As we pause for a moment on our relentless march to the future, a quick glance over the shoulder is all we ever allow ourselves here in the Drag City Steppers' Brigade. There’s not time for much more, and no goddamn room for an excess of sentiment in this business. We’d rather cry over today than yesterday — not just because there’s more money in it, but because there’s so much to cry over today! And since most of these theoretical tears are tears of joy, we’re still on point and with a song in our hearts. Clean yourself up — and join us, won’t you?

It may not feel like it today, but Big Brother is almost dead — pulled into the grave by the very bulk that’s so threatened all us little guys over the years. And sure, he may be pulling a few of us down with him, along with a few cases of overstock — but We The People of Drag City are determined to outlive and outlaugh this so called “new paradigm” of business in which everyone who sells LPs and CDs waves the white flag, pays the piper and/or goes digital without a second thought. That’s just not us! Nothing could sound more uninviting than a future filled with files -- that would make us all secretaries! Don’t mistake me — Drag City has got her opposable toe in the water for sure — and variety still being the spice of life as it was back in the stone age (of the 60s), she’ll continue to offer alternative formats as they come along. First it was 8-tracks, then came cassettes, then the CD revolution...now it’s mp3s. Whatever it is you want, we’ll see what we can do — though reel-to-reel format might be a problem. Ah what the hell — eventually, you’ll be knocking on the vinyl door just like everyone else — nothing sounds more like Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy or Silver Jews than Bonny or the Jews on vinyl!

And so we face forward with all our arcane entertainment tools in hand, the brave new world to tame. It’s a challenge and we’re game. So fuck you, Big Brother! And a doublefuck for you too, "George Orwell!"

Every time we bump the fists of another young maverick with a new label imprint in his or her brain, it’s as if we’re standing at the dawn of time once again — you know, back when the first record label started and the sounds of primitive man were first hawked to the rest of the known world out of some brave soul’s cave. Very little has changed in 10,000 years — though we have managed to add a few labels to the stable with (household) names such as Sea Note, Palace Music, Dexter’s Cigar, Moikai, Blue Chopsticks, Streamline and Quakebasket. Each one of them have, in their turn, turned back the clock to wild early times with releases that threw caution to the winds and presented sounds the world hadn’t ever really heard in quite that way ever before.

Now it’s happening again with the appearance of Yaala Yaala (monikered after a phrase that means “just wandering” in the African nation of Mali). The first releases of this ostensible “world music” label are recordings made by label head Jack Carneal while living in aforementioned Mali several years back. If the names Daouda Dembele, Pekos and Yoro Diallo are unfamiliar to you, then welcome to a street-level look at the Malian music scene! As Jack discovered before you, these unknown names and many more like them represent the common sound of the streets over there, not the names we know from the world music bins on this side of the planet. Not to say that one’s better than the other, but the raw rhythms captured on these first three Yaala Yaala releases have in them the sound of people living, eating, shopping, congregating, and so forth — an everyday music for everyday people! Recorded and released simply because the Yaala Yaala-ites like it, we anticipate that you fans of global grooves will like it too.

This week, along with the Yaala Yaala releases, we also pitched a much-needed rainbow into the marketplace — Rainbow by Boris with Michio Kurihara, that is! Most everything by Boris rules OK these days, and in the company of Ghost guitarist Kurihara, they’ve concocted a seminal release in Rainbow. Varying tempos and dynamics make Rainbow an often-unlikely listen for those who expect the hard and the heavy from Boris — and that’s part of what makes it so great! Of course, the expertly calibrated lead-guitar contributions of Kurihara are another big highlight, as he brings an array of tones, tints and subtle shades to the songs. Last and hardly least are the songs — some of the songiest songs we’ve heard from Boris. It’s a great and fun record, and as of right now, it’s out now!

Completing our May release slate is Dear Companion, the debut solo release from Espers’ Meg Baird. Meg’s a founder of Espers and a principal songwriter therein, and it’s a real pleasure to hear her away from the heady (and excellent!) confines of the group — for as layered and heavy the sounds of Espers’ II is, Dear Companion is equally bare and ebullient. Meg’s approach to the task was to take acoustic in hand and start singing songs she liked to sing — covers, trad numbers and even a few of her own for good measure. And that’s really the record — Meg’s lovely voice and guitar work, twined intimately for what seems to be your ears only. A classic folk record for today’s people. Not neo-folk. Not freak-folk. Something simpler, more immediate and enduring as well. Find yourself a Dear Companion and spin it on — it’s sweet!

The recent release of The Fucking Champs VI signaled changes on a couple levels for all of us: firstly, the influx of fresh rock into our communal system, creating a sensation of youthfulness in the elders and a feeling of invincibility in the young — nothing wrong with that, and everything right with it too. Secondly, a new Fucking Champs album means a new Fucking Champs tour, which means the world is not just getting Fucking Tim Green, but also Fucking Tim Soete and Fucking Phil Manley, who together make The Fucking Champs. They’re revving up the caravan and preparing to hit all relevant highways and byways of North America without a single day off — and that’s just for starters. See, The Fucking Champs were on hiatus there for a couple of years, and they’ve got a lot of excess energy to deal with. What better way than rocking it out, right? Don’t miss The Fucking Champs on tour. Or VI — on sale where all elite rock is offered.

