Before we get into it here, something’s got us buggin’. You know, we spend all this time stressing over getting new music and entertainment to more people all the time — but we just found out there’s no way for the majority of the world to enjoy ‘em! It seems that the planet is 7/8ths water, and we don’t have any sub-aqueous distribution...yet. Don’t underestimate us, submariner record industries, on whatever ocean floor you currently reside...

Up topside, men and women are mostly made up of water also — but this isn’t what our stable of stars are referring to when they speak wistfully of “singing to an ocean.” No, they’re talking about the sea of people rippling before them in whatever club, theatre, arena or speedway they’re currently doing their best in. This isn’t the kind of ocean to cool your overheated bod, but it might just curb your summertime blues to jump right in and catch one of our working and touring acts (there’s a bunch!). Look here for details on Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, David Grubbs, Neil Hamburger, Joanna Newsom, PAJO, The Red Krayola, Alasdair Roberts, Silver Jews, Six Organs of Admittance and others. Catch a wave and we’ll see you there...

... nah, ask what your retailer can do for you! That’s what they’re there for. Nowadays, we’re all so caught up in our insular worlds of instant gratification that we never stop that gender non-specific shopkeeper-human to ask for exactly what we want. Instead, we just run to the nearest wireless zone and make our inquiries in a safe, airless cyber-space where there are no people judging us, no eyes attempting to peer into our alleged depths. People — what are we afraid of? You local shopkeep loves you — or your business, at the very least. This is why we’ve created a little item to inspire conversations and confidence between the two of y’all — break the sixth wall today!

...and then we’ll have world peace (and more catalog sales).

Just out today: “Cursed Sleep” from the world’s own Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy! This 12” single/CD single is an exotic whiff of his forthcoming album, The Letting Go but until September 19th, it’s all you’ve got to go on. All you’ve got to go on, that is, unless you live in or around Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Iowa City, Lawrence, St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Toronto, Buffalo and Cleveland. These are the towns chosen for the latest Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy free tour! Those familiar with his workings (and ours) know that every once in awhile, Bonny likes to take to the road and play shows without recompense, not in bars or clubs late at night, but in stores, late in the afternoon. Of course, retailers love such things — they’re all frustrated club-owners at heart (at least, that’s our assumption). And fans? Give ‘em something free, and you’ll have a fan for...well, at least until the next paycheck. Anyway, the Free Bonny 2006 tour is set to start rolling on Thursday, August 10th, in good old Milwaukee. For more details, check the tour page — more updates is coming!

Also freed into the marketplace where they can be sold for money are releases from Mark Fosson and the Bill Fay Group. Notice how we didn’t say ‘new’. Well, of course, they’re new to you — but given that both of these releases were recorded about thirty years ago, we felt a little funny about that little word there. What we don’t feel funny about? The music! Mark Fosson’s drawing praise from all over for his bright and sunny acoustic guitar sounds, the likes of which once drew praise from John Fahey, who signed Mark to his Takoma Records imprint for a brief period in the late 70s. Financial insolvency ended that fantasy, and Mark wasn’t able to find another interested party...until his cousin Tiffany started talking his old recordings up to us here at good old Drag City. Before you knew it, The Lost Takoma Sessions was on the fast track for release. And now it’s out and people are digging it. Probably more towards the Kottke side of things than Fahey (you solo acoustic guitar aficionados will know what we mean), The Lost Takoma Sessions are a delight to see and hear. And they’re not lost any more. OUT NOW!

The Bill Fay Group first came to light about two years ago — and over twenty years after they finished recording their album! But rock and roll time is a funny thing, and Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow is just the latest example of how oddly things grow and change over the years. Bill Fay was already a legendary figure for his two early-70s records, Bill Fay and Time of the Last Persecution, both of which didn’t sell much but are still being talked about and enjoyed by open-eared listeners to this day. Outside of the record industry by the late 70s, he hooked up with a trio of young men called The Acme Quartet (no fools, these lads) and began to make recordings that occupied a completely different space than his initial records. The twist? They couldn’t find anyone to put them out! Not until the scary-but-actually-quite-nice folks at Jnana/Durtro came calling in 2004, that is. We’re following behind with this vinyl version — a different sequence with a few songs less and a few songs more that we think you’ll find quite exquisite. Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow is now out on the format it was intended to be released on: vinyl!

