The Mountain Goats share new song, add 2nd NYC show to tour

July 11, 2022

The Mountain Goats have released a second single, “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome” off their upcoming concept LP. The song is punky and fun, and falls neatly into the conceit of Bleed Out: cinematic songs inspired by retro action movies. Frontman John Darnielle says:

When I write an album that revolves around a theme, it usually takes two or three songs before I notice what’s going on. There’s always one song that becomes the ‘might as well dive all the way in’ song and on Bleed Out that song was ‘Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,’ written while watching a French action movie way past my normal bedtime… Once I had the chorus of this one I started asking myself the kinds of questions that usually end up shaping the album: What if I just wrote all the songs on guitar? What if I leaned into the uptempo ones? In recent years I shy away from the fist-punch no-brakes anthemic style but here I figured, you know, no point just wading around in blood if I’m already in knee-deep.

“Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome” is the third track on Bleed Out, which drops August 19 via Merge. Listen below, and order Bleed Out on yellow vinyl, along with order Mountain Goats records, in the BV store.

The band kicks off a three-month US tour and one-month trek through Europe tomorrow (7/12). They’ve added a second show at NYC’s Webster Hall on August 30 (the 8/31 show is sold out). See all the dates below.

TOUR DATES
7/11 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Palladium Theater *
7/12 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Moon *
7/14 – Memphis, TN @ Minglewood Hall ^
7/15 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway ^
7/16 – Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s ^
7/17 – Wichita, KS @ Wave ^
8/28 – Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry
8/29 – Atlantic City, NJ @ Anchor Rock Club
8/30 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall
8/31 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall – SOLD OUT
9/2 – Boston, MA @ Wilbur Theatre
9/3 – Pawtucket, RI @ The Met
9/4 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
9/7 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Beer Garden
9/8 – McKees Rocks, PA @ Roxian Theatre
9/9 – Cincinnati, OH @ Bogart’s
9/10 – Bloomington, IN @ Bluebird Nightclub
9/11 – Little Rock, AR @ Little Rock Hall
9/13 – Fayetteville, AR @ JJ’s Live
9/15 – San Antonio, TX @ Paper Tiger
9/16 – Austin, TX @ Paramount Theatre
9/17 – Fort Worth, TX @ Tulips
9/18 – New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s
9/20 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
9/21 – Knoxville, TN @ Bijou Theatre
9/22 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel
9/23 – Wilmington, NC @ Greenfield Lake Amphitheater
11/10 – Vienna, Austria @ WUK Foyer ~
11/11 – Berlin, Germany @ Columbia Theater ~
11/12 – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso ~
11/14 – Antwerp, Belgium @ De Roma ~
11/16 – London, UK @ Roundhouse ~
11/17 – Manchester, UK @ Albert Hall ~
11/18 – Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar Street ~