''Getting Into Knives'' is the nineteenth studio album by

indie folk Indie folk (also called alternative folk) is an alternative genre of music that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Characteristics The staff of '' Paste Magazine'' said in 2020: "No music genre ...

band

the Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats are a United States band formed in Claremont, California, Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina, Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole me ...

, released on October 23, 2020, through

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expand ...

. The album was recorded in March 2020 over six days at Sam Philips Recording in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Mem ...

, in the same room where

psychobilly Psychobilly (or punkabilly) is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It has been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional country rock, countrified rock ...

band

the Cramps The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2009. Their lineup rotated frequently during their existence, with the husband-and-wife duo of singer Lux Interior and guitarist Poison Ivy the only ever-present members. T ...

tracked their 1980 debut album ''

Songs the Lord Taught Us ''Songs the Lord Taught Us'' is the debut album by the American rock band the Cramps. It was released in 1980 on I.R.S. Records in America and Illegal Records in England. In 2020, ''Rolling Stone'' included ''Songs the Lord Taught Us'' in their ...

''. ''Getting Into Knives'' was produced, engineered, and mixed by

Matt Ross-Spang Matt Ross-Spang is an American Grammy award winning record producer, engineer, and mixer. His credits include such artists as Jason Isbell, Margo Price, Al Green, John Prine and Elvis Presley. Life and career Matt Ross-Spang, born in Memphis, ...

, who previously engineered '' In League with Dragons'' (2019). In addition to being available on

streaming Streaming media refers to multimedia delivered through a network for playback using a media player. Media is transferred in a ''stream'' of packets from a server to a client and is rendered in real-time; this contrasts with file downl ...

and download services, the album also saw physical release on CD,

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

, and

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback * Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...

. The lead single, "As Many Candles as Possible", was released on August 11, 2020, along with a

lyric video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to promote the sale of m ...

directed by Lalitree Darnielle. The song features organist

Charles Hodges Charles Edward Hodges (born June 29, 1947 in Memphis, Tennessee) is an American organist and songwriter. He is known for his high tone on the Hammond B3 organ, that appeared on records by Al Green, and other musicians signed to Hi Records. Ho ...

. "Get Famous" was released on September 14, 2020 and the

music video A music video is a video that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

, featuring the band as

bobblehead A bobblehead, also known by nicknames such as nodder, wobbler, or wacky wobbler, is a type of small collectible figurine. Its head is often oversized compared to its body. Instead of a solid connection, its head is connected to the body by a ...

s, was released on October 1, 2020. The final single "Picture of My Dress" was released on October 12, 2020.

Track listing

Album and track metadata and details adapted from

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Personnel

The Mountain Goats *

John Darnielle John Darnielle (; born March 16, 1967) is an American musician and novelist best known as the primary, and originally sole, member of the American band The Mountain Goats, for which he is the writer, composer, guitarist, pianist, and vocalist. H ...

– vocals, guitars, piano * Peter Hughes – electric bass, upright bass * Matt Douglas – keyboards, woodwinds, guitars, accordion, backing vocals *

Jon Wurster Jonathan Patrick Wurster (born October 31, 1966) is an American drummer, percussionist, vocalist and comedy writer. As a musician, he is best known for his work with Superchunk, the Mountain Goats, and Bob Mould. He is also known for appearing on ...

– drums, percussion Additional personnel * Bram Gielen – piano, guitars, keyboards * Chris Boerner – guitars *

–

Hammond B-3 The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

* Sam Shoup –

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

* Tom Clary – horns * Reba Russell – backing vocals * Susan Marshall – backing vocals Production *

– production, engineering, mixing * Brent Lambert – mastering (The Kitchen Mastering,

Carrboro, North Carolina Carrboro is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 21,295 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census.

) * Daniel Murphy – design * Wesley Graham – assistant * Matt Denham – studio attaché * Ryan Matteson – assistant

Charts

References

External links

* {{authority control 2020 albums Merge Records albums The Mountain Goats albums Albums produced by Matt Ross-Spang