2001: 'Riches and Wonders'

I want to go home, but I am home. Today's episode is about 2001, and the song 'Riches and Wonders.' It looks at millennial housing insecurity, playground insults, bad landlords, and the predations of the Colo mice.

Show notes

06-17-2007 Zoop live set, featuring ‘Cobscook Bay’ and ‘Leaving Home’: https://archive.org/details/tmg2007-06-17.Zoop

09-08-2021 City Winery, NYC live banter before ‘Genesis 3:23,’ featuring discussions of revisiting old homes and the mice of Colo: https://archive.org/details/tmg2021-09-08/tmg2021-09-08-15.flac

Comments on ‘Leaving Home’ in the Ghana liner notes: https://themountaingoats.fandom.com/wiki/Leaving_Home

Interview with Gabriella Paiella for Electric Lit, 2014: https://electricliterature.com/interview-john-darnielle-author-of-wolf-in-white-van/

Interview with Chris Willman for Variety, https://variety-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/variety.com/2021/music/news/no-children-mountain-goats-tiktok-john-darnelle-video-1235100275/amp/?amp_js_v=a6&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#aoh=16355430760789&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fvariety.com%2F2021%2Fmusic%2Fnews%2Fno-children-mountain-goats-tiktok-john-darnelle-video-1235100275%2F

Transcript of John’s talk at the 2016 Festival of Faith and Writing: https://ccfw.calvin.edu/podcast/obsessions/

NPR interview with Terri Gross, 2015: https://www.npr.org/2015/09/11/439189592/as-a-lyricist-and-novelist-the-mountain-goats-lead-man-writes-about-pain

NPR interview with Linda Wertheimer, 2005: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4651778

Pitchfork interview with Tom Breihan, 2009: https://pitchfork.com/news/36406-john-darnielle-tells-the-story-behind-the-mountain-goats-biblical-new-lp/

‘Closed Doors,’ my autobiographical poetry sequence in Subtropics, with an epigraph taken from the Breihan interview: http://subtropics.english.ufl.edu/index.php/2019/01/15/closed-doors/

An interview with Hannah Whiteman about the sequence: http://subtropics.english.ufl.edu/index.php/2019/01/14/richard-obrien/.

‘Millennial insecurity is reshaping the UK economy’ – Sarah O’Connor in the Financial Times, https://www.ft.com/content/66149ea8-158a-11e8-9e9c-25c814761640.

‘Millennial housing crisis engulfs Britain.’ Michael Savage in The Observer, drawing on research from the Resolution Foundation: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/28/proportion-home-owners-halves-millennials

‘The ‘frustrated’ housing aspirations of generation rent.’ Report by Kim McKee and Adriana Mihaela Soaita: https://housingevidence.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/R2018_06_01_Frustrated_Housing_Aspirations_of_Gen_Rent.pdf

‘Millennials are screwed.’ Michael Hobbes, Huffington Post: https://highline.huffingtonpost.com/articles/en/poor-millennials/

Interview with Kyle Munson for the Des Moines Register, 2017: https://eu.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/columnists/kyle-munson/2017/02/25/john-darnielle-wanted-write-iowans-so-he-came-up-creepy-rural-elegy-different-sort/98192656/

All Hail West Texas liner notes, discussing the houses in Colo and Ames: http://web.archive.org/web/20200911212129/https://kylebarbour.org/tmg/ahwt.html

Salon interview with Mike Appelstein, 2013: https://www.salon.com/2013/08/03/mountain_goats_john_darnielle_im_not_interested_in_back_in_the_day_we_are_always_in_the_present_moment/

New York magazine profile by Stephen Rodrick, 2009: https://nymag.com/arts/popmusic/features/55031/

‘John Darnielle: From Self-Destruction to Self-Construction.’ Articulate, Season 5, Episode 19: https://articulateshow.org/videos/john-darnielle-from-self-destruction-to-self-construction/

Interview with Leah Weathersby, Amazon, 2005, collated here, discussing leaving nursing: https://www.scribd.com/document/52894439/tMG-Interviews

Interview with Christian Hoard for Rolling Stone, 2015, discussing Durham: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/the-slow-climb-how-the-mountain-goats-john-darnielle-became-the-best-storyteller-in-rock-227793/

I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats episode 108, on ‘Riches and Wonders’:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/7eXljkDV29uaocghNM0ubP?si=b3e16a05a1564e23

04-20-2004 live performance of ‘Riches and Wonders’ at Go! Studios, Carrboro, NC: https://archive.org/details/gostudios2004.mp3/09+-+Riches+and+Wonders.mp3