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You will always have been here once. Today's epilogue episode is about commemoration, legacy, and staying warm inside the ripple. The song is John Darnielle's elegy for David Berman, 'Arguing With the Ghost of Peter Laughner About His Coney Island Baby Review.' Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/epilogue-arguing-with-the-ghost-of

Held to my vision all these days. Today's episode is about hateful instruments, careers in lo-fi, and things coming to an end. It's 2020 and the song is 'Getting Into Knives.' Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2020-getting-into-knives

There's gonna come a day when you feel better. Today's episode is about a strong homemade edible, meeting the President of Ireland, and making the art you love your own. It's 2019 and the song is 'Up The Wolves,'  live at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, on 15th November 2019.  Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2019-up-the-wolves-live-2019-11-15

Now I have everything I need. Today's episode is about self-reference, expanding ambition, and being further along in your own timeline. It's 2018 and the song is 'Younger.'  Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2018-younger

It'll take twenty years for the toxins to flush. Today's episode is about looking back at a lost age, earnestness and foolishness, and things which dim and flicker but won't stay dead. It's 2017 and the song is 'Stench of the Unburied.'  Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2017-stench-of-the-unburied

This was my last and best idea. Today's episode is about work songs, desperation, and what an ageing wrestler can do when he can't see his way clear to a change in perspective. It's 2016 and the song is 'Blood Capsules.'  Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2016-blood-capsules

A sort of unrestrained fantasia. Today's episode is about the public and the private, rituals of humiliation, and Roland Barthes' 'The World of Wrestling.' It's 2015 and the song is 'Unmasked!'  Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2015-unmasked

New creatures with new hearts. Today's episode is about Ozzy Osbourne and the joy and shock of playing music all around the world when you never expected to make it beyond Birmingham. It's 2014 and the song is 'Song for Black Sabbath's Second North American Tour.'  Substack version of the episode, featuring links and references for all quotations and archive recordings: https://thirtyyearslater.substack.com/p/2014-song-for-black-sabbaths-second

Clean slate. It's 2013, and I'm all over the place. Here are some Onegin stanzas. You can also read this episode at thirtyyearslater.substack.com. Unusually it doesn't have any references, but I'm drawing on Stanley Mitchell's Penguin translation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin throughout.

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/

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

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

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.'

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

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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxUv9Qxi7WQ  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