A quick thought for all of you language mavens out there: are bands plural or singular? That is, I'm going to be talking about the band 'The Mountain Goats,' and I want to say things like "The Mountain Goats is..." But, sometimes, I'm worried I should say "The Mountain Goats are..." You would, I think, say "The Beatles are," but you would also say "The Who is." Is there a hard and fast rule?
Moving on...
The Mountain Goats are a band that my friend Ellen introduced to me early in my freshman year and has since become a favorite. They have a new album out, The Life of the World to Come, and it's very good. I'm not going to give a review, I'm just going to point you to John Darnielle (the mountain goat) on The Colbert Report:
“Well I’m not gonna hide the fact that I’m a fan,” Colbert told Darnielle. “You’re about to get the Colbert bump. You ready to blow up? You’re not indie anymore, you’re gonna be bigger than the swine flu vaccine.”
Talking about the band’s name, Colbert asked Darnielle why he went with ‘Mountain Goats’ rather than a “cooler” animal like ‘Mountain Lions.’
“I think mountain goats are the coolest animals because they can climb nearly vertical surfaces,” Darnielle explained. “And in their arrogance, they will start to jump ravines that they can’t actually make. But they look at a far cliff and go, ‘I’m a mountain goat, I can make that.’ And so every year many of them … will plummet to their deaths. “
“So you named your band after an animal that has suicidal pride,” Colbert then quipped.
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