“Tim Green copes during the unhappy days before The Fucking Champs
came together for their undeniable new album, VI.”

Meanwhile, we’ve got a couple of dark horses out there, tearing up the track! Down south is RTX, rocking that corner of the nation on the first leg of the Western Xterminator tour. Jennifer and the boys have had a ball busting it out on a country that’s somehow gone soft since the last time they toured. Or has RTX grown harder? Let’s not split any more hairs than are already split — get down to your local southland rock club and get the rock out. More dates are comin’...

Way out west is King Kong, raging up the west coast for only the second time in their long existence. California has been "kind" (get it?), but the Kong are getting ready to take a right at Seattle and romp on back through the Midwest for another week or so. Then and only then will King Kong be satisfied that they gave Buncha Beans their all in terms of tour support — until the European tour, that is.

Meanwhile, stadium crowds in Red Rocks, Colorado, and Mountain View, California, went home with their harp on after shows that Joanna Newsom opened up for Bjork. Joanna had a cut-down version of her Ys Street band in support, but she could have gone out there with just a Jews' Harp and she still would have enslaved them to her vision. It happens everytime, and we dig it...

Over in Europe, The Red Krayola went fishing for wild new situations in Athens and Barcelona, two southern towns they haven’t gigged in yet. It’s only been forty years, you know — it takes a while to get to all the fun little places around the globe. For these dates, Red Krayola guitarist Tom Watson joined Krayola Kommandant Mayo Thompson along with a rhythm generator they refer to as “Fred” to entertain the far-flung freaks of Greece and Spain with a variety of old and new songs, as well as some things nobody had ever heard before — and they might not ever hear again! We’ll let you know when there’s more Red Krayola dates in store — but until then, why not go down to the brick-and-mortar store (or metal and glass, whichever you’ve got in your locality) and purchase a CD copy of Soldier-Talk, our nomination for reissue of the year. The sounds of ’79 are alive again on Soldier-Talk — we’d forgotten what a scary-but-fun year it was!

...and then, in June — nothing. It’s rare that Drag City takes a month off from releasing records, with the exception of the past few Decembers — but that was only because we were trying to keep in step with the industry. We’ll never make that mistake again, unless we want to end up behind the rest of the industry in the unemployment line. But it’s not like we won’t be in the office in June — we’ll be here, promoting and selling the new titles from King Kong, RTX, Bill Callahan, The Fucking Champs, High Llamas, P.G. Six, Meg Baird, Boris with Michio Kurihara, Ghost, Alasdair Roberts, Susan Howe and David Grubbs and of course, the whole gang of new releases on Yaala Yaala. We’ll be looking after the live shows and full-on tours by Bert Jansch, The Fucking Champs, P.G. Six and White Magic, as well as the dates being set up for Bill Callahan, The Howling Hex and whoever else is heading down the endless highway in the months to come. We’ll be making the plans for fall releases. But we won’t have a new release in June. Stay your tears, world! We wouldn’t do it unless we were sure everyone stood to profit from a little break. And you will, you’ll see.

After which comes July...

Of the many things we’re known for here at Drag City, we tout “Mick Turner’s dealer” as one of our personal favorite nicknames. See, in addition to being an equal third of The Dirty Three, Mick Turner is also a stone-cold artist, motherfuckers. This guy can paint like some people make records. But when Mick makes records, they’re unlike what most of us refer to as records — unless the whole world was raised on Brian Eno’s Music for Films. And they weren’t, we checked. Plus, Eno never made his cute l’il slices of ambience with such organic flair! Mick’s got one foot in the world of nature and the other foot in an art-hole as he composes his tunes — but even with electronic intervention (his amp, the loops he creates, the tape machine, perhaps an espresso machine?), there’s still a naturalism that evokes tendrils of grass waving in the slow rippling of creek water, branches reflected in tidal pools, the slow unfurling of clouds in the afternoon, the moon burning in the night sky and lots of other merciless moments of nature that most of us are too damn stuck-up to ever notice! It’s precisely this kind of person that needs a shot of Mick to wake them up to a world that’s dying. And so we pride ourselves in exposing Mick to John Q. Publius.

