Welcome back to Drag City time! This time, we’ve got news of the old and news of the new, the live and never-dead, and more. ‘Twas ever thus…

Out this week, and every week from now on, come to think of it, is the album called PAJO by the man called Pajo. David Pajo to his friends and Papa M to a fandom built up over the course of several albums and a bevy of singles and shows and the like. Packaged exquisitely with steely black-and-blue shots of the ocean waves, PAJO features almost no words in its artwork, saving them all up for each and every song — and then imparting them in a tight-lipped wisp, trailing through the guitar constructions in a fashion most lonesome. It’s arresting and innaresting, as they say down in Oklahoma — PAJO hints at something creepy and something sad while lifting gently up in best pop tradition. Nighttime music for the early morning, perhaps — or any way you like it. The only way for you to find out is to get a copy of this new CD and see what you hear.

Also out this week and on shelves once again for the first time in several years is a quartet of titles from The Red Krayola. Spanning the years 1966-1995, these titles are among many long-time fans’ favorites: Coconut Hotel, Corrected Slogans, Kangaroo? and “Amor and Language.” All are back on CD only, as long as supplies last — children, get out your Krayolas!

That’s what’s new — but there’s lots more coming…

Coming around the bend and approaching us rapidly in a distinctive, multicolored buckboard are the class of late July: Gary Higgins, Bonnie Billy/Matt Sweeney and the Galactic Zoo Dossier, bringing news of music and music of news. Let us explain:

If you’ve been down under the rock (note we said ‘the’ and not ‘a’ — wink, wink!), perhaps you haven’t time to notice the most incredible reissue of the year (note we didn’t say which year), our very special reproduction of Gary Higgins’ Red Hash. Originally almost not released in 1973 — in other words, pressed but barely distributed — Red Hash has become a sign on the road for all those running along the road to psychedelic nirvana (in other words, the road to nowhere). Tucked away and shielded from the hard-knock life in rural New England, Gary and Co. put the material together for Red Hash over the course of several years, resulting in a feeling of community all too rare on most lost psychedelic masterworks. Red Hash features tight arrangements of folk-based tunes, running a gamut of moods and feelings. It’s a really remarkable record, and like many like it, its due is several decades late in coming. We hope you’ll join us in giving Red Hash a due or two.

Fortuitious planning has led the Galactic Zoo Dossier issue #6 to be released on the same date as Red Hash. If you’re not familiar, the GZD is a fanzine dedicated to the celebration and dissection of all lysergic culture as it was is and shall ever be! A pure signal of the dedication of GZD head-writer/editor/brainchild Plastic Crimewave is the magazine’s format — almost entirely hand-written-and-drawn! Not only are essays on such obscure-yet-awesome bands as The Tickle, The Koobas and Stackwaddy (all featured in the new ish!) written in hand, they also feature pen-and-ink illustrations of the groups that many of us out here never thought we’d see in the more predictable photo-form! In addition to this delightful entertainment, the magazine comes with 72 “Damaged Guitar Trading Cards” — more hand-rendered labors of love, tributing everyone from folkers like Davy Graham and Jackson C. Frank through to more recent gods, such as Greg Sage, Helios Creed and Michio Kurihara, as well as lots of others you’ve heard and not heard of. But that’s not all! This issue comes with a mind-blowing double-disc of psychedelic sounds, matching insanely unheard old tracks (Glass Menagerie, Index, The Bitter End) with stuff from the new masters (Six Organs of Admittance, Children’s Hour, Acid Mothers Temple) in heavy doses. All of this bagged securely for your pleasure and offered at the list cost of $16.98…what, are we high? No, just crazy! Spread the word — with the new Galactic Zoo Dossier. Issue #6, coming to newsstands near you soon.

Finally, there’s a Bonny/Sweeny CD single enhanced to spin a video in your CD-Rom pit. The video and single are called by the same name  “I Gave You,” one of the favorites off the recent Superwolf album. In addition to that song and video, three additional tunes are included, each in the luminous, semi-acoustic and sometimes harmony-laden style that Bonny Billy and Matt Sweeny have been knocking ‘em dead with all around the world this year. It’s awesome and the cover graphic comes from the gut.

So get yours, while supplies last. 

Bonnie “Prince” Billy releases a new CD single (as explicated just above) with Matt Sweeney on July 26th entitled “I Gave You.” In between now and then, he’s playing festivals in France, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, with more to come in August. In addition, there’s the Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack and his special merger with iTunes. More about this below — lots o' Bonnie news this time...

Faun Fables are back home in San Francisco and playing with Dungen at Bottom of the Hill on Friday, July 8th.

David Grubbs is appearing in Ireland at the Cork International Poetry Festival on Saturday, July 9th in a duet with poet Susan Howe — a preview of their forthcoming album on Blue Chopsticks, Thiefth (due out this fall).

Neil Hamburger is appearing at the Royal Albert Arms in Winnipeg, Manitoba on Saturday, July 23rd as part of Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Tickets are the normal inflated festival fare — but the laughs are on Neil!

Galactic Zoo Dossier returns to the book shelves, magazine racks and head shops on July 26th with issue #6, as elaborated upon above. There should be a release party in Chicago sometime around then too — stay tuned...

