Geographical references

Many Mountain Goats songs refer to the names of places, mainly in the United States but occasionally elsewhere. This page compiles these references in the lyrics of Mountain Goats and Extra Lens/Extra Glenns songs. It does not include cover songs.

Direct references

United States

Alabama

• Alabama Nova
• Mobile
• Noctifer Birmingham
• Pennsylvania Dutch Treat (Muscle Shoals)
• Stars Fell on Alabama

Alaska

• Going to Alaska

Arizona

• Beat the Devil

Arkansas

• Going to Tennessee

California

• Abandoned Flesh (Los Angeles)
• Abandoning My Father Talking Blues (San Luis Obispo)
• Alibi (West Covina)
• All Frosting (The Extra Lens) (San Bernardino)
• All Rooms Cable A/C Free Coffee (The Extra Lens)
• Alpha Double Negative: Going to Catalina
• The Autopsy Garland (Hollywood)
• Birth of Serpents
• Born Ready (San Jose)
• Bring Our Curses Home (Los Angeles)
• California Jam (Ontario)
• California Song
• Casetino's Nursery
• Chino Love Song 1979
• Cobscook Bay (Dana Point)
• Commandante
• Dance Music (San Luis Obispo)
• Deserters (Rialto)
• Design Your Own Container Garden (Los Angeles)
• Distant Stations (Los Angeles)
• Duane Allman Slept Here (mentions Cable Airport in Upland)
• Elsa from Rialto (title only)
• Estate Sale Sign (Pomona)
• Etiquette Song (San Gabriel Mountains)
• Flight 717: Going to Denmark
• From TG&Y (Claremont)
• Genesis 3:23 (Clearlake)
• Going Back to California
• Going Through Pomona
• Going to California (The Extra Lens)
• Going to Chino
• Going to Malibu
• Going to Norwalk
• Going to San Diego
• Going to Santiago
• Going to Wisconsin
• The Grey King and the Silver Flame Attunement (West Covina)
• Hast Thou Considered the Tetrapod
• High Doses Number 2 (Reseda)
• Home Again Garden Grove
• How I Left the Ministry (The Extra Lens) (Alta Loma)
• Hye Kye
• It's All Here in Brownsville
• Liza Forever Minnelli (Los Angeles)
• Matthew 25:21 (Santa Barbara)
• New Star Song (Redding)
• No More Tears (Los Angeles)
• Omega Blaster (Yosemite)
• Ontario
• Paid in Cocaine (Long Beach)
• Palmcorder Yajna (Pomona)
• Pigs That Ran Straightaway into the Water, Triumph Of (Chino, Claremont)
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge
• Programmed Cell Death (The Extra Lens) ("Melrose", presumably Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles)
• Rage of Travers (Ontario)
• Raja Vocative (Palm Springs)
• Rescue Breathing (Pomona, Costa Mesa)
• Rockin' Rockin' Twilight of the Gods (The Extra Lens) ("South Ontario" could also refer to Canada)
• Rotten Stinking Mouthpiece (San Francisco)
• San Bernardino
• Scavenger Babies (Norwalk)
• See America Right
• Sendero Luminoso Verdadero ("Pacific Coast Highway", referring to state route 1 in Southern California)
• Shelved (Los Angeles)
• Sinaloan Milk Snake Song
• Some Swedish Trees
• Somebody Else's Parking Lot in Sebastopol
• Song for Mitch Williams
• Song for Tura Satana (San Bernardino)
• Southwestern Territory
• Stack Em Up ("the 60", i.e. state route 60 in southern California)
• Stench of the Unburied (Eagle Rock, in Los Angeles)
• Teenage World (Malibu)
• This Year (Claremont)
• Un Rêve Plus Long Que la Nuit ("the 110", i.e. state route 110 in Los Angeles County)
• We Do It Different on the West Coast (Pomona, San Francisco)
• You or Your Memory (Los Angeles)
• You're in Maya (Claremont)
• The Young Thousands (Garden Grove)

Colorado

• Beat the Devil
• Satori in Denver
• Surrounded

Connecticut

• New Britain
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (New Haven)

Florida

• Alpha Sun Hat (Tallahassee)
• The Alphonse Mambo (Tampa)
• Counterfeit Florida Plates
• Cubs in Five (Tampa)
• First Few Desperate Hours (Tampa)
• Going Back to California (Leesburg)
• Going to Dade County
• Going to Miami (The Extra Lens)
• International Small Arms Traffic Blues
• Jam Eater Blues (Tampa)
• Oceanographer's Choice (Tallahassee)
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (Orlando)
• See America Right (Tampa, Inglis, Cedar Key)
• Southwood Plantation Road (Tallahassee)
• Sure Do Love You Baby, But I Can't Do 60 No More (Pahokee, Pompano Beach)
• Tallahassee
• Tampa

