#indiefolk — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #indiefolk, aggregated by home.social.
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Ten Songs With … The Mountain Goats
“Ten Songs With…” is a new, irregular series of posts in which I explore the music of a group or artist I like but am only familiar with a small portion of their catalog. Unlike my previous Deep Dives series this will be more focused, limited to highlighting – yep, you guessed it – ten songs.
Ten Songs With … The Mountain Goats
I became aware of The Mountain Goats around 15 years ago, and am familiar with several songs the band has released over the past couple of decades. But I was surprised to learn that The Mountain Goats have been recording since 1991, and have released 24 studio albums – plus live albums, compilations, EPs, singles, cassettes, and limited releases. This was going to be a challenging catalog to explore!
The Mountain Goats are essentially a project of John Darnielle, born in Indiana, raised in California, and now based in North Carolina. While Darnielle attended Pitzer College from 1991 to 1995, he released his first recordings as The Mountain Goats. Many early recordings were just Darnielle and his guitar, but he was joined by Rachel Ware on bass and vocals from 1992 to 1996. Peter Hughes joined for a brief stint on bass and vocals in 1996, and then returned to play with the band from 2002 to 2024. The other two long-time members of the band are Jon Wurster, drummer since 2007, and Matt Douglas, a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist since 2015. Numerous other musicians and collaborators have contributed to The Mountain Goats sound live and in the studio.
The first decade of The Mountain Goats drew on Darnielle’s urgency to record songs as soon as possible by playing them straight into a tape recorder. While Darnielle returns to this “lo-fi” style from time to time, since the release of Tallahassee in 2002, albums by The Mountain Goats are typically recorded in a professional studio with a full band. Tallahassee was also the first album released on a major label, 4AD. The Mountain Goats later recorded with Merge Records for 15 years. Since 2025, new releases by The Mountain Goats are independently released on their own Cadmean Dawn label.
Darnielle is known as a talented lyricist with a literary style. Many songs are autobiographical and confessional, including stories of growing up with an abusive stepfather (on the album The Sunset Tree) and his addiction to methamphetamine just after high school (We Shall All Be Healed). A recurring theme across his works include song cycles about the dysfunctional “Alpha” couple, who argue in character through the song lyrics. Darnielle has also created concept albums based on his various interests such as the Bible (The Life of the World to Come), professional wrestling (Beat the Champ), and goth culture and music (Goths).
To prepare for this post, I searched for lists of “Best Albums” made by fans of The Mountain Goats, making a composite list. From this list, I chose to give a close listen to the ten albums that seemed most essential (see below) as well as various singles and playlists of the bands best songs. From this project I made my list of Ten Song, albeit it seems to only scratch the surface of The Mountain Goats’ outpout.
1994 Zopilote Machine
1995 Sweden
1997 Full Force Galesburg
2000 The Coroner’s Gambit
2002 All Hail West Texas
2002 Tallahassee
2005 The Sunset Tree
2008 Heretic Pride
2012 Transcendental Youth
2017 GothsMy Ten Songs
“Alpha Incipiens” – Zopilote Machine (1994)
“No Children” – Tallahassee (2002)
“Alpha Rats Nest” – Tallahassee (2002)
“This Year” – The Sunset Tree (2005)
“Dance Music” – The Sunset Tree (2005)
“Amy aka Spent Gladiator 1” – Transcendental Youth (2012)
“The Legend of Chavo Guerrero” – Beat the Champ (2015)
“Rain in Soho” – Goths (2017)
“Training Montage” – Bleed Out (2022)
“Rocks in My Pockets” – Through This Fire Across from Peter Balkan (2025)
Have you listened to The Mountain Goats? If so, let me know your favorite songs in the comments.
Previous Ten Songs With…:
#FolkRock #indieFolk #indieRock #Music #TenSongsWith #TheMountainGoats -
Indie Music Hits: singer-songwriters, indie folk, acoustic pop and fresh independent discoveries.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0w3Je5h9MwGXxtQ2v1dnii
Free music submission: https://audiartist.com
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Paper Navy – all grown up
#Alternative #cosmicamericanmusic #countryfolk #indiefolk #sadcore #softrock #Nashville
CC BY-NC-SA (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike) #ccmusic
https://papernavy.bandcamp.com/album/all-grown-up -
Listening to the new Phoebe Bridgers this morning. So far I like it but not as much as any of her albums that came before (including Boygenius and Better Oblivion Community Center) but I still have a handful of songs to change my mind. It uses a lot of electronic manipulation which I'm meh about. I've wanted to like this one more than I do but I've still saved the vast majority of songs to my master playlist so its like good.
