The future days of Drag City are alive with purpose! Year after year, we’ve done our best to outdo our best by asking those crazy/sexy/cool artists of ours for another! Another record, another tour, another video, another crazy/sexy/cool idea from the depths of their twisted, coiling brainstems! And them being the freaks that they are, how could they ever resist another challenge to outdo themselves, undo expectations and do it again? And how about the benefits to you, the discerning consumer: so many wonderful records to buy, burn to your laptop, then sell for drug money, then to have the laptop taken by your dealer for collateral — people please stay out of Baltimore until you're ready! And so it has gone — we’re alive in the 16th year of our mission, releasing recordings in our collective future we never could have predicted at any point in the ever-vanishing past!

What are we talking about? What we’ve been talking about all year long — the latest from Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Six Organs of Admittance, The Howling Hex, RTX, Alasdair Roberts, Ghost, Weird War, Neil Hamburger and all the rest . Yeah, and they’ll all be joined in the marketplace before the year is through by the likes of Smog, PAJO, Gary Higgins, The Galactic Zoo Dossier, August Born and Silver Jews! And that’s not all. No, there’s more cooking. It’s not just about records — it’s happening right before your very eyes…

The Fucking Champs have lain fallow for too long — but no longer! In the wake of last year’s awe-inspiring The Fucking Am Gold album release, The Fucking Champs are back! They’re proving it the long way, with a tour that stretches across the United States, jumps the big pond, slices and dices it’s way through Europe, jumps back to the U.S. and wends its way back to sweet home San Francisco the only way The Fucking Champs know how — gig by gig, one tasty lick at a time. They’re not hawking a new release at this time — Jesus F. Christ, it’s been three whole fucking years since the immortal release of V – so if you want your shot at The Fucking Champs, go to the nearest class venue! Their arrival is imminent — if they haven’t come, seen and conquered hitherto, that is.

The whole freakin’ roster’s off to Europe, I swear! On display and wild in the streets there in the immediate, near and foreseeable future as well as the present are the following unparalled Drag City performing artists: Joanna Newsom, Six Organs of Admittance, White Magic, Alasdair Roberts, Weird War, The Red Krayola and, as mentioned above, The Fucking Champs. They do it for them, they do it for you. To see the best in selfishness and benevolence combined, not to mention good music, go to Europe immediately!

In case you weren’t able to glean from the fleeting facts stated above, 2005 finds us busy selling top-drawer new releases to you and others like you — and others like them, and so on. It’s so much, we can hardly contain ourselves! We’re sweating and moaning. We got so much to get off our chests!

The big hits and fazed cookies from this lineup include Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeny, Superwolf; Six Organs of Admittance, School of the Flower; Neil Hagerty, Public Works; The Howling Hex, All-Night Fox; RTX, "Speed to Roam," and the two records that just came out last month and are already sold out! Those titles are Alasdair Roberts’ brilliant new exposition of traditional songs and progressive sounds, No Earthly Man (produced by Will Oldham!) and Ghost’s career retrospective DVD/CD, Metamorphosis: Ghost Chronicles 1984-2004. Yes, the current crop is falling into hungry mouths — and they’re eating it up faster than we can make more! If you haven’t heard (or seen) these illustrious compendiums of ultra-entertainment…well, you know what to do! Stop what you’re doing and get thee to your nearest entertainment super-highway — or stay right here and order it on-line — if you can wait four to six weeks for your hard-earned payoff, that is!

Ah, we feel better. Consider yourself edified, Drag City-style. You’re up to speed!

It’s Weird War’s turn for the spotlight. This week, their newest, best-est album ever hits the racks – and everyone has their chance to get Illuminated by the Light. It’s the title, but it’s also a bit of a conceptual thing, if we dare posit such a thing in such shallow times — but we must, as Weird War is a concept requiring your input. Like socialism, communism or true democrazy, the music of Weird War is of, by and for the people – with the promise being, if we all work hard together, we’ll live in a better society where the parties will be better! Illuminated by the Light shines a light on that utopia, a land of the people’s sounds, the airwaves crammed with compelling beats, songs to learn and sing, hooks galore and the message! The message that speaks to and for us all.