Just to clear something up: when we say “dealer”, we’re not claiming title to his art dealership, or any other dirty meaning you might apply to the word. We sell music here at Drag City — music and therefore, lifestyles. And to us, Mick’s painting is not just a fine art that he displays in galleries and sells for money, it’s also an analogue to the music within the jackets that his artwork so gorgeously adorns. Check out the Drag City gallery of Mick Turner works:

If you’re noticing that you don’t recognize the right-most image, then welcome to the long way round to saying “Mick Turner has a new release on Drag City!” It’s a compilation called Blue Trees and it compiles all the songs Mick hasn’t previously released on Drag City over the years under both his own name and the name Tren Brothers (with Jim White on skins). Naturally it holds together with incredible continuity and is a soothing, pleasing, challenging listen. Blue Trees is coming in July, along with that earth-enhancing new issue of the Galactic Zoo Dossier.

On July 17th, you’ll want to drop ‘em if you got ‘em — because the Galactic Zoo Dossier is touching down for a seventh big visitation! If you’ve had your head stuck in some culture-free vacuum for the past decade, then maybe you don’t know that the GZD is a leading light of historical lysergic dissection and appreciation — in other words, a psychedelic music and culture fanzine! Not only that, but the creator of the Galactic Zoo Dossier, Steve “Plastic Crimewave” Krakow, chooses to express his appreciation entirely in pen-and-ink, resulting in the coolest hand-written-and-drawn psychedelic fanzine ever released! With issue #7, our Mister Plastic has dug deep into the bins to satisfy his never-satisfied music tooth and the results show in 104 pages of ruminations on such far-flung artists as Donovan, Rasputin’s Stash, Beauregarde, H.P. Lovecraft, Tiny Tim, Third World War, Crushed Butler, Manfred Mann and many others! There’s countless tributes to comic-strip psychedelia and the small-screen version as well! There’s a double disc of “rare psychs and stomps” called Teenage Meadows of Infinity / From the Ashes! Plus another eight pages of Damaged Guitar God and Astral Folk Goddess Trading Cards! Want the hot skinny on Judy Henkse, Susan Jacks, Vince Melaney, Phil Manzanera and Sneeky Pete? The GZD Trading Cards will give you the thumbnail breakdown right underneath Plastic’s hand-penned impressions of the God or Goddess in question. It’s all happening on July 17th — and if this sounds interesting to you, keep your antenna up, because all previous issues of the Galactic Zoo Dossier are sold out. That’s right, several thousand coffee table freaks and culture heads have snatched ‘em up. Don’t let it happen again! Galactic Zoo Dossier #7 this way comes — be ready!

Also up for (re-)evaluation this summer are a couple of seminal works of Mimir, that lynchpin of the ever-mysteriously-shrouded Streamline imprint. Let’s whisk a veil or two aside, shall we? Streamline is the brainchild of Christoph Heeman, leader of such projects as H.N.A.S., Mirror, the Dom records label, and yes, even and especially Mimir! He’s bequeathed to Drag City the manufacture and distribution of such Streamline projects as, uh, H.N.A.S., Mirror, and yes, even Mimir (also CDs from Andrew Chalk and Limpe Fuchs; LPs from Nurse with Wound and Xhol Caravan and both formats from Little Annie). There’s a word for what Christoph does — and if anyone says nepotism, they don’t have ears! The Streamline sound is a subtle but deep examination of silences and repetitions, atmospheres and controlled improvisations. The two Mimir reissues forthcoming catch Mimir in two different phases — and if two separate Mimir releases aren’t potentially confusing enough, these two Mimir titles should do the trick: one’s called Mimir and the other’s Mimyriad. Of course, hardcore fans of Mimir will know the difference, and if you don't come on too strongly they might deign to explain it to you.

Freshly minted Bill Callahan fans, take (whale) heart! Your new hero isn’t touring in support of his debut album Woke On a Whaleheart...yet. The US tour we’re all waiting for is being planned right now and is slated to being on the very last day of August, rolling through all six corners of North America until mid-October. Until then, do what Bill’s doing — head down to the beach in your shortest shorts and try to pick up a tan or two. That’s what summer’s all about — even if you’re a gaunt and pale lightning bolt who just put out a record called Woke On a Whaleheart, of all things. Or go down to the record shop and get yourself a second copy of Bill’s record — because seriously, it’s one of the best records of the year, and there’s still old Smog fans out there who haven’t even heard about it yet. Help us help them — spread the Whaleheart around. And Bill’ll see you in September.

Fuck me — I actually said it! Looking towards the season traditionally known as “autumn” when most of us here in the Upper Hemisphere of man are happy to finally feel the Spring in our steppes is a straight bummer. Skipping ahead like that doesn’t do shit for keeping the summer alive. And yet, this is bizness as usual (so we’re told). And so, we’re planning our fall crop! What we haven’t discussed in depth with you is the awesome new releases from The Howling Hex, Concentrick, The Red Krayola with Art & Language and a new artist named Randall of Nazareth — not to mention a new release from Sir Richard Bishop we’re psyched and/or stoked about (depending on the hour). Let’s leave that for next time — the sun is shining…birds singing in the trees…new releases in the stores. It’s paradise, Drag City-style!

Keep the summer alive,

Rian Murphy
Drag City Inc.
May 2007