Last night I went to The Cellar to celebrate my friend Darci's birthday, and she and I got to talking about her hometown, Denton, Texas. I started singing one of my favorite songs of all time, The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out of Denton by The Mountain Goats, and it turns out Darci had never heard it! I was suddenly overcome by the compulsion to run home and get it for her because she had to hear it RIGHT NOW, but vowed I would send it to her today.
This song is funny and heartbreaking and undeniably true. It's the perfect anthem for anyone who ever left a small town to go out and seek their fortune with no support from back home. This song reminds me of the week I left for New York, with no clue and no prospects and everything I owned packed into my Civic Hatchback. My brother Kevin and I drove out to St. George Island and sat on the beach and made a solemn vow that no matter what happened, we would never listen to our parents or let anyone or anything discourage us or, especially, give ourselves a Plan B. He was going to be a musician and I was going to be a writer, and that was it. Today, Kevin makes his living as a bluegrass musician and I make mine as a writer, and our parents have actually apologized for not believing in us (though I'm really glad they didn't financially help us - doing it on your own is the only way to have self-respect and it's the thing I'm most proud of) Anyways, thanks to Krucoff, I found the mp3. So here it is (you know the drill - right click, save target as):
mountaingoats_bestever.mp3
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