Hi,
we’re not
the Mountain Goats

So wow, what seems like a very long time ago, I started a thread over on the Mountain Goats official forums, trying to put this thing together. Last year, myself and about a dozen more forum members put together No Safety… twelve different versions of Going to Georgia all thrown together and put inside a nice paper sleeve, handed to John Darnielle, and distributed on the interwebz.

I was very surprised at the turnout this go round. 34 tracks, a website, 50 screenprinted-by-hand gatefold CD sleeves, and a ton of emails clogging my already clogged email account. I did not expect this to get so big.

Just want to throw a few quick “thank you”s out there. First off, the two great dudes who put together this mini-site, Nigel and Bill. The site looks great, and I think it’s very cool that you guys helped make this project so much more awesome. Also, mad props to Daley for the CD jackets. They’re absolutely amazing, and the fact that you made them for us for free is so much more amazing. Oh! That reminds me. These physical copies are being sold in Philadelphia and DC at the respective Fall 2009 tour stops there. All this money will be going up to Farm Sanctuary. If you weren’t around for either of these shows and only have the digital version, please consider donating some cash to FS, if ya got it.

Finally, I gotta thank all the people who submitted songs and covered songs. I have really enjoyed listening to all the songs.

Don't forget to throw whatever you can to Farm Sanctuary if you've liked this album.

Download

Grab a copy of the album: direct link.

Track listing

Disc one

1. Alibi

recorded by Pure Juniper (slowwestvulture): “When I saw that Pure Juniper was assigned Alibi I freaked out. The good kind, might I add. This recording is what Allan Callaci might call ‘global’, since it was recorded long distance. I moved too far away from the other band members Jozef and Zach for us to be able to get together in person. Using the fruits of the wonderful internet they sent their recordings to me so I could mix it with my vocals. Although we couldn’t play it together we still had an awesome time making this. The vocals were recorded with a Guitar Hero microphone while, since the mic wasn’t available for them, the guitar parts were recorded with a Sony Cyber-shot camera. Check out purejuniper.50webs.com if you would like to hear more!”

selected by truckface & TKurata: “TKurata: I let Truckface pick since I was already picking two other songs.
truckface: TK deferred to me. I chose Alibi. Mainly because it’s a song I like but don’t love—so I wouldn’t be too bugged by someone messing with it.”

2. The Recognition Scene

recorded by Sparkle (Sparkle): “My song was composed on an unfamiliar begged-for digital piano precariously balanced on my lap. It was originally more complex but after listening closely to The Life of the World to Come I decided to reduce the main riff to just basic chords, like most of the piano on that album. I can’t sing very well so I tried to disguise that fact by whispering the lyrics as quietly as possible and hiding behind the static on my digital camera, on which the entire effort was recorded. I’m sorry, everyone; I tried.”

selected by rmotte: “Sweden is pretty special and this song was the perfect way to start it. This person isn’t going to be around forever so get greedy. I actually wanted to submit Cold Milk Bottle at first but thought it’d be kinda hard.”

3. Linda Blair Was Born Innocent

recorded by Silver Speakers (SaveMeASeat): “I was both excited and a bit confounded when I got assigned this one. I love this song, it’s gorgeous and passionately done in its original form…but it’s also really catchy. While this is a good quality for a song to have, it’s a pain when trying to come out with a new sound and framework for it. Hard to sing those words without just busting out the original melody that I’d sung so many times before. But I’m really happy with what we ended up with. I hope you all like it too. Just tried to capture the whole feeling of breaking away and pushing for something more that made me (and clearly someone else) love this one to begin with.”

selected by Et La Licorne: “I picked this song for a couple of reasons, only one of which being that We Shall All Be Healed is my favorite Mountain Goats album, and Linda Blair is one of my favorite Goats songs. Namely, it was the sense that these lyrics carry, a resonance that you can identify with, even if you aren't higher than a weather balloon. It's about aspirations, wants, and (misplaced) joy. Being hungry for love? Who hasn’t been? When haven’t you felt passionately about something which you later came to laugh at? Didn’t it feel great at the time? Even if your heart was truly empty, it brought you pleasure when it felt inflamed about something. Climbing up from the bottom certainly feels that way, even if you’re being assisted by something a little stronger than hope.”

