Best Mountain Goats Song Tournament @bestgoats - Tumblr Blog

Round 2 started on Sunday, August 24th!

🎵 Round 2 Spotify playlist

Get ready to go to bat for your favorite songs, starting with some of the most obscure and underrated songs from TMG's discography.

Reblog to spread the word, and follow this blog while you're at it– the more voters, the better! I hope you're as excited as I am >:)

Which songs/albums are included?

All 22 studio albums are included in this tournament! EPs, cassette releases, and singles will not be included– there's just too many.

Cover songs, demo tracks, and unreleased songs are also not included.

How is the tournament structured?

Polls in Round 1 will be multiple-elimination style, where the top 4 songs from each 8- or 9-song poll will continue on to Round 2.

From Round 2 onward, it will be a traditional 1v1 bracketed tournament.

How long will the tournament last?

Great question– however long it takes. 😅 We'll go into Round 2 with 256 songs, so going through the brackets will take a while!

We'll start with polls running for a week each, but depending on how it's going I may shorten it to 3 days– we'll see!

🐐

(header is a public domain photo from Kenai National Wildlife Refuge via Wikimedia Commons, edited by me!)

#text #the mountain goats #tmg #tournament #tournament blog #poll tournament #tmg tournament #john darnielle #mountain goats #music #music tournament #music poll

New single just dropped, will you be incorporating Armies of the Lord (and maybe the whole album….) into the tournament?

when I started deciding how to run this tournament my greatest fear was literally that John Darnielle would release new music mid-tournament. No, nothing new will be incorporated, both because it would throw off the logistics but also because it wouldn't be fair to the newer songs if people haven't had a chance to listen and get attached to them yet!

#text

Hello! Is the blog on hiatus?

Not on purpose :') I've just been dealing with some personal things and also spending all my free time playing Silksong, so I haven't made time to sort out Round 3 yet. I'm hoping to get that rolling in the next week or so!

#text

Results from Round 2 (part 4 of 4)

We Have Seen the Enemy (20.5%) vs. Lion's Teeth (✅ 79.%)

Great Pirates (18.4%) vs. Riches and Wonders (✅ 81.6%)

Onions (26.6%) vs. Jenny (✅ 73.4%)

The Alphonse Mambo (27.4%) vs. Alpha Rats Nest (✅ 72.6%)

The Great Gold Sheep (25.4%) vs. Lakeside View Apartments Suite (✅ 74.6%)

The Coroner's Gambit (32.6%) vs. Werewolf Gimmick (✅ 67.4%)

Twin Human Highway Flares (49.4%) vs. Fall of the Star High School Running Back (✅ 50.6%)

Bad Priestess (12.1%) vs. Foreign Object (✅ 87.9%)

Island Garden Song (30.7%) vs. The Mess Inside (✅ 69.3%)

Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums (21.8%) vs. Dilaudid (✅ 78.2%)

Bluejays and Cardinals (18.6%) vs. Autoclave (✅ 81.4%)

Going to Lebanon (12.4%) vs. Heel Turn 2 (✅ 87.6%)

Shadow Song (34.5%) vs. Training Montage (✅ 65.5%)

Horseradish Road (22.2%) vs. Amy AKA Spent Gladiator 1 (✅ 77.8%)

Young Caesar 2000 (20.5%) vs. Broom People (✅ 79.5%)

Wolf Count (20.4%) vs. You or Your Memory (✅ 79.6%)

Quetzalcoatl Is Born (10.7%) vs. Cry for Judas (✅ 89.3%)

Harbor Me (21.4%) vs. Old College Try (✅ 78.6%)

Insurance Fraud #2 (26.8%) vs. Woke Up New (✅ 73.2%)

Ontario (19.8%) vs. Damn These Vampires (✅ 80.2%)

Maize Stalk Drinking Blood (35.3%) vs. Rain in Soho (✅ 64.7%)

Masher (25.4%) vs. See America Right (✅ 74.6%)

Waving at You (23.2%) vs. The Legend of Chavo Guerrero (✅ 76.8%)

Snow Crush Killing Song (23.3%) vs. Color in Your Cheeks (✅ 76.7%)

It Froze Me (19.3%) vs. Dance Music (✅ 80.7%)

Tollund Man (30.3%) vs. Love Love Love (✅ 69.7%)