Also out now is the most important book you’ll read all year — Ian Svenonius’ The Psychic Soviet. If you’re interested in rock and roll, the changing world of culture and fashion, the class system, the top 40, a people’s history of recent world history and anything else that might be implied by this, you’ve gotta check this book out! The far-ranging gaze of Svenonius takes in all these topics and more in an inventive set of nineteen essays and prose pieces that are at once revelatory and hilarious. You’ll gasp as Svenonius outlines the relationships between coffee drinking and imperialism in “The Bloody Latte”; you’ll nod in agreement with the exposure of Hollywood’s latest misogynist trend in “Mordor Dearest.” And so on. The book is a seemingly bottomless well of resource for understanding the layers of complexity (and dare we say it? Conspiracy!) that drive our modern world. That so deep of a tome should be so portable is yet another aspect of it’s genius — because The Psychic Soviet is less than six inches tall by four inches wide. This allows it to be carried everywhere with little obstruction. And the cover, a pink soft-plastic shell with embossed lettering, will attract inquiring eyes (and the minds that drive them) everywhere it’s flashed.

Ian will be touring around and reading in support of the book in August — we’ll have more details as they come in. Keep your eyes open for the attack of The Psychic Soviet.

August is coming! If only it were all we knew — but we’re multitasking like a bunch of headless chickens around here. Still that doesn’t mean we can stop and smell the roses of August — a pair of releases from two of Drag City’s most mysterious men.

First, there’s PAJO. This is a guy who once upon a time, chose to call his band Aerial M. That’s sort of mysterious...but then he changed it to Papa M. The mystery’s thickening, right? Then, he started singing, after being an acclaimed composer of instrumental records. Weird, maybe — but not entirely without explanation. Well, then he took a bit of a sabbatical to join Zwan, okay? Full-on total mystery in effect. Coming back from that two-year mini-debacle, he makes a new record — but a new Papa M record? An ‘M’ record of any kind? No, that was just his vehicle for almost a decade, that's all. Now he’s PAJO — as in David Pajo, the mystery-man himself. Most mysterious of all is how this dude can keep making records and flummoxing us with the excellence of the outcomes — he records the parts all by himself, for the most part, and often in such compromised conditions as laptop recording provides. Now the one-time instrumental songwriter is singing on all his songs, and singing melodically, with songs about all kinds of crazy things, like love and death and different kinds of friendships. That’s what his self-titled PAJO CD was about (speaking generally) and his new one 1968 is even more about that. Plus it’s got drums! And one of the world’s fattest CD booklets of all-time. August 22nd, check PAJO out for yourself — and attempt to penetrate the enigma.

For years, Neil Hamburger was the most mysterious man on a label full of men and women of mystery. The mystery for many observers was, How does this guy stay alive? He’s a comedian who isn’t funny — an entertainer who doesn’t entertain — and an offensive SOB on top of it all! Why, even the way he dresses is offensive! To those who would actually say this, we have only this to say: that’s your opinion. We wouldn’t have invested heavily in Neil Hamburger’s career if we didn’t believe that he would one day be regarded as funny, entertaining, and not offensive. Time has passed and we feel somewhat vindicated. Neil’s an internationally known (and sometimes respected) comic with bookings all around several continents and to celebrate his mysterious new status, he’s coming out with a DVD called The World’s Funnyman. A combination of documentary footage from Canada, concert footage from Australia, semi-autobiographical dramatization set in Malaysia and American-made video, The World’s Funnyman should be an international sensation particularly if Neil can stay on the road and play all the dates he promised us he would. On August 22nd, you can see the truth with your own eyes — Neil Hamburger is now The World’s Funnyman.

And whotta fall! September’s the month we’ve been alluding to occasionally up to now, the month when Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy drops a new album entitled The Letting Go. If the response to the single is any indicator, this record will leave a slew of seriously damaged and/or enlightened young people in it’s wake — as is always the case with the recordings of the Bonnie ‘Prince’.

Also in September, prepare to enter the Nightclub Version of the Eternal, courtesy of border-patrollers The Howling Hex. They go beyond — not so we don’t have to, but so that we will! And based on the New Border sounds they continue to send back from their frontier establishment, we’re packing our bags and striking out to an unknown future built on the cultural wreckage of the last several millennia right away. Like The Howling Hex before us, we owe to the rest of you to check this territory out. In the case of the new CD, it’s seven single-groove jams hanging from the kind of sharp hooks that only The Howling Hex are in possession of. Too much!

