Hostages

Lyrics

There may come a day someday
When we all look back and laugh
But there's lots of noise in the break room
Nasty points on the graph

And they're breaking into the broadcast now
Special update from Action News!
Some of what you'll hear in the footage that follows
May not reflect our station's views

We may run out of bullets;
We're never going to run out of hostages

There's disagreements on procedure
Vocal, bitter divisions
As is often the case in situations like this one
I'll be the one who makes the final decision

Some of you have been here before
Most of you have not
Some will dwell on the details in the future
Or work to keep it out of your thoughts

We may run out of bullets;
We're never going to run out of hostages

If there's one thing I love
It's an infinite resource
If there's one thing worth loving
It's a surplus of supplies

There's a team up on the rooftop
Good luck to the team
When you know you'll never make it out alive
You kind of get to live out your dream

Helicopters in the distance
Music of the spheres on the wind
It's gonna be a rough ride from here down to the exit
Some might look back and laugh at the end

We may run out of bullets;
We're never going to run out of hostages

Banter

• This is a song about how violence can't solve anything, but the threat of violence can solve a lot of things. (2023-06-29)
• In these final days, there will be food and water shortages. And lo, the voice of the prophet was upon me and said, 'there will be shortages of goodwill, people running short on friends, people running short on patience, despite what Axl Rose may have to say about it.' Friends, there's one thing, and Peter, you know what it is, that we're never gonna run short on. (2023-07-13 The Vanguard)
• JD: Fellas, where do I go next?
  Peter: Back to guitar!
  JD: Sounds like a plan.
  Radio host: The Mountain Goats, on KEXP.
  JD: I think as a lead singer, growth in a band is exactly this: when you're new at it, maybe for 15 or 20 years if you're slow, like me, you wanna say, this is what I'm doing, I'm telling you what I'm doing. And as you grow, you say, no, you tell me what to do. And I'll just do the thing, you know? Peter, what am I playing?
  Peter: Hostages.
  JD: Oh man, this is a song - this is a religious number. It's a song about, y'know, we may sometimes run out of electricity, we may run out of funds, we may run out of bullets. But we're never gonna run out of hostages. (2023-08-08 KEXP session)
• That's my other favorite one after 'Extraction Point.' I like the ones that explore something and stick with the mood for a long time and see where it goes. Both are kind of like Grateful Dead jams—they're extensive. And I have to say, I think that's one of my best choruses ever. Because it leans in—if you're going to have a hostage drama, it should be extreme. I once heard it in some action movie or another where a guy says, 'Only an idiot takes hostages,' because there's no good way out of a hostage situation. It's one of the more explicitly cinematic songs that's not actually taken from a particular movie. (Apple Music notes)

Live Performances

• 2023-07-13 The Vanguard

Footnotes