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

indie folk Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its ...

band

the Mountain Goats The Mountain Goats are an American band formed in Claremont, California, by singer-songwriter John Darnielle. The band is currently based in Durham, North Carolina. For many years, the sole member of the Mountain Goats was Darnielle, despite the ...

, 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 expande ...

. 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 * Memp ...

, in the same room where

psychobilly Psychobilly is a rock music fusion genre that fuses elements of rockabilly and punk rock. It's been defined as "loud frantic rockabilly music", it has also been said that it "takes the traditional countrified rock style known as rockabilly, ram ...

band

the Cramps The Cramps were an American rock band formed in 1976 and active until 2006. 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 record producer, Grammy award winning Audio engineer, engineer, and Mixing engineer, mixer. His credits include such artists as Jason Isbell, Margo Price, John Prine and Elvis Presley. Life and career Matt Ross-Sp ...

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

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

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 m ...

, and

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

. 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 of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music 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 ...

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. Hodge ...

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

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

, featuring the band as

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

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 audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

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. ...

– 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 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 '' The Best Show'' with ...

– 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 and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

* 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 pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

* 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 in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 21,295 at the 2020 census.2020 albums Merge Records albums The Mountain Goats albums Albums produced by Matt Ross-Spang