The Mountain Goats - On-line Sabotage and Stardom

Peter Hughes, bassist from The Mountain Goats, keeps an on-line journal as a convenient way to document his touring schedule. All was going well until on-line sabotage occurred.

‘Some joker posted snarky comments, but it was at a time when I didn’t need more bad energy being brought into my life, so I made everything friends-only,’ Hughes explains. The band’s recent successes ensure that even snarky comments cannot stop Hughes and The Mountain Goats amassing friends and followers.

Long time underground darlings, The Mountain Goats released ‘The Sunset Tree’ to critical acclaim. John Darnielle (guitarist and singer-songwriter) and Hughes created an up-beat, pointed, and at times volatile album which documented Darnielle’s challenging childhood relationship with his stepfather. Tracks such as ‘This Year’ and ‘Dance Music’ exposed the band to a new legion of fans and a well-received Australian tour validated the promise of the album.

When quizzing Hughes about The Mountain Goats’ Australian success, he simply wishes that this tour is as big as the last. ‘Hopefully it won’t differ much; otherwise we’ll be exposed as frauds before (our) wives and girlfriends, who for some time now have been listening with bemused skepticism to stories of how we’re famous in Australia.’

While most of The Mountain Goats’ Australian fans are new converts, they also have their long-term followers. How does Hughes manage audience requests when the group’s back catalogue consists of more than 400 songs? ‘Plenty of times somebody will yell something and John and I will look at each other and say, “Wait, which one was that?”’ But The Mountain Goats are not afraid of the past. ‘Every tour we end up pulling a few things out of the basement, just to keep things interesting.’

This desire to ‘keep things interesting’ translates to the studio as well as the stage. The band’s latest record, ‘Get Lonely’, is starkly different to its predecessor. It’s introspective, mature, and reflective. Where ‘The Sunset Tree’ tapped you on the shoulder to get your attention, ‘Get Lonely’ whispers in your ear.

Hughes plays an integral part in The Mountain Goats’ sound. On ‘The Sunset Tree’, it was Hughes’ bass that provided the album’s rhythmic drive. On ‘Get Lonely’, it is his ability to play with restraint that allows Darnielle’s songs to breathe. The result is a more consistent and better record.

‘The restrained nature of the album was somewhat informed by what we’ve been doing live for the last couple of years,’ Hughes says. ‘Maybe people just remember the yelling-and-shouting bits, but for us a lot of the time what’s most gratifying is playing something really quiet and persuading an audience to follow you there.’

Lyrically, ‘Get Lonely’ explores the many faces of separation and the struggles that come with ‘post-break up malaise’. On ‘Woke Up New’, John sings:

‘The first time I made coffee for just myself.
I made too much of it but I drank it all
Just ‘cause you hated when I let things go to waste.’

Hughes asserts that ‘Get Lonely’ is not solely concerned with relationships gone wrong but ‘a bigger kind of loneliness’. This becomes apparent with repeated listens, and the emptiness implicit in tracks such as ‘Songs For Lonely Giants’ reveals the depth of Darnielle’s vision.

‘No one washed behind my ears
High in the trees, alone for years.’

Hughes’ love for ‘Get Lonely’ is best demonstrated by his ability to revisit it. ‘I will say that after the album was finished I listened to it incessantly for weeks. Sometimes I became all emotional about it and other times I caught myself being like, I can’t believe this is us! It’s so good!’

Although not the most modest statement, it is hard to deny the truth of these words. ‘Get Lonely’ is brilliant, and if The Mountain Goats can match the momentum of their last Australian voyage then Hughes may need to hire help to manage his friends-only list. Either way, the chances of the ‘wives and girlfriends’ thinking that The Mountain Goats are frauds seems highly unlikely.

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