Gary Higgins is releasing Red Hash on July 28th (as mentioned above) and celebrating by playing a show in NYC on the Saturday night before that — Saturday, July the 23rd, to be precise — at Tonic with a couple members of the original Red Hash crew. Ben Chasny opens.

The Howling Hex are playing at the Austin Drafthouse Cinema Downtown on Tuesday, July 12th, plus they’re on iTunes every day with the exclusive track “Sick and Old.” Plus, they’re chilling (hardly!) after the completion of their first film and next album, more news on which elsewhere. Don’t miss any of it!

Joanna Newsom is in Europe, playing all over Denmark at the Rotheskilde Festival on July 5th, 6th and 7th. Then she’s off to Montreaux for the legendary Montreaux Jazz Festival, where it is rumored she will “go electric” with an all-star band...just kidding!!! Tell the JNA to stand down…

David Pajo is relaxing following the release of his debut album, PAJO and his show at the end of June in New York.

Pearls & Brass are reclining as well, readying for another onslaught out east in August  tour dates as they occur!

Smog’s in Europe playings gigs, concerts and shows all over the places, but he’s going to be back in the USA in late July. Why the globe-trotting? Sir, you offend me! You’re saying that you haven’t heard of his much-discussed and acclaimed A River Ain’t Too Much to Love album? It came out at the end of May and has been knocking out young and old Smog fans alike — and gawkers who didn’t know where they stood until now. If you’re in Europe, get out your Eurail pass and get going! If you’re in America, give the record another spin and hold your water.

Weird War are preparing for a busy July — indeed, a July in which they have a gig somewhere in America each and every day! Their national tour begins on July 5th in Nashville and plows through all regions of the country until it concludes on August 6th back in their home of Washington D.C. This is their first U.S. tour in well over a year, which means that Americans probably haven’t gotten to see them perform any of the superb material from their defining statement, Illuminated By the Light with all-star drummer Sebastian Thompson.

So now you know where everything’s at. Geez, the calendar’s all filled up with things to get and things to do as well as things not to miss!

That’s covered above, don’t you think? If not, we’ll try to answer this one next month.

If you’re going to iTunes to download all your favorite Bonnie “Prince” Billy tunes, you might have an upleasant surprise — unpleasant unless all your favorite Bonnie “Prince” Billy tunes are from his recent Superwolf album. That’s the only BPB collection up there —and it's up there for a limited time only. On the first day of Autumn, it comes down again, to be downloaded no further.  So, if you like your music in the rich tones of mp3 at a dollar a song and you haven’t heard the Superwolf album yet, you know what to do. No, go to iTunes .

Meanwhile, Bonnie sang for Bjork’s Drawing Restraint 9 soundtrack album — on just one tune only, but a really great one. For more details about the tune, the soundtrack album and the movie of the same name, check this out:

http://unit.bjork.com/specials/dr9/

Last up but not least on the Bonnie beat is, don’t forget he’s playing at all sorts of awesome festival events this summer! We touched on this briefly above but would like to remind you that the dates he’s on right now are only phase one, and that all details can be found at our tour page.

Howling Hex fans, face front! As stated above, the word is in: The Howling Hex have booked a show. Now before you can say, Just One Show? a word to the wise — this isn’t “just” a “show”  haven’t you heard? The Howling Hex are a multi-headed, multi-media entertainment enterprise. To quote our own press release:

The Howling Hex are taking it to the stage in Austin, Texas, July 12, 2005 for the debut performance of The Howling Hex in full non-stop concert including Neil Micheal Hagerty, The Theater Fire, and the mighty "All-Night Fox." Guitars, singers, drummers, guitars, bass and brass from the vast expanses of Mid-America and The Southwest will commandeer the boards amid the banners, shouts, dancing and video which accompany The Howling Hex to every concert.

…shit, now that sounds like a show! And since it’s the only one, not only in town, not just in the country, but the only Howling Hex show scheduled for this whole world at this point, I think we all owe it to ourselves to start heading south ASAP (or north, if we’re so inclined). Your ETA in Austin is the late afternoon July 12th — just enough time to freshen up before the big show begins! 

Howling Hex tune up before the big show.

Also Howling Hex-wise, don’t forget to turn everyone on to their iTunes exclusive download track, "Sick and Old." It’s nowhere else — until somebody starts burning copies and selling them online, that is.

Silver Jews news is in short supply — but good things still come in small packages! To wit — Tanglewood Numbers is still set for October release — October 18th, to be precise. Jews fans, get your camping gear and set up outside the nearest fine record retailer. We’ll have more news about this as we go through the summer.

As we write this, the waning days of June are upon us. And since we’ve written plenty thus far, we’re going to wait until July to write more about August Born. Back at the end of May, we wrote a few edifying comments on the topic, so travel back to that dusty old newsletter if you have to know today. If not, you got to wait til next time, because…

…my friend, the end. We don’t really have a proper Azita update — she’s on tour with Bonnie Billy and Matt Sweeney in Europe at the moment — so we might as well close here. Stay well, get the new PAJO, look for the other new things in a couple of weeks, days or hours (depending on when you’re reading this) — and I’ll have more for you soon.

Rian Murphy
Drag City
June 2005