Georgia

• Alpha Omega (Cairo)
• Going to Georgia
• Jaipur (Atlanta)
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (Dalton)

Illinois

• The Big Unit (Chicago)
• Color in Your Cheeks (East St. Louis)
• Cubs in Five (Chicago)
• For the Krishnacore Bands (mentions the Fireside Bowl, in Chicago)
• Going to Niles
• Move (Chicago 196X) (title only)
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (Chicago)
• Real Good Girlfriend (Chicago)
• Snakeheads (Chicago)
• Twin Human Highway Flares
• We Do It Different on the West Coast (Chicago)
• Weekend in Western Illinois (Galesburg)

Indiana

• Cutter
• Fire Editorial
• Passaic, 1975 (Indianapolis)

Iowa

• Adair
• Birth of Serpents
• Iowa Public Radio Song
• Million
• Scotch Grove
• Shower (West Des Moines)
• Terminal Grain (The Extra Lens) (Sioux City)
• Waylon Jennings Live! (refers to the Meskwaki Casino in Tama, Iowa)

Kansas

• Catherine Antrim's Kid
• Going to Kansas
• Psalms 40:2

Louisiana

• The Mess Inside (New Orleans)
• Roger Patterson Van
• Southwood Plantation Road
• Cleaning Crew (Baton Rouge)

Maine

• Cobscook Bay
• Going to Bangor
• Going to Maine

Maryland

• Baltimore (The Extra Lens)
• Going to Maryland

Massachusetts

• New Zion (Salem)

Michigan

• Fire Editorial (Detroit)
• Going to Michigan (The Extra Lens)
• Pinklon (Pontiac)
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge

Minnesota

• The Autopsy Garland
• Down to the Ark
• Minnesota
• Snakeheads

Missouri

• Down to the Ark
• Psalms 40:2

Montana

• Night Light

Nebraska

• Shower (Omaha)
• From the Nebraska Plant

Nevada

• Fault Lines (Las Vegas)
• Star Dusting (Las Vegas)

New Hampshire

• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (Manchester)
• Song for John Davis

New Jersey

• The Only Thing I Know (Trenton)
• Passaic, 1975
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge
• Raja Vocative
• Song for an Old Friend (East Rutherford)

New Mexico

• Catherine Antrim's Kid
• Distant Stations (Albuquerque)
• Jeff Davis County Blues
• Picture of My Dress

New York

• Down Here (Brooklyn)
• From TG&Y
• Genesis 19:1-2 (Brooklyn)
• Going to Buffalo
• Going to Port Washington
• Going to Queens
• Harlem Roulette
• Heights (South Bronx, Rockaway)
• High Hawk Season (Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx)
• Let Me Bathe in Demonic Light (Manhattan)
• Lovecraft in Brooklyn
• The Mess Inside (Manhattan and Brooklyn)
• Red Choral Diamond Spray
• Seven Hundred Unspeakable Names (Chrysler Building)
• Song for Black Sabbath's Second North American Tour (LaGuardia Airport)
• Un Rêve Plus Long Que la Nuit ("the Long Island Expressway")
• We Do It Different on the West Coast (Long Island)

North Carolina

• Bell Swamp Connection
• Crows
• In Corolla
• Moon Over Goldsboro
• Wild Sage ("Business 15-501", a road in Durham)

North Dakota

• Down to the Ark

Ohio

• Born Ready
• Commandante (Cincinnati)
• Cruiserweights (The Extra Lens) (Cleveland)
• Going to Cleveland
• We Do It Different on the West Coast

Oklahoma

• Down to the Ark
• Going to Scotland
• Pink and Blue
• Tulsa Imperative

Oregon

• Birth of Serpents
• Bring Our Curses Home (Portland)
• Harlem Roulette (Portland)
• Moth and Worm (Crater Lake)
• Pure Sound (given context, "Taylor Street" can be presumed to refer to the street by that name in Portland)
• Standard Bitter Love Song #8 (Lloyd Center, in Portland)
• Steal Smoked Fish
• Third Snow Song (mentions the Broadway Bridge in Portland)
• We Shall All Be Healed (aka "Rose Quarter Drifting")
• White Cedar (Portland)
• Wizard Buys a Hat (Portland)
• You're in Maya (Portland)

Pennsylvania

• For Charles Bronson (Ehrenfeld)
• Matthew 25:21
• Noctifer Birmingham (Harrisburg)
• Pennsylvania Dutch Treat
• The Pieman

