Zopilote Machine, by The Mountain Goats (CD on 3 Beads of Sweat)

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Zopilote Machine bears the distinction of being the first "proper" full-length album by the Mountain Goats, which with the passage of time since the band's inception in 1990 and the growth of the song catalog and immense discography of the ever-evolving band lineup is no minor feat. Originally released on CD only in a small pressing on the Chicago-based Ajax Records in July, 1994, Zopilote was the first foray by Claremont, California-based John Darnielle and his "Bright Mountain Choir" into the world beyond Shrimper cassettes and the quasi-hermetic universe of 7" records. But the response to the Mountain Goats' self-proclaimed "mater ferricrepina magna ferocia" was quick and passionate. The intial pressing sold out quickly, the touring incarnation of the band (John Darnielle and bassist/vocalist Rachel Ware from the Bright Mountain Choir) made its first sojourn away from the comfy confines of such Claremont haunts as the famed Munchie's to tour the Midwest and East Coast, and the lo-fi revolution was graced with its own "Baba O'Riley" in the obsessive interstate travel classic "Going to Georgia," which remains one of the most requested songs at the band's shows to this day.

Over the album's 19 songs, the subject matter touches on everything from Russ Meyer's asskicking vixen Tura Satana to the Mesoamerican god Quetzalcoatl (the "zopilote" in the album's title is an ancient Mesoamerican term for "vulture", and the album is sprinkled with Aztec references) to the mother of Beowulf's man-eating troll Grendel to an impudent, vengeful version of a Roman caesar. We also get our first exposure to the famed "alpha couple" (a long-running Mountain Goats song theme revolving around a man and woman whose dysfunctional, alcohol-sodden relationship culminated in the 2002 Tallahassee album) in the album's galloping strumathon opener "Alpha Incipiens" ("We lean back and clink our glasses / Raise the drinks to our mouths / Thick as molasses / Ice cold vodka easing in / As the low pressure system brings the breezes in"), "Alpha Sun Hat" and "Alpha in Tauris" (which features another classic line: "We're pictures of decency when we wave goodbye outside / Yeah, I'm the model of composure out there / But you ought to see me shaking later on").

The overall style is vintage Mountain Goats: mostly home-recorded songs lasting around two minutes, featuring just John Darnielle's voice, his somewhat primitive acoustic guitar freneticism, and memorable hooks a-plenty. A few of the album's tracks, including "Going to Georgia," were recorded at KSPC in Claremont, and these feature the background vocals of the 4 women who made up the short-lived Bright Mountain Choir. The album has been out of print for 4 years and never released on vinyl, so this reissue will hopefully act as a proverbial life vest for the legion of Mountain Goats fans who refuse to pay the $50 and up prices the original CD has been going for on Ebay.

1. Alpha Incipiens
2. Azo Tle Nelli in Tlalticpac?
3. Alpha Sun Hat
4. The Black Ice Cream Song
5. Sinaloan Milk Snake Song
6. We Have Seen the Enemy
7. Standard Bitter Love Song #7
8. Quetzalcoatl Eats Plums
9. Orange Ball of Love
10. Orange Ball of Hate
11. Bad Priestess
12. Going to Bristol
13. Young Caesar 2000
14. Going to Lebanon
15. Grendel's Mother
16. Song for Tura Satana
17. Alpha in Tauris
18. Going to Georgia
19. Quetzalcoatl Is Born

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Get Lonely by The Mountain Goats (CD, £9.99)

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Nothing For Juice by The Mountain Goats (CD, £13.29)

Palmcorder Yajna by The Mountain Goats (7", £3.99)

The Sunset Tree by The Mountain Goats (CD, £7.99)

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