Pitchfork

Photo by Kyle Gustafson

Let's let John Darnielle explain just why Heretic Pride, the forthcoming billionth LP from his Mountain Goats, will see the light February 19 from 4AD, and not a moment sooner:

"We are really excited about this album, and we wish it were out right now, but there is a law against releasing albums in December unless you are Queen. Any album you see released in December is actually by Queen, no matter what it says on the cover. Then in January everybody is recovering from having listened to too much Queen. Hence, February. See you then!"

Heretic Pride arrives with the mark of guest appearances by St. Vincent's Annie Clark, Superchunk's Jon Wurster, Peter Hughes (naturally), old pal Franklin Bruno, Erik Friedlander, and the Bright Mountain Choir. The disc was produced by John Vanderslice and Scott Solter at Prairie Sun Studio, and features artwork from longtime 4AD fave Vaughan Oliver.

While you wait, you've got a few shots at hearing the new stuff live at a handful of Mountain Goats dates over the next few weeks. They've also got that post-Queen-hangover set at this spring's Noise Pop festival, which we reported earlier today.

Heretic Pride:

01 Sax Rohmer #1
02 San Bernardino
03 Heretic Pride
04 Autoclave
05 New Zion
06 So Desperate
07 In the Craters on the Moon
08 Lovecraft in Brooklyn
09 Tianchi Lake
10 How to Embrace a Swamp Creature
11 Marduk T-Shirt Men's Room Incident
12 Sept 15 1983
13 Michael Myers Resplendent

Mountain Goats:

11-29 New York, NY - Knitting Factory
12-08 London, England - Union Chapel
12-09 Manchester, England - Moho Live
12-10 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor