Get Lonelier: Dustin vs. Vijay on The Mountain Goats

Dustin: The Mountains Goats make Voxtrot sound like Pantera. They make Matt Pond PA sound like Slayer. They make a flute solo sound like someone throwing a garbage can full of pots and pans down the stairs.

Vijay: The thing is, the Mountain Goats can themselves sound like Pantera. On his last album, The Sunset Tree, John Darnielle (this is one of those deals where one guy is the band) snarls fiery lyrics, practically screaming lines like: "I'm gonna bribe the officials/I'm gonna kill all the judges/it's gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage..." But, unlike The Sunset Tree, which was about his abusive stepfather, this new record is much more subdued. But those lyrics are still there, simple but powerful. They can swing from heartbreaking to hilarious, often within a single line. The imagery, little stories and jokes keep me hanging on every word, and I'm not even a big lyrics guy.

Dustin: Well from what I hear he might get a little rowdier from time to time but even then he just sounds like a male version of Ani. Hey, not everyone needs to rock out but it just boggles my mind how anyone can listen to this dude's nerdy voice dorking its way over these wimpy tunes. Come on man, I don't care how good his lyrics are, this sounds like the guy in your dorm who would sit on his bed playing his guitar with the door open hoping maybe some chick would walk by and be wooed in.

Vijay: Dude! I thought we agreed to no personal attacks! I was that guy in your dorm! But seriously, what can I say? I am literally a wimpy, nerdy dude. This is the music of our kind. The simple acoustic arrangements are just a backdrop to the lyrics, but that has always been the case with folk music — it's no frills. And it's hard to believe that it doesn't matter how good the lyrics are. If you are just immediately assessing the music as not manly enough and not even listening to the words, then you're a Mitchum Man. All i can do is point you in the direction of the Norwegian black metal section while I dork my way over to the sensitive singer-songwriter aisle.

Dustin: Hold your horses there, mopey. Don't try to paint me as some macho metalhead — I'd rather see Jeff Buckley brought back from the dead than Dimebag Darrell. My problem here is that every time some singer songwriter dude drops a "quiet, sensitive" album, he gets compared to Elliott Smith. But Mountain Goats ain't no Elliott Smith. Listen to Jeff Buckley — hell listen to even Kurt Cobain play an acoustic song, it tears your heart out. That's music. With this stuff, I just don't get that.

Vijay:Cobain, Smith and Buckley are (were) genius, no question. Cobain in particular had an uncanny ability to channel raw emotion even while singing something like "it's okay to eat fish because they don't have any feelings." but Darnielle can affect me just as strongly, and often more directly. When he sings about playing arcade games drunk on scotch, punching the machine in frustration and driving home buzzed in the California dusk, dreading his evil stepfather waiting for him at home... I'm there, man. I seriously feel like I'm sitting there drunk in the car with him. It's vivid and cinematic, and I thoroughly enjoy the ride.

Dustin: Okay, well maybe I'll try focusing on the lyrics then. I just can't see myself ever getting past the vocals. It's cool to have some dude telling you a cool story but the voice of the narrator is just as important as the story itself. Imagine if the voice of Darth Vader was Woody Allen instead of James Earl Jones. I don't care how badass his lines are, he'd still sound like a whiny twerp.

Vijay: I can relate. I myself used to enjoy Clap Your Hands Say Yeah until I saw them live. The guy's voice was so shrill and piercing that I literally never listened to the album again. I still cringe if I even think about his godawful warbling. The Geddy Lee syndrome, a.k.a. the "I just can't stand the dude's voice" is a perfectly understandable affliction, and one for which there is no cure...