Alex, MM, Svenonious and Sebastian have filled the calendar for the months ahead with missionary work — taking them to every rock and roll hostel they can possibly pencil in. Europe comes first — and is happening now! With the Americas to follow. We’re bringing the ‘War to your hometown, people – as a member of whatever country you live in, you owe it to yourself to sign on for a tour of duty. One night only – but a lifetime of freedom to follow – whotta deal!

Yes, after years of struggle in obscurity, Neil Hamburger is going public! Public television, that is. Here’s the story behind the puzzling news: after several years of obscurity, Steve Moramarco’s film short adaptation of Neil’s great comedy album Left for Dead In Malaysia has been picked up for repeated broadcasts on PBS outlets around the country! No, it’s not part of some vile fund-raising scheme where they show the movie repeatedly until you pledge some money — this is actually in the name of entertainment! The details of this arrangement are still being hammered out, and once we know more, such as broadcast times, etc, we’ll pass it on to all the Hamburger faithful.

Scenes from the short film Left for Dead in Malaysia
featuring veteran actor Martin Warner

Not only is Neil coming back to television, he’s also coming back to a top comedy club near you! In celebration of his brand-new album Great Moments at DiPresa’s Pizza House (in stores soon!), Neil’s booking agency has scheduled six weeks of headlining appearances around the U.S. Neil warmed up for this lengthy, potentially exhausting stretch with a smaller set of dates – which of course are all a part of his famed "Tour That Never Seems to End." The routing put him in front of audiences in South America – south Texas, south Louisiana and so forth. Fans and their rowdy friends made it a night to remember in many of those greasy back-holes – but none greasier or more memorable than in New Orleans, where audience participation reached an apex as the local rowdies tried to get Hamburger drunk on some of the oldest libations known to man. We're talking urine here, people! Neil was drunk, but not that drunk — he laid the complimentary cup aside, and later "accidentally" spilled it into the audience. And the "perp" was later "accidentally" arrested elsewhere in the French Quarter — which makes sense. I mean, who gets arrested on purpose?

The rest of the tour passed without incident. Be sure to catch Neil on his next tour — but please, leave your urine at home!

He left a good job in the city, working for the man (us) every night and day – but he never lost a minute of sleeping, worrying about the way things might have been. They call him Smog – and he’s breaking the waves with a rose between his teeth. That rose is called A River Ain’t Too Much to Love.

This is what it looks like:

and here are the song titles:

and if you haven’t downloaded the preview mp3 from our front page, what are you waiting for, foo'?

A River Ain’t Too Much to Love proves that still waters still run deep. Smog’s newest songs are like a cycle, with plenty of glints and highlights as it revolves. Smog will be touring all over Europe upon the May 31st release of the record, but before we let him go, he’ll be playing instore appearances at Amoeba Records in both LA and San Francisco as well as Waterloo Records in Austin. There will be some radio shows and maybe even paying gigs in this whirlwind promo tour, all happening in the last week of May. We’ll have mo’ better information for you on the next newsletter – or sooner, even! But don’t forget, you heard it here first – you’re gonna love A River Ain’t Too Much to Love.

Last year, The Red Krayola made their mark once again with their career-spanning Singles compilation and a record of lost-then-found soundtrack music from the later 90s, Japan In Paris In L.A. Since then, sightings of the band have increased, and as the basic principles of energy demand, they continue to roll into a state of higher expression.

Last month we told you about the rapturous reception of The Red Krayola in Japan. Though they haven’t been to Japan in seven years, their special relationship with their Japanese fans has only deepened – crowds gathered and saluted the hits from every era of The Red Krayola’s history with equal mania, participated as well in the free-form freakouts that are The Red Krayola’s stock in trade. Now the band pick up the thread in Europe, where their first tour in twenty years is now beginning. They’ll be all over Germany and Italy as well as Switzerland and the Netherlands. It all begins with a two-night stand at Fondation Cartier in Paris. These are shows not to miss, for who knows when they might happen again?

