"We, a couple of guys named John, are going to tour, is what we're going to do," Darnielle wrote in a tour announcement posted at the band's website. "We're going to stand alone onstage and play our guitars and sing old songs & new, and then we'll probably play together. We are going to sit side by side with our acoustic guitars like two out of the five guys on the Five Man Acoustical Jam album, only with fewer Tesla songs. Because the whole point of playing an acoustic guitar is not to unplug. It's to get raw and draw blood."

The Mountain Goats continue to support their February release, "Heretic Pride," which broke into The Billboard 200 and reached No. 8 on the magazine's Heatseekers chart. Unofficially the band's 16th full-length studio release in a career dating back to 1991's cassette-only "Taboo VI: The Homecoming," the latest set from the prolific Darnielle features input from Hughes, Franklin Bruno, Annie Clark, Erik Friedlander, Jon Wurster and the Bright Mountain Choir.

The disc--co-produced by Scott Solter (Spoon, Okkervil River) and Vanderslice--follows 2007's Get Lonely," which Solter also produced.

Vanderslice is supporting his most recent album, 2007's "Emerald City." The set is his sixth solo effort since leaving alt-rockers mk Ultra in 1994.