Summertime in Drag City and the living is easy. While the very future of music teeters on the ledge, unsure whether to hurl his-and-herself into the ether, we’re contemplating our own future down at ye olde fishing hole (one of many holes we frequent to get our collective head together). It’s a helluva world...what went wrong? It doesn’t matter now — we’re not analysts, we’re just a record label here trying to make it. And so we’ve got release dates planned, pet projects we just can’t get enough of, and of course, a mountain of records for you to buy. But we’re not thinking about that now — Drag City’s on autoerotic autopilot. So go check out the new things and the old things...the tour dates...shirts. Don’t bother us —

Ah, July — we love you! Heavy heat and a hot wind as our vision blurs and our pulse slows to a crawl. What is there to do in July but vacate, right? Well, right...but we’re in the business of releasing the soundtrack to all your lives (and sure, ours too) — and that soundtrack doesn’t just automatically skip forward to the August cut or whatever. Life is like records (to paraphrase a great man) in that it has pacing: kick-off moments, slow burners and the obligatory single or three. As faithful AOR people, we’re in it for a release every month, to give this cool world the options it deserves. And so —

A mellow accompaniment to the July of your choice is now available to you courtesy of Mick Turner and his dynamic duo with Jim White, Tren Brothers. Mick’s guitar sound is known world-wide via his decade-and-a-half with The Dirty Three – but that same guitar sound has a lot of texture and nuance that becomes all the more vivid whenever he’s on his own without no damned violin in-fookin’-front of him. He didn’t tell us to say that, honest — we’re just, what do they call it? Taking the piss. But casting all this urine aside, Blue Trees is an exciting new phase in the long-playing career of Mick Turner – which is pretty funny when you think of it, because the body of the CD is culled from singles sides and compilation tracks! Yes, Blue Trees could be categorized as a belovedly-dreaded “singles collection” — complete with bonus tracks — but since we’ve never heard any of those singles before and trust that you haven’t either, it’s really an all-new album, and one that has more of a drive and maybe even a bounce than Mick’s esteemed catalog to date (Tren Phantasma, Marlan Rosa and MOTH, if you’re keeping score at Ice Station Zebra). Probably because singles are supposed to be jukebox music and all musicians are trying to make hits, even when they’re putting together diffuse instrumental guitar-and-loops compositions designed to replicate those last few minutes before passing out from an excess of drink (or something), like Mick does! This unique combination of ambitions makes Blue Trees a fun listen and a welcome return for our Mick. Turner on the radio, anyone? Well, internet radio, anyway — that’s our only hope, indy nation! Support your local digital air wave. And buy a copy of Blue Trees — online or off (but offline you get the fantastic paintings of multitalented Mick), and on sale today.

Could it be? Is the world catching up to the world of the collector, that forward-thinking individual who treasured Another Diamond Day and Parallelograms before the great unwashed underground got hold of them? Yes. The world is catching up — and it has to do with the internet and all the insta-gratification that DSL brings these damn kids today. God bless ‘em. The psychedelic revolution promised back in summer ’67 is closer than ever thanks to the cyber-net that’s knit our global village (closer) together. But you know what? We’ve all discovered that no matter how much the iPod revolutionizes your paisley parties, there’s nothing like the jam provided by a good old slab of vinyl. There’s no psychedelic effect quite like the naïf qualities of mid-60s bands, not to mention mid-70s or mid-80s bands! Unless of course it’s the psychedelia of individuals inspired by those halcyon days.

Enter the Galactic Zoo Dossier. For the past decade (or was it a million years?) this hand-written and hand-drawn fanzine has brought the essence of this timeless approach to the people in exactly the spirit it was originally offered – youthfully naïve, blissfully aware, microscopically obsessed and fatally overconfident. Such was a generation (or two) forged! How else could a man call himself Plastic Crimewave and hand-render odes to Tiny Tim, Loop, The Index and Beauregard? This is his life, people! And it is with great love and great craft that he’s sharing it with all of us.

Issue #7 is out now! Previous Drag City-published releases #5 and #6, not to mention the Galactic Zoo Dossier Compendium, have all sold out, which means that the GZD (as we have to call it, sooner or later) is an increasingly popular document to an increasingly aware populace! You can check it out online — what a minute, you can’t. In this digital world of ours, the Galactic Zoo Dossier is available in print (with two CDs of fantastic compiled music) only. Take that, iPhone nation!