4. Cold Milk Bottle

recorded by Chris Jamieson (nutopia1213): “My recording of Cold Milk Bottle stemmed from a couple hours of frustration over trying to learn the correct chords, then abandoning hope, getting drunk, and bashing it out using the two chords that I felt most comfortable with.”

selected by weshallallbe: “Every album in the Mountain Goats’ discography ends appropriately. The song length, subject matter, and general texture sum up everything that precedes it amazingly. It’s hard to say why I picked Cold Milk Bottle… I think it was just stuck in my head that day.”

5. Yoga

recorded by Five Dollar William (DaniellesComment): “After starting our recording process around 1am, the upstairs neighbors complained about volume and we had to find a new place to record. We decided to meander around the neighborhood carrying our instruments and a laptop to record with. We ended up in front of the Brooklyn Art Museum and did several takes before finishing around 3 with the goal of being in bed by 4. All background noise you hear is the sound of New York at night.”

selected by dtrom4: “This is one of many Mountain Goats songs that I really enjoyed when I first heard it, but it really came to life when the lyrics finally clicked. The foolish optimism of the first verse comes crashing down to the hard truth of the second, but even though the narrator knows how it’s going to end it doesn’t detract from the passion of the moment.”

6. Magpie

recorded by Et La Licorne (Et La Licorne)

selected by dollabill: “I always liked the song because of the ‘rock break thing’ and would have fun listening to it loudly in my car on the way to a party or a concert. It wasn’t until I started playing the song when I really started to enjoy the lyrics too. It became less about birds and more about this impending doom. Something bad is coming and there’s no stopping it so let’s try to survive until it passes.”

7. Oceanographer’s Choice

recorded by The Smith Family Are Sorry You Had To Hear This (StatusFrustratio): “We were recording this when I should have been writing an essay for my Oceanography module. My mark for the essay is now capped at 40% for late hand in. Fact.
“I hope you work out how to overlay those 2 tracks we did of the Mountain Goats song. If not...I'm sure next time it'll be something easier & doable.”
—Letter from Smith 1 today (Tuesday 17/11/09)
Q. What’s that noise?
It might be the TV downstairs, it might be headphone leak of the original (we had to listen to it to get the timing “right”), it might be humans, it might be harmonica, it might be stylophone. I was originally going to play stylophone on this. Turns out the beginning of the Tetris A type music is all I can play on the stylophone, so I didn’t. It’s my favourite sound on this. If I could reverse I’d have louder stylophone and non-continuous harmonica and, since we’re dealing in the undoable, a choir of millions.
Q. Why is the “YES” so violent?
Because my Smith 1 was hearing this song for about the fourth time so needed my physical cut-cue to initiate the pause, and I was still rebounding with the energy from that. Now I’ve realised the most violent one track is the one that doesn’t match with all the others I think it’s gone, though.
Q. The Smith Family Are Sorry You Had To Hear This?
Well in essence, but it’s all on a sliding scale: • If you are my housemates, no way am I sorry you had to hear this—you take my knives, use my knives, don’t wash my knives and put back into my cupboard my knives. • But if you requested Oceanographer’s Choice, I realise most your hopes and fears for this have been, respectively, not realised and realised, and the Sorry is heartfelt. It's just not that easy a song to do!”

selected by iatethelotus: “The opening lines of Oceanographer's Choice scream two things: that even the most seemingly invincible love can be shattered in an instant, and that suddenly, playtime is over for the Alpha couple. Up until now on Tallahassee, the love of the Alphas has been disturbingly inspirational, but suddenly with Oceanographer’s Choice, nothing is certain. The passion in the song is both violent and sexual, making it one of the most dramatic and terrifying songs in the Mountain Goats’ catalogue.”

