John Darnielle thinks writer's block is about as real as Sasquatch.
"I don't believe in writer's block -- what a weird concept!" wrote Darnielle, who conducts interviews by e-mail only.
"Writing is work, sometimes you're not doing it as well as you might at other times but otherwise it's not like magic. I mean, there's magic in it, maybe, but when people say they've got writer's block I want to tell them not to be a lazy bum & go get a job digging ditches for a while. See if they get ditchdiggers' block."
Easy for him to say. The frontman and main songwriter for The Mountain Goats has earned a reputation as one of the most prolific and literary lyricists in American indie rock. The Goats have released eight albums in the past eight years, distinguished by laid-back acoustic instrumentation, Darnielle's pinched-nose vocals and lyrics that have to be chewed, not swallowed.
The combination makes The Mountain Goats come across as a less-pretentious R.E.M., so not surprisingly, tracks like "Dance Music" and "Woke Up New" are college radio staples.
The Goats' newest album, "Heretic Pride," will be released Tuesday, the same day the Goats play a show at Williamson Auditorium to kick off the band's CD release tour.
Darnielle said the songs on "Heretic Pride" are "independent contractors," but if the album does have a theme, it's comic-book gore.
"There's some kind of blood in a number of the songs, either the blood when a baby gets born or when a heretic gets dragged to his death or when a bunch of hunting hawks come down on a rabbit in a field."
The sound on this disc is fuller than on some previous albums, which reflects the recent addition of third bandmate, percussionist Jon Wurster. Bassist Peter Hughes has been recording with Darnielle under the Goats name since 1995.
One look at the song titles of "Heretic Pride," and it's obvious Darnielle had monsters on the brain. There's "Lovecraft in Brooklyn," a nod to the horror writer; "Tianchi Lake," about a lake in China that supposedly has a Loch Ness-type monster hiding in its depths; and "How to Embrace a Swamp Creature," a reflection on the ugly excuses people use to justify breakup sex.
Darnielle said he's not obsessed with monsters, per se. "Monsters are more like little satellite creatures in a big pantheon of lifelong obsession: monsters, cult leaders, dead singers, ghost cowboys. ... There are dozens of them in this sort of personal cosmology I carry around in my skull."
For him, monsters incite wonder and empathy, not fear.
"The first time I saw 'Bride of Frankenstein,' all I could think was 'You know, if the two monsters could just have their own island, it wouldn't matter that they were monsters -- their people should just vacate the castle and leave them be.'
"In the great human- monster war, I am on the side of the monsters."
Find Play reporter Sarah Henning at adn.com/contact/shenning or call 257-4323.
The Mountain Goats
When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Williamson Auditorium
How much: $20, $10 UAA students, available at www.uaatix. com
Web: www.mountain-goats. com
Fairbanks, you're a star
John Darnielle found inspiration for "Heretic Pride" in a Fairbanks hotel, where he wrote the song "Autoclave."
Darnielle commented in an e-mail: "I was reading the newspaper, and I read this story about some lifeform that could survive being put through an autoclave -- that actually bred after being exposed to temperatures that're supposed to kill any and all lifeforms. It was minus 39 outside and somehow that story and the weather got me to thinking about some narrator who's so dark inside that emotion would just get incinerated if it tried to live inside of him."
Monster politics
National Public Radio asked John Darnielle to write a song about Super Tuesday. He did, and the resulting "Down to the Ark" is hyper critical of both politicians and voters. Not a shred of hope can be found in his lyrics, which include: "And we pull down our blindfolds/And we reach out for the lever in the dark."
We asked Darnielle: Why so cynical?
Darnielle responded in an e-mail: "Because politicians invariably sell out their constituencies and have been doing so throughout recorded history? Because I'd have to be really naive to think suddenly that was gonna change just because this or that candidate talks nice or looks good on camera?
"C'mon, now, we all know what politicians are most interested in: getting elected and getting on the gravy train. I'm not saying they don't work hard. I am saying they won't be working for us."
Listen to "Down to the Ark" at weekendamerica.public radio.org.
-- Sarah Henning
Play reporter
By Sarah Henning
shenning@adn.com