2006 is alive with the sound of music! Not to mention the taste, touch, sight and stench of music. And the thoughts of music, don’t forget them. With so much music on the air and appealing to so many of our senses, is it any wonder we’re down to the wire? Drag City is spinning like a top, with records flying off in all directions. We’re hoping one of them hits you real soon...

Hardcore Drag City-ites, we salute you! Never have we received so much mail, and all of it taking us to task. For what, the rest of you (worthless drips) ask? Why, for not naming a hardest-working Drag City artist in last month’s newsletter. People, we’re flattered — you noticed! However, there was method to our madness: nobody got named last month because there wasn’t a single damn artist on the whole damn label who deserved our coveted hardest-working shout-out! That’s right; they were all taking it easy over the holidays. And they deserved it. You know what? We even approve of their behavior — in order to make the great kinds of musical and artistic statements that are our bread and blood, people got to lay around and absorb life a little bit, or perhaps spend some of the money that their efforts have earned them ...so that’s cool. If anyone’s at fault, it’s us for not mentioning that a one-month moratorium on celebrating effort had been imposed. That’s why we’re so mellowly accepting the criticism that all you fan-boys and fans-girls shot in our direction.

Still...that was then and this is now — so please bow before our Hardest-Working Artist of February and March 2006, Pearls and Brass!

At the end of January, the three young men of Pearls and Brass released The Indian Tower, an amazing album and their first one in ages (second overall), then plunged immediately into a six-week crossing of the Americas in which many a hoot and holler high and low will be played! If they miss you, of course, they’ll come back later this year and hit your town with everything they’ve got. Because they’re the hardest-working band on Drag City! It takes guts, fearlessness and an obliviousness that requires energy to take one’s partially-known ass out into the world and grab it by its hoary throat — but that’s exactly what Pearls and Brass are doing. And that’s what’s happening tonight in Albuquerque—Oklahoma City—Urbana Chapel Hill—or wherever you are that they are too. They’ll be everywhere soon—Europe even—so if you haven’t heard The Indian Tower already, get in line...

(photo above by Shannon Corr. Picture: Pearls and Brass doing the hard work you can see...but where are you when it’s time to load the gear in and out of the van? These dudes play hard, but work harder. )

With the crater caused by the impact of Pearls and Brass still smoking, we tender our second harvest of the year — records that are settling onto the street near you as you eyeball these very words! Each one of these releases is worth your attention, so check it out

AZITA! “Detail from the Mountain Side” is a little EP with an extra-sweet taste of the what we were so missing all last year. And that would be AZITA! She’s one of our favorites around here, with her singular method of lacing lovely melodies with verbal bombshells and drooling it all out of her mouth with reptilian bile. It’s a lounge act that’s hellishly good, and nobody does it like AZITA. She’s working on a full-length album for later in the year, but meantime, “Detail from the Mountain Side” features five great new songs with AZITA’s trademark piano and rhythm section sound, loosened only slightly to accommodate the themes of this new record (developed for a stage play of the same name, “DFTMS” features lyrics by Brian Torrey Scott), which deal with nature and the organic realities all us humans face every day — simple, yet easy to misinterpret.

THE HOWLING HEX! 1-2-3 collects the three limited-edition vinyl-only releases of 2003-2004. These records had some of the loosest, freakiest recordings that Neil Michael Hagerty has laid down in awhile, but at the same time they represented the New Border Sound that The Howling Hex have sworn to propagate — the far borders of the New Border Sound, but still in the world of the amazing Howling Hex. Now you can have them all on one CD! Over the course of twenty-three songs, you too will learn “If You Can’t Tell the Difference, Why Pay Less?” plus how it is “When You Got Money,” and what happens when you “Be the Last One To Stay in a Haunted House” along with another twenty songs! It’s all crammed onto one CD that boasts the same fresh sound of vinyl that the original, now long-gone limited-edition LPs did. We’ll give you to three to run down to the record shop and snatch, not grab, you a copy of The Howling Hex 1-2-3!

MAKE UP! Untouchable Sound is a live album recorded during the final days of the Make Up’s incredible run. Planned for release ages ago, it was lost and forgotten and veritably left for dead...an unkind fate for the posthumous release from a band that launched a thousand ships with a sound and vision that changed everything back in the gay 90s. The Make Up brought music back to the people again (someone has to do it every few years) with the kind of style that hadn’t been seen since the halcyon days of Carnaby Street! They brought the noise and the soul with sweat-drenched intensity in every city they visited. For their efforts and their integrity, they were rewarded with a double-edged sword: on one edge, they spearheaded a movement populated by increasing watered-down (and therefore, more easily marketed and therefore, more visible and therefore more popular and successful) bands; on the other edge, they were pigeonholed by the know-it-all scenesters always on the lookout for something new (but never tired of techno). There was nothing left to do but call it a day. Fortunately for us, bands such as French Toast, Scene Creamers and Weird War marched out from beneath the white flag and continue to fight to this day. Fortunately also you can now hear the white-hot sounds of the Make Up alive and well in Washington, DC on a very good night back in 2000. The show features their short-lived quintet configuration, allowing dual guitars, keyboards and/or percussion to happen along with the solid rock-soul-funk fusion that was their métier. Make Up, we hardly knew you. Untouchable Sound forever!

