The Mountain Goats Drop 'Days,' Their 24th Album, on Their Own Label

The Mountain Goats have released Days, their 24th full-length album, on the band's own Cadmean Dawn Records, distributed via Thirty Tigers. The trio of John Darnielle, Matt Douglas, and Jon Wurster produced the record with John Congleton and recorded it at Sear Sound in Manhattan.

The album started as a different project entirely. In a statement, Darnielle explained: "This album began life as Grunges, a sequel to Goths, after I made a joke on social media about writing a song called 'Contemplating Pearl Jam in the Carolina Dawn.' A few months later my wife left town for a two week residency in Virginia. My wife leaving town to play hockey in Banff is how All Hail West Texas happened. These songs are loosely about the 70s, 80s, and 90s, which is to say they're about the accumulation of days, each one a little further back than the next, sometimes miraculously seeming clearer as they recede and sometimes blurring into unrecognizable shapes which are sometimes pleasant and sometimes troubling. Most songs here are in major keys but don't let that fool you."

The sessions brought in a wide cast of collaborators. Rob Jost plays bass and French horn throughout the record. Catherine Russell, Jamie Leonhart, and Carolyn Leonhart contribute group backing vocals, while Janis Siegal of The Manhattan Transfer adds layered backing vocals on "Hidden Majesty of Later Venom Albums." Matt Nathanson appears on "Candlebox," and Mikaela Davis contributes harp to "Going to Fennario."

The 12-track album is streaming now. The full tracklist runs from "Song for Layne Staley" through "Last Day," with titles including "Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds," "Crying on Eddie Nash's Grave," and "Woodstock '99."

The band is currently on tour in support of the album, with dates running through December across North America, Europe, and the UK. Locally relevant for the LA community: the Mountain Goats play Walt Disney Concert Hall on November 24. They also hold a 6-night residency at San Francisco's The Fillmore in November, with each night built around a different concept, and two nights at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium in December, one of which is already sold out.

For independent artists, the Mountain Goats offer a useful case study: Cadmean Dawn Records is the band's own imprint, meaning they own this release while still accessing Thirty Tigers' distribution infrastructure.

Tickets for all dates are available at mountain-goats.com. The band recently received gold certification for their 2022 song "No Children," according to the press release.