includes songs such as "Going to Cleveland", "Going to Maryland", "Going to Georgia", and "Going to Queens". This series explores the futility of running away from one's problems in stark and cryptic detail. There is no reoccurring main character or strong thematic subject linking these similarly titled tracks, and in a 1997 interview with KJHK-Lawrence, Darnielle has described the series as "real loose, though. it's real loose". His "Alpha" series predates his musical career and began as a collection of poems called 'Songs from Alpha Primitive'. It is about a distressed couple's marriage and history, with such song titles as "Alpha Incipiens", "Alphabetizing", and "Alpha Rats Nest". The band's 2002 album Tallahassee was exclusively about the couple. "Their broader story", Darnielle writes, "involved an alcohol-soaked trek from California through Nevada and then bottom-crawling across the country until they wound up in northern Florida". Unless otherwise specified in the lyrics, the songs are intended to be sung by either member of the couple. There are a number of songs, not all containing the word 'alpha', that are generally considered to be part of the series, and are explored in more detail on Kyle Barbour's site 'The Annotated Mountain Goats. Darnielle has stated that all songs written up to and including those on Tallahassee are fictional, but that We Shall All Be Healed, The Sunset Tree, and other more recent works are partially autobiographical. Collaborations Darnielle is featured on Aesop Rock's song "Coffee" (from the hip-hop artist's 2007 album None Shall Pass) and appears in the corresponding music video. Additionally, Aesop Rock remixed the Mountain Goats' "Lovecraft in Brooklyn". He collaborated with John Vanderslice on lyrics for the 2005 album Pixel Revolt, and in 2009, Darnielle released a collaborative recording titled Moon Colony Bloodbath, after a shared tour with Vanderslice. They toured under the collective name The Comedians, though their recording is attributed to "the Mountain Goats and John Vanderslice". In 2008, Darnielle released a tour-exclusive EP entitled Black Pear Tree, the result of a collaboration with tourmate Kaki King. On September 20, 2010, Darnielle appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon as a guest vocalist in a performance of the song "Digging for Something" with the band Superchunk (whose drummer, Jon Wurster, is also in the Mountain Goats). Darnielle appeared on Kimya Dawson's 2011 album Thunder Thighs, featured on the song "Walk Like Thunder." Writing Darnielle's first book, Black Sabbath: Master