Pitchfork

Front page photo by Kyle Gustafson

Mountain Goat is in season these next couple of months. Following the February 19 release of Heretic Pride via 4AD (check out the pretty cover right up there), John Darnielle and co. will saddle up for a recently extended North American tour, starting with a release date show in Anchorage, Alaska.

Shortly, the band will unleash the first video from Heretic Pride, for opener "Sax Rohmer #1". The video's director is Ace Norton, who directed Darnielle in Aesop Rock's "Coffee" video.

Then, on April 15, we will all come one step closer to world peace, with the publishing of Darnielle's take on the Black Sabbath album Master of Reality, as part of the 33 1/3 series of books about albums.

According to the book's description, "John Darnielle describes Master of Reality in the voice of a fifteen-year-old boy being held in an adolescent psychiatric center in southern California in 1985. The narrator explains Black Sabbath like an emissary from an alien race describing his culture to his captors: passionately, patiently, and lovingly. This album has a genuinely remarkable historical status: as a touchstone for the directionless, and as a common coin for young men and women who felt shut out of the broader cultural economy."

For a 10-page sample of the kick-ass-sounding book, email sabbathsampler@yahoo.com.

Or for more-- lots more-- writing by John Darnielle, read his excellent blog Last Plane to Jakarta.

Thanks to reader Bryan McKay for the book tip.

Goats:

02-19 Anchorage, AK - Wendy Williamson Auditorium *
02-22 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards *
02-23 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
02-25 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge *
02-26 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge *
02-27 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall *
02-29 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's 365 Club *
03-01 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
03-02 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
03-04 West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour *
03-05 West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour *
03-13 Northampton, MA - Pearl Street #
03-14 Boston, MA - Museum of Fine Arts #
03-15 Boston, MA - The Middle East Underground #
03-18 New York, NY - Webster Hall #
03-19 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg #
03-20 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church #
03-22 Washington, DC - The Black Cat #

* with Jeffrey Lewis & the Jitters
# with the Moaners