36. The Mountain Goats - “We Do It Different on the West Coast”
Like so many other artists of John Darnielle‘s age, his songwriting has drifted more into the realm of stream of consciousness to embrace looser conventions and an expanded sense of creativity. Maybe its just a trend of the times, connected to the loss of order and the post-modern, post-truth, post-normalcy era we all live within now, or maybe its just something that just happens to artists who came to prominence in the 90′s/2000′s – who knows? Either way it seems to be growing endemic, and as you all should already know by now, I certainly don’t mind.
That being said, The Mountain Goats’ version of stream of consciousness is slightly different than his contemporaries. The flow has more viscosity. It’s less mercurial and maintains a semblance of form. Take this song for instance, it lacks a firm sense of melody and the lyrics are more straightforward, sporadic, and conversational, but it still nevertheless conforms to the general conventions of structure and resembles the typical development of what you might expect from a song. It’s like an organized rant – less of a ramble and more of a free-style. You can tell Darnielle is the type of person who has trouble completely abandoning order – and I can relate, which is probably why I love his style so much.
Now I may be biased, given that I am from the west coast, but this song just has the sort of subdued (dare I say chill?) vibe that immediately endears it to the heart and soul. The bass is intoxicating and the percussion is like an auditory masseuse, calming the mind and smoothing over any lyrical juxtapositions. I love the energetic laziness of the lyrics. They remind me of someone who has something important yet difficult to say, and so instead of immediately freeing up their conscience they spend some time steeped in uncertainty. They wander around the room, picking up random items, talking quickly and offhandedly about their surroundings, the weather, and the previous day – bringing up all of the most random and inconsequential things in an effort to fill the gap of silence and buy themselves some extra time. My favorite moments by far involve his commentary on San Francisco and New York. They’re so simple and yet so accurate. I know loads of people who have moved to San Francisco, and coincidentally, if they do ever end up leaving San Francisco then they all seem to invariably end up in New York – and yes, people can’t seem to shut up about New York and how amazing it is (its as infuriating as it is entertaining).
Anyway, call me jealous, a cynic, or whatever, but I can’t help but shit on anyone who moves to one of those cities. I think its one of the most ‘basic’ things you can do (albeit I understand there are a lot of ‘business opportunities’ there, so if that’s your profession then you get a slight pass), especially because the glory days of all those ‘hip’ cities took place a long time ago. Now they’re nothing but money-filled technocratic, corporate-capitalistic playgrounds (I know this is nothing new, but we’ve reached such a level of excess and disparity that it now seems to have lost any semblance of balance). The spirit is slowly (and in some instances very quickly) being ground out of those places, obliterated behind a wave of gentrification and increased rent/property prices. The small businesses, working class havens, diverse neighborhoods, and sub-culture renaissances are gone. Money, commodification, social media, and clout chasing capital inspired soul-selling vapidity now reigns supreme, stifling the once organic nature of everything that used to exist within. Its a mess, and all of those people who have moved there are implicated as part of the problem – either tacitly or explicitly.
