Oh sweet crazy world — as you grow and expand and die in a million different ways, we love you all the same. If any of your children are confused about which direction to go with so much info and input and output and past and future at their disposal, we know you won't mind if we put our two cents in. As fabulous as the past is and as tantalizing as the future seems, let's just do what we can to stay more or less in the moment and face the day! Now is the time, for Drag City records and all the rest as well.

Hear that buzzing in your ears? It's the sound of people everywhere finally agreeing that the LP record is the fastest growing format in today's record biz. Naturally, people being who they are, this isn't exactly the truth — but it's a nice distortion of fact nonetheless. What can be said about vinyl is that it's certainly not commercially shrinking the way certain unnamed formats are! But enough bone-dry industry analysis: today and for at least the next couple of weeks, we've placed two incredible vinyl reissues within your reach. Don't nod on them, because these limited editions are going freaking fast!

Mayo Thompson's Corky's Debt to His Father sort of almost came out in 1970 or '71 — who really knows for sure? There wasn't much of a distribution apparatus behind it (though they did place an advert in Rolling Stone — in the classifieds section!) but it can't be said to have died a death since here we are, thirty-seven-or-eight years later, talking about it! It was a clever pop record, fusing Thompson's lyrical innovations (previously displayed on the classic first two Red Krayola albums) with southern roots rock in a fashion that would one day be described as "indie." At the time, though — crickets. A UK reissue in 1988 captured some attention — and then Drag City came along. In 1994, we reissued Corky's Debt to His Father on both LP and CD, and the response was tremendous! Unfortunately, a fire in the pressing plant where the LP jackets were stored destroyed all potential for LP restocks just a few months later. Ever since then, whenever we break out the brandy and recline in front of the fire, we muse over the possibility of bringing back Corky's on LP (among other far more outrageous aspirations). Long story short (too late?), we did it again. The record is out there, packaged with a 7" single of session outtakes never before heard on vinyl and a jacket that will bring you to your vinyl-lovin' knees, it's so perfectly old-school. But supplies are highly limited — don't miss your chance to buy an LP of Corky's Debt to His Father for only the fourth time in nearly forty years.

Gary Higgins' Red Hash sort of almost came out in 1973 or so (sound familiar?), pressed by Gary and his band in an independent fashion that is today known as "private press." There wasn't really a label involved and then Gary got in trouble with the law and the record kind of drifted — but boxlots of the pressing slowly made their way through the collector's realms and by the late 90s, Red Hash was the province of retro-nerds dedicated to turning on like-minded heads. Enter Drag City! In 2005, after a not-that-lengthy search, we reissued Red Hash on CD. Well, we took some heat from hardcore types who wanted that genuine album feel but didn't have a couple hundred for an original off eBay. Whatever — we had to see what was out there for Gary — and as it transpired, there was a worldwide audience out there for Gary's ornate folk-rock and unfiltered hippie rhetoric. A couple years of sales and bingo — we got your vinyl reissue right here. As with Mayo's record, the Red Hash reissues includes a 7" single of songs that comprised the "bonus" tracks on the CD. Also as with Mayo's record, it's super-limited, highly in demand and going fast!

Ah, but enough of the well-established, but once-ignored past! You like new bands? Us too! As you may have heard, there's a lot of them out there, maybe even too many — but nothing beats hearing the sound of a new band that really moves you. And Singer literally do that, among other things. In the wake of their show last week in their hometown of Chicago, there's plenty of press trying to explicate their music, but if you don't mind, we'll take our own pass at it. It's totally crazy, the sounds of four guys completely not listening to each other and possibly even playing in different rooms — whoops, we were actually reading from the Illinois Entertainer! How adorably dumb. Actually, Singer challenges the norms (of 1957) with an automatic-writing songwriting technique involving all four members of Singer, giving the songs a lurching, lunching feel that is then topped with vocalese of similar inclination: everyone's involved, everyone's a singer. They harmonize, they atonalize, they take solo turns. This on top of double-guitars and a few moments of double-drums produces some thrillingly unpredictable songs — and live, they're brought across with a similarly four-headed approach that coalesces and then recedes into quasi-uncertainty, studded with bits of jangle, funk and drone. Highlights from the show include Robt A.A. Lowe's ear-and-eye-scaping falsetto adventures, Adam Vida's bottom-heavy drum thumping, Ben Vida's much needed vocal narrative and the Neilsen-esque presence of Todd Rittmann, original guitarist extraordinaire.