8. Transjordanian Blues

recorded by Evan Scott Peavey (weshallallbe): “I hadn’t ever closely listened to Transjordanian Blues before this project. My first inclination was inviting several friends over and having sort of a stomp-along, hand-clap revival version of the song. Unfortunately, this fell through due to scheduling issues, living in a building with very thin walls, and my lack of trust in my friends to stay focused (or maybe just sober) enough to get a good take. Instead I decided to do something solo (though I changed the guitar part somewhat) and record on my iPhone’s voice recorder app. The version you hear was take 14, but the first I tried on November 2.”

selected by tkpeters: “I submitted Transjordanian Blues for a number of reasons. First, I love any song about religion or churches or etc., especially if it is full of that sort of thing. ‘If you’re wondering who to blame, I wanna praise His name with songs and feasting,’ is about the best line I have ever heard. On top of that, I love playing the song so much myself (especially the ‘Hosanna’ part) that I hope others will too.”

9. Going to Malibu

recorded by Dan Gray (dangray): “I started my recording a few days after I got my song assignment, Going to Malibu, but then I scrapped everything and actually went to Malibu. My intention was to record the song on top of this mountain that I like in Malibu, but I think wind would have been an overwhelming factor. When I finally recorded the song, a few nights before the deadline, I decided (after several bad takes) that I needed a bit of immediacy, so the challenge I put to myself was this: whatever I record the next time I hit that horrible red button is what I’m using. I like how it turned out. My blog is yabottherobot.com., but I haven’t updated it in quite a while. But I’ll plug it nonetheless.”

selected by lincolnic: “I think it’s a song that tends to get overlooked, which is probably the same reason a lot of people are going to give. Regardless, I’ve always been fond of this one—I’ve covered it myself in the past—and I was curious to hear how someone else would interpret it, given that Casio jams have always been far outnumbered by guitar songs in the Mountain Goats catalog.”

10. Edward Munch

recorded by Golden Calf Figurine (your favorite effigy): “I hadn’t heard the song previously and couldn’t find a tab anywhere. When I set out to download the live show it is from, my internet of course began to fail me so I walked a few blocks to my friend’s apartment with my guitar and laptop. Though we all smoke inside, I sometimes like to go up to their rooftop to have a cigarette and think. After tabbing out the song and playing it a few times, I went up there for a bit that day. From their rooftop, you can see almost all of the Manhattan skyline spread out in front of you. I was thinking about the song and what I planned to do with it. The cold was just beginning to set in. In that moment, I found a greater depth in the song that I hadn’t really perceived before. I began to very much see the high-rises as Norway’s mountain ranges ‘frozen on the skyline there’. I can’t express how happy I am to have been assigned this song and thanks to whoever submitted it. Cecilia Greco sings backup vocals.”

selected by EvilEivind: “We Norwegians get very excited when someone mentions us in the media. Whether it’s negative or positive doesn’t matter too much, whether we’re being taken serious or ridiculed, we’re just happy that someone knows we’re here and recognizes us as a people, as a nation, and as a culture. During at least one concert, the Mountain Goats acknowledged the existence of Norway. I can’t help but get giddy when I hear the chorus.”

11. Going to Port Washington

recorded by Dylan Baker (Red Dwarf): “I was originally going to do this song with my crappy little keyboard à la Blues in Dallas and whatnot but it turns out the mic jack on my computer doesn’t work or something. I defaulted to just recording guitar and vocals into the built-in mic of my mom’s computer and then putting badly-played ukulele on top to make it less completely boring. Ironic how my roommate went to school for audio engineering and that’s how I ended up doing this facebook.com/WeCantBuryShelley.”

selected by SaveMeASeat: “Out of the deeper tMG catalogue comes this gem. I love the mood it sets with its imagery of autumn and of the companion along for the ride with our narrator. The beauty in this one is from the melody, sure, but also the subtlety. The song flows along lightly, then just a bit of crescendo and a harmony add just enough emphasis to hint that there’s “something on my mind” bigger than the relaxing scene we’ve heard so far. It’s hard to spot at first, but it’s surely building…something’s bubbling up under the surface. Plus, like all the best songs, what exactly that something is can get filled in from your mind. It lets this song belong to all of us for a million different reasons.”

