One month from today, the always-busy Mountain Goats will release their new album Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan. It's a concept LP about shipwreck survivors living on a desert island, and it's dedicated to Peter Hughes, the longtime bassist who left the band last year. The Mountain Goats are releasing this one on their own Cadmean Dawn label, and band member Matt Douglas produced it. Lin-Manuel Miranda sings backup on multiple songs, and Replacements hero Tommy Stinson plays bass on a few. Crazy, right?
We've already posted "Armies Of the Lord," the lead single from Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan. Today, the Mountain Goats share two new tracks, "Cold At Night" and "Rocks In My Pockets." The former is a twitchy, layered number, and it's one of the songs that features both Lin-Manuel Miranda and Tommy Stinson. The latter is a relatively bare acoustic number, and it might sound a little more familiar to people with a fixed idea of how a Mountain Goats track might sound. Here is our man John Darnielle's all-caps dispatch about the two songs:
A GREAT GOOD DAY TO ALL WHO SAIL THE TREACHEROUS WATERS OF OUR BROKEN WORLD. WE, THE MOUNTAIN GOATS, COME BEARING NEW SONGS, NOT JUST ONE AS IN FORMER DAYS BUT TWO, AS THERE IS A NEED FOR MORE SONGS. "COLD AT NIGHT" IS ABOUT A SHIPWRECK AND ITS IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH. BASS ON "COLD" IS BY TOMMY STINSON WHO YOU KNOW FROM THE REPLACEMENTS AND GUNS 'N' ROSES. GUITARS ON "COLD" ARE BY MATT DOUGLAS, WHO PRODUCED THESE TRACKS AND WROTE THE STRING ARRANGEMENTS. "ROCKS IN MY POCKETS" IS A SOLILOQUY FROM ADAM, ONE OF THREE SURVIVORS FROM THE WRECK. IT IS THE LAST WE HEAR FROM HIM. HARP BY THE GREAT MIKAELA DAVIS. ALL THREE MEMBERS OF THE MOUNTAIN GOATS -- JON, JOHN, AND MATT -- PLAY GUITARS ON "ROCKS," AND THE TRACK IS LIVE EXCEPT FOR THE PERCUSSION AND HARP OVERDUBS. HARMONY & RESPONSE VOCALS ON "COLD AT NIGHT" ARE BY LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, WHO SANG AS CHARLEY IN THE 2012 "MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG" CONCERT. I WILL NEVER GET OVER HAVING A GUY WHO HAS SUNG SONDHEIM ONSTAGE ON MY ALBUM: THANKS, BUD. THE REST OF YOU: ENJOY!
And here go the songs themselves:
A little while ago, the Mountain Goats shared a few videos that don't feature any music. Instead, it's John Darnielle talking about the album's basic idea and the very idea of writing a musical, and it's Matt Douglas talking about producing it. You guys like hearing Darnielle talk, right? I know I do.
Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan is out 11/7 on Cadean Dawn Records.
