Austinist Preview & Giveaway: the Mountain Goats w/Jennifer O'Connor

We try not to be fanatics about stuff, but John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats totally does it for us. He's smart, he's nice, and he's lo-fi (well, decreasingly so, but the sentiment is there). Also, the first time we saw him in concert, he performed solo with an acoustic guitar and burst into a rousing chorus of "Hail, Satan!"

As for street cred, the Mountain Goats have released roughly a billion albums, many of them tape-only releases from back when people did such things. More recently, the project has put out location-driven albums like All Hail West Texas! (an aptly-named sampling of songs about Texas locales including Denton and Midland) and Tallahassee (a heartbreaking collection of songs about relationship failures); Darnielle also masterminded the intensely personal The Sunset Tree, an album largely about his stepfather.

Don't get the wrong idea, though. The Mountain Goats are no mere man-with-guitar driven wimp rock. The emotions are too real, the sound too engaging, and the lyrics too far from cliched. You can hear a whole slew of mp3s, or get the straight dope from the official website, or, even watch a video.

We've got a pair of tickets to the show this Sunday at the Parish Room for some lucky reader.

The Mountain Goats with Jennifer O'Connor
Sunday, October 29th
The Parish Room [map]
Doors at 8 p.m.
$13 in advance, $15 at the door

[Image from 4ad]