Steal Smoked Fish (guitar version) (47.3%) vs. The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton (✅ 52.7%)

In the Shadow of the Western Hills (30%) vs. Going to Georgia (✅ 70%)

Proverbs 6:27 – Bonus track (9.4%) vs. Up the Wolves (✅ 90.6%)

Last Man on Earth – Bonus track (21.5%) vs. This Year (✅ 78.5%)

Blood Capsules – Bonus track (35.8%) vs. No Children (✅ 64.2%)

#tmg #the mountain goats #john darnielle #tmg tournament #tournament #music #round 2 #results

Results from Round 2 (part 3 of 4)

Answering the Phone – Bonus track (44.2%) vs. Pink and Blue (✅ 55.8%)

Jenny III (48.5%) vs. The House That Dripped Blood (✅ 51.5%)

Song for Lonely Giants (27.2%) vs. Have to Explode (✅ 72.8%)

Elijah (41.8%) vs. Psalms 40:2 (✅ 58.2%)

Tidal Wave (36.8%) vs. International Small Arms Traffic Blues (✅ 63.2%)

Need More Bandages (32.5%) vs. Clean Slate (✅ 67.5%)

Cleaning Crew (43.6%) vs. Wear Black (✅ 56.4%)

Last Gasp at Calama (24.3%) vs. Palmcorder Yajna (✅ 75.7%)

Orange Ball of Love (32.7%) vs. Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome (✅ 67.3%)

All Up the Seething Coast (44%) vs. Mark on You (✅ 56%)

Orange Ball of Hate (25.7%) vs. The Diaz Brothers (✅ 74.3%)

Jaipur (42.4%) vs. Harlem Roulette (✅ 57.6%)

Cobra Tattoo (27.5%) vs. Younger (✅ 72.5%)

Going to Lebanon 2 (17.3%) vs. Spent Gladiator 2 (✅ 82.7%)

For the Snakes (38.6%) vs. Song for Dennis Brown (✅ 61.4%)

Exegetic Chains (32%) vs. Never Quite Free (✅ 68%)

Alpha Sun Hat (18.1%) vs. Choked Out (✅ 81.9%)

When a Powerful Animal Comes (20.4%) vs. Source Decay (✅ 79.6%)

Before I Got There (19.3%) vs. Oceanographer's Choice (✅ 80.7%)

Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light (21.5%) vs. Lovecraft in Brooklyn (✅ 78.5%)

Pez Dorado (26.4%) vs. Southwood Plantation Road (✅ 73.6%)

Bell Swamp Connection (45.1%) vs. Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds (✅ 54.9%)

The Last Place I Saw You Alive (45.4%) vs. Dinu Lipatti's Bones (✅ 54.6%)

January 31, 0438 (27.2%) vs. First Few Desperate Hours (✅ 72.8%)

Going to Dallas (44.5%) vs. Magpie (✅ 55.5%)

From the Nebraska Plant (31.5%) vs. Fault Lines (✅ 68.5%)

The Wooded Hills Along the Black Sea (15.3%) vs. Sax Rohmer #1 (✅ 84.7%)

Baboon (32.1%) vs. Game Shows Touch Our Lives (✅ 67.9%)

Weekend in Western Illinois (32.9%) vs. Pale Green Things (✅ 67.1%)

Standard Bitter Love Song #7 (12.8%) vs. Heretic Pride (✅ 87.2%)

Snow Owl (43.8%) vs. Tallahassee (✅ 56.2%)

Their Gods Do Not Have Surgeons (16.6%) vs. Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod (✅ 83.4%)

Water Tower (29.7%) vs. Cotton (✅ 70.3%)

#tmg #the mountain goats #john darnielle #tmg tournament #tournament #music #round 2 #results

Results from Round 2 (part 2 of 4)

Rage of Travers (13.7%) vs. Unicorn Tolerance (✅ 86.3%)

Linda Blair Was Born Innocent (46.7%) vs. High Hawk Season (✅ 53.3%)

Sourdoire Valley Song (43.3%) vs. Counterfeit Florida Plates (✅ 56.7%)

Outer Scorpion Squadron (30.1%) vs. The Ballad of Bull Ramos (✅ 69.9%)

An Antidote for Strychnine (44.8%) vs. Distant Stations (✅ 55.2%)

Tianchi Lake (32.8%) vs. Birth of Serpents (✅ 67.2%)

