Episodes

  • 2013: 'You and Me and A High Balcony'

    2013: 'You and Me and A High Balcony'
    Sep 1 2025
    Clean slate. It's 2013, and I'm all over the place. Here are some Onegin stanzas.

    This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thirtyyearslater.substack.com
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    11 mins
  • 2012: Steal Smoked Fish

    2012: Steal Smoked Fish
    Jul 29 2025
    Feast when you can. Today's episode is about the feasts in the books I've been reading, and the famine happening in the real world right now, spotlighting a poem by Hanan Al-Kafarna. It's centred around a walk through Portland in 2022 in the footsteps of our song for 2012: 'Steal Smoked Fish.'

    Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2012-steal-smoked-fish

    Hanan al-Kafarna on Instagram, where a fundraising campaign link will be shared soon: https://www.instagram.com/_hanan._.jalal_/

    My poem 'John Clare Reaches the Pacific' on Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/notrockyhorror.bsky.social/post/3lqafuiv4tc25 - and available to purchase in Nimrod magazine: https://nimrod.utulsa.edu/current-issue/

    Links to Gaza aid organisations and fundraisers:
    https://www.map.org.uk/?form=FUNFXHDCJPK
    https://donate.wfp.org/1243/donation/regular
    https://www.zakat.org/
    https://chuffed.org/project/110294-please-donate-to-help-oday-halava
    https://4gaza.bugx0r.nl/lifeline4gaza/
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    43 mins
  • 2011: ‘Beautiful Gas Mask’

    2011: ‘Beautiful Gas Mask’
    Mar 31 2025
    Only one kick drum. Today's episode is about ambiguous imperatives, glowing alien rocks, universal feelings, Universal Monsters, haunting presences in the background, and a group of British and American twenty-something getting drunk in a series of French apartments. It's 2011, and the song is 'Beautiful Gas Mask.'

    *

    'The Sink' - Chapter One of my Nantes-set novel, published by the Irish lit magazine An Capall Dorcha, is available to read on my university research page here - https://researchportal.northumbria.ac.uk/files/125981534/Immersion_An_Capall_Dorcha_extract_v2.pdf - or you can buy the issue online here: https://www.thelibraryproject.ie/products/an-capall-dorcha-issue-4


    Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://open.substack.com/pub/thirtyyearslater/p/2011-beautiful-gas-mask

    Live shows taped by Lyric: https://archive.org/details/@astrolyric?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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    29 mins
  • 2010: ‘You Were Cool’ (Live, 2011-03-25)

    2010: ‘You Were Cool’ (Live, 2011-03-25)
    Feb 28 2025
    It's good to be young, but let's not kid ourselves. Today's episode is about songs and sonnets, the nuts and bolts of versification, and the dramas of archival preservation: nearly-lost media, and media that I'm happy has been lost entirely. It's 2010, and the song is 'You Were Cool.'

    My Jenny From Thebes review for PopMatters: http://popmatters.com/mountain-goats-jenny-from-thebes

    Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2010-you-were-cool-live-2011-03-25
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    26 mins
  • 2009: 'Psalms 40:2'

    2009: 'Psalms 40:2'
    Dec 21 2023
    Sin as hard as you can. Today's episode is about Shane MacGowan, growing up Catholic in England in the 90s, knocking a few teacups off the shelves, and 'the life of the spirit' in John Darnielle's work from 'Stable Boy Song' to 'Satanic Messiah.' It's 2009, and the song is 'Psalms 40:2.'
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    32 mins
  • 2008: 'Heretic Pride'

    2008: 'Heretic Pride'
    Oct 24 2023
    Well, they come and pull me from my house. Today’s episode is about ‘Heretic Pride,’ monsters, pagans, ghost cowboys, how a comprehensive knowledge of unreleased Mountain Goats lyrics might come in handy when you least expect it, and a ‘large, eclectic crowd of gay people’ at the City Nightclub in 1986, enjoying ‘the best sound system in Portland & possibly the entire PNW.’

    Show notes

    A lot of today’s episode is about what life was like for queer teenagers experiencing homelessness on the streets of Portland in the 1980s - an organisation that serves this community today which Darnielle himself has recommended is p:ear, which stands for Project Education, Art and Recreation. While I was in town, programme director Tony Martinez was kind enough to give me a tour of the building and told me about the amazing work they do, helping young people to get anything from socks and basic hygiene products to food service qualifications and opportunities to sell their own artwork. It all starts with looking at ‘youth as youth, intentionally developing relationships’ as the basis for mentorship, rather than a model centered on transactions or case management.

    If you enjoy the episode, I don’t charge for any of my work on this project, but you might like to donate to p:ear - you can do so at pearmentor.org/donate. Or if you’re listening in the UK and want to give locally, the charity AKT works for ‘safe homes and better futures for lgbtq+ young people’: you can donate to them on https://www.akt.org.uk/Appeal/donate. If you make a donation to either organisation, tag me on social media - notrockyhorror on Twitter or Bluesky, thirty_years_later on Instagram - to let me know, and I’ll send you a photo. In Portland I didn’t quite manage to ‘shoot a roll of 32 exposures’ - disposable cameras these days seem mostly to come with rolls of 28 - but I do have spare copies of a good few pictures from my trip which I’d be happy to post out in exchange for your generosity if you get in touch.


