The Mountain Goats are John Darnielle. Literate, energetic, sincere, and acoustic, he’s one of the best things going in music today. His lyrics manage to paint knowing pictures of real humanity with an economy and emotional strength…
There are two explanations for this CD, one considerably more credible than the other. On the one hand, this could be a bona fide comp of little-known Massachusetts bands, the tracks dug out of some long-lost archive up north of Boston…
It’s hard to pick on a group that has the good taste to cover East River Pipe (“Times Square Go-Go Boy”). It’s equally hard, however, to get very excited about that group when they pick that as the lead-off track, and it’s the best track on the CD…
