The Mountain Goats Trivia

1. The Mountain Goats were never really a band. It was always just one person.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: f

The Mountain Goats started off as one man, John Darnielle. The name is a reference to the song "Yellow Coat" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. On a few songs Darnielle would work with other musicians but for the most part the Mountain Goats were just him. He would say "Hi we are the Mountain Goats" at the beginning of every show even though it was just him. However, in 2007 the Mountain Goats became a full band with bassist Peter Hughes and drummer Jon Wurster. In 2015, multi-instrumentalist Matt Douglas joined the group. Darnielle still says "Hi we are the Mountain Goats," but now he really does mean "We are" rather than "I am."

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: The man has a gun

"I have two big hands and a heart pumping blood and a 1967 Colt .45 with a busted safety catch." So instead of being a love song, this song might actually be about a psychopath planning to murder his true love. But when he sees her, he feels so much better and abandons that plan, as the second verse suggests. Some people think that the narrator wasn't going to kill his true love, he was going to kill himself and seeing his true love saved him. "Going to Georgia" is on the Mountain Goats' debut album "Zopilote Machine." It is one of many "Going to..." songs that John Darnielle has written. Other such songs include "Going to Kansas," "Going to Maryland," "Going to Cleveland," and "Going to France." They used to play this song live quite often, but recently, John Darnielle has said that he won't play it anymore. He claims that he has become a feminist and now he hates the man in this song. However, in 2016, an audience member paid him $60 just to play this song, and apparently he did.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: No I Can't

John Darnielle wrote "No I Can't" for his grandmother. It's a "Thank you" song. There are two versions of this song. One version first appeared on "Transmissions to Horace." John Darnielle re-recorded the song with bassist Rachel Ware, who sings the chorus with him. Both versions of the song are on "Bitter Melon Farm." This is possibly my favorite Mountain Goats song from the early years.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: The Killers

I used to listen to this song and think "Uh, Killers is already taken. In fact they're a very successful band." Then I learned that this song came out in 2002, two years before The Killers released their debut album. Plus, this song is told in flashback, a story that happened some time in the past. So the story of this song takes place even earlier than that. This song is about two boys, Jeff and Cyrus, who tried to form a death metal band. This made Cyrus's parents mad, so they sent Cyrus to boarding school to keep him away from Jeff and this band never materialized. The most important line in this song is "When you punish a person for dreaming his dream don't expect him to thank or forgive you." The most popular phrase in this song is "HAIL SATAN!" When the Mountain Goats play this song live, John Darnielle sings that phrase only once. The audience does the rest of the work. Marduk isn't one of the three band names mentioned in this song. They're mentioned in a song on "Heretic Pride."

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: Nothing For Juice

"Nothing For Juice" is the third official full album from the Mountain Goats. After this album, John Darnielle used Peter Hughes as the bassist/back-up vocalist on a few songs on the next album, "Full Force Galesburg."

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: No Children

This is possibly the most popular Mountain Goats song ever. I think the lyrics speak for themselves. The alpha male is really, REALLY angry. You've got the singer screaming lyrics that are about as dark as it gets, but you've also got the calm relaxing piano in the background. This dissonance makes this song hilarious, which is likely why it's their most popular song. Here's a strange fact. The Mountain Goats stopped playing "Going to Georgia" in 2012 (except for one show in 2016 when a fan paid John Darnielle to play it) because according to John Darnielle, the man in that song is a psychopath and as a feminist Darnielle can no longer identify with that man. The man in "No Children" is a bigger psychopath, so going by that logic he shouldn't be playing "No Children" either.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: Moon and Sand

"Moon and Sand" was originally by Chet Baker. John Darnielle covered this song with Rachel Ware on "Nothing For Juice." One thing that all these songs have in common except for "The Moon Song" is that they are all my favorite song on their respective albums. "Moon and Sand" is my favorite song on "Nothing For Juice." "Moon Over Goldsboro" is my favorite song on "Get Lonely." "In the Craters on the Moon" is my favorite song on "Heretic Pride." At the time this quiz was created, "The Moon Song" had not been officially released, although one could listen to it on youtube.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: Mark

John Darnielle has written many songs with titles that are Bible references. In the book of Mark, there is a man living in a graveyard who is possessed by a thousands of demons. For years, no one could help this man. Then Jesus came to him and cast all the demons out of him. The demons begged Jesus to send them into the pigs. Jesus allowed the demons to do as they asked. So the demons went into the pigs. Then the pigs ran into the water and drowned. This song is on the 2004 album "We Shall All Be Healed" which is one of my favorite albums ever. It's a concept album, where all of the songs are about drugs. John Darnielle used a lot of meth when he was younger, as did a lot of his friends. Many of his friends died from this. He survived. This song takes place shortly after Darnielle got out of rehab. He feels that rehab cleaned him up, just like Jesus cleaned up the demon-possessed man in Mark. The message of this song is "I'm clean and I will stay clean." Darnielle really did come from Chino, which is a rough city known for jails and drugs, but he rose above all of it and it made him a tough person. Claremont is a rehab center outside of Chicago. So if Darnielle has to go to rehab to stay clean, he will.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: Jaipur

The lyrics to "Jaipur" include three variations of lyrics also found in the well-known folk song "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." "Jaipur" is on the Mountain Goats' fifth album, "The Coroner's Gambit." It is a song about coming home.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: This Year

