The Mountain Goats' first recordings were covers of songs by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. These recordings were made in employee housing at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, California - the same town which, perhaps not coincidentally, gave Metallica to the world. A tape of these early sessions, which used the roaring static sound of late-night TV test patterns as percussion/incidental noise but were otherwise a capella, still exists. The inscription on the spine of the tape reads THE MOUNTAIN GOATS/BLEATING WILDLY: A VERSION OF FRANKIE VALLI AND THE FOUR SEASONS. No-one will ever hear this tape in any form.

Throughout the early 90s, the Mountain Goats developed their style. What this means is "John started learning how to write songs." There were two albums and a limited amount of touring done by the lineup that solidified during this time - John and Rachel played twice in San Francisco, twice in Chicago, twice in New York City, and once each in Columbus, Newpaltz, Cambridge, Providence, Northampton, Nijmegen, Koln, Utrecht, Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. There were about a dozen shows in southern California, too. Around the end of this period, they made an EP called Nine Black Poppies, and then John moved to Chicago.

The Mountain Goats are:
John Darnielle and Peter Hughes - 1995-present
John Darnielle and Rachel Ware - 1991-1995
occasional members 1991-1995: Rosanne, Amy, and Sara
occasional members 1995-present: Franklin Bruno, Erik Friedlander, John Vanderslice