The Mountain Goats namedrop Layne Staley, Candlebox, Venom & more on new LP ‘Days’ (hear 1st single)

The Mountain Goats continue to release new music at a prolific rate, and they’ve announced their 24th full length album, Days , due out August 7 via Cadmean Dawn Records. It follows last year’s Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan , and John Darnielle calls it a sequel to 2017’s Goths .

“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,’” he says. “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. If you do let that fool you I have a bridge to sell you; there is nothing on the other side of the bridge. Still, you shouldn’t let that deter you. Who am I to tell you what kind of bridge you need, or where the bridge you need should lead? Nobody, really. Nobody at all.”

Days was produced by John Congleton and features Rob Jost on bass and French horn, vocals from Matt Nathanson, harp from Mikaela Davis, and backing vocals from Catherine Russsell, Jamie and Carolyn Leonhart, and Janis Siegel of The Manhattan Transfer. See the cover art and tracklist (which includes such song titles as “Song for Layne Staley,” “Candlebox,” “Best Hard Rock Albums 2013,” and “Hidden Majesty of Later Venom Albums”) and hear first single “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds” below.

The Mountain Goats will be on tour throughout the rest of the year, wrapping up with two NYC shows at Carnegie Hall on December 10 and 11 . See all dates below.

You may recall John played a washed up metal guitarist on an episode of mystery series Poker Face .

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS – DAYS TRACKLIST

1. Song for Layne Staley

2. Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds

3. Shallow Grave

4. Candlebox

5. Annie Haslam Imperial Phase

6. Crying on Eddie Nash’s Grave

7. Days

8. Best Hard Rock Albums 2013

9. Going to Fennario

10. Woodstock

11. Hidden Majesty of Later Venom Albums

12. Last Day

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS: 2026 TOUR DATES

05/15 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring

05/16 – Woodstock, NY @ Bearsville Theater

05/17 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall

05/19 – Boston, MA @ Citizens House of Blues

05/21 – Columbus, OH @ Newport Music Hall

05/22 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Beer Garden

05/23 – Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue Theatre

05/24 – St. Louis, MO @ Delmar Hall

05/26 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville

05/28 – Lexington, KY @ Manchester Music Hall

05/29 – Charlotte, NC @ Neighborhood Theatre

05/30 – Athens, GA @ 40 Watt Club

05/31 – Charleston, SC @ Spoleto Festival USA

06/25 – Milwaukee, WI @ Summerfest

06/26 – Berwyn, IL @ Fitzgeralds Outdoors

07/10 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre ^

08/08 – Portland, OR @ Pioneer Courthouse Square *

08/09 – Seattle, WA @ ZooTunes at Woodland Park Zoo *

08/14 – Cincinnati, OH @ Taft Theatre

08/15 – Cleveland, OH @ Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

08/16 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre

08/17 – Buffalo, NY @ Town Ballroom

08/19 – South Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground Ballroom

08/20 – Lititz, PA @ Mickey’s Black Box

08/21 – Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa

08/22 – Durham, NC @ DPAC

10/05 – Helsinki, FI @ Kuudes Linja #

10/07 – Stockholm, SE @ Nalen #

10/08 – Oslo, NO @ Vulkan Arena #

10/10 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset #

10/11 – Berlin, DE @ Metropol #

10/12 – Hamburg, DE @ Pop Seasons at Christianskirche

10/13 – Ghent, BE @ De Centrale #

10/14 – Utrecht, NL @ TivoliVredenburg #

10/16 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall #

10/18 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street #

10/19 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom #

10/21 – London, UK @ Hackney Church #

10/22 – London, UK @ Hackney Church #

10/23 – Bristol, UK @ Bristol Beacon #

11/24 – Los Angeles, CA @ Walt Disney Concert Hall

12/10 – New York, NY @ Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall

12/11 – New York, NY @ Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall

^ w/ The Avett Brothers

* w/ The Hold Steady

# w/ Craig Finn

@ Expanded Line-Up

_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-mountain-goats-namedrop-layne-staley-candlebox-venom-more-on-new-lp-days-hear-1st-single/)._