August is blowing past at full-steam — and as it does, we have no regrets. Like the fabled farmer of yore, we realize our goals on a weekly basis, drawing ever-closer to the season of harvest. And once we’ve brought the crops in again, we savor the taste of PAJO and Neil Hamburger: a perfect pairing of late-summer titles! Then it’s off to the marketplace, where we lay bushels full on the wholesaler and retailer alike. And they in turn, unleash them on you! Perhaps you heard the sound last week as you made your way through the market — that squish that fresh product makes as it hits the racks?

...yeesh, enough with the metaphor already! Still, it’s true — PAJO’s 1968 CD and The World’s Funnyman DVD from Neil Hamburger are the top of the crops around here this week — a one-two punch of new music and new comedy, just the way we like it. 1968 seems to have been created to be heavier and hit the listener even harder than the self-titled PAJO CD. Even reading the liner-notes is a tear-jerker (in the most painful sense of the words) — and so, 1968 takes its place in the firmament with the other mega-bummer records of all-time. Make the list up for yourself out of your own favorites there’s no accounting for taste...

Speaking of no accounting for taste, take Neil Hamburger — please! His new DVD The World’s Funnyman is an obvious plea for crossover success which no one would be happier about than us. Everyone around the office has a bit of furniture made out of Hamburger overstock, all of which we’d gladly trade for a real filing cabinet! But The World’s Funnyman makes the case for Neil Hamburger as well if not better than any release that’s come before, showing Neil in the often brutal environment known as the stage, as well as in documentary footage capturing a few private moments and also in the rare “7-11's Are All the Same” video. There’s more tidbits too, for the hardcore fan and the neophyte alike. On sale where great DVDs are found — Neil Hamburger, The World’s Funnyman!

It’s been a great year and all, but when people say that Drag City is heading for a fall, they hardly know of what they speak. Sure, we’re heading for a fall — a really great fall! Run this list down, would you? The Howling Hex, Luc Ferrari, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, White Magic, Bert Jansch, Imitation Electric Piano, Joanna Newsom, The Red Krayola, White Magic (again) and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (again)! And only two of these are singles and only one of these is an EP! So basically, what we’ve got for you between now and December is a cavalcade of timeless full-length records — record that will sink into your soul, awakening buried desires or stimulating desires that bob on the surface, waiting for a strong wind to blow them somewhere awesome.

Hmph...having waxed so enthusiastically on the pleasures of AOR, it’s with a smirk of irony that we tell you of the changes in the fall lineup since we last described it to you. September was the mighty month of three, those three being Luc Ferrari, The Howling Hex and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. All full-length records, all fully awesome. Now, however, they’ll be joined by a little two-song CD5 called “Katie Cruel.” Kids who’ve been waiting for something new from White Magic since “Through the Sun Door” hit back in May of 2004 may think it should be called “Mira Cruel,” since the White Magic frontwoman seems to be withholding riches from their ears. Worry not, White Magicians — “Katie Cruel” is the first breeze from the White Magic album, coming to you in November.

As alluded to you above (and raved to you last month), September is the very exciting month of new releases from The Howling Hex and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, as well as a posthumous late-period work from avant-garde great Luc Ferrari. Don’t miss these releases, as each one develops and challenges the established profile of each one of these established artists.

In the case of Bonny, his music undergoes a sea change every time he plays it again, and the sounds of The Letting Go are no exception. As “Cursed Sleep” demonstrated, all sonic elements are employed with greater subtlety, combining a twin-guitars-and-rhythm lineup with layers of backing vocals and orchestration and still creating that lonesome echo that all the best Bonny Billy records have. This subtlety allows for greater density of arrangements throughout the record, a feature that’s inspired Bonny to create for the first time ever a surround-sound version of the disc which will be sold to sonic adventurers looking for a new wrap-around joy. The stereo mix is plenty atmospheric in itself, allowing the contributions of Jim White, Paul Oldham, Emmett Kelly, Dawn McCarthy, Ryder McNair, Nico Muhly and Valgier Sigurdsson to shine in turn. However, the song’s the thing, and The Letting Go has some of Bonny’s finest.

Nightclub Version of the Eternal is the name of the new Howling Hex joint, and as ever, it’s a blast. Songs are vehicles for freedom excursions, and that’s what The Howling Hex uses them for — traveling to distant places in the process. Still, this almost shortchanges the songs themselves which in the hands of Neil Michael Hagerty utilize a challenging array of lyrical images that imply social criticism, self-caricature, role-playing and vision-quests, while nimbly side-stepping the deeper implications of all these things. The melodies are laid out over changes and played like jazz in full-on rock mode. These are the mechanics of the New Border Sound. And the result always sounds like a wild party. You’ll see — once you’ve visited Nightclub Version of the Eternal, prove me wrong!