12. Deianara Crush (remix)

recorded by TKurata (TKurata): Everything in the Deianara Crush remix is sourced from the original track except drums. The synth was created from John and Rachel's harmonized vocals. The tempo is probably a little too fast, but the first time I heard this song at 96 bpm there was no going back! I’ve been meaning to do another tMG remix since the great reception I received for my Going to Georgia remix last year. (myspace.com/tkurata)”

selected by StatusFrustratio: “I really can’t tell you much. It seemed like something one could have a lot of fun with—and I hope you did.”

13. Carmen Cicero

recorded by The Jean Kingsley (iatethelotus): “The Jean Kingsley specialises in poorly mixed, badly recorded versions of great songs. Their cover of Carmen Cicero is no exception. The recording session from which this song stumbled out resulted in an $800 fine for carrying passengers and driving after dark on a restricted licence. This, ironically, almost certainly makes Carmen Cicero the most expensive song on this collection, proving once again that there doesn’t have to be a positive correlation between cost and quality.”

selected by Shlack: “I submitted this song because I always thought its epic nature was underrated due to the fact that it was unreleased. In my various experiences working with music and being a fan of the Mountain Goats, I found myself in a conversation with Cory Brown, the man in charge of Absolutely Kosher Records, talking about the Extra Glenns release. He said that he had encouraged John to record Carmen Cicero for the album, and to use a children’s choir for it. Now, I think this is a thoroughly excellent idea. John, for his own reasons, however, decided to not record the song, saying that it would never be released. I respect that, and the excellent live version that I prefer, (Live at Go! Rehearsal Studios in Carrboro, NC 10-15-2000) is quite enough. That being said, I think the song has a wealth of instrumentation potential, and so I submitted it, in hopes that someone would use that to their advantage.”

14. Alpha Rats Nest

recorded by Allie Mandell and Chris Dayton (Eidyia): “I was really nervous to do this project. I love singing Mountain Goats songs and have wanted to do a cover for a long time but I don’t play any instruments. I was also a bit wary of covering Alpha Rats Nest. I had never heard the song before and the melody was a bit tricky. I liked the song but I didn’t know if I would be able to fit it to my style. I also had no idea what my friend, Chris, was going to do with the guitar part so I just had to trust that he would do something that would meld with my style. It was a blast recording. I had never recorded a song before. We played for two hours straight in room 206A in the Barn at Bennington College. We found out last minute that we didn’t have any recording equipment. My roommate, Rebecca, saved the day and let us borrow her Mac. We recorded this song using Band Camp and Rebecca’s tiny computer mike. Chris had to get up at four that day so he was really tired but he kept going. I definitely struggled because the octave was way lower than what I usually sing. If we did it again, I would have liked to do it much higher. When we finished, we had two good takes. In one of them, I hit more of the notes and my voice and Chris’s guitar blended together better. In the other one, there were more mistakes. It was really hard to choose but I picked the one with more mistakes because I felt it had more soul. I have always loved the talking on John’s earlier albums so the mess up in the middle is an homage to that. Chris Dayton and I are planning on recording more songs together soon. We play mostly old folk songs and also other odds and ends that we love.”

selected by Vispen: “Probably my favourite of all the Alpha-songs. Great lyrics and a catchy-as-fuck melody.”

15. Ethiopians

recorded by The Society of Poor Academics (EvilEivind): “As of writing this, nothing has as of yet been recorded and I’ve no idea how it will turn out. I’m considering whether or not to translate it into Norwegian, whether to sing it calmly or to rock it out, and whether I should use my electone organ, Casio keyboard, or out of tune piano. Unless I suddenly get a burst of inspiration it may just go the easy route and perform it calmly on my out of tune piano. I’ll probably use my Cowon iAUDIO U2 portable audio player to record it, which I feel most comfortable with. So it will just be me and my musical instrument, one take. I’m totally hardcore. Please visit my blog where you’ll find links to the rest of the Kirkebyverse.”

selected by zisel: “I submitted Ethiopians. It’s a song I’ve listened to many many times after getting it off Daytrotter. It has some great imagery in it, and I look forward to hearing the cover.”

16. Minnesota

recorded by TK & the Mind Controllers (TKurata): “I haven’t done much guitar/singing/non hip-hop productions in a while, and thought this would be a great time to jump back in under my old moniker and sing some JD gold! To be honest, I did not like my selection Minnesota. The lyrics are solid, but for me the melody is rather miserable. I tried to reinterpret the rhythms a bit and give it more urgency. I played guitar, bass guitar, and synths on the track. The drums are a mixture of Roland SP-555 created patterns and some sampled drums. Sadly, I recorded all the music for the song without testing the key vocal-wise—turns out I'm just a bit out of range to sing this decently! I hope it’s not too hard to stomach the vocals. I could have used more time on all these projects, and have been swamped with family responsibilities since this started. This is my small print! (myspace.com/tkurata)”

selected by Eidyia: “Whenever I am introducing a friend to the Mountain Goats, I always play them Minnesota first. I feel as though the essence of the Mountain Goats can never be found in just one song but if I had to pick just one to show someone who they are, this would be it. What I love about John’s older work is this incredible rawness and urgency that pours out through his voice. The Mountain Goats have a strange mysticism and mythology that is truly their own. I don’t often visualize when I listen to songs but this song brings up so many vivid pictures.”

17. Attention All Pickpockets

recorded by Colin Pound (acowkickedme): “OK, so I'm going to be honest here and say that I put off doing my recording FOREVER. Luckily, I had that luxury, what with being the dude in charge over here. But seriously, I just finished it like 20 minutes ago, even though the deadline for everyone else was 2 days ago. My excuse is that I was too busy pulling together everyone else's songs and getting the whole thing ready. However that excuse is totally false. I was just lazy. Anyway, I spent all day working on it, and ended up with this. I had two versions… one without the autotune, and one with the autotune. I decided to keep the autotune. Why? I don't know. I do like how the whole thing turned out though.”

selected by your favorite effigy: “This song and I have a sort of tumultuous relationship together. The first time I heard it, I was on the way to a bar after work back in my hometown, Baton Rouge. I pulled into the parking lot and listened to the song at least 6 times in a row until my waiting friends pulled me out of my daze by knocking on my window. I believe that was the beginning of July. Along with the entirety of The Coroner’s Gambit and a couple other non-tMG albums, the song ended up being the soundtrack to my summer. When I listen to the song now and think back, I just imagine me stammering around Baton Rouge in the hot guts of summer, drunk as a skunk, and not really caring where I was or where I was going. Beyond my sentimental attachment to the song, I picked it because I saw the potential of it being a very fun song to record. The song has this rare quality that allows it to sound better and better when really belted out. I also had this image of someone getting together their friends and having a lot of fun singing the chorus together though they may choose not to do that.”

Disc two

1. Family Happiness

recorded by Johan (Vispen): “Now, this is one of the few songs by John I wasn’t too familiar with before this thing. I had to listen to it a few times to really enjoy it and it’s now one of my favourite songs. It’s also really fun to play. You can’t make me go to war goddammit! Visit songbook.blogg.se.”

selected by TKurata: “My initial selection was Family Happiness, because it’s one of my favorite tMG songs to rock out on acoustic. High Doses was the backup selection that was being used—I picked it for the same reason.”

2. If You See Light

recorded by One Third Walrus Cubed (Valrus): “My cover of Going to Georgia for the last tMG forums’ cover project was not very adventurous, and I wanted to push myself a little more for this one. I ended up pushing myself quite a lot more. The tab on themountaingoats.net notes that the time signature ‘makes [If You See Light] jumpy,’ and the first drastic decision I made was to put most of the song in 5/8 to really push the jumpiness (hopefully) up a notch. The clattering percussion from the original I wanted to keep, though I used Erik Hermansen’s ‘Basement Noise’ SoundFont to replicate it in my cover. The samples are from the Tom Waits song What's He Building? which seemed to me like a perfect illustration of the circumstances which might lead to the events in If You See Light. I have never worked so hard on two minutes of music in my life. I hope you all like it.”

selected by My initial selection was If You See Light. Marvelous tune—thought it would be a blast for someone to cover! Lonesome Surprise was my backup choice. For me it’s an absolute earworm with lots of room for interpretation.