"I played video games in a drunken haze I was 17 years young, hurt my knuckles punching the machines, the taste of scotch rich on my tongue." "I drove home in the California dusk. I could feel the alcohol inside of me." "The Sunset Tree" album is about John Darnielle's stepfather. Judging by the lyrics to these song, John Darnielle's stepfather was a horrible, abusive man. In "This Year" John Darnielle is basically saying that he must put up with his stepfather's abuse for one more year. Then he'll be 18 and he can move out and celebrate his freedom. This song is likely the Mountain Goats' 2nd most popular song after "No Children" due to its catchy singalong chorus and the fact that the lyrics are relatable for a lot of people.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: The Sunset Tree

The alpha couple are a fictional, dysfunctional married couple that John Darnielle used to write songs about. This couple began their relationship in California and later they moved to Tallahassee, Florida. They drink, they fight, one of them goes to prison, and the ending is ugly. The earliest songs about this couple have the word "Alpha" in the title. Most of them are meant to be gender neutral. In "Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina," the narrator is female. In "No Children," the narrator is most likely male since he uses the word "wife" when singing to the other person. "Tallahassee," the Mountain Goats' first album recorded in a studio, is also the first album entirely dedicated to this couple. Originally, "Alpha Omega" from the album "Protein Source of the Future... Now" was intended to be the last song in the series. In that song, one of them left. However, John Darnielle decided to bring the couple back together for one more album. In the first song, the title track, the spouse who had left came back, moving all the way from California to Tallahassee just for his/her former love. Things don't go too well. As the album progresses, the couple get angrier and angrier at each other, until finally they get into a physical fight and throw lit cigarettes against the wall in "Oceanographer's Choice." In the end, they burn down their house with both of them inside it. The final song in the series is "Alpha Rat's Nest." "The Sunset Tree" is about John Darnielle's stepfather. Although Darnielle's parents' marriage helped inspire the alpha couple, no songs on "The Sunset Tree" are about that couple.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: Woke up New

"The first time I made coffee for just myself, I made too much of it. But I drank it all because you hate it when I let things go to waste." "Woke up New" is about a man whose wife just divorced him. The man has gone crazy and he can't adjust to life without her. A lot of the songs on "Get Lonely" seem to be about this man's life without his wife, but oddly, John Darnielle has said that "Get Lonely" isn't a break-up album. It's just an album about loneliness in general. "Woke up New" is definitely a break-up song though, and possibly the best one you'll ever hear in my opinion. "Woke up New" is one of the Mountain Goats' most popular songs ever. This is probably because the chorus is catchy and because it's a song a lot of people can relate to.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: Slow West Vultures

"Slow West Vultures" is the first song on "We Shall All Be Healed." The whole album is songs about John Darnielle's addiction to meth when he was younger. The sound effect you hear near the end of the song is likely a bottle breaking and likely intentional. This song also has violins that sound almost like a baby crying. I can't tell you about everything going on in this song and have this quiz submitted, but this is one of my favorite songs ever.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: High Hawk Season

"High Hawk Season" is the seventh song on the Mountain Goats' 13th official album, "All Eternals Deck." This song has backing vocals from the North Mountain Singers. These singers sound like cowboys, which is probably intentional to fit the mood of the song. The song mentions Van Cortlandt Park, the setting for "The Warriors." The song is likely sung from the perspective of Cyrus, the main character in that movie.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats part 2

Answer: Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan

Bruiser Brody was a wrestler who was stabbed to death in Puerto Rico, near San Juan. He was there for a wrestling match, but he got into a fight with fellow wrestler Jose Huertas Gonzalez. Gonzalez stabbed Brody and killed him. Gonzalez was acquitted of murder because of self-defense. All of the songs on "Beat the Champ" are about wrestling. One of my personal favorites, "Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan," is sung from the perspective of Bruiser Brody on the last day of his life. One inaccuracy in the song: the song says that no one heard a thing. Actually, everyone in the locker room heard the screaming. The paramedics just couldn't get to Brody in time because of the large crowd.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: Jenny

"Jenny" is a character mentioned in three different songs. She was introduced in the song "Straight Six" in the EP "Jam Eater Blues." She became more popular among fans when she became the name of a song on one of the Mountain Goats' most popular albums: "All Hail West Texas." That song is a fun, uplifting love song, most memorable for the refrain: "The pirate's life for me!" She comes back one more time ten years later on the 2012 album "Transcendental Youth." Specifically she appears in my favorite song on that album, "Night Light." The only time where the man actually sees Jenny is in the song "Jenny." In the other two songs she's only calling on the phone. John Darnielle has said that Jenny is the character who is never around during the good times. She is only remembered during the bad times. John Darnielle says that there is a person like Jenny in everyone's life. Fans seem to agree with him.

From Quiz The Mountain Goats

Answer: Rain in Soho

"Rain in Soho" is a song on the 2017 album "Goths." This song seems to be about the closing of the Batcave, which used to be a nightclub in London and it was considered a birthplace of Goth culture. The "lone wolf" is likely someone who used to go to that club all the time, but now that the club has closed down, no one knows what has become of him. This song is memorable for having a choir in the background. When they play this song live, the choir isn't really needed because the whole audience sings the backing "No no no no" lyrics that occur often in the song. The first time I heard this song, it immediately became one of my top five favorite songs of this groups career that consists of more than 20 albums and EPs.

This is category 23028

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.