The Mountain Goats have been gearing up to release a new album called Days on August 7th via their own Cadmean Dawn label, and it was originally going to be titled Grunges, in the spirit of their 2017 album Goths, which among other topics had a song about the changing lineup of Gene Loves Jezebel. There are titles on the new album such as "Song for Layne Staley" that hint John Darnielle didn't entirely abandon the theme. And now the newest single from the album is called "Candlebox" and, according to John in a press release, tells the story of a not-named band who scores an opening slot on the Madonna-signed, long-haired '90s hitmakers' tour.

Our new single is called "Candlebox" and is about a nameless band in the '90s who get offered an opening slot on the Candlebox tour. 1993, maybe, or 1994, and shortly after the whole experience they’re not a band anymore. Days is an album about how the past looks when you’re looking at it from way down the line, so I had to call in Matt Nathanson to sing harmonies; we were young men together when stories like this one were being passed around like lore. Recorded at the legendary Sear Sound in Manhattan during perfect weather. John Congleton produced and mixed. Jon Wurster on drums, Matt Douglas on guitar, Rob Jost played bass, I played keys and did the guitar solo. Set the dial for maximum '90s because we pulled out all the stops: enjoy!

Then Stereogum did their due diligence and asked Candlebox for a reaction: the band's singer Kevin Martin called the Mountain Goats "amazing" and says he loves it. He relayed that the band shared it with him before the song was released. Listen to "Candlebox" below.