3. Maize Stalk Drinking Blood

recorded by The Duck and Covers (Shlack): “I was familiar with this song when I was assigned it, and I loved the chorus line of ‘This is an empty place, and I am its king, and I should not be allowed to touch anything.’ That being said, it was not one of my favorite songs from Full Force Galesburg. I took this as an opportunity to delve into a song that I didn’t know so well. I also real ly wanted to drastically change the instrumentation of the song; because most Mountain Goats songs are so heavily based on acoustic guitar, I decided to eschew that entirely. I instead adapted the song for piano, though now that I think about it, a string quartet would have been nice too, which is reflected in the accenting use of the cello. I also used the pedals on an organ as the bass. What emerged is a version that I hope emphasizes the melancholy of the song, in its classic sadly beautiful way.”

selected by Planty

4. Love Cuts the Strings

recorded by The Elegant Bachelors (tkpeters): “Where to begin about my own recording? I have always adored this song so I really wanted to ‘do it a musical solid’ so to speak. I recorded about five different versions before landing on this particular one. I started with a grindcore version and discarded it. Moved on to a loud rock version and discarded it. I even tried a sort of Baroque string quartet arrangement and got rid of it. Ultimately I landed on this version which I would like to believe sounds like a mixture between Smog and Xiu Xiu but probably sounds nothing like that to anyone but me. My band’s website is at theelegantbachelors.bandcamp.com.”

selected by Zopilote Steel: “Mainly I picked this song because I like playing it myself and I thought; why not pick a song that’s enjoyable to play? I also have a fondness for those early fast ’n’ angry songs. The song is about love and war and probably has some classical allusion but who can say.”

5. Seed Song

recorded by Talking Blanket (dollabill): “I think of this less as a cover and more as an interpretation. Generally when you hear that someone has done a cover of a song, you're ready to just hear the same basic song with a different person singing. We wanted to make something unique and something that would stand out and grab your attention. I hope it has and I hope you enjoyed it!.”

selected by Recognition Scene: “A few years before he became rich and famous, the English musician David Gray wrote of people being ‘so familiar with the hunger, that they’ve got no appetite’. I think of the Seed Song’s narrator as having this mentality… passively holding out for an ironic ending.”

6. Narakoloka

recorded by El Nombre (El Nombre): “I was using my landlord’s piano while she was away in Australia, so I only had a small window in which to get the recording done, and I don’t feel I really nailed it. It was a toss-up between this recording and a piano-only version; this one is probably more flawed (I surprised even myself with the volume my vocals come in at, and the first verse seems to waver in and out of tune), but I liked it better. I always saw this song as being really joyful, as if the narrator has fully accepted his fate, and I kind of wanted to see if I could turn this feeling on its head while changing as little of the song as possible. Whether that was achieved I couldn’t say, but I think it does have a slightly different tone at the least.”

selected by Valrus: “Picking just one Mountain Goats song and having a really compelling reason for why I’d be more interested in hearing it covered than any other would have been impossible, so I picked this weird, striking little song on a whim instead. The whole song seems to hinge on the one line ‘The doctor says that I’ve got thirty days left at most,’ which comes completely out of left field and changes the color of the whole song—we see, now, that the singer is maybe focusing so intently on his cabbages and simple breakfast because they're something beautiful that he will leave behind him when he goes—and I wanted to hear what someone would do with it. Narakaloka seems, in a way, to be a distilled Mountain Goats song: many of them focus on small details that are heartbreaking to the singer and curiosities to everyone else, and this is no exception. Here, though, it is actually revealed what gives those details their weight. If other Mountain Goats songs are vast expanses of sea that seem unsettlingly calm, as if portending immeasurable disaster, Narakaloka has a single dark fin breaking the surface of the water and then quickly receding.”

