In 1991, a proud, upstanding citizen named Carlos Estévez watched a movie. He had a professional interest in the form. A second-generation actor, he often worked in films himself. When he did so, he used the stage name Charlie Sheen. The movie he watched on this fateful evening was Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood, written and directed by Hideshi Hino. Our hero, who, to be fair, didn’t have a lot of experience acting in horror films, convinced himself that the heightened scenes of torture playing out before him were real instead of staged. He had stumbled upon a snuff film disguised as a work of fiction, he was certain. As an unimpeachably moral person who took his civic responsibilities seriously, he called the FBI.

This true Hollywood tale is so clearly the sort of absurdity that would inspire John Darnielle to write a song that it’s mildly surprising that it took him twenty-four Mountain Goats albums to get around to it. “Charlie Sheen Reaches Out to the Feds” is a quintessential Mountain Goats song, complete with Darnielle transforming a familiar turn of phrase (“I will rise to this occasion”) into a chorus so resounding that it strangely feels like he coined the expression in the first place. It’s catchy, it’s funny, it’s simply a great time.

Days, the new album from the Mountain Goats, is scheduled for release in August.