Today I have been experiencing one of the worst cases of writer’s block in my life. There have been a few rare occurrences of this ailment throughout my high-school career, but never before have there been such high stakes involved.
Not only is this blog due by midnight, but the infamous AP English argumentative essay (for which I have written one of six pages) is due tomorrow.
Nonetheless, at least I know what I’m (hopefully) going to write about for the essay. The real problem arose about six hours ago when I realized that I had absolutely no plans for this blog.
While brainstorming, I thought of many horrible ideas. I considered paying homage yet again to violinists Joshua Bell or Sarah Chang, or amending my manners course from last week to include a section on how people shouldn’t play on their phones during rehearsals.
Heck, I even considered completing a trilogy of blogs dedicated to Justin Bieber.
But then reality hit, and I found the solution: the Internet. After a few minutes, I found myself rewatching Vlogbrothers videos on YouTube (no surprise there) in classic procrastination style.
But, for once, this postponement of responsibility paid off—I discovered The Mountain Goats.
I first heard of The Mountain Goats a few months ago in a Vlogbrothers video that John Green made, but I never looked them up. I was reminded of them more recently by junior Anna Wiley, when she played their “Love Love Love” during our free period a few weeks back.
And now that I’ve started listening to them, I can’t stop.
Their instrumentalism is great, a nice blend of acoustic guitar, piano and interesting electronic snippets. But what makes their music so captivating is the lyrics, which take precedence in the songs.
Some of the images drawn up by the lyrics are dark, but they are always thought-provoking. Take the lyrics from one of my favorites, “This Year,” for instance:
“I drove home in the California dusk/I could feel the alcohol inside of me hum/pictured the look on my stepfather’s face/ready for the bad things to come/I down shifted/as I pulled into the driveway/the motor screaming out/stuck in second gear/the scene ends badly/as you might imagine/in a cavalcade of anger and fear.”
However, “This Year” isn’t their only song with lyrics worth listening to. I especially like “Love Love Love,” “No Children” and “You Or Your Money.”
But, honestly, anything by The Mountain Goats is worth listening to. Which is why, instead of writing my English essay, I am going to do that right now.
