The Mountain Goats Release ‘Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome’ Single

The Mountain Goats shared a new single, “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome.” The song is set to appear on the band’s upcoming album, Bleed Out, arriving on August 19 via Merge Records.

The Mountain Goats announced Bleed Out — inspired by action movies from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s — in June and shared the single “Training Montage.” The North Carolina-based band now follows with “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,” which frontman John Darnielle detailed:

“When I write an album that revolves around a theme, it usually takes two or three songs before I notice what’s going on. There’s always one song that becomes the ‘might as well dive all the way in’ song and on Bleed Out that song was ‘Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome,’ written while watching a French action movie way past my normal bedtime. Once I had the chorus of this one I started asking myself the kinds of questions that usually end up shaping the album: What if I just wrote all the songs on guitar? What if I leaned into the uptempo ones? In recent years I shy away from the fist-punch no-brakes anthemic style but here I figured, you know, no point just wading around in blood if I’m already in knee-deep.”

Stream “Wage Wars Get Rich Die Handsome” in the lyric video below: