Hailing from Claremont, California, The Mountain Goats (named after a Screamin' Jay Hawkins song) began as a series of musical collaborations headed up by songwriter John Darnielle. Probably one of the few bands that can actually be defined as "indie", The Mountain Goats' early years were characterised by the outputting of low-fi recordings on cassette through underground record label Shrimper. Darnielle is also known for producing extensive series of songs detailing a particular subject, such at the Alpha Series, the Going to... Series and the Standard Bitter Love Song Series. The first full-length albums, Nine Black Poppies and Zopilote Machine, were released in 1995. An extensive catalogue of EPs, singles and albums followed, and in 1999 Protein Source of the Future... NOW! and Bitter Melon Farm, both including rare tracks from early cassette recordings, were released. In 2002 Darnielle produced the last of his signature boom-box recorded albums - All Hail West Texas - before signing to 4AD records and releasing Tallahassee. Continuing with 4AD, The Mountain Goats began to move further into the mainstream spectrum and went on to release We Shall be Healed (2004) an album that chronicled Darnielle's time with friends addicted to methamphetamine. This was closely followed by The Sunset Tree (2005) and Get Lonely (2006). The current Mountain Goats line-up loosely consists of John Darnielle and bassist Peter Hughes.