08-10-2012, 13:37
online listen
15 albums and I've never heard them
vocal style is the guy from Hold Steady
articulate singing
liked 4 tracks, but 4 on the other side
clip is my favorite
1.5 from me and a converted 2.4 from the pros at allmusic
from the album - Harlem Roulette
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUXvIk4szO0
released Oct 2nd, 2012
![[Image: 220px-Transcendental_Youth.jpeg]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ec/Transcendental_Youth.jpeg/220px-Transcendental_Youth.jpeg)
Bio - from allmusic
The Mountain Goats are, for all practical purposes, the endlessly clever and prolific John Darnielle and whatever
musicians he surrounds himself with, which means that while the soundscape may change from project to project, the
overall tone and feel of Darnielle's work remains remarkably consistent. At his best, he writes finely observed,
slightly surreal, impressionistic vignettes that manage to mix life as we live it with life as we wish we could live
it, and as such he has more in common with a short-story writer than he does with the typical singer/songwriter.
Taking the name from the Screamin' Jay Hawkins song "Big Yellow Coat," Darnielle first donned the Mountain Goats
moniker in 1991 while working as a nurse in a California state hospital, and began releasing cassette-only albums
for the Shrimper label. Despite attracting a devoted underground following (or, possibly, because of it), The
Mountain Goats continued to release songs in cassette form only for many years, using tape hiss virtually as an
additional instrument. Besides innumerable compilation tracks, The Mountain Goats have also released many 7" singles
for over a dozen labels. Their full-length albums include Nine Black Poppies and Zopilote Machine (both released in
1995), Sweden (1996), Full Force Galesburg (1997), and Nothing for Juice (1997). Protein Source of the Future...NOW!
and Bitter Melon Farm (both 1999 releases) collected many early tape tracks and singles.
Darnielle began the new millennium with The Coroner's Gambit for Absolutely Kosher before signing to 4AD for the
release of the surprisingly polished Tallahassee in 2002. We Shall All Be Healed followed in 2004, and one year
later Darnielle was back with The Sunset Tree. Remaining prolific as ever, Darnielle turned away from the intensity
of The Sunset Tree for a calmer, more reflective set of songs on 2006's Get Lonely. The accessible and assured
Heretic Pride appeared in 2008. Next up was the Bible verse-inspired The Life of the World to Come, the group's
sixth album for 4AD, in 2010. Switching to Merge Records in 2011, Darnielle released All Eternals Deck, which was
recorded in four different studios in Brooklyn, Boston, North Carolina, and Florida with four different producers --
John Congleton, Scott Solter, Brandon Eggleston, and Morbid Angel guitarist and Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan --
helming various tracks. That year the band was also hand-picked by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at
the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he was curating in Minehead, England but were ultimately unable to appear
due to scheduling issues. In 2012 a reissue collecting long out-of-print Mountain Goats cassettes surfaced on
Shrimper. The collection gathered together 1992's The Hound Chronicles and 1993's Hot Garden Stomp.
Album Review - from allmusic
Songwriter John Darnielle has been one of the more prolific figures in indie rock, turning out album after album of
his melodically wistful tunes under the Mountain Goats moniker since he started with poorly recorded cassette albums
in the early '90s. Transcendental Youth is the 14th proper Mountain Goats album, and it's a dark ride, seeing
Darnielle return to the depressive character studies and possibly autobiographical bleak tales that made up some of
his most striking work. Beginning with the strident and almost bounding "Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1," all of the
trademark elements of a Mountain Goats album fall immediately into place: Darnielle's wiry personality and sometimes
breathless voice, quickly transitioning pop song structures, and lyrics that shift from humorous to dire in the
space of a line or two. On album number 14, some of these trademarks are to the point of interchangeability with his
other work, never to a song's detriment, but just in the way where some artists really investigate the different
angles a given sonic device can be seen from before it gets tired. Even when melodies sound vaguely familiar,
Transcendental Youth is set apart by both the grim atmosphere that Darnielle weaves with his lyrics and the
contradictory expanded instrumentation that fills up his regularly skeletal acoustic guitar-strummed numbers. "Cry
for Judas" is one of the more upbeat Mountain Goats songs in recent memory, with a bright horn section surfing on
waves of bouncy drums and damn-near triumphant vocals about abandonment and heartbroken Biblical hallucinations. The
horn section reappears on the titular track to propel its wintry lyrics into a jovial stratosphere. This
sophisticated instrumentation doesn't always make these dour songs sound happier. The ghostly piano and fretless
bass duo of "Until I Am Whole" make way for Beatlesque effected background vocals. While the effect is unlike
anything we've heard from the Mountain Goats before, the project's unique breed of smirky hopelessness is at an all
-time high here. Not since the Florida-centric song cycle of 2002's Tallahassee has Darnielle sounded this close to
the edge. Like all of his best work, however, Transcendental Youth is no self-indulgent mope-fest, but a spirited,
and in this case fearless, exploration of the dark corners of life's often tragic twists and turns. Darnielle
battles some serious demons here (as on the autumnally orchestrated "In Memory of Satan") in a way more self-
observant than self-conscious. His unique literary view into both the banal and the horrific mix with the most
interesting and developed arrangement of any Mountain Goats album and the result is some of the strongest, most
compelling work of an already brilliant run.
