The Mountain GoatsAmerican indie-folk icons The Mountain Goats are returning to the spotlight three years after the release of their last album with the revelation of details for their impending 15th studio full-length, Beat The Champ.
Due for international release in April, the album's songs all carry a professional-wrestling theme, as worn on the sleeves of song titles such as first single The Legend Of Chavo Guerrero. (If you're not a smark — that's shorthand for "smart mark", which is shorthand for "fan who knows what's up with this whole 'wrestling is fake' thing" — Chavo Guerrero Sr was a prominent and successful member of the Guerrero wrestling dynasty, which also includes his son, Chavo Jr, and his late brother and turn-of-the-21st-century WWE superstar Eddie Guerrero. The more you know.)
Of the reasons for bestowing upon the album its ties to the squared circle, frontman John Darnielle explained in a statement: "I wrote these songs to re-immerse myself in the blood and fire of the visions that spoke to me as a child, and to see what more there might be in them now that I'm grown."
Or, to hear Welcome To Night Vale (it's a podcast, get into it, it's 2015) writer and co-creator Joseph Fink tell it: "The songs in Beat The Champ are about the simple and beautiful stories of professional wrestling as seen by fans who need something simple in their messy lives. The songs are also about the complicated and beautiful lives of the people who work in professional wrestling, who do their best to entertain, to leave a mark, and, when all else fails, to survive."
Listen to The Legend Of Chavo Guerrero below, and see if you can pick up on any of that. Even if you can't, you'll still probably be able to enjoy some objectively quality tunes.
Beat The Champ will be released via Remote Control Records on 3 April. If the whole 'pro-wrestling' bent is putting you off, maybe understanding the super-real aspects of it will help soften your stance. Maybe.
