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# Nothing says "Old Testament" like a Mountain Goat.
- URL: https://www.jewsrock.org/nothing-says-old-testament-like-a-mountain-goat/
- Published: 2005-05-08T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-20T22:08:54.000Z
- Author: JewsRock
- Tags: Blog

This month's issue of the McSweeney's non-fiction mag [The Believer](http://www.believermag.com/?ref=jewsrock.org) comes with a truly excellent complication CD -- they seem to have called all our favorite bands and asked them to cover all of our other favorite bands. The Decembrists perform a song by their platonic soul mate Joanna Newsom. Cynthia G. Mason somehow makes Richard Buckner's "Surprise, AZ" sadder. San Serac does a version of Ida's "Late Blues" that we swear we remember coming from our clock radio one midnight in the eighties. But the best moment on the entire CD is the Mountain Goats' cover of the Silver Jews' "Pet Politics." OK, so maybe that's not a surprise -- after all, Mountain Goat John Darnielle and Silver Jew David Berman are two of indie rock's most literary lyricists, and they have similarly flat, dry delivery. But while Berman is a [published poet](http://www.opencity.org/berman.html?ref=jewsrock.org), Darnielle writes songs like they're short stories, and his treatment brings cohesion to Berman's lyrics about central Ohio, the Garden of Eden, and tattoos of floor plans. Go find it somewhere, because it does immense justice to the winners of this website's award for Proudest (Thought Also Most Obvious) Hebraic Band Name.