An indie folk band, the Mountain Goats, was formed in 1991, in Claremont, California by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the plural moniker. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina.
Darnielle has worked with a variety of collaborators. Throughout the 1990s, the Mountain Goats were known for producing low-fidelity home recordings (most notably, on a cassette deck boombox) and releasing recordings in cassette or vinyl 7″ formats. Since 2002, the Mountain Goats have adopted a more polished approach, recording studio albums with a full band, while still maintaining organically emotional lyrical motifs.
In 1994, the Mountain Goats released their first full-length studio album, Zopilote Machine, on Ajax Records. It is the band’s only full album featuring the entirety of The Bright Mountain Choir, backup singers who began their career as an all-girl reggae band.
The saga of their low-fi output, signing with a major label and continuing in their musical ways is quite a long story. Slowly, Darnielle began to employ a producer on subsequent albums and has recently begun to include autobiographical themes in his songs.
Goths is the band’s sixteenth album set for release in May, 2017. Hear the track, “Rain In Soho,” in the video below or tune into Sacramento’s K-ZAP 93.3 FM, or point your digital device to K-ZAP.org and catch the song in our stream.
Discography
Zopilote Machine (1994)
Sweden (1995)
Nothing for Juice (1996)
Full Force Galesburg (1997)
The Coroner’s Gambit (2000)
All Hail West Texas (2002)
Tallahassee (2002)
We Shall All Be Healed (2004)
The Sunset Tree (2005)
Get Lonely (2006)
Heretic Pride (2008)
The Life of the World to Come (2009)
All Eternals Deck (2011)
Transcendental Youth (2012)
Beat the Champ (2015)
Goths (2017)
Video