The Mountain Goats :: "Cry For Judas"

The just released Mountain Goats single, "Cry For Judas" comprises two of John Darnielle's favorite elements: religious imagery and a slicing, wincing revisionism. The narrative here is about regret, told from a somewhat sympathetic perspective toward Judas, though the implication here is: Everyone can be a bad guy sometimes. The horn rich arrangement and splashy drums hide lyrics like, "feel the storm every night," "sad and angry, can't learn how to behave," and the chilling refrain, "long black night, morning thoughts, I'm still here but all is lost." This is an artist who memorably compared his transcendence of his abusive father to the first tetrapods who "wriggled up on dry land," using the evolutionary story to tell a darkly triumphant human one. So, it isn't surprising that Darnielle would mine for material in the night the Romans executed the not-yet Christian world's messiah. Judas would, according to the Gospel, die by his own hand and with that the terrible final act was complete. Consider it Darnielle's profound talent and empathy to steer the camera from a different direction, turning the exceptional, the messianic, the specific, into the terrifyingly common.

"Cry For Judas" is the first single from the Mountain Goats forthcoming LP, Transcendental Youth, out October 22, 2012. Download it for free here.

The Mountain Goats :: "The Sign" [Live]

For the past month we've been on the road and today we return home. Many thanks to those of you who put us up and put up with our antics; we are eternally grateful. Thanks to the publicists and bands who hooked up our shows. Thanks to America for being so incredibly enormous, unflaggingly weird and famously awesome.

Of course, the end of such an journey brings about the essence of its start. In some small way, I am reminded of John Darnielle's live cover of Ace Of Base's seminal hit, "The Sign." He finds at the end of the first chorus that too few audience members sang the words. In what is certainly a thesis statement, Darnielle breaks into a faux-tirade about how he knows these people know the song, knows these people know the words to this song and knows they secretly want to sing this song. He rails at their insecurities, their fears of looking uncool, their fears of dancing and singing, finally settling on the blithy put, "well, no one's gonna tell and there's no film in that camera!" Of course, this is all preserved through the wonders of concert recording, but in the last chorus, the crowd screams the lyrics with exactly the abandon that Darnielle suggested was possible.

Not everyone gets it. The recording is shitty and it is, after all, a cover of a Swedish dance hit from the 1990s. But the underlying message is about finding truth in the moments of letting go. Without of shred of grandiosity, Darnielle's words are more true than ever, even if someone told and there was film in the camera.

Listen :: The Mountain Goats - "The Sign" [Live Ace of Base Cover]