Mountain Goats Playlist: Top Non Album Songs

One of the key draws of a Mountain Goats concert is the randomness of the set list. You are guaranteed a few tracks from the new album and perhaps "No Children", but the rest is up to the whims of John Darnielle and crew. It is a testament to the depths of their catalog that their concert at the Fillmore on Monday night included only one song (No Children) that was part of their show a year prior.

I have posted my rankings of Mountain Goats albums with a representative playlist here. Below is a list of my 10 favorite Mountain Goats tracks that don't appear on one of the LPs proper, including a mix of B-sides, EP tracks and unreleased tunes.

Thanks to the incredibly fulsome collection of Mountain Goats on Grooveshark, the playlist below has all songs save Sign of the Crow 2, a live mp3 of which can be found here

Top non-LP Mountain Goat Songs

1. "Attention All Pickpockets" (Letters from Belgium single)
   "And the cornet blows / where the oleander grows / and us two / not the same people that our old friends knew"
2. "New Chevrolet in Flames" (See America Right single)
   "Oh would that you would kiss me / with the kisses of your mouth / 'cause your mouth is sweeter than wine / and has a more complicated history / than the American South"
3. "Thank You Mario, But Our Princess is in Another Castle" (Black Pear Tree EP)
   "And I told you the one thing I know how to say / to the bright ringing drone of 8-bit choirs"
4. "Ethiopians" (Daytrotter Session)
   "And I can't think of one thing in this whole wide blessed world / that's more dangerous and frightening than you when you get bored"
5. "Alibi" (Babylon Springs EP)
   "Climb to the steps up to your doorway / like a man prepared to jump beneath a train"
6. "Black Pear Tree" (Black Pear Tree EP, vocals by Kaki King)
   "And when its time came I could see it happen / blossoms black and sweet as Texas crude / I saw the future flowering like a ruptured vessel / somebody's going to get screwed / it won't be me"
7. "Hawaiian Feeling aka The Day the Aliens Came" (Come, Come to the Sunset Tree)
   "The rooftops and sidewalks will all melt like plastic / oh friends, old friends, dear friends / I'm gonna look fantastic"
8. "Sign of the Crow 2" (unreleased)
   "And the story lived on for a decade or two / but no one really knows it anymore"
9. "Raid on Entebbe" (Jack and Faye 7")
   "If you'll just put your hand in mine / we're going to leave all out troubles behind"
10. "Mountain Goats Shirt Song" (Bottom of the Hill, 2005)
    "So if you're lonely / or shirtless"

Rewind: Top Songs of 1981

Like 1976 (the last rewind post in our twice-a-decade march to the best of 2011), 1981 was surrounded by more interesting music than the year itself contained. The Clash, Talking Heads, The Specials and several other favorites from the era mostly sat out the year. That said, there is still plenty to enjoy, including probably the last unquestionably classic Bowie and Jagger songs, some early new wave and the rise of a strange new form of music with record scratching, samples and spoken rhyme.

Grooveshark playlist is at the bottom of the post.

Top 10 Songs of 1981

1. "Under Pressure" / David Bowie and Queen / Under Pressure - Single
   "This is out last dance / this is ourselves"
2. "Don't Stop Believin'" / Journey / Escape
   "For a smile they can share the night"
3. "Start Me Up" / The Rolling Stones / Tattoo You
   " I can't compete / with the riders in the other heats"
4. "Tainted Love" / Soft Cell / Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
   "Take my tears and that's not nearly all"
5. "Rock This Town" / Stray Cats / Stray Cats
   "Well we found a little place that really didn't look half bad / I'll have a whiskey on the rocks and change of a dollar for the jukebox"
6. "Tempted" / Squeeze / East Side Story
   "At my bedside / empty pocket / a foot without a sock"
7. "Pretty in Pink" / The Psychedelic Furs / Talk Talk Talk 
   "All of her lovers all talk of her notes / and the flowers that they never sent"
8. "Master Blaster (Jammin')" / Stevie Wonder / Hotter than July
   "We're in the middle of the makings of the master blaster jammin'"
9. "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" / The Police / Ghost in the Machine
   "It's a big enough umbrella / but it's always me that ends up getting wet"
10. "The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On the Wheels of Steel" / Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five / n/a
    "Grandmaster, cut faster"

Inspired by Toddlers: Counting

Because ELS can now count to 12, so can this playlist

1. "O.N.E." by Yeasayer
2. "Two" by The Antlers
3. "Three or Four" by The New Pornographers
4. "Four Horsemen" by The Clash
5. "Five Years Time" by Noah and the Whale
6. "Six Days on the Road" by Taj Mahal
7. "Seven Nation Army" by The White Stripes
8. "Eight Line Poem" by David Bowie
9. "Nine mm Goes Bang" by Boogie Down Productions
10. "Ten A.M. Automatic" by the Black Keys
11. "Elevenses" by Neil Halstead
12. "Twelve Fifty-One" by the Strokes

Bonus: "123 Goodbye" by Elvis Perkins in Dearland