Word: mountainous
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Darnielle's performances, like his music, are bitter yet endearing--songs range from unsettling weirdness to striking beauty. For an hour and a half at the Middle East Upstairs Concert Hall, the Mountain Goats put forth much of both, simultaneously soothing and unsettling a rather overeager but courteous audience. Pleasing a crowd that could have convinced unbelievers with a glimpse into the life of a Mountain Goat...
...recorded Mountain Goats sound like the boyfriend that pushed you to screen your phone calls. The lyrics ooze of home-taped messages to be delivered to your door in the hopes that you would ask him back. With his child-like voice delivering strains in a slightly whiny tenor, Darnielle strums a pulsing guitar from what sounds like a few feet from the recorder. Almost shamefully catchy simple chord progressions and reptition form the structure of the Mountain Goats' music as the textured vocals offer meat and body to the songs. Beneath their basic melodic appeal, songs carry meaning...
...anyone who misses the angst of early Morrissey or is weary of production levels beyond what can be accomplished in a high-schooler's bedroom--or anyone who has waited for a friend for hours in the pouring rain--the ballads of the Mountain Goats soar with innocence and purity. For anyone who can stand fervent strumming on an acoustic guitar and isn't bored watching a one-man ban rather than the recent group efforts of ska, Darnielle's music is amusing enough to be entertaining...
...most of those bands lost themselves in wearing novelty on their sleeve and valuing style over content, the man behind the Mountain Goats has continued to produce innovative music. He has developed and focused his song writing and instrumentation (two albums ago he added a backup singer and abass to the Mountain Goats) and created a sound all of his own. Producing music a world apart from that which is commonly heard on the radio today, Darnielle has admitted that his band sounds unlike any other because no one lese cares...
...arrangements are never what they seem to be. He creates what appear to be simple folk songs with minimal instrumentation, yet his melodies are never mellow or folky. More urgent and driving than amny guitar heavy bands, his music is more punk than crunchy. In fact, the Mountain Goats emerged from the lo-fi movement swelling in southern California in the early '90s that set itself on forging simultaneously sloppiness and precision...