7. New Star Song

recorded by (Recognition Scene): “Having recently moved continents, I had to make do recording this with my laptop’s inbuilt mic. Attempting to sing the song in the right octave resulted in distortion from the mic, so I dropped an octave and quietened the guitar down to a whisper. It’s quite chilled out, I hope you enjoy.”

selected by DaniellesComment: “Beautiful Rat Sunset has risen to become my (current) favorite tMG album, New Star Song being the main reason why. You can’t help but rock out with those 8 repeated guitar strums in a row during the chorus; John seems to be rocking out as well, which is so enjoyable to hear. Also, the muted strum at 2:09 in the original recording is a wonderful nuance to know while air strumming or headbanging along to.”

8. Torch Song

recorded by Zisel (zisel): “I recorded Torch Song. When I got the assignment, I had never heard that song before. I listened to it that day and was so excited to record it that I did so immediately. It was a fun song to cover. If you would like to see more of my covers, my original songs, or some goofy videos I made, visit my YouTube page.”

selected by Red Dwarf: “I guess I picked Torch Song pretty much just because it’s awesome. I tend to like the older stuff more, just on principle, and this song is a classic example of old tMG. ‘JUST LIKE A TORCH!’ gets me every time. Great song.”

9. There Will Always be an Ireland

recorded by Kid Steel (Zopilote Steel): “You may ask yourself, how did I get that extraordinary vocal effect? Well I’ll tell you! Just feel fairly unwell. Press record. This was quite an interesting experiment, I did the vocal and piano in one take, then did the backing vocals and guitar on another and stuck them together with audio glue. It’s pretty sloppy but I had fun doing it. And you may ask yourself, what is that beautiful house? And you may ask yourself, where does that highway go? Check out more of my music at myspace.com/kidsteelmusic.”

selected by Snowybear23

10. Raja Vocative

recorded by Ian Craig & Nigel Ewan (nigel): “I enlisted the help of my friend Ian Craig, who actually knows something about music, in the recording of this song. Ian played his banjo virtually extemporaneously and without a metronome, upon which we recorded synthesized string bass, glockenspiel, and English horn. Along the way Ian and I recorded literally dozens of vocal tracks, with varying levels of precision. The final product is the result of serious mixing to attain a jealously-sought-after ‘wildly out-of-control choir’ vibe.”

selected by Tapedeck: “So we all know calling a tMG track a lost classic doesn’t exactly narrow it down so much. For me however, this track in particular has always stood out. The opening lines ‘a bird you would've liked brought the sky down, but it was useless to see it without you around.’ catches me off guard every time. From there it's just a beautiful, beautiful song really. Not to mention any song where John name checks Jersey is automatically badass in my book. One of my essential tracks to be played for every long, late night drive.”

11. Alpha Negative

recorded by Minor Technicality (lincolnic): “I wasn’t really sure how to approach Alpha Negative at first. Being from an early cassette, the song is a legitimate rarity, which means that some people may not have ever even heard the song outside of a live show (or bootleg). Given that, I didn’t want to stray too far from the original, so I decided to treat it as a demo and build an arrangement around it while keeping the melody, chord progression, and basic structure the same. I tried a few different orchestrations, but ultimately nothing felt as good as a straight up rock band. This is an interesting song to sing: our Alpha Narrator is frustrated and accusatory, sure: but I think you can detect a bit of wistfulness, too. You get the feeling that if he could do it all again, he’d still drink the poison. minortechnicality.bandcamp.com”

selected by nigel: “I wanted to seem like a superfan, so I chose something as obscure as possible. ...but seriously, this song is the first from The Hound Chronicles that I remember really loving. I chose it because I was pretty sure no one else would, and I wanted to hear someone else’s take on it, especially given the Bright Mountain Choir element. Plus, it features the word ‘metastasizing’, which is generally just awesome.”

12. Keeping House

recorded by Some of the Dharma (rmotte): “Recorded on a portastudio four-track. I think I forgot head cleaner. Also, sorry about that annoying part during the third verse. There was gonna be a solo before it but oh well I guess. myspace.com/poshpetsdemos.”

selected by Sparkle: “I submitted Keeping House, one of the Japanese bonus tracks from Get Lonely. I chose it because I’ve had reason to listen to Get Lonely quite a bit recently (it’s the time of year), and this song stood out to me for a number of reasons, mainly the lyrics and the instruments. I thought it’d draw people’s attention to this little-known song if I chose it, and I’m intrigued to see what the person who was allocated this song made of the instrumental bits.”

