So my last Mountain Goats post got me listening to more songs from their insanely large discography. For my latest Llano Idea post, I discussed the 2002 album All Hail West Texas and how I think it’s one of John Darnielle’s best works. Here is an excerpt from the full article which you can find here:
The works of lead-singer and founder John Darnielle is about as dense as his legend. Starting from scratch in 1991 with just an acoustic guitar, a boombox to record into, and a car to tour to “exotic” destinations like Ohio, Darnielle has been able to amass a rabid fan base and a discography that can only be described as Dylan-esque. A turning point in a career chalk full of them, All Hail West Texas marks the last album recorded on Darnielle’s Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox – a style which probably originated from financial rather than stylistic reasons. Lo-fi even for lo-fi production standards, Darnielle’s extreme minimalist approach to making music is definitely a put-off for audiophiles who listen to nothing but FLAC files wired with Monster Cables through their high fidelity speakers. Equipped with only an acoustic guitar and a sole percussion loop on “Blues in Dallas”, the static of the homemade recordings further emphasize the intimate setting the sparse instrumentation helps create.
At the heart of Darnielle’s music has always been his lyricism, something that naturally happens when you strip down all other parts to a song. More aptly described as a collection of short stories than an album, All Hail West Texas opens with one of Darnielle’s better tales. “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton” takes a seemingly lighthearted tone with the metal band in question having “never settled on a name // but the top three contenders after weeks of debate // were Satan’s Fingers, and The Killers, and the Hospital Bombers”, but Darnielle is a master at finding a deeper meaning even through the most ordinary of settings – highlighting society’s ability to crush dreams with no remorse.
Tags: All Hail West Texas, John Darnielle, Mountain Goats, The Llano Idea