of novels. I understand this, and I feel pretty strongly about it, too.

But I've got this creeping idea that I want to make a "beginner's compilation." An aerial view of the ~400 songs we're working with here - an intimidating body of work. It seems reckless to shove "The Sunset Tree" into someone's hands and hope that it sticks. Personally, I required years of work to build up the active listening skills it sometimes takes to absorb an album, plus lots of interviews and an abundance of context to make it click. I'd like to see this process be easier for someone like me. (obviously it's not the same for everyone)

So, hypothetically, if you were to make an "essential" Mountain Goats (the heresy, i know!) what would be on it?

Or, maybe a better, more interesting question, if you were to make a compilation of pre-"Tallahassee" boombox songs, (because, let's face it, there are an abundance of those and they can be a little hard to wade through) what would be on it?

"Raja Vocative" OR BUST.

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[www.last.fm]

I made a playlist of ~jingle jangle~ songs a while ago for someone. Maybe not super helpful but it's a pretty good group of songs I think so I'm postin it!



but Commandante should be on there too because that song, man.

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beep boop

"Raid on Entebbe" is ALL KINDS of awesome. That list is great!

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[www.last.fm]

You didn't mention how many songs you want, so I have arbitrarily decided to give you 13 boombox-era classics. Make this playlist for him, and if he doesn't like it, well I don't know what to tell you. He just ain't a tMG kind of guy.

Neon Orange Glimmer Song - Sweden
Masher - Full Force Galesburg
Maize Stalk Drinking Blood - Full Force Galesburg
It's All Here in Brownsville - Full Force Galesburg
There Will Be No Divorce - Coroner's Gambit
The Alphonse Mambo - Coroner's Gambit
Jenny - All Hail West Texas
The Mess Inside - All Hail West Texas
Source Decay - All Hail West Texas
Going to Port Washington - Ghana
Raja Vocative - Ghana
Alpha Desperation March - Bitter Melon Farm
Going to Cleveland - Bitter Melon Farm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2012 03:18AM by OregonGoat.

Man, you guys are great. You're turning up a lot of stuff that I didn't even know about, seeing as I'm only a blossoming/intermediate tMG fan.

I knew this was a good idea.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2012 12:13PM by mcclain.