Their album is called Unhistories. LP and CD hit simultaneously on March 25th.

So far, so good. The year of 2008 has been presented in bite-size pieces — Baby Dee plus new Language of Stones Ex Reverie and Ilya Monosov in January, vinyl reissues from Mayo Thompson and Gary Higgins in February, Singer in March. All fine and well — but April is anything but! We've got three new titles on LP and CD (one of them a movie soundtrack, one of them a musical release from a comedian and one of them a new band to Drag City), a new disc on Yaala Yaala and two more CDs from Language of Stone — sheez! The production department is straining to get it all out in time for it to all come back, the press department is bracing for the flood and in sales — well, we're devising new methods to count all the beans we'll be bringing in for this exciting new crop! Here's the details:

Gummo fans, wake up! The whores have all gone and the house is on fire! And meanwhile, it's been years since your hero, Harmony Korine, has made a new movie for you to help you live your life. That's all going to change this spring when Mister Lonely comes out — the first Korine opus since Julien Donkey-Boy way back in 1999. The picture's something of a change of pace, but as always, there's eye-candy galore (or is it eye-gore aplenty?) and lots of wild performances by actors both known and unknown. Added to the fun this time is a soundtrack from J. Spaceman and Sun City Girls, who, independently of each other, scored the sounds inside the director's head for Mister Lonely. It a wonderfully spaced-out score, colorful and tuneful without ever really approaching the standards we call 'song.' Prepare yourself for an earburst and get ready to choose formats when the LP and CD versions of Mister Lonely hit in late April.

Rock people, unite! After all these years, the band destined to free you once and for all has arrived. We call them Monotonix and they hail from the holy land of Israel. This is a group comprised of three players: guitar, drums and vocals — but it's their attitude that sets them apart. Believing that music is for the people, they set themselves among their audience and lead the show from there. The result is invariably a party unlike most experiences of shows we can say we've had! The debut EP from Monotonix is called "Body Language," and it captures the power of their headlong assault in gleaming, full-bodied glory! The boys are on a seemingly endless tour of the U.S. at this very moment, but once the release date catches up to them, the coming together may destroy us all. Or save us. Stay tuned.

It's no secret that the fans of Neil Hamburger are a conservative lot — it makes sense given how many back-country dives "America's Funnyman" has had to play to make ends meet over the years, as well as his devotion to "Nixon's party," as he likes to put it. After all that, doesn't it make sense that Neil's latest release would find him crooning pure country tunes in front of an all-star outfit? No, we didn't think so. But that's what we're peddling in April, along with all this other stuff. If you still don't believe us, check out the free preview on our front page — "At Least I Was Paid" is just the tip of the iceberg as Neil uses the country format to dredge his soul of all the pain and agony that we expect from our country music heroes like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. You'll find it all when Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners.

And — damn. If we can get out from under and get all these things together, what an April we'll have!

Here in the land of the free (Drag City land) it's the coldest winter in almost fourteen years — but do our touring artists give a hang? Hell no. Honkin' down the highway all around the world are Baby Dee, Bill Callahan, Monotonix and Sir Richard Bishop. And then comes RTX, Faun Fables and Major Stars in March! And Singer and The Valerie Project in April! Plus, Neil Hamburger, as always. The forecast calls for plenty of shows.

No, there's more! There's always more. We've got those amazing O'Rourke reissues in May along with another secret earth-reshaping surprise — and Blue Chopsticks will present another bit of seminal Louisville no-wavers Circle X history at that time as well. And then comes the wave of 's' bands — Suarasama, Silver Jews and Spirit of '76 — all coming to you via Drag City this summer. And stuff from Streamline at some point.

It doesn't quit. We don't either.
Until the money runs out —

Rian Murphy
Drag City Inc.