Pitchfork

How's about a little Mountain Goats news, straight from Mr. Darnielle himself? Take it away, John!

"The new Mountain Goats EP-- the one I mentioned a few weeks back, with the limited gatefold vinyl and the special cover art and the pay-whatcha-like download option (about which we'll tell you more once we sort everything out)-- is called Satanic Messiah. It has four songs on it, one per side at 45 rpm, the way God intended. Two songs are mainly piano and voice; the other two are mainly acoustic guitar and voice. This is the lineup:

A1 Satanic Messiah
A2 Wizard Buys a Hat
B1 Sarcofago Live
B2 Gojam Province 1968

The other news-- at which I hinted on my Flickr, here-- is that Kaki King and I, under a cloak of great secrecy, snuck into Baucom Road studios in western North Carolina last month and recorded the six-song Black Pear Tree EP together with Scott Solter producing. The record is presently at the pressing plant and the idea is to have copies ready on vinyl for tour, with a sleeve designed by Horse & Buggy press, and the first 200 on colored vinyl. People who know how I feel about Kaki's music can imagine what an honor it was for me to get to work with her. Here are the songs we played:

A1 Black Pear Tree
A2 Mosquito Repellent
A3 Bring our Curses Home
A1 Supergenesis
B2 Roger Patterson Van
B3 Thank You Mario but our Princess Is in Another Castle

We are both really excited to share this record with everybody. So excited in fact that here's one of the songs [look over in Forkcast -- Ed]. On this one, I played piano and sang; Kaki played drums and glockenspiel, and also sang harmony. The song is sung from the point of view of Toad. If you know who Toad is, that's all I'll need to tell you. If you don't who Toad is, you better recognize."

Thanks, man! So there you have it: not one but two tour EPs for that Mountain Goats/Kaki King "Last Happy Night of Your Life" jaunt, which kicks off October 13 in Chicago.

The Mountain Goats:

09-14 Dorset, England - End of the Road Festival
09-15 London, England - ULU
10-13 Chicago, IL - Park West *
10-14 Milwaukee, WI - Pabst Theatre *
10-15 Omaha, NE - The Slowdown *
10-17 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theater *
10-18 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue *
10-20 Seattle, WA - Showbox *
10-21 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom *
10-23 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
10-24 San Francisco, CA - The Fillmore *
10-25 Los Angeles CA - Troubadour *
10-26 Los Angeles CA - Troubadour *
10-28 San Diego, CA - Belly Up Tavern *
10-29 Tucson, AZ - Club Congress *
10-31 Lubbock, TX - Tequila Jungle *
11-01 Austin, TX - Antone's *
11-02 Dallas, TX - Granada Theatre *
11-03 New Orleans, LA - Republic *
11-05 Chapel Hill, NC - Cat's Cradle *
11-06 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club *
11-07 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of the Living Arts *
11-08 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg *
11-09 New York, NY - Webster Hall *

* with Kaki King