The Mountain Goats are hitting the road next week to visit the few places they missed on the All Eternals Deck tour in 2011. In an exercise hearkening back to the ’70s tours of The Rolling Stones and Neil Young, John, Peter and Jon have been demoing songs for their new, as-yet-untitled album and have chosen a few brand-new songs to perform each night during this tour.

John posted the following on his website regarding this new plan:

“One small word about these shows. For years bands have been pretty judicious about playing unreleased new material, because much of it becomes available online immediately, even when the new songs are still in fairly raw form. We, too, have gotten into the bad habit of holding new stuff back. We are done with that whole philosophy, though. I miss playing stuff that’s unreleased & unrecorded, stuff that still stings fresh. So we got together and decided to tour the new songs before we even record them. I don’t guess that we’ll be touring all ten of the new songs I’ve written for the next album (eleven if you count one that’s presently being herded back and forth between its cell & the chopping block), but be advised that if you’re the sort of person who wants as many surprises as possible when you hear a new album, you should tread lightly around recordings of these shows, because we’re not going to be holding the best ones back for the album release like people tend to do now.”

Full list of tour dates is below and you can find the Mountain Goats’ All Eternals Deck on CD, LP and digital download now in the Merge store.

 the Mountain Goats on tour:
* = w/ Nurses
Jan 19 Austin, TX – Antone’s* SOLD OUT
Jan 20 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s*
Jan 21 New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s*
Jan 23 Tallahassee, FL – Club Downunder*
Jan 24 Orlando, FL – The Social*
Jan 25 Tampa, FL – Crowbar*
Jan 27 St. Augustine, FL – The Original Cafe Eleven*
Jan 28 Atlanta, GA – The Earl*
Jan 30 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club*
Jan 31 Charlotte, NC – Visulite Theatre*
Feb 02 Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle*
Feb 04 Saxapahaw, NC – The Haw River Ballroom*
Mar 09 Denton, TX – 35 Denton Festival*
Mar 13 New York, NY – Carnegie Hall: “The Music of the Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks 1964–1971”
Mar 24 New York, NY – Ecstatic Music Festival w/ Anonymous 4
Apr 02 London, UK – The Barbican w/ Anonymous 4

The Mountain Goats returned to the AV Club’s round room in Chicago to perform “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” for the Holiday Undercover series. The full band had previously visited the AV Club Undercover to cover Jawbreaker’s “Boxcar.”

Watch the Mountain Goats perform “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

The Mountain Goats wrapped up their 2011 touring in support of All Eternals Deck with a Los Angeles show for charity Invisible Children last weekend, and they have announced tour dates for early 2012. Go see them!

The Mountain Goats’ Merge debut All Eternals Deck is available on CD, LP and digital download in the Merge store. Orders over $50 save 10% with code MERGEHOLIDAYS through the end of December.

The Mountain Goats on tour:
* = w/ Nurses
Jan 19 Austin, TX – Antone’s*
Jan 20 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s*
Jan 21 New Orleans, LA – Tipitina’s*
Jan 23 Tallahassee, FL – Club Downunder*
Jan 24 Orlando, FL – The Social*
Jan 25 Tampa, FL – Crowbar*
Jan 27 St. Augustine, FL – The Original Cafe Eleven*
Jan 28 Atlanta, GA – The Earl*
Jan 30 Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club*
Jan 31 Charlotte, NC – Visulite Theatre*
Feb 02 Asheville, NC – Grey Eagle*
Feb 04 Saxapahaw, NC – The Haw River Ballroom*
Mar 09 Denton, TX – 35 Denton Festival*
Mar 13 New York, NY – Carnegie Hall: “The Music of the Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks 1964–1971”
Mar 24 New York, NY – Ecstatic Music Festival w/ Anonymous 4
Apr 02 London, UK – The Barbican w/ Anonymous 4