This planet is for sale — just like all used and broken items, it’s probably going for cheap somewhere in the Galaxy. And any day, the new landlords are coming down with a new set of tenant’s rights for all of us ingrates. Lock up your children — but before you do, let ‘em loose to see the latest wave of Drag City acts touring rings around our decrepit old terra fucka. Over in the British Isles, Bill “formerly Smog” Callahan is on the merry olde road in early August, as is P.G. Six, on an entirely separate (though no less traveled) path. But Alasdair Roberts is on a bunch of those Callahan dates, providing a nice Scotch balance to Callahan’s Irish wine. Over on the mainland, Six Organs of Admittance has a nice run of dates also in August — and Joanna Newsom’s got another in September — The Ys European tour — come for the music, stay to see her totally delish shoe selection! Who knows what she'll be wearing — Chloe? Marc Jacobs? Prada? Dolce? Perhaps she'll have that cork-heeled number with the gazelle-skin tongue...or the cherry-red patent leather slingbacks with buckles made from WTC steel! Why do I know (and care!) so much about women's footwear? Eh, probably not worth digging into. On with the shows... Back in America, our other Scottish sensation Bert Jansch has a west-coast jaunt all laid for mid-August — lucky sod! — with our comedy perennial Neil Hamburger covering the Midwest and The Fucking Champs doing a bit of both in August and September. Perhaps most exciting of all is the “Girl Power” edition of Faun Fables — a quartet of females with not a chin beard in the bunch (we hope)! They’ve got a couple shows in California with this configuration, and if that doesn’t out-vibe the Spice reunion, then I don’t know what. Not to be outtoured (except by several dozen dates at the very least), Meg Baird has a show in Somerville, Massachusetts on August 17th, and then a few dates opening for Bert Jansch. If you like Meg’s debut record Dear Companion as much as we do, well I guess you’ll be at of those, no matter what the cost. For what is money, really...

...but I ramble and digress. All this information is offered to you much more succinctly on our Tour Page. Check it out, seekers!

Get out your double-meaning dictionaries, kids! This August, we have, like the header says, an august release date. You know the term, right? Sure, from your book-learning! Not in the calendrical sense — “august” as in awe-inspiring and majestic. Whoa, what could we possibly be talking about on the humble old Drag City label to inspire such heightened praise? Read on, sucklers...

The Howling Hex are back like they’ve never been before! The sounds of XI are those of a bonafide, live-in-the-studio group! And what’s more, a group that have just spent the last three weeks pushing and pulling their songs into the shape that they’ll exist in henceforth and forevermore — a hard-driving, rock-and-rolling, collectively-assembled line of punk, power-pop and 21st century blues. Neil Hagerty has thrown it all against the wall over the course of The Howling Hex’s five-year reign, but he’s never overseen such a manically surging album. The way history goes, he may never again — but that’s not up to us. All we gots to do is listen. Which is a newfound pleasure in the presence of this knockout. Special note! XI comes in a super-duper limited edition of 500 LPs in addition to the super-less-limited-CD. This means that all you vinyl fags that complained about All-Night Fox and Nightclub Version of the Eternal not being on LP need to pony up. It’ll be a bit more expensive — but God! What a thrill.

Concentrick is finally a Drag City enterprise! Ten years on and four albums in, we’re pleased to offer DC nation a special trip to Aluminum Lake, the latest and defiantly greatest Concentrick album. Past albums have distanced themselves from the sound of fiendish Concentrick mastermind Tim Green’s mother band The Fucking Champs (got that?), dipping instead into the realms of electronic music, kraut-sound, industrial, ambient and other shit like that. Other good shit like that, I mean. However, the time was never right for us and those former releases (Music For Tunnels, Tender Machines, and Lucid Dreaming, if you’re keeping track on Mars) — until motherfucking now, bitch. And what a release to come around on — Aluminum Lake does the things that a good Concentrick album ought to do in a perfect new configuration, as well as blending in some faux-Fucking Champs twin leads in triumphant fashion. The pacing of the whole thing is unerring, leading to a truly pleasing listening experience. You’ll see — you too will want to marry Aluminum Lake when it finally hits stores. Go ahead, we’re not possessive (just sign the pre-nup).

Streamline is back in the flow! It’s been a couple years since anyone heard from the label that brought Drag City vinyl releases by Nurse With Wound, Little Annie and Xhol Caravan. And we were missing them — because in addition to those incredible vinyl editions, they’ve also reissued CDs though Drag City from H.N.A.S., Mimir, Mirror, Limpe Fuchs and Andrew Chalk, with plenty other sonically supreme items promised to us before the line went dead. But now Streamline is back with two reissues by one band — flagship Streamline collective, Mimir. The first of them is called Mimyriad, which was the first Streamline release way back in '93 (before we came into the picture, which is one reason we’re glad to be involved now). Mimyriad is also the first Mimir release with Jim O’Rourke playing on it. Now pay attention close here, because it’s about to get confusing. We’ve already got a self-titled Mimir record in the catalog, and it’s a good one. But that’s the third Mimir album. And the second record we’re reissuing in August is the first Mimir album — which is also self-titled! Holy gee, this could affect sales — and it would, if the audience for Mimir weren’t so dedicated and intelligent besides (and if the CDs didn't all have different bar codes, duh!). Anyway, they all sound different with divergent characters all their own — and those of you who like electronic, experimental, avant-garde, soundscape, 20th-century, or any of those other silly “categories” (pigeon-holes, we call ‘em!), you’re going to dig these new old Mimir CDs.

So there it is — The Howling Hex XI LP/CD, Concentrick Aluminum Lake CD, Mimir Mimyriad and S/T (first) CD. All set for August 28th, wherever records are sold anymore. Be wherever that is!

Psst – hey! Yeah, you...like good music involving singing and songwriting? Brutha, have we got a new artist for you. His name is Bill Callahan — and he brings a mood, a cadence and a style to his records that nobody else does. Yeah, a true original. Naturally, we’re thrilled. Get this — his debut album is called Woke on a Whaleheart. See what I’m saying? Highly original. And very tuneful, very human. If you like pop with the roots showing (music, that is), we think you’re gonna love him. His record came out a couple months ago and got some super-great press from a lot of great magazines and some other ones too. You should definitely check this guy out.

OK, those of you in the know about Bill “Smog” Callahan, quit your snickering! Sure, he’s been around since the gay 90s and made a hundred great records (well, ten or so anyway) — but you know what? Not everyone’s as in-the-know as you are. Not everyone's aware that after ten years (or so) of ever-increasing acclaim for the Smog catalog, Bill decided to “go it alone” (which he’d been doing since the start anyway) and make his debut as Bill Callahan — period! This happened back in May, when Woke on a Whaleheart created excitement on the level of Smog classics such as Knock Knock, Julius Caesar and A River Ain’t Too Much to Love. When Bill tours Europe next month and America in the fall, he’s gonna bring this truth back home to you again. Are you up for the Callahan challange?

This fall, we’ve got a new label we’ll be manufacturing and distributing — a mysterious little imprint called Language of Stone. We can’t tell you too much about it — but if you like music of the people, by the people and for the people; if you like the sounds of real instruments (like the odd synthesizer); if you’re into traditional songs played by bands with names like Mountain Home and Orion Rigel Dommisse, then you’re gonna totally dig Language of Stone. More on this mysterious undertaking next time.

Before we sign off, we want to tell you a little about the Fred Armisen Presents series. See, Fred is a celebrity who likes to make a difference — and that’s why he’s invested a significant portion of his Saturday Night Live earnings towards seeking out new talent and showcasing them in the best fashion possible. This October, drummers worldwide are going to be thanking Fred when they get their hands on the Complicated Drumming Technique CD by Jens Hannemann. Fred knew as soon as he saw this guy drum that a teacher was in him waiting to be born — and who knows how many drummers will be born after we get this DVD into music shops all around the globe. Stay turned for more information on this incredible educational opportunity for the musician in us all.

Here in this increasingly uncertain world, the general populace is spending their mad money on things like refurbing the bomb shelter for wi-fi, not stupid records and books and other cultural artifacts that entertainingly measure and display our progress as a people. Who can blame them? They’re ants, desperately seeking to extend their useless lives — and a bunker is more secure than a CD these days, take it from me. But who the fuck cares about them? We’re talking to you! And here’s a few things you might just find yourself interested in, if you give it half a thought:

Sir Richard Bishop
The Red Krayola with Art & Language
Ghost
Randall of Nazareth
White Magic
Six Organs of Admittance

That’s right, new records from all these venerated names. What do we care about the so-called marketplace! There’s an audience for the unusual sounds that all these artists are creating — and we intend to supply that audience, no matter what. This we promise — a promise we’ll be fulfilling throughout Fall 2007 and into the next year.

But after that, who knows? If we could sell this place for a chateau in Switzerland...well... we'd probably blow that shit up too. See ya!

Rian Murphy
Drag City Inc.
July 2007