    References: It turns out my hosting platform doesn't allow me to post as long a list of references as I need to here, given the amount of archival material I used in the episode. You can find the normal list of interviews, live shows, etc on this link instead, including persistent links and page number to all the historical newspaper sources: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRxvAze26mD0l7oh_P-TeAohyXmL_S7Evk9ZVasio4xrqrC2OIPmx7V4tekBdMbHsic8TwmMMI85Ska/pub
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    55 mins
  • 2007: ‘From TG&Y’ (Live, 2006-12-02)

    2007: ‘From TG&Y’ (Live, 2006-12-02)
    Sep 28 2023
    Max Brod Hate Club. Today’s episode is about ‘From TG&Y,’ 2007, writer’s archives, the Mountain Goats fan forums, copying mean lyrics onto your school planner, and how to move a craftsman bungalow down the Santa Fe railroad in the dead of night.Show notesInterviews:Bill Meyer, ‘Goat Ease,’ Puncture, 1994: http://web.archive.org/web/19990427042719/http://mb1.musicblvd.com/cgi-bin/tw/288145857327820_105_4973‘The Mountain Goats Can’t Buy A Thrill,’ Puberty, 1993/4: https://web.archive.org/web/20140603113938/http://marcopolio.blogspot.com/ Richard O’Brien, ‘The Sound and the Fury: An Interview With John Darnielle,’ 3:am, 2007: https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/the-sound-and-the-fury-an-interview-with-john-darnielle/ Reese Higgins, ‘The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle on Internet Addiction, Metal, and the Lifetime Movie Network.’ Washington City Paper, 2013: https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/412154/the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-on-internet-addiction-metal-and-the-lifetime-movie-network/Christian Hoard, ‘The Slow Climb: How the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle Became the Best Storyteller in Rock,’ Rolling Stone, 2015 [paywalled]: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-slow-climb-how-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-became-the-best-storyteller-in-rock-227793/Tom Breihan, ‘We Took The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle To His First Pro Wrestling Show In 35 Years,’ Stereogum, 2015: https://www.stereogum.com/1788418/we-took-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-to-his-first-pro-wrestling-show-in-35-years/interviews/ Craig Jenkins, ‘Genuinely John Darnielle The Mountain Goats’ frontman on keeping the faith, loving the occult, and sad songwriting.’ Vulture, 2022 [paywalled]: https://www.vulture.com/2022/08/john-darnielle-the-mountain-goats-bleed-out.htmlTom Breihan, ‘We’ve Got A File On You: John Darnielle,’ Stereogum, 2022: https://www.stereogum.com/2195715/john-darnielle-mountain-goats-bleed-out/interviews/weve-got-a-file-on-you/ Songwriters on Process: ‘Julien Baker and Matt Nathanson,’ February 2022: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2XHol51wmCjMdUZyzHldMU?si=0aec21182d0140a0&nd=1Live shows:Live at the Gold Student Center, Pitzer College, Claremont, CA, on 2006-12-02, taped by Chris Bellew: https://archive.org/details/tmg2006-12-02/ Live at The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, on 2006-09-20, taped by drworm01: https://archive.org/details/tmg2006-09-20.flacf/Live at Herbst Theater, San Francisco, CA, on 2009-05-29, taped by rainingvodka: https://archive.org/details/tmg2009-02-24.schoeps_cmc34_16bit/Live at VPRO on 1996-11-07: https://archive.org/details/tmg1996-11-07.aud.128mp3/Web resources:Japanese liner notes to Get Lonely, featuring Akao Mika interview and translated by Andrew Fazzari, on the Annotated Mountain Goats: https://annotatedtmg.org/mirror/gl-japanese-liner.html Barry Sanders, ‘Grove House: A California Bungalow Goes to College.’ Pitzer College, https://www.pitzer.edu/archives/wp-content/uploads/sites/34/2014/09/Grove-House-History-Barry-Sanders1.pdfAnna Griffin, ‘Oregon Book Award Finalist Barry Sanders: The purposeful rambler.’ Oregon Live, 2011: https://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/anna_griffin/2011/04/oregon_book_award_finalist_bar.htmlJason Koebler, ‘It’s September, Forever.’ VICE, 2015: https://www.vice.com/en/article/nze8nb/its-september-forever. John’s tweets about Matt Nathanson: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1471985074178596865 https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1043621458214309888And about Kafka/Emily Dickinson in this thread:https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/562732001464434689 And on destroying your archive: https://twitter.com/mountain_goats/status/1428104276417474562 John’s stated position on bootlegging, 2004: https://archive.org/details/MountainGoats?tab=about tMG forum discussion of Hail and Farewell Gothenburg, archived on the Annotated Mountain Goats: https://annotatedtmg.org/hafg.html tMG forum post about ‘From TG&Y’ studio version: https://web.archive.org/web/20071211211949/http://www.mountain-goats.com/forums/read.php?2,11195 Jake Brown, ‘Obsession, Insanity and Fanaticism,’ Glorious Noise, 2001 - featuring Last Plane to Jakarta material on Syd Barrett: https://gloriousnoise.com/2001/obsession_insanity_and_fanatic Kafka on books and reading, The Marginalian: https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/06/06/kafka-on-books-and-reading/YouTube videos:‘The Mountain Goats @ Simplon, Groningen, Netherlands 1995-04-12,’ taped by Gregor and uploaded by notasfarwest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28e-WerYzJM&t=962s The Mountain Goats - Dance Music, live in London, uploaded by vikramj86: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5B4UVUHeWwMountain Goats, Eddie Argos at the Union Chapel, uploaded by Keith TOTP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpO0e5nEvIE The Mountain Goats - From TG&Y - at Rock for Roe at Pinhook on 1/20/13, uploaded by Ash Crowe: ...
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    38 mins
  • 2006: 'Maybe Sprout Wings'

