The Mountain Goats share "Picture of My Dress," streaming shows

In August, The Mountain Goats announced their second new album of 2020, Getting Into Knives, and shared its first single, “As Many Candles as Possible.” Leading up to the album’s release on October 23, they’ve shared another track, “Picture of My Dress,” which you can stream below.

John Darnielle explained on social media how poet Maggie Smith‘s tweet about “an imaginary buddy movie about a divorced woman driving around the US with her wedding dress” inspired the song back in 2019; view the conversation below. “I thought to myself: what if she’s taking it to places she didn’t go when she was married, what if she’s showing her dress the life she didn’t live? I hunkered down and a couple hours later I’d written “Picture of My Dress,” he wrote on Facebook

John also paid tribute to Matt Denham, who assisted in the studio production of the track and passed away this week. “We are all torn up about it because he was a real one so I am sending this out to you, bud,” he writes, continuing, “Everybody else give an extra head-nod while you listen to the studio attaché with the gentle way, a song like this can only be the result of everybody in the room being on the same wavelength and his contribution was a special energy that this world will miss but the next one is presently richer for.” Read the post in full below.

In addition to their new song, The Mountain Goats have also announced that they’ll be streaming a pair of virtual shows that were filmed at Manifold Recording in North Carolina. The first of “The Jordan Stream Sessions” airs on October 22 at 9 PM ET, and the second streams on October 29 at 9 PM ET. Each show will be rebroadcast over 24 hours after its initial stream, and tickets and merch are on sale now.