The adventures won’t stop there however – in June, once and future Krayola kollaborators Art & Language will open an exhibition at the Lisson Gallery in London. This is in addition to an exhibition currently running at the Baltimore Museum of Art, which includes the films Struggle in New York, and Nine Gross and Conpicuous Errors featuring The Red Krayola with Art & Language. However, what make the forthcoming Lisson Gallery exhibition unique is that plans are in the works for a performance reunion between Mayo Thompson and Art & Language sometime during the installation.

Whew! We’re excited enough to prepare repressings of the CDs we reissued in 1997, Corrected Slogans and Kangaroo?, both of which feature Red K and A&L. In addition to these, we’ll also be bringing back the CDs of those 90s favorites "Amor & Language," and Coconut Hotel (which was recorded in 1968 but didn’t come out until 1995). Look for those in June. It’s a new age of Red Krayola-dom and we don’t want to miss it!

Last but definitely not least is the stated intention of Mayo and gang to get back together in a studio environment and cut an all-new Red Krayola album – the first in six years, by our count! We’ll let you know more when we know more – but until then, sate yourselves with shows, reissues, and gallery installations – and more?

Look out for PAJO’s new release!

For many years, the mystical, magnetic yarn woven by David "Papa M" Pajo has entranced humans by the thousands and thousands all around the world. From his earliest days as Aerial M through the dark instrumental storms of Live From a Shark Cage to the with-and-without vocals masterpiece "Whatever, Mortal" and onto his singles series that kept so many fans of sound on the tender edges of their massive collective seat, Pajo’s guitar-driven concoctions have rocked inner and outer worlds alike.

That’s all behind him and you and us now – now we have to deal with something completely new and different. The PAJO album is slated to come out in June – and gone are the exotic, side-long instrumental workouts – in their place are songs with singing (with exotic backing tracks, it’s true) – broken-hearted and vengeful singing, delivered in a slicing. multi-tracked whisper of sorts! Clearly, PAJO has some issues on this record – and they don’t seem to be with the government (though if they were, that would be pretty weird, cool and creepy).

Packaged in a super-slick, wordless booklet featuring wave after wave, PAJO is something else. We can’t wait for you to dip your hands into PAJO’s new release!

For us and a lot of others of you out there, it’s been a Six Organs of Admittance kind of year. Not only has the arguably greatest SOOA record been released (School of the Flower…but we all have our favorites, don’t we?), but Ben "Six Organs of Admittance" Chasny has been on tour all around the world, both in his traditional solo stance, and also as a duo with School of the Flower (and free-jazz drumming sensation) Chris Corsano. There’s more dates coming, including a few in Toronto with Current 93, but we’re here to tell you to keep August open. That’s when the August Born LP/CD comes into this world. August Born is collaboration between Six Organs of Admittance and L (aka Hiroyuki Usui, architect of the incredible Holy Letters album). Guess what? It’s an out-there meeting of the minds that takes them and us and you to new places and spaces that we’re all going to need a little time to get back from. You’ll be hearing more about it between now and then, but in the meantime – you’ve been warned!

Silver Jews fans, we salute you! You’ve been patient. In the three-and-a-half years since the release of Bright Flight (and the hit-single-that-never-was-but-still-is, "Tennessee") you’ve sated yourself with t-shirts, poetry readings and idle gossip. Over the course of the last few months though, the fervor has been building – and now it’s time to call home the truth. The new Silver Jews record is finished – and set for an October release. It’s an insane trip to the heart of darkness, perhaps a different Silver Jews than anyone has ever heard before – but as ever, it’s full of profundity, humor and heart – and features a cast of thousands. Look forward to Tanglewood Numbers, the latest Silver Jews record coming this fall.

David Berman goes back to what he insists is a drawing board
to explain The Silver Jews newest moves.

What else could we possibly say? To you, I mean. Ah, forget it — see you next time.

Rian Murphy
April 2005