A lot of stars. In this episode, I celebrate my sixth birthday in the West Deeping village hall, and John Darnielle comes up with a series of dance moves. Featuring discussion of covers, authenticity, and young Kurt Cobain.

Show notes

2001 interview with Space City Rock, discussing live performance changes and popular culture: http://www.spacecityrock.com/2001/03/15/heavy-metal-ephemera-and-popular-culture-a-chat-with-the-mountain-goats/

John’s ‘Five Favorite Mountain Goats Characters’ for eMusic, featuring the narrator of ‘Waving at You’: http://web.archive.org/web/20101223190232/http:/www.emusic.com/features/spotlight/2008_02-mountain-goats.html

Kelefa Sanneh, ‘The Rap Against Rockism,’ in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/arts/music/the-rap-against-rockism.html

Spin, on John’s Bieber song: https://www.spin.com/2013/03/mountain-goats-justin-bieber-john-darnielle-paparazzi/

1996 live recordings of ‘The Sign’:
1)https://archive.org/details/tmg1996-03-20.flac16
2)https://archive.org/details/knitfac1996.mp3/19+The+Sign+(w_Alastair+Galbraith).mp3
3)https://archive.org/details/tmg1996-03-23.aud.128mp3/tmg1996-03-23t18.mp3

Comments on ‘The Sign’: https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sign

ZOOP live performance of ‘The Sign,’ complete with dance moves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sONMDqGGv78

Last Plane to Jakarta entries mentioning Pulp (http://lastplanetojakarta.com/articles/liftfn2.html), Elliot Smith (http://lastplanetojakarta.com/articles/elliott4.html), Nirvana (http://lastplanetojakarta.com/articles/empires3.html), and Stockholm Monsters (http://lastplanetojakarta.com/articles/mozz.html)

I Love Music forum post about Nirvana: https://ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=3690

John’s Tumblr post about Nick Cave: https://johndarnielle.tumblr.com/post/50577057813/to-the-left-of-nick-caves-left-foot-at-the-lip

John on Mercyful Fate: https://www.undertheradarmag.com/interviews/my_favorite_album_john_darnielle_of_the_mountain_goats_on_mercyful_fates_do

And on covering Frankie Valli: http://www.themountaingoats.net/misc/kjhk.html

Comments on Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Leonard Cohen, David Berman and Nick Cave all sourced by searching JD’s Twitter.

Believer interview with Daniel Handler: https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-john-darnielle/

John Keats, ‘When I Have Fears That I May Cease To Be’: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44488/when-i-have-fears-that-i-may-cease-to-be