It’s a great, big wonderful world! Too bad then, that the excitement of spinning through the cosmos is lost on most of us every day, as we rot slowly in the traffic that takes us to and from our dead-end jobs…but have a care and don’t forget, we’re riding on the cosmic winds. And music has the power to lift us up and put us there once again! That’s why every time we here at Drag City release a record or wave goodbye to a van full of musicians on their way out to rock the world, we feel it — and you feel it — and the world changes somehow — because once again, the power cosmic is ours.

And once again, the power is massing within us…come see why.

…August Born, that is! Yup, the earth is at least one record heavier this week, now that we’ve released the very first album by an incredible duo of incredible musicians! The incredible duo is Ben Chasny and Hiroyuki Usui, a pair of individuals who’ve gotten way out with an assorted number of other like-minded way-outs (like Fushitsusha, Six Organs of Admittance, Marble Sheep, Comets on Fire and L — to name but a chosen few!). Their sound is the sound of old-school spiritual music — old as time immemorial, but played in the moment, in tribute to the day that was today. The making of the record itself was an undertaking of faith and patience: tapes were sent back and forth from California to Japan, as Ben and Hiroyuki responded to each other’s efforts as simply and honestly as they could feel… building a sonic convex-mirror image that they eventually named August Born, in honor of the month in which both were born. To our ears, it’s a timeworn and tattered scrapbook of sound, highlighting what each of these men does at their best but in an all-new way, of course. Available in both LP and CD, the experience of August Born is available to one and all, regardless of your birthdates — because after all, when that needle (or laser beam) touches down on your media of choice, you’ll be August re-born!

Also happening right now (or more accurately, starting a couple days from right now…but who knows when you’re reading this? What is time anyway?) is the Alasdair Roberts No Earthly Man international tour, U.S. leg. And what a long, curving leg it is! Ali’s on the highways and byways of America for nearly six weeks, playing in clubs and pubs, hives and dives in all four of the hallowed corners of this terrifying land of ours. Our Mr. Roberts isn’t afraid, though — he’s come well-equipped, with guitar, haunting tenor vocals and a collection of songs that would make old Mr. Child green with envy! See, Alasdair’s a big fan of the traditional music of his native Scotland, knows tons of songs and can sing ‘em all to make a man weep, with or without guitar! In addition to the songs of the ages, he’s collected a fine discography of originals as well — a goodly number of which’ll be on display when he comes to town.

Alasdair’s coming off a great big showing at the Green Man Festival in Wales, UK, and spends most of his time touring the UK and Europe, where they hum wordless along and swing their bier steins and shed old-world tears at his timeless a cappella renditions. He’s a part of the fabric of their lives over there — and it’s not often we can get him to play shows in America — in fact, this is only the second tour in the eight years we’ve been making records with him (under his own name and the former Appendix Out). So don’t miss his mystic local apparition — see here for advance details on the show nearest your earthly form.

photo: E. Perez

True dat — the Smog Tour that Never Ends is coming to a close! The Little River Ain’t Too Much To Love Tour That Could 2005 has wound round the private parts of the word and tickled one and all — but now, with an awesome stroke down America’s Pacific rim, Smog will put paid to this tour once and for all! UNTIL he returns to Europe for a few dates more later in September! And then tours Australia and New Zealand in early October! What’s next, the moon? It looks like Smog is angling to be declared our…well, more on this in a few paragraphs.

Gee wiz, when we said the time was right for Red Hash, we hardly knew the least of which we spoke! I mean, who knew that a mysterious issuance from the soft white underbelly of America circa 1973 would turn out to be the surprise hit for the middle underground of America 2005? The CD is flying off shelves faster than we can re-press it — and the journalists, hungry for a story, are flocking to write about Gary Higgins. It’s not just music magazines like MOJO, either — the New Moosewood Cookbook phoned up, asking about Gary’s recipe for Red Hash Cake; Harper’s wants do a piece on communal living down on the farm; The Hard Cell wants to know if he’s got any old prison diaries. For Gary, it’s all about the music — he’s planning more shows like his triumphant return to New York a month or so back and writing new songs — so stay patient, people, and stay within yourselves. And get Red Hash — it’s one of the best records of the year.

But enough of what’s happening today! Let’s talk about tomorrow. Coming on September 20th, Blue Chopsticks releases Thiefth, a collaboration between poet Susan Howe and musician David Grubbs. They came together in late 2003, to put together a spoken-word-and-music performance for the Fondation Center in Paris. They adapted a couple of Howe’s longer poems, “Thorow” and “Melville’s Marginalia” and once they were done, they felt so satisfied, they decided to issue the results on CD. From thence came Thiefth. It’s a super-limited edition of 500, so get thee to a CD-erry and make the purchase!

