During their tour stop in Tampa earlier this week, the Mountain Goats performed a salute to death metal, welcoming onstage Hate Eternal’s Erik Rutan for "The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton." Last night in Tulsa, they honored the '70s punk rock icons Sex Pistols with a cover of their 1977 track "Holidays In…

The Mountain Goats leader John Darnielle has always been a vocal and eloquent fan of death metal. I once asked him why he never tried to play it himself, and he answered that he simply could never be a good enough musician, that death metal musicians are the types who will sit around playing classical…

The Mountain Goats leader John Darnielle is a man with fascinating musical tastes -- he's really into death metal and Amy Grant and Dionne Warwick -- and the ability to talk and write about those tastes with searing precision. He's one of our great songwriters, and the Mountain Goats don't really do that many covers,…

Three years ago, the Mountain Goats released Beat The Champ, a full concept album about the truly American art of pro wrestling. Shortly before the album's release, I went to an independent wresting show with frontman John Darnielle -- his first show in decades, though he'd been a regular as a kid -- and it…

There’s this great thing that happens in the rare event that the Mountain Goats get to play a late-night show. At some point during the performance, frontman John Darnielle will look over at bassist Peter Hughes, and they’ll exchange one of those “holy shit, we’re getting to do this” looks. It&am...