Words from Charlie Warzel - 

Know upfront that this is not going to be linear. What’s before you is not a time capsule. When you crack it open, you will not be breathing in the stale air of a time that no longer exists. What you hold in your hands is something different altogether. Think of it like a portal. Rather than an archive, this is a living connection to various times and places—to a past that you can access and then live in anew. 

Some of the sights and sounds on this record come from long ago. In ‘Chain Yer Dragon,’ Goose is reaching back to the places and characters—Lazy, the The Night Rays Band, the sweaty barroom of The Rockdale—that would ultimately coalesce into a fully textured world of its own. But the portal moves in both directions. Fifteen years later, the band is expanding the map of this musical world. Old acquaintances make appearances, but new personalities are born, too. Madalena and Royal add new dimension to a story we thought we knew. Jed Stone, an itinerant fugitive, marches out of the past to a steady snare drum as part of this new chapter.

‘Chain Yer Dragon’ builds a world that fuses past and present to sit someplace outside of time. As always, the goal is to get lost—both in music and the story. Conjure up the juke joints with their worn floorboards and the smell of stale liquor. Hear the trill of crickets cutting through the late summer humidity and the faint buzz of the neon bar lights. Feel the grit in your teeth, the sensation of dirt under your fingernails, the taste of the drugstore wine. This is a world that sleeps through the day, but the freaks come out at night. Its most memorable figures are transient—on the move or marching to their own rhythms. Many cannot be trusted. This is a world of adventure, and beauty—even joy. You’d do best to keep your dancing shoes nearby. But don’t be fooled: there is also darkness. An edge. What slinks in the shadows watches every move or has access to your most wicked inner thoughts. Even the most reliable among these characters is known to deceive.

The album’s title itself is a mondegreen—a misheard phrase uttered long ago on one of the many nights on the road that have brought the band to this moment. But as is so often the case, we hear what we want to hear, exactly when we need to hear it. And if you listen, you’ll find that underneath the musical buoyancy, is an album shot through with a restlessness of the soul. These characters herein are animated by driving ambitions—burning like a hot black oil and born with fire under their skin. They are chasing down a dead man’s song. They pursue a dream—one that’s forged on the road, where each mile on the odometer holds the promise of gaining ground on these aspirations. Perhaps this sounds familiar. This is the dragon: A tantalizing, mythical creature lurking just around the next bend of the highway but never offering a satisfying glimpse. The dragon exists in our minds, which means it is imaginary and also as real as anything. Perhaps it feels like a calling or a duty. Or maybe it is the promise of being made whole. Whatever the reason, we pursue the apparition on faith. 

But even faith pushes up against its limits. If we’re not careful, attempts to chain the dragon become chains we drag ourselves. The chase is the struggle. In these songs, we hear of the dissonance that results when the pursuit of the dream crashes against the rocks of reality. The pursuit is solitary. It rejects balance and moderation in all forms. It takes and takes and demands sacrifice. And in these songs we can hear the searching. At times there is an ache—to be present, to stop running. Throughout the record you can hear the balancing act in small moments of confession. These characters dream vividly. They want what they cannot have. But in many cases the pursuit has become totalizing. They are weary, tied up, ground down. The dream threatens to swallow them entirely.

Maybe this all sounds a bit heavy. But these dreams are also vital. To chase them and struggle against them is to be alive. The sense of adventure that imbues these songs and these avatars is born of this chase. If there is a lesson here it just may be that, yes, the darkness is unavoidable, the balancing act is ceaseless, and the only way out is through. But from the darkness and searching comes perspective and light. You come to realize that the joy is in the work and even the struggle. It comes from the journey itself.

To chase a dream without losing one’s self is bigger than the story of the characters of this record. It is the story of Goose just as it is part of the story of all of us. ‘Chain Yer Dragon’ is a portal. It begins to tell the story of how we got here but it also tells the story of who we are right now. It is a fusion of ideas conceived long ago that have only now revealed themselves for what they are. It is also music that is new and vital and that opens a doorway to memories and feelings that previously lay dormant. Taken together, it is both an encapsulation and a product of the chase.It is a monument to the never-ending pursuit of finding your voice. Nothing about this glorious journey is linear because none of us are linear. Spin this record and let this music that you hold in your hands be the living proof. 

Rick Mitarotonda vocals, guitars

Peter Anspach keyboards, synthesizers, vocals

Trevor Weekz bass

Cotter Ellis drums, percussion, vocals

Matt Campbell synthesizers, keyboards, vocals

Ben Atkind drums

D. James Goodwin guitars, synthesizers, percussion, drums

Produced by D. James Goodwin

Recorded, mixed, and mastered by D. James Goodwin

Mixed and mastered by D. James Goodwin at The Isokon, Timberville, VA

Recorded at Dreamland Studios, Hurley NY. Additional recording at The Chateau & The Isokon.

Additional engineering by Gillian Pelkonen

Design & layout by Will Thresher

Illustrations by Kevin Bergkvist

Cover Illustration by Jonny Lovering