The Mountain Goats will reissue All Hail West Texas on CD, LP and digital in the US on July 23 and in Europe on August 6. Read a very cool piece about the record by Matt Fraction over at John Darnielle’s Tumblr.

The last of the “all-home-recordings albums” by the Mountain Goats and the only one about which that claim is true, All Hail West Texas was originally released as a free-standing compact disc on the late, lamented Emperor Jones. That was about a decade ago. The songs were originally transferred from the cassettes onto which they were recorded to 1/4” reels at Tiny Telephone by Alex Newport, who also played in Fudge Tunnel. John got really excited when he realized his tapes were being EQ’d by the guy from Fudge Tunnel.

Remastered from those reels, along with 7 unearthed songs from the two surviving contemporaneous cassettes, All Hail West Texas stands as the peak of the Mountain Goats’ home recording era, a time people like to refer to as “when John Darnielle had his four-track,” except John did not actually use a four-track. He used the condenser mic of a Panasonic boombox and there was no overdubbing. All songs recorded on the day they were written, usually within minutes of the actual composition. Highlights include “Jenny,” “Fall of the Star High School Running Back,” and “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton,” a song that has compelled audiences around the globe to yell “Hail Satan,” and to mean it.

Package art features a newly penned 1,800-word essay by John detailing his songwriting and recording process for the album. The LP is packaged in a deluxe gatefold jacket and includes a digital download of the full record plus the seven additional tracks. Also, this will be the first time All Hail West Texas has been available on LP. The CD, which includes the full album and extra tracks on one disc, comes in a premium digipak with a 12-page booklet.

The Mountain Goats on tour:
* = w/ The Baptist Generals
June 3 Washington, DC 9:30 Club*
June 4 York, PA Strand- Capitol Performing Arts*
June 5 Hoboken, NJ Maxwell’s*
June 7 New Haven, CT Center Church on the Green*
June 8 Portland, ME Port City Music Hall*
June 9 South Burlington, VT Higher Ground Ballroom*
June 11 Munhall, PA Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead*
June 12 Detroit, MI Majestic Theatre*
June 14 Cincinnati, OH Taft Ballroom*
June 15 Bloomington, IN Buskirk-Chumley Theatre*
June 16 Evanston, IL Space*
June 17 Chicago, IL Lincoln Hall*
June 19 Kansas City, MO The Record Bar*
June 20 St. Louis, MO Old Rock House*
June 22 Birmingham, AL The Bottletree*
June 23 Gainesville, FL High Dive*
June 24 Ft. Lauderdale, FL Culture Room*
June 26 Charleston, SC The Charleston Pourhouse *
June 27 West Columbia, SC New Brookland Tavern*
June 28 Wilmington, NC The Soapbox *
July 26-28 Newport, RI Newport Folk Festival
September 13-16 Miami, FL Atlantic Ocean Comedy and Music Festival

http://johndarnielle.tumblr.com