Die kalifornische Indie-Folk-Band The Mountain Goats ist eine der eifrigsten überhaupt. Songwriter John Darnielle hat seit den Mitt90ern bereits 20 Alben, 25 EPS sowie zusätzlich Cassetten- und Split-Singles aufgenommen. Nachdem die Mountain Goats in den 90ern vor allem für ihre Ultra-Lo-Fi-Produktionen berüchtigt waren, sind die Alben seit den 2000ern deutlich ausgefeilter produziert, wie beispielsweise ihr 2010er Album “The Sunset Tree”, auf dem sich mit “This Year” meiner liebsten Mountain-Goats-Stücke befindet, das ein fester Bestandteil eines jeden Silvesterabends ist:

There will be feasting and dancing
In Jerusalem next year
I am going to make it through this year
If it kills me
I am going to make it though this year

Neben der beeindruckend breiten Lieblingsplatten-Auswahl von John Darnielle – von polnischem Heavy Metal zu Old School Hip-Hop – lohnt sich übrigens das Lesen unten stehenden Interviews vor allem wegen der Antwort auf den “favourite german record”, was wahrscheinlich die anrührendste Geschichte über ein lebensveränderndes Ereignis in Halberstadt ist, die je ein Künstler in der langen Geschichte der My Favourite Records erzählt hat!

* Your three favourite Punk singles/songs?

** “Oh Bondage! Up Yours,” X-ray Spex

** “What We Do Is Secret,” the Germs

** “Apparently, I’m a PC Fascist (Because I Care About Both Human and Non-Human Animals),” Propangandhi

* A record that will make you dance?

“Forget-Me-Nots,” Patric Rushen

* Your favourite song lyrics?

I would not say I have a set of lyrics that are my all-time favorite. Today it would be “So Wat Cha Sayin” by EPMD.

* The best “new” artist / band right now?

Yazz Ahmed? I don’t know what “new” means here, I found out about her in 2019 and she’d incredible:
She does through-composed jazz with amazing arrangements — lush, cinematic stuff.

* Your opinion on Morrissey?

Like pretty much everybody else I have been really moved by his work in the past and shun him now for his racism and nationalism.

* Connor Oberst, Sufjan Stevens or Bill Callahan – which one do you prefer and why?

Bill Callahan is the guy I look up to most here, when he’s firing on all cylinders he’s untouchable.

* Your favourite song about rebellion/revolution?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCnEAH5wCzo

Solidarity Forever.

* Your favourite song this year so far?

Crystal Viper, “Whispers from Beyond”

* Your favourite movie about music – and why?

Probably “The Gospel at Colonus,” which is not really about music but is told through music. I don’t really see movies about rock bands, etc.

* The most overrated band/artist?

I try to avoid being unkind to people – one person’s “overrated” is another’s favorite artist in the world.

* The best song you’ve ever written / recorded?

This varies from day to day but today it would maybe be “Fire Editorial” — I’m proud of what I accomplished musically there.

* Your favourite german song/record?

I mean I’m a metalhead, this has to be the Scorpions, but do you want to know the real answer? It’s not actually a record. It’s a song I heard in Halberstadt about ten years ago, and I’ll never know its name. This is a long story but I’m going to tell it to you, OK? So perhaps you remember a show called Die Sendung mit der Maus — an old German children’s program. When I was in Halberstadt for a week, I happened to go to the old market area by the church, and some people were doing a children’s presentation and singing a song about Die Maus. But I had never heard of Die Maus at this time, so it was just an unusual thing to see. A woman was singing about Die Maus, and then a person in a Die Maus costume would bow whenever she sang his name.

A week later I was in Koln and I saw a statue of this mouse, so I went into the store, and bought some things for my son, who was two years old at the time. He loved his maus pajamas & toy, so we looked up the program on YouTube. He became a fanatic for this program — he loved it so much, it brought him so much joy! And it became a big thing in our house, watching this program together, learning together. So my favorite song is a song whose name I don’t know which was sung about Die Maus at an open-air market in Halberstadt. My second favorite German song is “Aus Heiterem Himmel” by the great Barbara Morgenstern.

* Your favourite record of all time?

“Flubber”, Souled American.

Das neue Album der Mountain Goats, “Dark in Here” ist gerade erschienen.