Guys on Every Corner (47.8%) vs. In Memory of Satan (✅ 52.2%)

Isaiah 45:23 (41.2%) vs. Get Lonely (✅ 58.8%)

Corsican Mastiff Stride (38%) vs. Fresh Tattoo (✅ 62%)

In Corolla (47.2%) vs. Cadaver Sniffing Dog (✅ 52.8%)

Moon Over Goldsboro (✅ 55.7%) vs. The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement (44.3%)

For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands (25%) vs. Night Light (✅ 75%)

Hostages (48.2%) vs. Matthew 25:21 (✅ 51.8%)

Rat Queen (47.4%) vs. Jeff Davis County Blues (✅ 52.6%)

Sept. 15 1983 (31.7%) vs. Estate Sale Sign (✅ 68.3%)

Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident (33.3%) vs. Get Famous (✅ 66.7%)

Liza Forever Minnelli (✅ 61%) vs. We Do It Different on the West Coast (39%)

Same as Cash (42%) vs. Your Belgian Things (✅ 58%)

Quito (41.3%) vs. Dark in Here (✅ 58.7%)

Aulon Raid (41.6%) vs. Until I Am Whole (✅ 58.4%)

Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace (✅ 56.9%) vs. Parisian Enclave (43.1%)

Midland – Bonus track (49.7%) vs. Mobile (✅ 50.3%)

New Monster Avenue (43.9%) vs. Balance (✅ 56.1%)

Arguing with the Ghost of Peter Laughner About His Coney Island Baby Review (20%) vs. Transcendental Youth (✅ 80%)

Philippians 3:20-21 (41%) vs. Shelved (✅ 59%)

Lizard Suit (36.4%) vs. White Cedar (✅ 63.6%)

Incandescent Ruins (✅ 62.3%) vs. Peacocks (37.7%)

Mole (35%) vs. San Bernardino (✅ 65%)

In the Hidden Places (34.6%) vs. Animal Mask (✅ 65.4%)

Indonesia – Bonus track (23.3%) vs. Make You Suffer (✅ 76.7%)

Waco – Bonus track (32.9%) vs. Southwestern Territory (✅ 67.1%)

Grendel's Mother (✅ 59%) vs. Idylls of the King (41%)

The rest of the results from Round 2 will come out in the next couple of days as I have time to compile them, so stay tuned!

#round 2 #results #tmg #the mountain goats #john darnielle #tmg tournament #tournament #music

Results from Round 2 (part 1 of 4)

In the Craters on the Moon (✅ 77.9%) vs. Doc Gooden (22.1%)

Passaic 1975 (26.9%) vs. Michael Myers Resplendent (✅ 73.1%)

Murder at the 18th St. Garage (✅ 52.9%) vs. First Blood (47.1%)

So Desperate (✅ 55.5%) vs. Abandoned Flesh (44.5%)

Beautiful Gas Mask (35.6%) vs. Hair Match (✅ 64.4%)

Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph Of (✅ 76.6%) vs. The Recognition Scene (23.4%)

Minnesota (✅ 51.8%) vs. Possum by Night (48.2%)

Bleed Out (✅ 52.3%) vs. Hebrews 11:40 (47.7%)

1 John 4:16 (45%) vs. Going Invisible 2 (✅ 55%)

Genesis 30:3 (✅ 59.2%) vs. In League with Dragons (40.8%)

The Autopsy Garland (48.5%) vs. Age of Kings (✅ 51.5%)

Genesis 3:23 (✅ 59.2%) vs. Waylon Jennings Live! (40.8%)

The Destruction of the Kola Superdeep Borehole Tower (43.4%) vs. Picture of My Dress (✅ 56.6%)

Against Pollution (✅ 81.3%) vs. Stench of the Unburied (18.7%)

Ground Level (37.3%) vs. Unmasked! (✅ 62.7%)

Deuteronomy 2:10 (✅ 72.8%) vs. Paid in Cocaine (27.2%)

1 Samuel 15:23 (22.9%) vs. Absolute Lithops Effect (✅ 77.1%)

If You See Light (48.1%) vs. Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan (✅ 51.9%)

New Zion (44.1%) vs. Fire Editorial (✅ 55.9%)

Romans 10:9 (✅ 54.6%) vs. Bones Don't Rust (45.4%)

Maybe Sprout Wings (✅ 61.8%) vs. The Slow Parts on Death Metal Albums (38.2%)