Puerto Rico

• Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan

Rhode Island

• Lovecraft in Brooklyn

Tennessee

• Beat the Devil (Memphis)
• Going to Tennessee
• Passaic, 1975 (Memphis)
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (Memphis)

Texas

• Absolute Lithops Effect
• The Ballad of Bull Ramos (Houston)
• The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton
• Blues in Dallas
• Bring Our Curses Home (Houston)
• Color in Your Cheeks (Dallas-Fort Worth airport)
• Going to Lubbock
• It's All Here in Brownsville
• Jeff Davis County Blues
• The Legend of Chavo Guerrero (El Paso)
• Midland
• Neon Orange Glimmer Song (Dallas)
• Picture of My Dress (Dallas)
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (Austin)
• Song for God
• Song for Mitch Williams (Houston)
• Southwestern Territory
• Source Decay (Austin)
• Waco
• Whon

Utah

• The Mess Inside (Provo)

Washington

• Doc Gooden (Seattle)
• Love Love Love (Seattle)
• Process of Elimination (The Extra Lens)
• Until I Am Whole (Snohomish)

Wisconsin

• Going to Wisconsin
• Plead Me to a Lesser Charge (Milwaukee)

Africa

Algeria

• Last Gasp at Calama

Egypt

• Their Gods Do Not Have Surgeons

Ethiopia

• Ethiopians
• Gojam Province 1968
• Thucydides II-58

Libya

• Commandante (Tripoli)
• Jaipur (Tripoli)

Morocco

• Going to Marrakesh (The Extra Lens)
• Going to Morocco (The Extra Lens)

Tunisia

• Last Gasp at Calama

Uganda

• Raid on Entebbe

Zanzibar

• Down Here Where the Bullet Bills Are

Zimbabwe

• Color in Your Cheeks

Asia

Bangladesh

• Bad Waves

China

• The Lady from Shanghai
• Leaving Home
• Nine Black Poppies (Hunan)
• Sax Rohmer #1
• Seven Hundred Unspeakable Names
• Tianchi Lake

Hong Kong

• Programmed Cell Death (The Extra Lens)

India

• Calcutta
• I Meant Every Word I Said in New Delhi
• Jaipur
• Process of Elimination (The Extra Lens) (Kashmir)
• We Were Patriots (Kolkata)
• Yoga (Mumbai)

Indonesia

• Indonesia
• Narakaloka (Jakarta)

Japan

• Going to Japan
• New World Emerging Blues (Mount Fuji)
• Shower (Tokyo)

Lebanon

• Going to Lebanon
• Going to Lebanon 2

Palestine

• Going to Palestine

Singapore

• Grendel's Mother

South Korea

• Downtown Seoul

Taiwan

• Color in Your Cheeks (Taipei)

Thailand

• Going to Reykjavik
• Real Good Girlfriend
• Source Decay (Bangkok)

Vietnam

• Saigon Shrunken Panorama

Europe

Albania

• International Small Arms Traffic Blues

Austria

• They Are Stone Swallowers (Salzburg)

Belgium

• Fault Lines
• Letter from Belgium
• Your Belgian Things

Denmark

• Flight 717: Going to Denmark
• Marsh Witch Vision
• Tollund Man

Finland

• Million

France

• Abandoned Flesh
• Color in Your Cheeks (Paris)
• Going to France
• Parisian Enclave
• Sourdoire Valley Song

Georgia

• Color in Your Cheeks

Germany

• Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds (Leipzig)
• Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident (Berlin)
• Shirtless in Hamburg
• Spent Gladiator 2 (Dresden)
• We Do It Different on the West Coast (Berlin)

Greece

• Aulon Raid
• International Small Arms Traffic Blues

Hungary

• Going to Hungary

Iceland

• Going to Reykjavik

Ireland

• Fall of the Star High School Running Back
• Red Choral Diamond Spray
• There Will Always Be an Ireland

Italy

• Etruscans
• An Inscription at Salonae (ancient Rome)
• The New Hydra Collection (Rome)
• One Morning in Northern Italy
• Process of Elimination (The Extra Lens) (Sicily)
• Sicilian Crest
• Song for Cleomenes (ancient Rome)
• Song for Mark and Joel (Rome)
• Trick Mirror (Rome)
• Up the Wolves (ancient Rome)

Lithuania

• Down Here

Monaco

• Going to Monaco

The Netherlands

• Dutch Orchestra Blues
• Going to Utrecht
• Minnesota

Norway

• Edvard Munch
• Oslo 1888

Poland

• I Corinthians 13: 8-10 (Warsaw)

Portugal

• For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands

Russia

• The Destruction of the Kola Superdeep Borehole Tower
• Evening in Stalingrad
• Fault Lines

Serbia

• Only Existing Footage (Belgrade)

