The Mountain Goats: All Hail West Texas

     In honor of Merge Records reissue of the lo-fi classic All Hail West Texas, I thought I'd do a post on this album and the puzzling lack of The Mountain Goats in my music collection. I had never heard of All Hail West Texas until about a year and a half ago. One day at work, I went back to the receiving room and the guy back there was listening to it. I was there about ten minutes getting some product to take out on the salesfloor and really liked the couple songs I'd heard. They were right in my wheelhouse and I had no idea who it was. So I said, "This is awesome, who is it?" When he told me, I was surprised. I had heard of The Mountain Goats, but I didn't own anything by them. I knew John Darnielle was in The Mountain Goats, because he had written a 33 1/3 book about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and it said so on the back cover. Anyhow, I immediately went to order All Hail West Texas on the computer at work, but it came up as being out of print. I checked around at several record stores and not only did they not have it, but they had nothing by The Mountain Goats at all. So I guess that's the explanation for why I have no Mountain Goats in my collection, except for this new reissue.
     Since I had struck out in my attempts to buy All Hail West Texas, I decided to resort to You Tube. This is where I found the song "Source Decay". I was instantly struck by the amazing songwriting of John Darnielle. The song seems to be about someone who has repressed a bad memory and his friend who tries to get him to remember through postcard correspondences. The chorus goes, "I remember the train headed south outta Bangkok down...toward...the water". I'm tempted to post all the lyrics, but I'll just post a few of the best lines instead.

* and I park in a alley and I read through the postcards you continue to send, where as indirectly as you can you ask what I remember. I like these torture devices from my old best friend.

* I wish the West Texas highway was a Mobius strip. I could ride it out forever when I feel my heart break.

* I set your postcard on the table with all the others like it. I start sorting through the pile. I check the pictures and the postmarks and the captions and the stamps for signs of any pattern at all.

     The astounding thing about the songs from All Hail West Texas, which I just learned from the liner notes, is if he couldn't finish a song in a day it was scrapped. The subtitle of the album is, fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys. I haven't managed to figure out all the math yet, but there does seem to be a theme that runs through the album. The opening track, "The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton", is about two of the seven people, Cyrus and Jeff. They are convinced they will be rock stars with Lear jets, but things fall apart. The most poignant line from this song is "When you punish a person for dreaming his dream don't expect him to thank or forgive you". One of the best songs on the album is "Jenny". She is apparently another of the seven people and she has a motorcycle. The narrator of the song loves riding on the back with his face in her hair. The first time through the chorus he sings "900 cubic centimeters of raw, whining power, no outstanding warrants for my arrest. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, the pirate's life for me". The second time through he sings "900 c.c's of raw, whining power, no outstanding warrants for my arrest. Hi diddle dee dee, goddamn, the pirate's life for me". Awesome! Then there seems to be a run of songs where his relationship with Jenny goes from bad to worse.
     I bought All Hail West Texas two days ago and I've already listened to it at least a dozen times. It's destined for my shortlist of goosebump albums with The Soft Bulletin, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea and Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. I really hope this album speaks to one of my kids. Apparently, this is the only Mountain Goats album that John Darnielle did completely on his own with a Panasonic RX-FT500 tape recorder. The reissue has a few extra tracks from these sessions that weren't on the original tape and they are pretty good as well. He claims there was another tape, but he threw it away. I'm afraid The Mountain Goats have just become my new musical obsession. I will be adding to my collection. Hail Satan! Peace.