13. Feed This End

recorded by Dan Trombley (dtrom4): “I had never heard this song before it was assigned to me, so I didn’t know how this would turn out. I listened to it a handful of times to get the gist of it, and then just started recording. The first couple takes were pretty true to the original, but when I started playing around with the bass and that jaunty bass line coalesced, the song went in quite a different direction. I hope you like it!”

selected by slowwestvulture: “I picked Feed This End because I feel that it’s an incredible song that doesn’t get enough recognition. The main line gets implanted in my brain and stays there, sucking out half of my concentration on the world outside. It was my extreme urge of hearing another interpretation of it that ultimately led me to picking it. I also thought it could help give the compilation even more diversity.”

14. Autoclave

recorded by Ed Cotter (tapedeck): “This is partly the product of an ill-formed idea. ‘Let’s have some fun with this and do it in one take and that will be that.’ I said to myself. This, however is also the product of anxiety, procrastination, and lots and lots of wine. While my recording is by no means pretty, I feel as if under those circumstances I may have (and unintentionally of course) somewhat embodied the line ‘I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam’ as best I possibly could for 4 minutes time.”

selected by acowkickedme: “You know, a lot of people talk shit on the Heretic Pride album. I love it. Autoclave is my favorite from the album, and it seems to define my life (as most Mountain Goats songs do/did/will do… it’s a neverending cycle). I don’t know what it is specifically about the song that I like so much, I just do. I remember at the Black Cat in DC in March 2008, before the third verse of this song, John broke a string, and did the end of the song with just vocals, bass and drums. And a little dancing. It was pretty sweet. and that’s all I have to say about that.”

15. Rockin’ Rockin’ Pet Store

recorded by Blessing of Unicorns (snowybear23)

selected by El Nombre: “I only recently encountered this song, but it really captures everything I love about early tMG in 2 minutes; the way it paints such a vivid scene with such spare lyrics, builds to a climax and ends abruptly but not before it’s burrowed deep into your head. I am really interested to see how the cover turns out. Part of the reason I chose a relatively obscure song is that I figured it would be less likely to receive reverent treatment, which can only be a good thing.”

16. Sign of the Crow 2

recorded by Jimbob (planty)

selected by nutopia1213: “I selected Sign of the Crow 2 as my submission for the project. I specifically selected a song that I would like to see appear on the compilation, but one that I would prefer not to try to tackle myself. I knew I would do it no justice, so I offered it up for someone else to try their hand at.”

17. Song for an Old Friend

recorded by TrucKurata (truckface & TKurata): “TKurata: I heard truckface’s cover of California Song last year and absolutely loved it. The production on that track was pretty rough, so I talked to him about maybe working together at some point. When truckface asked me to produce his track on this comp, I jumped at the chance! I’m glad I did. Although truckface and his friend Brian took almost the whole month to finish their session files, it was worth the wait! Absolute pro job on the vocals, guitar, electric guitar, and bass guitar from those guys! The drum sounds were nice also, and in this track the bass drum, snare, hi-hats, and a few other sounds are all truckface a cappela. The track sounded so good upon delivery that I didn’t want to really make any drastic changes. I added synth strings and winds to the track, played truck’s drums on my SP, chopped up some of truck’s vocals and added some additional textures, tweaks, compression, and EQ.
truckface: TKurata and I talked about working together on something last year. This gave us an excuse to do that. Credits: vocals and drum noises by truckface; guitars and recording by truckface’s kind friend Brian; production by TKurata.”

selected by dangray: “Song For An Old Friend was the second Mountain Goats song I ever heard, and reminded me a lot of how my memory works. A friend of mine tells me that nostalgia is one of the most despicable states of mind, I think he must have read that somewhere, and I’ll admit that I’m pretty despicable, because I can’t go a few seconds without seeing something that sends my memory running to another time—some old apartment building, a glass bottle of coke, a pier—anyway, the song, incidentally, reminds me of a lot of things. It’s metalyrical, or something.”