#phoebebridgers #folk #folkrock #indiefolk #indie #indierock #synthpop
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🔴 LIVE NOW ON VORTEX
📻 Vortex Abyss 🕳️ (Dark ambient, neofolk, shoegaze, immersive)
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🎵 Alice Phoebe Lou - Lovesick▶️ Écouter / Listen : VorteX [Radio]
https://lesonduvortex.net💬 Join us on Discord:
https://discord.gg/d82hJZBeDE -
Here's the campfire chart. Engulfing to Our Lady by The Montvales. Has a very distinct feel to it. Great songwriting here. Belt it out here. Link:
https://chordyes.com/chord/the-montvales-our-lady
#guitarchords #music #american #malevocalist #indiefolk #acoustic #love
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New #ccmusic release on #bandcamp. "Los días huidos (LP)" by Carlos F.A. on 31 Jul 2026. Available at https://carlosonora.bandcamp.com/album/los-d-as-huidos-lp #acoustic #folkpop #indiefolk #pop #rock #singersongwriter #byncsa
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Sony Choi – Love Upon Death, Art Of Departure: 127
#Alternative #guitar #indie #indiefolk #lofi #tape #Canada
CC BY-NC-ND (#CreativeCommons Attribution Non Commercial No Derivatives) #ccmusic
https://sony-choi.bandcamp.com/album/love-upon-death-art-of-departure-127 -
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Darren Hayman - Ukulele Songs from the North Devon Coast EP
"Darren Hayman (Hefner / The French / New Starts) shares one of his earliest solo releases to accompany your rainy Summer holiday"
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Jack Hayter - Sucky Tart
"Haunting, gorgeous, and occasionally unhinged solo EP from Jack Hayter (Hefner / Papernut Cambridge / Dollboy)."
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Música con sabor a folk. 🎙️ Nicandro Tercero estrena "Fantasmal", una propuesta sonora con tintes vaqueros e indie que cautivará a los amantes de la música independiente. Escucha los detalles de esta producción aquí. 👇 #NoticiasMúsica #IndieFolk
https://zurl.co/gTVyt -
This week for #MusicWomenWednesday is Bain Marie from Montreal. She has an EP coming out on Friday (linked below) but I'm obsessed specifically with this song on it.
Tell Me Everything video: https://youtu.be/VmVkGTVogbs
Chill, almost trip hoppy maybe, indie, folk, something. Love it.
Full EP comes out July 24:
https://bainmariemusic.bandcamp.com/album/i-liked-blue-after-you#indie #IndiePop #IndieFolk #Montreal #Canada #CanadianMusicians #SingerSongwriter
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Sophie Noel - Hot Nights
"Hot Nights is the 60s art pop summer bop of your dreams. Perfect soundtrack for when the world is burning"
#indierock #indiefolk #artpop #60spop #artfolk #contemporaryfolk #music
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Beloved Binge - Shadows of the Mountain
"For anyone who has balanced on the ledge of loss."
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Zachary Mason releases an important new folk EP tomorrow, July 10th!
Welcome To My Heart is a three track folk EP.
1. Can't Feel My Autumn...
2. I Need Freedom
3. Me And I#music #newmusic #folk #folkmusic #folkrock #indie #indiemusic #indiefolk
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For Emma, Forever Ago
#BonIver #justinvernon #foremmaforeverago #indiefolk #altcountry #music #musicsky #musiciansky #rockmusic Bon Iver release the debut album on July 8, 2007. Justin Vernon comes down with mono and heads to his Dad's hunting cabin outside Eau Claire, WI. He isolates, hunts for his own food and over the course of 2006 and 2007, writes the core of the album. Online exposure and encouragement from friends and family to keep going gets him a record deal.…
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With Stones in His Pockets - Mirror Test EP
"An eccentric gothic-folk EP about doubles, dopplegangers and history repeating."
#indiefolk #alternativepop #gothicfolk #artfolk #psychfolk #music
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https://youtu.be/PrBHXS0zZqo?si=TmcOtqmHOIKdA6yQ
La meva #CançóDelDia per al diumenge 5 de juliol és aquesta de la #Waxahatchee #Birmingham #IndieRock #IndieFolk 🥶!
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Never the Bridle - Feebling
"A determined 25 minutes of lofi indie self-reflection."
#alternative #indie #singersongwriter #lofi #indiefolk #diy #music
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“Just started to listen to “Youth” by Daughter. It’s one of those songs that draws you in and makes you want to listen all the way through. Calm, and thoughtful. 🎶 - https://vero.co/seb_tmg/BW1-4kM1CJvnp44fh63ktwrg
#TuneTuesday #Daughter #Youth #NowPlaying #IndieFolk #MusicShare #GoodVibes”
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Never the Bridle - Problems (cover version)
"A chirpy cover version of indie rock legend Ben Kweller's song 'Problems', recorded with kind permission from BK himself."
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KP the Songsmith - Gifted Mind (single)
"An acoustic indie-folk dive into the 'remorse loop' of adult ADHD, letting you know you're not alone in the chaos."
#indiepop #pop #bedroompop #singersongwriter #acoustic #indiefolk #folkpop #introspective #storytelling #coffeehouse #confessional #guilt #adhd #mentalhealth #midtempo #neurodivergent #minneapolis #music