{"id":33818,"date":"2015-04-12T21:57:33","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T02:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=33818"},"modified":"2015-04-12T21:57:33","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T02:57:33","slug":"the-mountain-goats-beat-the-champ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2015\/04\/12\/the-mountain-goats-beat-the-champ\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mountain Goats: Beat the Champ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium alignright wp-image-33819\" src=\"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/10_700_700_516_tmg_900px-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"10_700_700_516_tmg_900px\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/10_700_700_516_tmg_900px-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/10_700_700_516_tmg_900px-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/10_700_700_516_tmg_900px-125x125.jpg 125w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/10_700_700_516_tmg_900px.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>On the surface, an entire album devoted to the world of professional wrestling might seem strange, but in the context of the Mountain Goats\u2019 vast discography it fits right in. In multiple interviews leading up to the release of this album, Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle has gone on the record professing his love for the art of professional wrestling, specifically the pre-WWE territorial days of the 1970s and late 80s. The days in which one could find any number of regional promotions on a fuzzy television set. Darnielle treats these wrestlers as folk heroes and a result turns in his strongest collection of songs in a few years.<\/p>\n<p>The album opens with the heartfelt \u201cSouthwestern Territory,\u201d about a wrestler\u2019s journey on the road from town to town and features standout lines like \u201cI try to remember to write in the diary\/that my son gave me.\u201d Next up is the excellent single, \u201cThe Legend of Chavo Guerrero,\u201d about Darnielle\u2019s favorite wrestler and hero growing up and it is excellent. One would be hard pressed to find a bad track on this entire album. Other highlights include the catchy and horn-filled \u201cForeign Object\u201d about a wrestler\u2019s penchant for stabbing people in the eye with a foreign object and \u201cWerewolf Gimmick,\u201d about an overconfident wrestler who has metaphorically become his character. But the best song on the album is the low-key and touching song \u201cAnimal Mask,\u201d about the bond that two tag team partners share with each other and features great lines like \u201csome things you won\u2019t remember\/some things stay sweet forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I highly recommend this album, even for people who don\u2019t enjoy wrestling as there\u2019s still plenty of great storying telling and songwriting as always.<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nRecommended If You Like: Andrew Jackson Jihad, Paul Baribeau, Defiance, Ohio<br \/>\nRecommended Tracks: 4 (Animal Mask), 3 (Foreign Object), 9 (Werewolf Gimmick), 2 (The Legend of Chavo Guerrero), 5 (Choked Out), 6 (Heel Turn 2)<br \/>\nDo Not Play: Clean<br \/>\nWritten by Jake Waters on 04\/05\/2015 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mountain Goats have returned with their latest album about the art of professional wrestling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":33819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[2956,413,1247],"class_list":["post-33818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rock-rotation","tag-beat-the-champ","tag-jake-waters","tag-the-mountain-goats"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/10_700_700_516_tmg_900px.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}