The Mountain Goats will release a new studio album entitled Bleed Out on August 19 via Merge Records. Led by John Darnielle, the quartet today dropped the LP’s lead single and opening track, “Training Montage,” along with its video.
Produced by Bully’s Alicia Bognanno, the 12-track effort follows 2021’s Dark In Here. Darnielle found himself stuck at home in North Carolina towards the end of 2020 viewing many pulpy action movies. John took inspiration from the flicks to pen the material featured on Bleed Out.
John Darnielle gathered with bandmates Peter Hughes, Matt Douglas and Jon Wurster at Sylvan Esso’s Betty’s Studios facility near Chapel Hill in January 2021 to work on what would become Bleed Out. The Mountain Goats completed the process within a week.
Read a statement from Darnielle regarding Bleed Out:
“So, heads up. I got this idea to write a bunch of songs where they were all uptempo mini-action movies. Plots, characters, heists, hostages, questionable capers, getaway cars, all that stuff. Gas pedal glued to the floor. Eventually as you might guess I wanted at least one song where the tempo relaxed a little and that’s the title track but otherwise buckle up. We hid out in the woods in Chapel Hill and made this album with nobody knowing about it. Proper secret-soldier style. It has been pretty hard keeping this under our hats, we are really proud of what we got here. Alicia Bognanno produced & played with us, and the great Shani Gandhi mixed. The first single is ‘Training Montage’ which does what it says on the tin, and you can preorder the album now, and as for tour dates…you know we gotta bring these uptempo jams to a stage near you at the earliest possible convenience.”
“Training Montage” is said to set “the tone for everything that follows on Bleed Out, an album delivered with the urgency and desperation deserving of its narrators and circumstances,” as per press materials announcing the LP. Watch the Mountain Goats’ “Training Montage” video below:
The Mountain Goats will follow a series of July duo shows with full band tour dates across the U.S. The run starts in Richmond, Virginia on August 28 and continues through September 23. Stops include New York City, Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Austin, New Orleans and many other cities. It’s then off to Europe in November. Purchase the Mountain Goats tickets starting Next Friday, June 10 at 10 a.m. local venue time on Ticketmaster. Click below for the full schedule:
Bleed Out Tracklist
- Training Montage
- Mark on You
- Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome
- Extraction Point
- Bones Don’t Rust
- First Blood
- Make You Suffer
- Guys on Every Corner
- Hostages
- Need More Bandages
- Incandescent Ruins
- Bleed Out