    2006: 'Maybe Sprout Wings'
    Aug 31 2023
    What does loneliness sound like? How do you sing it? How do you sing for it? After all, the loneliest people in the whole wide world - as John Darnielle sings on the 2012 Mountain Goats track ‘Harlem Roulette’ - are the ones you’re never going to see again. From context, it seems likely that Darnielle means the dead. The song explores the last night of the young singer Frankie Lymon, who found fame as a teenager and took a fatal heroin overdose at the age of 25 in 1968 - just after a New York studio session which was meant to restart his recording career. One of the songs from that night - ‘Seabreeze,’ the one Darnielle mentions - you can actually hear on YouTube, though not on Spotify. Links like this are unnervingly ephemeral - not hosted by any official source, they could easily disappear at any moment, which only adds to the sense that this is a fragile, ephemeral artefact, drifting away on its own sad tide. There’s a lot of great Mountain Goats songs - songs which have struck people to the core of their being and helped them find the strength to carry on - which only exist on links like this. Ostensibly, ‘Seabreeze’ is about ‘a little town / Where the stars shine bright,’ ‘where a man can find peace and get all he needs.’ It doesn’t sound like that to me. Lymon’s clear, yet wistful vocal has the quality of a siren song, beckoning you along its deceptive doo-wop current towards a place you couldn’t leave if you wanted to. As is often the case with music surrounded by a penumbra of tragedy - I’m thinking here about Nick Drake’s Pink Moon - it’s easy to foreground those emotional qualities after the fact, now the song is charged with what we know about its circumstances. But Darnielle’s invocation of Frankie Lymon - only three songs after the first time the album tells you to ‘Just stay alive’ - is about more than just that New York studio, and what happened after. It’s also about where this music, and the story attached to it, takes him in his own brain. That intersection isn’t made explicit until the bridge, midway through the song, but the connection between Lymon and one solitary listener forty years later is clearly at the heart of it all: ‘And four hours north of Portland, a radio flips on / And some no-one from the future remembers that you’re gone.’ A lot of what makes the Mountain Goats special - or at least, what makes me want to talk about them endlessly - is packed into this short song. That question of memory is a big part of it. What does it mean to remember, and so however briefly, to preserve, an artist who might otherwise be forgotten, through the tentative ‘little mark’ they made? And what about the fugitive fragments of our own lives - where do they go? If not to raise that question, why would ‘some no-one from the future’ - a self-deprecating avatar of Darnielle himself - be mentioning Portland here, when it’s already four hours behind him in the rear-view mirror? Long time listeners to the band would already be aware of the city’s significance to the singer’s art: the nine months Darnielle spent there in 1985-6, in his own words, ‘chasing death,’ and the mingled grief and elation of surviving addiction while losing many of the friends who sustained him through it. Long time listeners to this podcast have heard me talk about that period a fair bit already, though I managed to find out a little more when I travelled to Portland last summer to research this project, where I spent most of the month listening to the Mountain Goats’ 2006 album Get Lonely while trying to write my next episode. As it turned out - obviously - there was far too much there to fit into just one instalment, which accounts in part for the long hiatus I’ve taken. I’ll be talking more about my trip - and specifically about the City Nightclub - in my 2008 instalment on ‘Heretic Pride,’ in two episodes’ time. For today, it’s enough to say that - despite the life-saving experiences of community Darnielle associates with the City - Portland must have been a pretty lonely time. Something in the experience of hearing Frankie Lymon on the radio, as ‘Harlem Roulette’ presents it, put Darnielle in mind of the ‘sad, young, frightened men’ to whom hands reach out from the lonely shadows, and to the time when he himself was one of them. In 2006, I was one of them too, and the new Mountain Goats record - the first to be released since I’d come across the band - was there for me, inviting me to get lonely right along with them.Taken together as a unit, the band name and title promise an experience of committed absorption in one particular emotional state: the Mountain Goats get lonely. The formula echoes Elvis Costello and the Attractions Get Happy!! Franklin Bruno, a collaborator since Darnielle’s college days, who plays on Get Lonely and had recently written a 33 ⅓ guide to a different Costello album, would have ...
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    33 mins