Late-period Luc Ferrari presented a sound college that even the man himself had a hard time finding a name for. There was audio verite involved and audio biography as well. Eventually he chose the phrase “sound poem after nature," and that’s what we’re left with — as well as an exploration of the American west recorded and then overdubbed, edited and mixed and titled Far-West News (Episodes 2 and 3). One year after his death, this new Blue Chopsticks release celebrates his legacy.

Ever since Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy finished his Free Bonny tour of Midwestern retailers and radio stations, we’ve been meaning to express our thanks to everyone involved! You guys outdid yourselves, generously laying out your time and space and opening your doors at no charge to your customers to allow them the enjoyment of an intimate performance from one of the great intimate performers of today, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. In return, you got the good will of the people, their gratitude and best of all, a crowd of people in your much-maligned retail space! It seems like everywhere we turn these days, we find some i-maniac determined to throw dirt on the coffin of good old-fashioned retail, declaring it DOA. Bonny was pleased to find it’s not true — customers and other people of all ages and sizes squeezed into the shops — not just to see the show, but also to peruse the aisles of records, CDs and the occasional t-shirt — and yes, to dig deep into their jeans, slacks or underpants for the modest amount of coin it would take to make an actual purchase. It still happens, you know. Retail survived the depression — and they’ll survive this too!

...but we digress. Drag City joins the Bonnie ‘Prince’ in thanking all the retailers and radio cowboys and girls out there who brought him into their various and sundry parlors. And praise be especially to everyone who came out to see the show! In our estimate, a splendid time was had by all.

...for putting Palace Records on the map that is the landscape of your body! Your fandom will go to the grave with you — how many of the rest of you poseurs can say that?

Arm courtesy of Matt at Harvest Records, Asheville

He drove nearly three thousand miles and played nineteen sets in twelve days, getting interviewed just about every time he stopped the car and never once getting paid in anything resembling money. And he did it with a smile and actually had fun beneath the smile (and the walrus mustache)! It should come as no surprise that we’re naming Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy the hardest-working Drag City artist of the month — he earned it, and did it with deep feeling, not to mention class and style. Sleep well, sweet ‘Prince’...

In July, we issued a couple of titles that hadn’t ever really seen the light of day when they were first made in the late 70s. It didn’t make sense to call them reissues, but then again, what else were they? Fucking great records, that’s what. Nothing’s been warming our hearts more than hearing innocent bystanders say how much they love the Bill Fay Group Tomorrow Tomorrow and Tomorrow LP and the Mark Fosson The Lost Takoma Sessons CD. Nothing, that is, except this tidbit in the new issue of Rolling Stone:

...more proof that if first you don’t succeed, your tapes may have serious cachet in thirty years! But then again, if you weren’t declared “the best since Kottke” by a crazy genius like John Fahey in the first place, then maybe not again. Hey kids, you can’t all be Mark Fosson...

When Autumn comes and the leaves begin to fly, we’ve got a couple trad-flavored entertainments that are sure to warm your cockles, wherever they may be. Fortunately for us, they’re diverse in their traddy approaches, which means you’ll never get bored and you’ll always have something to listen to again and again and again...

Bert Jansch. Sound familiar? It should he’s a legend of British traditional music and one of the guitar greats from the rock era (mid-50s to present), a peer of fellow Brit-trad-guit-leg Richard Thompson, whose name seems to have become much more familiar to American audiences over the years. But Thompson never had the dubious honor of being ripped off by Jimmy Page and Richie T never got namechecked by Neil Young in such glowing terms, either. Bert’s a big deal in England, where his new record is looked forward to with great anticipation. And who knows, it could just be that Bert Jansch’s new record The Black Swan will be the one to turn everyone on to his great career, both as a solo artist and as a member of Pentangle way back in the day. Even if your baby virgin ears don’t end up hearing all the great record in the Jansch catalog, The Black Swan is still a wonderful listen all on its lonesome — a collection of new songs and traditional songs, sung and played with typical devotion by Mr. Jansch. He’s joined in places by some of the kids whose music he’s influenced with his — Otto Hauser and Helena Espvall of Espers, Beth Orton, David Roback, and the ubiquitous Devendra Banhart. Together they make great music in the style and manner for which Bert Jansch has been known over the years. If you haven’t heard his music, this makes a great introduction. And if you have already, you’re in for another great record from this folk guitar master.

Imitation Electric Piano have been around a couple decades fewer than our Bert, and furthermore, they’ve been recognized in the past trafficking in the instrumental sounds of the space-age bachelor pad, a la Stereolab. And why shouldn’t they? Founding member Simon Johns has been holding down the bass chair in Stereolab for a number of years now. His collaboration with Andrew Blake (of Felt) resulted in a self-titled EP and the album Trinity Neon, both of which were almost completely instrumental. But times change, hairstyles change...even people sometimes change. In this case, the men of IEP decided to bring a new sound into the great the sound of a woman. Mary Hampton was recruited to do the lead vocals and brought a folk-informed sensibility to her role. This in turn shaped the songs, and voila! A newly emotion-charged Imitation Electric Piano was born. Titled appropriately Blow it Up, Burn It Down, Kick It ‘Til It Bleeds, this CD combines the post-millennial sounds of IEP with a folkish sensibility to provide a different, equally entertaining perspective on British music.

Both The Black Swan and Blow It Up, Burn It Down, Kick It ‘Til It Bleeds will hit the streets on October 17th. You’ve been folking warned!

But that’s not it! This November, we’ve got mo' for you! The holiday season doesn’t scare us — we’ve got the goods that will only enhance your Thanksgivining, Hanukah, Christmas, Ramadan, New Year’s and whatever else you got! Check it out —

It was back in March 2004 that Joanna Newsom began her ascent to household-name-dom with the release of The Milk-Eyed Mender. And if it seems just like yesterday to us here at Drag City, Joanna’s partially to blame. We’ve been on the go continually since then just trying to keep up with a world clamoring for more Joanna all the time! She’s toured America and Europe repeatedly and gone to Australia and Japan but even that wasn’t enough. The world wanted another Joanna Newsom album and we’re thrilled to finally tell the world that they’re going to get one. On November 14th, Ys will be released. Fifty-five minutes of new Joanna Newsom for you to listen to — and furthermore, fifty-five minutes that may just be cooler than her first record! We hate to get into comparisons like that, but it’s so exciting — Joanna’s really topped herself this time. Fans will recognize some of the songs from her concerts over the last year or so, but the productions put on them here are fresh and new, and beautifully complimentary to the axis of Joanna’s sound her voice and harp. A team of experts worked on this record, including Steve Albini, Jim O’Rourke and Van Dyke Parks, each bringing their skills to a set of songs already radiating with incredible energy producing something very special at the end of the process. We’re going to leave you with this image. Imagining Joanna and the boys (Steve, Jim, and Van Dyke) breaking for lunch down at the canteen will have to suffice until next time. But there’s lots more to tell and we’ll spill it all in good time.

November 14th is also the date for another of the class of ‘04’s Great Next Album to surface. Like Joanna, Mira Billotte and White Magic are long overdue in the eyes of their fans “Through The Sun Door” was such a brilliant debut, and as an EP-length record, it promised perhaps an album a few months down the line. It wasn’t to be, as instead White Magic toured around America and Europe before the woodshedding process began again. And then the recording process..when it was all done, it was, well, now...and White Magic had expanded to a group of about eight people, all of whom contribute exceptionally on the new album Dat Rosa Mel Apibus. The title is Latin for “the rose gives honey to the bees,” a comment, in White Magic’s eyes, on the maze of life. Twelve new songs reflect this wonderfully, with twists and turns and moments of light and darkness, all fronted by Mira’s fine vocals. It’s been a long wait but a not entirely meaningless one, now that White Magic is back.

Also in November are a couple of short-play records that serve as follow-through gestures from two of our hard-workers this year The Red Krayola and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. The Red Krayola’s Introduction was one of our favorites this year — a dreamy record with lots of angles and hard edges in it and a long list of pop songs in The Red Krayola’s own inimitable style, to boot. “Red Gold” is cut from the same cloth — modern alternative rock from deep within the think-tank of Mayo Thompson. It’s a six-song EP that is sure to frighten, confound and inspire! And finally for November is the second single from Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s The Letting Go, a three-song 12" single and enhanced CD called “Cold & Wet.” It’s one of our favorite tunes from the record, and paired with a Kenny Rogers cover and another bit of live rock and roll from the Summer in the Southeast recordings plus the hilarious and disturbing “Cold & Wet” video, it’s a mini-bargain for you mini-shoppers out there.

To be precise, in Mo’vember we’ve got — what else? Mo’!

As way said way back in the beginning of all this, it’s all about quality in the name of quantity in the name of quality. And that applies to those great acts of ours on the road right now — acts like AZITA, Espers, Faun Fables, Neil Hamburger, Gary Higgins, The Howling Hex, Pearls and Brass, Alasdair Roberts, Silver Jews, Smog and Ian Svenonius. Check the tour page here for solid information on where to catch them. And miss them at your own peril. Miss them and you’ll be missing out on great, eternal nights of quality. And that’s just wrong.

Don’t do it,

Rian Murphy
Drag City Inc.