The Mountain Goats announce the reissue of the The Coroner’s Gambit. The reissue of The Coroner’s Gambit returns on all formats June 28, 2024, via Merge Records and features new liner notes written by John Darnielle. In a nod to the original release, a limited number of Peak Vinyl copies, available from the Mountain Goats’ Bandcamp page and the Merge store will be housed in a paper bag featuring the printed liner notes. The Mountain Goats are gearing up to tour the UK and Ireland before playing Primavera Sound this May. John Darnielle will perform a solo set during the Merge 35 festival in July, and the band will play a co-headlining show with The New Pornographers in August.

John Darnielle, on The Coroner’s Gambit:

“There are few records in the Mountain Goats catalog that are closer to my heart than The Coroner’s Gambit. It bears a sonic thumbprint shared by none of its brethren (Panasonic RX-FT500, Marantz PMD-222, and sessions in Omaha probably recorded to a Tascam Porta-One) and while two of those sources appear on several later releases, none of the other records really sound like it. Although it contains exactly no autobiographical songs, it feels personal to me — intimate, diaristic. I have vivid memories of the songs I wrote and recorded in Colo, and foggy memories of the Greyhound trip to & from Omaha. I was taking Greyhounds across midwestern state lines to record songs with friends when I made The Coroner’s Gambit, is what I’m saying. You can maybe hear the exhaust of the Greyhound in the songs if you listen close.”

The Coroner’s Gambit finds John Darnielle between physical and sonic spaces, five of its sixteen songs recorded in Simon Joyner’s Omaha, Nebraska studio, five more at home in Colo, Iowa, and the rest after he moved to Ames. The mix of home and studio recordings grants The Coroner’s Gambit sense of immediacy, its drawn characters and the appointed lore of the worlds, representing a breakthrough for Darnielle as a songwriter.

The Mountain Goats 2024 Tour Dates:

May 21 Bristol, UK – Beacon*
May 22 London, UK – Roundhouse*
May 24 Glasgow, UK – Barrowland Ballroom*
May 25 Manchester, UK – Albert Hall*
May 26 Dublin, IE – Vicar Street*
May 28 Barcelona, ES – Primavera Sound
Jul 24 Carrboro, NC – Merge 35 (John Darnielle Solo)
Aug 04 Vienna, VA – Wolf Trap+

* w/Gently Tender
+ w/The New Pornographers

Pre-order The Coroner’s Gambit HERE