All Hail West Texas
Encyclopedia
All Hail West Texas is an album by the Mountain Goats
. After the slight increase in production values on 2000's The Coroner's Gambit
, All Hail West Texas is the last Mountain Goats album on which all the songs were recorded on John Darnielle
's trademark Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox
.
The album is loosely a concept album
, with the cover stating that the album consists of "fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys". Many of the songs explicitly refer to places in Texas
, and evoke a lifestyle ethos born of the vast expanses of desert and highway found in West Texas
itself.
Several songs were written to appear on the record that were not included in its final version. Three were given away on the Tiny Mix Tapes website ("Song for God", "Warm Lonely Planet", and "Waco"). John Darnielle said there was a full set of fifteen outtakes that he intended to release for free one day, but he destroyed them after hearing about the leak of Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg
. It is not known if that set included the three listed above or not.
When the promotional copies of this album were sent out, a unique General Highway Map of a part of West Texas was included in the mailing. Apparently this was not acknowledged by any of the critics who received it.
.
The Mountain Goats
The Mountain Goats is an American indie rock band formed in Claremont, CA by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle himself, despite the plural moniker....
. After the slight increase in production values on 2000's The Coroner's Gambit
The Coroner's Gambit
-External links:**...
, All Hail West Texas is the last Mountain Goats album on which all the songs were recorded on John Darnielle
John Darnielle
John Darnielle is an American musician, best known as the primary member of the American band The Mountain Goats, for which he is the writer, composer, guitarist, and vocalist.-Places Darnielle has lived:...
's trademark Panasonic RX-FT500 boombox
Boombox
Boombox is a colloquial expression for a portable cassette or CD player. Other terms known are ghetto blaster, jambox, or radio-cassette. It is a device capable of receiving radio stations and playing recorded music , usually at relatively high volume...
.
The album is loosely a concept album
Concept album
In music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Commonly, concept albums tend to incorporate preconceived musical or lyrical ideas rather than being improvised or composed in the studio, with all songs contributing...
, with the cover stating that the album consists of "fourteen songs about seven people, two houses, a motorcycle, and a locked treatment facility for adolescent boys". Many of the songs explicitly refer to places in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and evoke a lifestyle ethos born of the vast expanses of desert and highway found in West Texas
West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....
itself.
Several songs were written to appear on the record that were not included in its final version. Three were given away on the Tiny Mix Tapes website ("Song for God", "Warm Lonely Planet", and "Waco"). John Darnielle said there was a full set of fifteen outtakes that he intended to release for free one day, but he destroyed them after hearing about the leak of Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg
Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg
Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg is an unreleased recording by The Mountain Goats. It was the intended sequel to the album Sweden. It held a mythical status among fans for over a decade, but it was leaked out onto the internet around the turn of 2007 and is now widely available on file sharing...
. It is not known if that set included the three listed above or not.
When the promotional copies of this album were sent out, a unique General Highway Map of a part of West Texas was included in the mailing. Apparently this was not acknowledged by any of the critics who received it.
Track listing
All songs by John DarnielleJohn Darnielle
John Darnielle is an American musician, best known as the primary member of the American band The Mountain Goats, for which he is the writer, composer, guitarist, and vocalist.-Places Darnielle has lived:...
.
- "The Best Ever Death Metal Band in DentonDenton, TexasThe city of Denton is the county seat of Denton County, Texas in the United States. Its population was 119,454 according to the 2010 U.S. Census, making it the eleventh largest city in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex...
" - "Fall of the Star High School Running Back"
- "Color in Your Cheeks"
- "Jenny"
- "Fault Lines"
- "Balance"
- "Pink and Blue"
- "Riches and Wonders"
- "The Mess Inside"
- "Jeff Davis County Blues"
- "Distant Stations"
- "Blues in DallasDallas, TexasDallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
" - "Source Decay"
- "Absolute Lithops Effect"