John Darnielle

The Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle named the album and all of its songs.

”Good people of the Mountain Goatsmassive, we are pleased to report that we have sojourned for a season in the cave upon the hillside where the ancient crystals tremble; and have returned from thence with much news, of which you will all be soon made aware.”

Plus: read tributes to Stan from Gene Simmons, Travis Scott, Patton Oswalt, and more.

”I sat down to write this song with my son. I said, ’what should we call this jam?’ He said ‘Skeleton’s Tooth’, Darnielle laughed, ”So I wrote Skeleton’s Tooth.”

The Mountain Goats played ”The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton” with help from one of the best ever death metal musicians in Florida.

Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle will ”explore the connective tissues between songwriting and storytelling” for ‘Selected Shorts,’ ”a weekly public radio show broadcast” that ”[features] stories around a lively theme, the favorite works of a guest author, or a special collaboration.”

The show is called ”I Only Strip to the Mountain Goats,” naturally.

Cross will also be at Boston Calling and Chicago’s The Onion Comedy Fest.

The paperback edition of Danielle’s Universal Harvester is just out. Meanwhile this week’s edition of the “I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats” podcast features The Music Tapes’ Julian Koster covering “Jeff Davis Country Blues”