I only listen to the mountain goes it's the only band I like I only listen to the mountain goes and their condenser mike I only listen to the mound goes I don't like the

beetles too much I only like the mountain goes because only they've got the touch the death touch the death touch that's how I write songs

This is I only listen to the Mountain Goats. I'm Joseph Fink. I make Welcome to Night Vale and Alice isn't Dead.

And this is the show where I talk with John Darniel, singer and songwriter of the band The Mountain Goats, about what it means to be a fan,

to be an artist, and to be both at once.

We are back in Basement Matras Headquarters during a hot Durham summer and we are going

song by song through John's 2002 album

All Hail West Texas. Today we will be discussing the beautiful song Riches and Wonders.

Later we will hear a brand new cover of the song recorded just for this

podcast, but for now I take you to the basement tapes.

Welcome to I only listen to the Mountain Ghost. That was our theme song that will be playing at the top of every episode.

And people will request it I'll go, you understand that that song existed for exactly 10 seconds.

Well now it exists forever. That's right now it is

now it is reified as we say in college. Because I happen to have hit record

right before you did that so that was good timing. That used to be the case back you were asking on another episode about when we started doing studio stuff.

And one thing about when I started going to the studio, I was really, I couldn't accept that the rules were different in the studio.

That you had to do things like set up mics, because for me, setting up a mic was

grabbing a guitar and pointing it at the boom box in such a way that you got something you liked which you checked after you did the take and if it was good then it was good and if you needed to back off or something you did another take and in the studio you know the setting up of mics is a whole, it takes a long time.

The first day of a studio session, at least the first half of it is just spent starting to set up equipment,

drives me out of my mind.

Like I'm not patient, I want to start working.

And yeah, so when I first started with the studio,

...