I went a long time on this blog without repeating bands, but it gets harder and harder to find things to write about without going to the same source, so I sort of gave up on that. I wrote about The Mountain Goats a couple of months ago, but this theme made me think of that band again.
Among the many quirky things about John Darnielle and The Mountain Goats, and there are many, are that they have a number of song series. There is the “Alpha couple” series, the “Orange ball” series, the “Pure” series, the “Song for” series, the “Standard Bitter Love Song,” series, the “Aztec” series and the “Biblical” series. But my favorite is the “Going to” series, which includes more than 40 songs, each entitled “Going to” a place. The songs are, generally, about the feeling of trying to improve your life by going somewhere, although they often are about how that rarely happens.
The series includes songs about places from all over the world, ranging from Marrakesh to East Rutherford, New Jersey, from Santiago to Port Washington. There are a number of songs about places in Europe, and rather than try to delve further into the twisty mind of Mr. Darnielle, I will simply post a few videos, and let you draw your own conclusions. And if you want more information about these and other Mountain Goats songs, check out here and here.
Going to Bridlington:
Going to Utrecht:
Going to Scotland:
And how could I leave out Going to Spain?