Also on September 20th is the inevitable-yet-unbelievable reissue of Bastro’s Antlers: Live 1991 CD, which came and went so quickly back in February, you’d almost think it was withdrawn or something! However, due to popular demand, we’re sending the CDs back into the marketplace. Remember, this Bastro CD is a collection of previously-unreleased live recordings, representing the state of the indie-rock, circa 1991.

The date: October 18th, 2005. The reason for marking the date: Silver Jews’ awesome new LP/CD, Tanglewood Numbers! They’re back and bolder than ever, with an all-new, rock-hard blizzard of the masterminds featuring David Berman and his fourteen apostles. This time around, the crew includes charter members Steve Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, along with latter-day Jews like Mike Fellows, Tony Crow and Cassie Berman and special guests such as Duane Denison, Bobby Bare Jr and our own Will Oldham! But hey, a record’s only as good as its songs — and that’s where Tanglewood Numbers really gets to ruling. Whether running fast and sassy with hits-to-be like “Animal Shapes” and “How Can I Love You If You Won’t Lie Down” or hitting deep with “The Poor The Fair and The Good” and “Sleeping is the Only Love”, the Silver Jews charm and amaze in their best fashion! Also in good traditional form is the opening couplet of the record, which is always a spot where Jews fans can share an opening guffaw as the wagons get a-rollin’. We won’t quote it here you gotta wait until October 18th — or until you download those crappy mp3s that the poor, the fair and the hardcore fans have been helping themselves to. But honestly, they sound so terrible next to the actual record that you won’t actually hear it for real until the deadly date arrives. It’s gonna be awesome! Something Silver Jews this way comes — and it’s called Tanglewood Numbers.

How do you follow up a moment of such rare pleasure as the one that comes in October with a new Silver Jews record? This was the conundrum we faced while charting out our schedule for November. Then, fortunately, the door flew open and three of our best and brightest waltzed in, to the tune of their own respective musics, allowing us to now present with pride (and relief - this Christmas, we eat!) our November lineup of Edith Frost, The Howling Hex and Bonnie “Prince” Billy.

Edith Frost had been MIA for a couple years there until last summer or so, when she broke radio silence and started playing gigs around town. Then over the winter, she even toured! There were new songs in the sets sometimes and things started to get awesome. Then this Spring, she got combative, stressing to us that a record needed to be made right away! We’ve been saying this for a few years now, but we jerked her chain for awhile, just digging the vibe she was putting out. Then we steered her to the studio with just a few friends and musician types to accompany her. The result is a sweet new album of Edith’s best new love and love-lost tunes. It’s called It’s a Game and you’ll be hearing a lot more about it before it finally comes out on November 15th.

The Howling Hex are the mysterious new American music entity featuring Neil Michael Hagerty and a masked ensemble capable of creating just about any cacophony he desires. Over the past year-plus, they proved it with a triad of limited-edition albums that warped the frontiers of possibility in a rock-and-roll band sound — which is what long-time fans of Neil Michael Hagerty expect and demand of course! But even then…it was pretty wild stuff. Coming back from the edge, The Howling Hex hit early this year with All-Night Fox, a CD that drew tight the reins on their patented “New Border Sound,” creating a dense yet danceable set of grooves topped off by a whorl of vocals from three distinct singers. It was and is a hot half-hour of amazingness but The Howling Hex weren’t through with 2005. Coming out on the same day as Edith’s new one is a DVD & CD package called You Can’t Beat Tomorrow, featuring a bit of everything that The Howling Hex can do. The crux of it is “You Can’t Beat Tomorrow,” a variety-show pilot prepared for the small screen by NMH and co, and the CD is the soundtrack album for this show. The show itself features recitations, hilarious animated sketches, musical performances and sure-handed montage effects — the album features full-length versions of songs from the show as well as a few songs more (such as “Sick and Old,” The Howling Hex’s iTunes exclusive track for these past few months). It’s fun and funny, edifying and tripped-out all you want from your Howling Hex DVD & CD package. All this, and in time for Christmas! Thanksgiving, even!

Completing the triangle is Bonnie “Prince” Billy, (who’s no stranger to such shapes). It’s been almost three years since Bonnie hit us with a new album of originals, but in the meantime, he’s come out with Greatest Palace Music (an album of Palace covers) and Superwolf (a collaborative record with Matt Sweeney). Now, however, Bonnie fans, is not the time for him to return with an all-new album of originals — instead, it’s time for the first-ever Bonnie live album! Summer in the Southeast, it’s called, and it collects just that — hi-fidelity versions of songs performed in the early summer of 2004 in the sunny southland of these United States! Many Bonnie favorites were performed and many of them are included here — along with a few Palace classics for good mention. As is his wont, Bonnie radically rearranges the songs with his six-strong band, most for the audience’s pleasure (and his own). The album is a crashing, raging collection; Bonnie as he’s only seldom heard on album, and a complete joy. Another stocking stuffer for you — Summer in the Southeast!

