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| We heard the Owls crashing about........... |
Nothing for Juice was released back in 1996 and it immediately became a deserved favorite album of mine. At the time I probably didn't really understand what lo-fi meant exactly, though I understood that cash spent in a state-of-the-art studio would not turn a turd of an album into a gem. Studio technology has also taken batches of perfectly good songs and ruined them.
Nothing for Juice would definitely qualify as lo-fi, a duet of John Darnielle and Rachel Ware at the time, with a number of songs not recorded in a studio at all. Many of them sound like live performances. But what is important here is that there are a lot of great songs here, played with heart. Intelligent, vivid, funny, poignant lyrics. Good with or without orchestra.
What initially caught my ear with the Mountain Goats was the numerous musical trips being taken. The song titles invariably were going Somewhere. Like a musical Rand McNally Atlas. In the case of Nothing for Juice, Darnielle had us Going to Catalina, Going to Kansas, Going to Reykjavik, Going to Scotland. I was wondering if he had a goal about this, like people who want to go to every baseball stadium before they die, or Sufjan Stevens' threat to make an album about all 50 US states.
But you get the impression of people on the move, which honestly must be a big part of the life of an itinerant musician. But the journey is all about where you go, but the trek you must take to get there.
Eventually, The Mountain Goats found a much larger audience, but I still love the early stuff. On three of the songs on Nothing for Juice, Graeme Jefferies (Cakekitchen, This Kind of Punishment)sits in, and provides some bracing guitar, particularly on Going to Kansas.
I saw Darnielle perform quite a while back, at The Knitting Factory. It was definitely an interesting lineup that night. First, Alistair Galbraith, then Barbara Manning, and ending with Mountain Goats.
As Barbara Manning said, a Kiwi, a Seal, and a Goat. It was a good night for music that particular night. As far as Darnielle, it was him on a stool singing, strumming an acoustic guitar, and it was a great set. He had a about a million songs to sing even at that stage of his career. I remember him doing his version of Ace of Base's hit song, The Sign, which it seems he still performs live. I guess he wasn't joking about being a fan.
I consider this album a classic--but it might not be for everybody. I've probably listened to it more than 50 times. There are subtleties here--its not an album that beats you over the head or grabs you by the collar. But it resonates because a lot of what's done here is a continuation of what people have been doing thousands of years, long before there were recording studios, or methods to preserve live performances. Its not about what you hear, but what the music makes you feel.
And invariably, as Spring returns once again to the beautiful Hudson Valley, my thoughts return to The Mountain Goats, mainly because of the first song from their 9 Black Poppies disc. It's one of the best baseball songs I can think of (though I am a Yankee fan), but even more, it is about the indomitable spirit of hope that exist in the human spirit, with funny bits.
