Step 1: Head to the Answer on a Monday night to interview Kelli Strawbridge and see Mekong Xpress and the Get Fresh Horns.

Step 2: Finish the interview and sit at the bar next to trumpet player Bob Miller.

Step 3: Chat with Miller about being part of the horn section that Matthew E. White and the Mountain Goats shared when they toured in support of their respective 2012 albums.

Step 4: Head to Steady Sounds the next day over lunch to snag an original pressing (!) of D’Angelo’s Voodoo.

Step 5: Take a quick look through the bins and find a used copy the aforementioned 2012 Mountain Goats album, Transcendental Youth, and pull out the liner notes to see if Bob Miller played on the album.

Step 6: See that he did and feel that “Everything is connected and beautiful” feeling.

Step 7: Play the album later that night and soak in White’s smart and reverential arrangements.

Step 8: Listen as a hair gets stuck on the needle, causing the lyrics “I could do this all day” from “Counterfeit Florida Plates” to loop perfectly about a dozen times.

Step 9: Feel that “Everything is connected and beautiful” feeling again.

Step 10: Buy tickets to the Mountain Goats’ September 19 show at the National.

The Mountain Goats — “Counterfeit Florida Plates” [Spotify/iTunes]