You know, sometimes we yearn for the simplicity of earlier days. They were simpler, you know — pardon the old-fogey-isms, but in the late 80s, there weren’t any cell-phones for people to walk around talking into. If you heard someone walking down the street by themselves and talking, the conclusion was simple: they were nuts! And news spread slowly, even in a small town — this was before the internet changed all that. Sometimes, it’s good to reflect on all that — as we were when we talked up that Bastro Antlers CD up above. This is another one of music’s super-powers, to transport us back to the times that we miss but can never have back. A time portal of a similar nature to Bastro’s is the King Kong “Movie Star” CD single. We slipped this out into the market at the beginning of the year, during all the hoo-ha over Slint — after all, Ethan “King Kong” Buckler was the bassist of Slint during their Tweez days. His first move after leaving Slint was to recruit them to record his debut King Kong record, “Movie Star.” Now when this record hit, there was no indie-rock really — it wasn’t yet fully formulated what was happening. Punk rock had shattered everything — but when groups like Black Flag started sounding like Black Sabbath (as they did around this time), what did you call it? There wasn’t a real consensus, but the field was wide-open to do what you wanted. That’s where King Kong came in. The “Movie Star” 7” was a three-song single; basement-recorded rock and funk with unclear intentions — but a finger on the pulse of youthful irreverence. After the pure pop-rock of “Movie Star,” came deep beats with “The Camel Song,” and “Chicken Shit.” Ass-shaking and hilarious, “Movie Star” epitomized the times and thrilled a lot of us — so much so, that we here at Drag City have reissued the record twice. We’re committed to moving forward and living today — but whenever we want to get back to the root, we'll always have “Movie Star” to play. If you haven't deigned to admit it to your snot-nosed modern-day way of life, get wise and give it a try.

When Jens Lekman’s “You Are the Light” lost in the Best Song Lyrics category at the Swedish Grammys a month or so back, it wasn’t just a defeat for the young Mr. Lekman it was a victory for the Silver Jews’ David Berman. See, Jens took the lyrics for his song from a letter that he’d received without knowing that the letter was actually quoting one of David’s poems from Actual Air. And — well, let’s let Jens pick up the thread:

All of a sudden I had a radio hit in Sweden. And soon it started playing on the college radio stations in America. I've been feeling bad about this. I've been in contact with Bermans publisher and offered song credit and royalties but never got a final decision on how to proceed. I never heard back from him...but during the last month I've been getting a lot of credit for those particular lines in articles and reviews and I don't want anyone to think that I'm trying to get away with it.

Don’t worry, herr Lekman — nobody thinks you’re getting away with it. We appreciate your coming clean and we congratulate you on your success. And David Berman would like the people of Sweden to know that he appreciates their appreciation of his words, and hopes they get even more appreciation out of the words on the new Silver Jews album, Tanglewood Numbers (as well as the words in their back-catalog).

Meanwhile, on the AZITA beat, our girl has fallen in with the theater set! Don’t know how it happened, but we’re glad it has — because the outcome involves more great music. In collaboration with local playwright Brian Torrey-Scott, AZITA has written songs for his new work called Details From the Mountainside. The actors will handle the songs and singing in the production, but AZITA was so jazzed by the outcome that she’s decided to record the material for an EP that will see the light of day sometime real soon. Fingers crossed and eyes out — AZITA’s coming around the bend!

Who’s our poster child for hard work in the name of her/her/their own careers? Why, none other than Bill “Smog” Callahan! As Smog has toured across Europe and America over the last three months, he’s put a lot of miles behind him — as well as packed shows, satisfied fans, journalists with something to write about now and, best of all, sales on his sketchbook series (buy them today right here)! He hasn’t slept in his own bed for weeks and weeks — and all he’s doing about it is schedule more shows in Europe after this run through the U.S. is done — and more shows in Australia and New Zealand after the shows in Europe are done!

How much energy does our Mr. Smog have? Even in the midst of a lengthy national tour, he’s not too busy to pull off and try to record some new songs during an off day. Plus, every night after the show, he slips on his green eyeshade and pulls out the abacus to check over his trusty (but youthful) tour manager’s numbers for the evening. It adds a couple hours to the day, but hey — when you’re dedicated to your career, no detail is too small to micromanage. It’s this unending devotion that has provoked us to name Bill Callahan Drag City’s Hardest-Working Artist of the Month.

(above) In the midst of another long day, Bill “Smog” Callahan works the crowd into a frenzy — a hard-working man, indeed!
(photo: Sid Sowder)

We thought you'd like a look at what goes on around here behind the brio and bravado of this newsletter, so here you go...

When the big money comes in, we always photograph it — after it goes out again, we like to look back fondly, remembering when we weren't broke!

Just kidding! We’ll see you here on Earth next time — after that, who knows?

Rian Murphy,
Drag City Inc.