Monsters of Folk, which includes Jim James (My Morning Jacket), M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) – are celebrating the 15th anniversary of their self-titled, one-and-only album with an expanded new edition, arriving  June 14 via ATO Records.

First released in 2009, Monsters of Folk now sees the original 15-song album joined by five additional studio tracks from a previously unreleased 2012 session featuring “Fifth Monster” Will Johnson (Centro-matic), including the high-energy heartland rock anthem, “Disappeared,” premiering today alongside an official visualizer.

“That session was very much kept in the moment,” says Will Johnson. “I remember looking over at Jim playing drums on ‘Disappeared,’ joyfully bashing away, and it harbored that same exuberance of starting your first band: that moment in the garage where things take flight, and the energy and happiness just lead you onward.”

“Making this album brought me back to the same feelings I had when I first started a band, or first started playing music in general – there’s a real simplicity and excitement to playing with folks you don’t normally play with,” says Jim James. “The spirit of play is alive on this whole thing.”

“Debut records have a freedom that can’t be matched, because there’s no history to work from,” says M. Ward. “I just hear the four of us following wherever the songs seem to be leading us.”

Mainly produced by producer/engineer/multi-instrumentalist Mogis, Monsters of Folk came to life over a series of sessions at the historic Malibu studio Shangri-La and at Mogis’ own Omaha Another Recording Company in Omaha, NE. Apart from ruling out the use of outside musicians (and handling all instrumentation on their own), the band embraced a free-flowing process that often hinged on encouraging each other to push into entirely new musical terrain. When matched with each member’s finely honed musicianship, that communal sense of creative abandon led to a lineup of songs that shift from country to pop to psych-rock with equal parts untamed imagination and ineffable ease. Fueled in part by the singles “Say Please” and “Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.),” Monsters of Folk proved both a worldwide critical favorite as well as a popular sensation, reaching #15 on the overall Billboard 200 upon its 2009 release while also peaking among the top 10 on five additional album charts.

“It was amazing to have a ringside seat for the way Jim and M make records,” says Conor Oberst. “Jim’s outside-the-box knack for soul and harmony and M’s sense of space and songcraft were so inspiring and invaluable to me then, and continue to be to this day.”

“I feel like it really expanded my way of thinking about music, and my thinking in general,” James says. “It was so special to create with artists that I respect so much—to come into the project from a place of already loving so many of their songs and their outlook on the world, and then feel the whole experience opening me up to life in such a fresh and beautiful way.”

Monsters Of Folk
Monsters Of Folk
ATO Records

1. Dear God (Sincerely M.O.F.)
2. Say Please
3. Whole Lotta Losin’
4. Temazcal
5. The Right Place
6. Baby Boomer
7. Man Named Truth
8. Goodway
9. Ahead Of The Curve
10. Slow Down Jo
11. Losin Yo Head
12. Magic Marker
13. Map Of The World
14. The Sandman, The Brakeman And Me
15. His Master’s Voice
16. Dear to the Assassin *
17. Sweet Silence *
18. The Living Thing *
19. Museum Guard *
20. Disappeared *

Pre-order Monsters Of Folk HERE