Have you read the new Wire? Loose Fur have an album you’re not going to be able to get until 2009! Well, you’ll be able to get it on March 21st, 2006, but if you work for The Wire, you won’t “get” it until a couple years from now. Apparently they’re just “getting” the first Loose Fur album now! Guys, guys...it’s just music. Come on, give yourselves a break, loosen up, have a beer and get down. It’s only music. And protest. And spiteful joy. It’s called Born Again in the USA and it’s an all-new, all-great album from Loose Fur that’s set to take the known world by storm. With a combination of classic rock and roll, progressive improvisation techniques, world music and a twist of musical theater, Loose Fur have created one of the best albums in the last year or five. It’s up front and in your face! It’s downcast and introspective! It’s pop! It’s rock! It’s everything you want it to be! Except what you want it to be! What else could you possibly expect from the combined iconoclastic forces of Jeff Tweedy, Jim O’Rourke and Glenn Kotche? These guys have been following their own muse for years now and now we’ve got two Loose Fur records to prove how great following your own muse sounds. And then there’s the social commentary angle, that should have people rioting in the streets. It's only right for a populist statement in this fucked-up day and age. Don’t take our word for it, get the album! Or check out the free Loose Fur video sample on the front of this very webpage.

Born Again in the USA is coming — get down!

Life! Time! What slippery, elastic constructs they turn out to be. That’s what you just might end up thinking when you focus your ears on their first listen to Introduction by The Red Krayola. Here’s a group that’s ducked in and out of the picture in an orbit that stretches back to the mid-1960s — and every generation since then can claim their own “love at first sighting” of Mayo Thompson and his merry band. Whether you were in Houston in 1967 or New York in 1978 or London in 1981 or Dusseldorf in 1985 or Chicago in 1995 or Los Angeles in 1999 or wherever you are as we speak, there’s a good chance that the long history of The Red Krayola had previously eluded you — until that fateful day.

If that fateful day is today, or the day in the near future when Introduction hits the world’s main drag, what a great day for you! Introduction is an album of rich new music, filled with twists and turns couched in between (and sometimes in the center of) great songs, fifteen of them in all. Recorded with a skeletal crew — Mayo Thompson of course, joined by long-time Krayoleers Tom Watson, Stephen Prina and John McEntire — and introducing Charlie Abel on accordion and Noel Kupersmith on bass. Once everyone’s had their say, Introduction is a weird and wild, profusely illustrated, trip through the world of the Red Krayola circa 2006. There’s something here for everyone and an excess of greatness overall — those of you who collect moments of Krayola greatness, bring your extra-large net! We’ll be pulling out all the stops necessary to introduce The Red Krayola’s Introduction to the world this spring.

(Above: Say Red Krayola three times in the first five minutes of hearing them and you'll never forget your own name!)

Here at the fantasy factory, we’re constantly putting the whipped topping, cherries and strawberries on top of the concoctions given to us by our artists to make your dreams come to life. We ship them out into the world and there you encounter them, in the form of LPs, CDs, DVDs...and occasionally just a t-shirt. This is an interactive process, but we feel you if you feel alienated from the flow. You want more? Then go to the show! There you can feel the heat, hear the buzzing in your ears, share a moment with the others who’ve congregated to do the same. It’s an inspiring, sometimes sexual moment of oneness and cultural edification that won’t last forever — don’t miss it! Before the next newsletter drops, at various parts of the globe, you can catch Espers, Edith Frost, Neil Hamburger, The Howling Hex, Joanna Newsom, Pajo, Pearls and Brass, Weird War and even Silver Jews (who have never toured in fifteen years of record making!) go to our Tour Page immediately and find out where and when. Tonight could be the night!

You don’t really need to hear about the tour again, do you? It’s sold out anyway, so another few words here aren’t going help anything anyway! Seriously though, the Silver Jews tour is the hottest ticket of 2006 — their first ever live shows and maybe last for all time (who knows for sure?)! There’s still good “seats” available in some “markets” rush you out today and make it happen for yourself and those you respect best.

But the real news in the Jews department is that head Joo David Berman and his lovely bride Cassie will be hosting MTV2’s “Subterranean” program on March 12th at midnight sharp! They’ll bring their wit, charm and easy repartee to an hour-long broadcast showcasing the latest in so-called alternative music. But what’s so alternative about the world we live in? Perhaps David will be explaining that to all of us on MTV2. One thing we know he’ll be doing for sure is broadcast-premiering a Silver Jews video. Since “How Can I Love You If You Won’t Lie Down” was already shown (by Cattpower, no less!), we’re in suspense. Will it be the “Punks in the Beerlight” video widely bootlegged on the world-wide-web? Or something even newer? Tune in and find out, Jews fans.

(Above: David and Cassie, blowing off practice again. Is the Jews tour over before it begins?)

When last we spoke at you, we didn’t have a life beyond The Red Krayola release date in mid-April. Now however, May is animated with a pair of exciting new releases! There’s Espers, whose second album (entitled, appropriately, II) it is our pride to be involved with. Welcome to Drag City, men and women of Espers! There’s also Faun Fables, whose records we’ve been proud to be involved with for the last couple of years. Dawn the Faun and her trusty knave Nils have returned with The Transit Rider, a musical journey on the subway, the elevated, the bus and other transports that take us from one place to another.

Faun Fables and Espers will be taking it to the streets on May 18th — fans of the bold and powerful, new and exciting, clear your schedules.

(left: Espers prepare for landing at Drag City / right: Dawn & Nils wait for a ride...would you give them a lift?)
(left: Espers, right: Bridget Bell)

June is when the new Six Organs of Admittance record comes out and The Sun Awakens is what it’s called. Originally intended as a trip to the black heart of Six Organs, it now has this lovely title which goes to show how closely yin and yang are clustered. No matter which way the vibe-o-meter points, this new record is a fantastic leap into Otherness from Six Organs of Admittance. You heard it here first.

We’ll recount for you our desperate need for intravenous fluids following the epic Loose Fur ship week! A Silver Jews Tour Report! Another Bonnie update (Hawaiian tour or bust!)! Krayola Kontest announcements! Lowdown breakdowns on Espers and Faun Fables! And, last but not least, more!

In something like 30 days time...

Rian Murphy
Drag City Inc.