The Mountain Goats Release New Album, ‘Days,’ Featuring "Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds"

News

The Mountain Goats Launch New Album With “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds”

John Darnielle and the gang’s Days began as a sequel to 2017’s Goths By Jazz Monroe May 13, 2026 Save this story Save this story

The Mountain Goats have announced Days , a swift follow-up to the album they released last November, Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan . Leading the record—and a tracklist of typically colorful song names—is “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds.” (Delve in further for such titles as “Best Hard Rock Albums 2013” and “Hidden Majesty of Later Venom Albums.”) Check that out below, along with their previously announced tour dates.

John Darnielle said in a press release that the album started life as Grunges , a sequel to their 2017 LP Goths , after he made “a joke on social media about writing a song called ‘Contemplating Pearl Jam in the Carolina Dawn.’” He went on, “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.”

John Congleton produced Days , recording the band at Sear Sound in Manhattan. Darnielle is joined in the band by Matt Douglas and Jon Wurster, but no longer Peter Hughes, who left in 2024 after 30 years. Additional players on the new record include bassist and French horn player Rob Jost, harpist Mikaela Davis, and assorted backing vocalists.

Revisit Darnielle’s Ozzy Osbourne obituary, For the Back Street Kids , and Sam Sodomsky’s 2023 profile Inside John Darnielle’s Boiling Brain .

Days : 01 Song for Layne Staley 02 Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds 03 Shallow Grave 04 Candlebox 05 Annie Haslam Imperial Phase 06 Crying on Eddie Nash’s Grave 07 Days 08 Best Hard Rock Albums 2013 09 Going to Fennario 10 Woodstock 11 Hidden Majesty of Later Venom Albums 12 Last Day

The Mountain Goats: Days $32 at Rough Trade

The Mountain Goats: 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, Finland - Kuudes Linja # 10-07 Stockholm, Sweden - Nalen # 10-08 Oslo, Norway - Vulkan Arena # 10-10 Copenhagen, Denmark - Pumpehuset # 10-11 Berlin, Germany - Metropol # 10-12 Hamburg, Germany - Pop Seasons at Christianskirche 10-13 Ghent, Belgium - De Centrale # 10-14 Utrecht, Netherlands - TivoliVredenburg # 10-16 Manchester, England - Albert Hall # 10-18 Dublin, Ireland - Vicar Street # 10-19 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowland Ballroom # 10-21 London, England - Hackney Church # 10-22 London, England - Hackney Church # 10-23 Bristol, England - 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

^ with the Avett Brothers * with the Hold Steady # with Craig Finn

_Originally reported by [Pitchfork](https://pitchfork.com/news/the-mountain-goats-new-album-days-charlie-sheen-reaches-out-to-the-feds/)._