The recent Weakerthans thread, plus the continual barrage of all things Mountain Goats lately made me realize something.

I like these bands for the exact same reason. And shit, do they ever have a similar thing going on.
- Emphasis on lyrics
- Nasally but endearing vocals
- Meat and potatoes rock/pop song structures
- Thematically based albums (but not concept albums by any strech)

I dare you to listen to the songs "It Froze" by the MG's and than "Left and Leaving" by the Weakerthans. There is either some heavy "borrowing" going on here, or some kind of insane cosmic connection b/w John D. and John K.S..

Is it just me?

If you like the Weakerthans and the Mountain Goats, you should check out that Thermals album that Pitchfork has been hyping. It's sort of directly between their sounds and catchy as hell.

Um...

1) Same progressions but, if anyone did the sniping, it would fall on JKS' shoulders, as "It Froze" was released 'round 8 years earlier....

There are similarities between the groups but, then again, that's why they're 2 of my favorites. The Weakerthans seem to "punk it up" a lot more, and the MG have more sparce arrangements (but, then again, MG = 2 people, wheras the Weakerthans have 4)...

I could probably do 2000+ on similarities/differences between these groups easy, including the similarities resultant from the timing of the "Reconstruction Site" shark-jumping and Darnielle's decision to flesh out his albums, but I'd rather leave this one for more BB comments, and respond more later on...

never heard/heard of weakerthans.

yeah i've often thought they have sonic similarities but i never analyzed it in depth.

i heard the most recent Thermals album isn't as good as their last two, but i'll guess i'll have to check it out and decide for myself.

i only have the last weakerthans album but dont see a ton of similarities, to be honest. maybe that both are pretty good lyricists. i need to get more weakerthans, though.

I'll sum it up:

The Mountain Goats are amazing and the Weakerthens really fucking blow.

Kind of a punk/indie band from Winnipeg; I can't comment on the Mountain Goats, whom I haven't heard.

i didnt hear an iota of punk in the weakerthans album i have.

I guess I missed the Mountain Goats "barrage." Dey alright, though.

Does the dude from Mountain Goats sing about his cat?

that depends. is cat slang for "abusive dad"?

nope, but "Pussy" sure is....

ive never heard the mountain goats
sendpace plz

God, John Darnielle has written songs about so many goddamn things before he did his recent "personal" albums, and they were so much better than his recent shit. I realize I probably sound like a broken record on this subject.

So at some point, I'm pretty sure he wrote a song about a cat which may or may not have been his.

I know, and I prefer his earlier stuff, too, but Sunset Tree is a great fucking album. I still haven't gotten into his newer one yet.