The Young Thousands (✅ 72.3%) vs. Luna (27.7%)

Half Dead (49.4%) vs. Sicilian Crest (✅ 50.6%)

Only One Way (35%) vs. How to Embrace a Swamp Creature (✅ 65%)

Getting Into Knives (48.5%) vs. Prowl Great Cain (✅ 51.5%)

For Charles Bronson (48.6%) vs. Blues in Dallas (✅ 51.4%)

Extraction Point (38.5%) vs. Family Happiness (✅ 61.5%)

Letter from Belgium (✅ 59.4%) vs. Done Bleeding (40.6%)

Until Olympius Returns (✅ 60.8%) vs. As Many Candles as Possible (39.2%)

Home Again Garden Grove (✅ 51.7%) vs. Clemency for the Wizard King (48.3%)

Slow West Vultures (✅ 61.5%) vs. Alpha Incipiens (38.5%)

There Will Be No Divorce (49.6%) vs. Wild Sage (✅ 50.4%)

The rest of the results from Round 2 will come out in several batches over the next week, as the polls run their course!

#tmg #the mountain goats #john darnielle #tmg tournament #tournament #music #results #round 2

which of these Mountain Goats songs is your favorite?

Shelved (Goths)

Oceanographer's Choice (Tallahassee)

Pigs That Ran Straightaway Into the Water, Triumph Of (We Shall All Be Healed)

Cubs in Five (Nine Black Poppies)

Up the Wolves (The Sunset Tree)

Voting ended onSep 9, 2025

What do these specific tMG songs have in common? They all feature a killer vocal+bass contribution frorm Peter Hughes, longtime bassist and frequent backing vocalist for the Mountain Goats! As you probably heard last year, Peter is recently retired from his 30-year career with the Mountain Goats. However, what you may or may not know is that he does make music under his own name as well—his last album, Fangio, came out in 2010 and it's a one-man home diy "commie synthpop" masterpiece. A month ago, Peter announced that he's been working on a new album since his retirement, and it's coming out this Friday, September 5! Half-Staff Blues is, in his own words, "a bunch of songs about life in the imperial core as it enters its final death throes". It's backed by a full band, and it sounds INCREDIBLE and absolutely rocks. The single is out now, and you can check it out here:

Like I said, the album comes out on Friday! There's also a Bandcamp listening party on Thursday night, where all the cool people who have preordered the album can come hang out in live chat and experience the album for the first time together. It'll be a great time!

TL;DR: Like some good rockin' tunes? Hate the USA? You'll love Peter Peter Hughes' upcoming album, Half-Staff Blues. Go check it out!!

#submission #the mountain goats #tmg #peter hughes #peter peter hughes #half-staff blues #Bandcamp #music

I had a dream where i heard a mountain goats song that doesnt exist could you put that in the running too

Which Mountain Goats song is better?

This Year (The Sunset Tree)

Anonymous Dream Song #1 (Anon's Brain)

Voting ended onSep 9, 2025

If you don't know these songs, try harder to imagine what they may have sounded like for the brief instant that they existed.

#tmg #the mountain goats #john darnielle #tmg tournament #tournament #music #text

i know it did not qualify tournament requirements but heres my tidbit of propagada to everyone that keeps mentioning not necessarily knowing that much mountain goats. the pieman is possibly my favorite goats song of all time. do not sleep on the pieman

An out-of-tournament rec for anyone interested!

#text

as a humble suggestion, would you consider putting spotify/youtube links to the songs in the poll posts?

I know it would be helpful, but it would take SO much more effort that I just don't have in me, sorry! I made a Spotify playlist of the full set of songs, linked in the pinned post– it takes a little more time to scroll to the song you're looking for, but it should still be easier than having to search each one manually at least!

#text

That concludes Round 2– stay tuned for results over the next week!

#text #round 2

Straw poll: Which Mountain Goats song is better?

This Year (The Sunset Tree)

No Children (Tallahassee)

Voting ended onSep 8, 2025

This poll will not be used to calculate anything in the tournament, it's just for predictions! These are the predicted top contenders to win the Mountain Goats tournament based on Spotify plays.

If all the rounds boil down to this in the end, we'll see how the predictions compare to the actual results– and if one of these gets knocked out before the end, then we'll still know how these two would have fared against each other. :)