Spain

• Going to Spain

Sweden

• Duke Ellington
• Ghosts
• Please Come Home to Hamngatan (Hamngatan is a street in Stockholm)
• Some Swedish Trees
• They Are Stone Swallowers (Stockholm)

United Kingdom

• Andrew Eldritch Is Moving Back to Leeds
• The Autopsy Garland (London)
• California Jam (Birmingham)
• Cheshire County
• Fault Lines
• Going to Bridlington
• Going to Bristol
• Going to Kirby Sigston
• Going to Scotland
• Going to Some Damned English City
• If England Were What England Seems, Then We Would Only Have Our Dreams
• Rain in Soho
• Song for John Davis
• We Do It Different on the West Coast

North America (other than United States)

The Bahamas

• The Mess Inside

Canada

• The Admonishing Song
• Earth Air Water Trees (Montreal)
• Family Happiness
• Fire Editorial (Ontario)
• New Star Song
• Nova Scotia
• Snakeheads

Costa Rica

• Deuteronomy 2:10

Cuba

• In the Cane Fields
• International Small Arms Traffic Blues

Jamaica

• Going to Jamaica
• Have to Explode
• Sept. 15 1983 (Portmore)
• Song for Dennis Brown

Mexico

• Color in Your Cheeks (Mexicali)
• Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace (Culiacán)
• Going to Mexico
• Insurance Fraud #2 (Cancun)
• The Legend of Chavo Guerrero
• Quetzalcoatl is Born (Sonora)
• Scavenger Babies (Tijuana)

Oceania

Australia

• Brisbane Hotel Sutra (title only)
• Down Here
• Somebody Else's Parking Lot in Sebastopol (Sydney)

Tahiti

• Ethiopians
• Tahitian Ambrosia Maker

South America

Bolivia

• Going to Bolivia

Brazil

• For the Portuguese Goth Metal Bands
• Going to Brazil
• Sarcofago Live

Chile

• Going to Santiago

Colombia

• Going to Bogotá

Ecuador

• Quito

Peru

• Sendero Luminoso Verdadero (Lima)

Trinidad and Tobago

• Fresh Cherries in Trinidad

Venezuela

• Extreme South #1

Implied references

United States

California

• Age of Kings: JD has implied this song takes place on the Pitzer College campus in Claremont, CA.
• All Devils Here Now (Pomona; explained in stage banter)
• Done Bleeding: See quote from I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats episode on the song page.
• 15-1: The song's reference to "Highway Fifteen" probably refers to Interstate 15, likely in California or Nevada given the lyrics.
• 15-2 (see above)
• Leaving Home: See the excerpt from the Ghana liner notes quoted on the song page.
• Short Song About the 10 Freeway: Can be assumed to be about the section of Interstate 10 in Southern California.
• Song for an Old Friend: Since the song mentions "good old East Rutherford [New Jersey], three thousand miles away", it's likely that the song is set on the West Coast, probably in California.

Florida

• All songs on Tallahassee not otherwise mentioned

Iowa

• Going to Spirit Lake ("Spirit Lake" could refer to multiple places, but Iowa is one possibility)
• Moon Over Goldsboro (see the comment from 2006-09-29 - Club Europa - Brooklyn, NY in the song page)
• Store (explained in stage banter)
• 02-75 (explained in stage banter)

Louisiana

• Bring Our Curses Home: Has been speculated to be about Hurricane Katrina and the evacuation of the New Orleans Superdome.

Massachusetts

• An Antidote for Strychnine - refers to Cambridge, which could also refer to Cambridge, UK

Oregon

• Damn These Vampires: JD has stated this song takes place in Portland, Oregon when introducing it live. The "near north side" reference can then be taken to refer to North Portland.
• Lakeside View Apartments Suite (explained in stage banter)
• Running Away with What Freud Said (explained in stage banter)
• Snow Song (see the excerpt from the Bitter Melon Farm liner notes in the song page)
• Unicorn Tolerance (explained in stage banter)
• Wear Black (explained in stage banter)
• Standard Bitter Love Song #8: Lloyd Center Ice Rink is located in Portland, OR.

Texas

• Songs on All Hail West Texas not otherwise mentioned above can probably be assumed to be set in Texas.

Washington

• The album Transcendental Youth is ostensibly set in Washington state, and some songs on it have indirect references (e.g. "four hours north of Portland" in Harlem Roulette suggests a location in Washington).

Cambodia

• Prowl Great Cain (explained in stage banter)

India

• Songs on On Juhu Beach can probably be assumed to be set in Juhu Beach in Mumbai.

Sweden

• All songs on Hail and Farewell, Gothenburg and Sweden not otherwise mentioned