The late Luc Ferrari is also back in the house (the Blue Chopsticks house) in September, with a set of recordings entitled Far-West News (Episodes 2 and 3). These pieces document his travels in the American southwest in 1998–99 realized, edited and mixed back in his studio. Fans of Cycle Des Souvenirs will enjoy this latest installment in what Mr. Ferrari referred to alternately as “radiophonic” biography, a “sound poem after nature” and, put simply, “a composition.” Classic Ferrari.

Finally, September is the early-warning moment for White Magic — a single entitled "Katie Cruel" will be issued in advance of their album, which so many have been dying so quietly in anticipation of. It's really amazing stuff, too.

Two more releases have just been heaved onto the schedule for October that only add to the excitement. It’s short notice, but for releases like these, we’ll take what little notice we can get. The first is a new full-length from Imitation Electric Piano — a wildcatting group of Brits who knock something out every couple of years and never fail to delight us with their sleek song-craft. They started out making instrumental space-rock back in 2001 on a self-titled EP back in 2001, then began to add the odd vocal here and there on Trinity Neon in 2003. Now they’ve gone and upped the ante by singing over the whole lot of new songs! With the addition of Mary Hampton on vocals, the British folk tradition has crept into the IEP sound machine — joining the British rock tradition, the British fashion tradition and the British whimsy tradition in their deceptively complex (which means simple-sounding, right?) concoction. Oh, one other thing — it’s called Blow It Up, Burn It Down, Kick It ‘Til It Bleeds. And maybe we should start calling this lot Imitation Eclectic Piano — they couldn’t surprise us more if they tried!

Also on for October is the return of a legend — and a true honor for us to be involved with. Bert Jansch started making records way back in the 1960s — and fortunately for music, he’s still making them today. He doesn’t record as often as he used to (this is his first record in four years), but his recordings grow ever finer. His new album is called The Black Swan and is a remarkable collection of archetypal Jansch moments — solo performances, duets, instrumental, with a rock-and-rolling rhythm section. Along the ways, musicians and fans such as Beth Orton, Devendra Banhart, David Roback and the Espers’ own Otto Hauser and Helena Espvall contribute to the music with stellar performances of their own, making The Black Swan even more a part of today than it already was — and yet, timeless as well.

If all this sounds as exciting as promised, grab onto something — cause yonder lies November! Two of the bright stars of the class of 2004 are back with long-promised-and-awaited albums — White Magic and Joanna Newsom! Joanna’s album was the subject of rumor over the course of the last year, and we can now confirm the rumor: arrangements for the record were scored by Van Dyke Parks, who conducted the orchestra out in LA this spring. Joanna calls the record Ys and we call it awesome! We’ll have lots more on this as we go along. The rumor with White Magic was that founding members Andy McLeod and Miggy Littleton left the band before recording started, leaving leading lady Mira Billote to run the Magic show and once again, we’re here to confirm this rumor. In their place is Sleepy Doug Shaw, guitarist and master of the improvised occurrence. Mira tells us the album is called Dat Rosa Mel Apibus — and since we’re not up on our Latin, we can once again say only that the album is awesome and dark and witchy too, of course.

Also in November is the second single from Bonny Billy’s The Letting Go, “Cold/Wet” — replete with non-LP tracks and enhanced with videos, naturally. Elsewhere in the short-play department is “Red Gold,” a six-song EP from The Red Krayola that will have fans everywhere recalling the glory days of Introduction (released earlier this year).

It’s gonna be bigger than a falling Trade Center (and twice as mysterious)...more compulsive than a pratfall...stronger than a Katrina breeze (or a Superdome blind date, come to think of it)! Drag City, Fall 2006 — catch it.

And like the good book tells us, after it all falls down, you go to heaven. Which in our case is called 2007 and contains releases from Alasdair Roberts, Ghost, P.G. Six, High Llamas, King Kong and RTX, among others equally exciting but unable to be discussed at this time. It’s a heavenly prospect, ushering all these fine artists back into the marketplace — as we suspect it will be for you bringing them home from the same. Want your very own slice of heaven? Keep stayin' alive -- at least ‘til next year!

Cheers,

Rian Murphy
Drag City Inc.