Track Listing
1. Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1
2. Lakeside View Apartments Suite
3. Cry for Judas
4. Harlem Roulette
5. White Cedar
6. Until I Am Whole
7. Night Light
8. The Diaz Brothers
9. Counterfeit Florida Plates
10. In Memory of Satan
11. Spent Gladiator 2
12. Transcendental Youth
15 albums and I've never heard them
vocal style is the guy from Hold Steady
articulate singing
liked 4 tracks, but 4 on the other side
clip is my favorite
1.5 from me and a converted 2.4 from the pros at allmusic
from the album - Harlem Roulette
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUXvIk4szO0
released Oct 2nd, 2012
Bio - from allmusic
The Mountain Goats are, for all practical purposes, the endlessly clever and prolific John Darnielle and whatever
musicians he surrounds himself with, which means that while the soundscape may change from project to project, the
overall tone and feel of Darnielle's work remains remarkably consistent. At his best, he writes finely observed,
slightly surreal, impressionistic vignettes that manage to mix life as we live it with life as we wish we could live
it, and as such he has more in common with a short-story writer than he does with the typical singer/songwriter.
Taking the name from the Screamin' Jay Hawkins song "Big Yellow Coat," Darnielle first donned the Mountain Goats
moniker in 1991 while working as a nurse in a California state hospital, and began releasing cassette-only albums
for the Shrimper label. Despite attracting a devoted underground following (or, possibly, because of it), The
Mountain Goats continued to release songs in cassette form only for many years, using tape hiss virtually as an
additional instrument. Besides innumerable compilation tracks, The Mountain Goats have also released many 7" singles
for over a dozen labels. Their full-length albums include Nine Black Poppies and Zopilote Machine (both released in
1995), Sweden (1996), Full Force Galesburg (1997), and Nothing for Juice (1997). Protein Source of the Future...NOW!
and Bitter Melon Farm (both 1999 releases) collected many early tape tracks and singles.
Darnielle began the new millennium with The Coroner's Gambit for Absolutely Kosher before signing to 4AD for the
release of the surprisingly polished Tallahassee in 2002. We Shall All Be Healed followed in 2004, and one year
later Darnielle was back with The Sunset Tree. Remaining prolific as ever, Darnielle turned away from the intensity
of The Sunset Tree for a calmer, more reflective set of songs on 2006's Get Lonely. The accessible and assured
Heretic Pride appeared in 2008. Next up was the Bible verse-inspired The Life of the World to Come, the group's
sixth album for 4AD, in 2010. Switching to Merge Records in 2011, Darnielle released All Eternals Deck, which was
recorded in four different studios in Brooklyn, Boston, North Carolina, and Florida with four different producers --
John Congleton, Scott Solter, Brandon Eggleston, and Morbid Angel guitarist and Hate Eternal frontman Erik Rutan --
helming various tracks. That year the band was also hand-picked by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel to perform at
the All Tomorrow's Parties festival that he was curating in Minehead, England but were ultimately unable to appear
due to scheduling issues. In 2012 a reissue collecting long out-of-print Mountain Goats cassettes surfaced on
Shrimper. The collection gathered together 1992's The Hound Chronicles and 1993's Hot Garden Stomp.
Album Review - from allmusic
Songwriter John Darnielle has been one of the more prolific figures in indie rock, turning out album after album of
his melodically wistful tunes under the Mountain Goats moniker since he started with poorly recorded cassette albums
in the early '90s. Transcendental Youth is the 14th proper Mountain Goats album, and it's a dark ride, seeing
Darnielle return to the depressive character studies and possibly autobiographical bleak tales that made up some of
his most striking work. Beginning with the strident and almost bounding "Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1," all of the
trademark elements of a Mountain Goats album fall immediately into place: Darnielle's wiry personality and sometimes
breathless voice, quickly transitioning pop song structures, and lyrics that shift from humorous to dire in the
space of a line or two. On album number 14, some of these trademarks are to the point of interchangeability with his
other work, never to a song's detriment, but just in the way where some artists really investigate the different
angles a given sonic device can be seen from before it gets tired. Even when melodies sound vaguely familiar,
Transcendental Youth is set apart by both the grim atmosphere that Darnielle weaves with his lyrics and the
contradictory expanded instrumentation that fills up his regularly skeletal acoustic guitar-strummed numbers. "Cry
for Judas" is one of the more upbeat Mountain Goats songs in recent memory, with a bright horn section surfing on
waves of bouncy drums and damn-near triumphant vocals about abandonment and heartbroken Biblical hallucinations. The
horn section reappears on the titular track to propel its wintry lyrics into a jovial stratosphere. This
sophisticated instrumentation doesn't always make these dour songs sound happier. The ghostly piano and fretless
bass duo of "Until I Am Whole" make way for Beatlesque effected background vocals. While the effect is unlike
anything we've heard from the Mountain Goats before, the project's unique breed of smirky hopelessness is at an all
-time high here. Not since the Florida-centric song cycle of 2002's Tallahassee has Darnielle sounded this close to
the edge. Like all of his best work, however, Transcendental Youth is no self-indulgent mope-fest, but a spirited,
and in this case fearless, exploration of the dark corners of life's often tragic twists and turns. Darnielle
battles some serious demons here (as on the autumnally orchestrated "In Memory of Satan") in a way more self-
observant than self-conscious. His unique literary view into both the banal and the horrific mix with the most
interesting and developed arrangement of any Mountain Goats album and the result is some of the strongest, most
compelling work of an already brilliant run.
Track Listing
1. Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1
2. Lakeside View Apartments Suite
3. Cry for Judas
4. Harlem Roulette
5. White Cedar
6. Until I Am Whole
7. Night Light
8. The Diaz Brothers
9. Counterfeit Florida Plates
10. In Memory of Satan
11. Spent Gladiator 2
12. Transcendental Youth
