|
NEWS 12/14/2000
|
|
HOLI-DAZE
Happy Hanukah, y’all! We just shipped our last new releases out the door and are currently sinking deep into holiday mode. Which for us means taking a breath and getting back to basics – inventory, next year’s releases and of course, our wish lists. Basically, there’s not a moment to spare, as we try to evaluate where we’ve been this year while sketching out the exact progression of the first four month’s worth of 2001 releases. For a long-promised, marquee year like 2001, the order of things has to be just right, so this is going to take a little doing. 2000 IN REVIEW Highlights? Well, each one was a highlight for the fans of that particular artist or band the compliments we received on the Half Japanese reissues alone would fill this newsletter adequately...but certainly the release of Smog’s Dongs of was a memorable moment. Yeah, it hit people pretty hard – they ate it up! The release of John Fahey’s How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life book has been a continuous joy for us, since it’s not only cool and unusual, but also a hot seller. And the two Royal Trux releases, ”The Radio Video EP,” and Pound for Pound were two kinds of wonderful and although the aborted Pound for Pound tour that followed it was not any kind of wonderful, it was at least something nobody will ever forget. The Neil Hamburger fall tour was unforgettable too, as audiences across the country finally got up, close and personal with “America’s Funnyman” at long last. Most recently, The Fucking Champs and High Llamas records have been lighting it up, and the positive Rolling Stone review of The Fucking Champs IV was an excellent way to kick off the gift buying season for America’s upper classes. And us. Hey, but ultimately, they were all great and memorable and it’s been a great year for more reasons than these few highlights, but it’s time to move on... 2001 A NEW RELEASES ODYSSEY January! Drag City proudly and finally releases Chestnut Station In Your Living Room the first, and best party album of the century. Or is it the last and best? Buy it yourself to see what the future holds for party albums, parties, and Chestnut Station. Also released at this time will be The Galactic Zoo Dossier magazine, complete with CD and Damaged Guitar God trading cards. It’s the revenge of the good, old-fashioned fanzine! Most of the kids these days locate their little oracles of wisdom on-line but not the Galactic Zoo Dossier! No way, and not only is it in good, old-fashioned print, but it’s also handwritten and hand-drawn from cover to cover! Now that’s class. ALSO IN JANUARY will be one of the rare, hilarious releases from Sea Note records, the little imprint that could. Yes, the home of the Sundowners, Desert Storm, The Drag City Hour, and even the Silver Jews is now home to Papa M as well. The title of this rarified, CD-only release? “Papa M Sings.” We don’t want to reveal more than that at this point, since it will spoil the mystery...but we will say this: once you’ve heard “Papa M Sings” once or twice, you’ll be singing along too. Singing your fucking heart out! And crying your eyes out too, natch. February will bring us several titles we’ve already cried our eyes out over: the supersonic folk-rock opus from Appendix Out, The Night is Advancing (produced by Sean O’Hagan and Rian Murphy!) and Neil Hagerty’s solo debut, Neil Michael Hagerty the solo LP to end all solo LPs! In that month as well, we reintroduce you to The Anomoanon, with their self-titled best record yet. This begins our renewed association with Palace Records, whose titles we’ll be manufacturing, distributing and selling in prodigious numbers. And that will be borne out by a little March release by one Bonnie “Prince” Billy, whose latest LP, Ease Down the Road (the follow-up to I See a Darkness) will be blowing you all away at that time. The rest? A collection of great rumors! David Berman’s Actual Air in a limited, hardcover edition! King Kong’s demo LP (another Sea Note release)! Imitation Electric Piano! Cynthia Dall! And before the Spring is over, extremely exciting new releases from U.S. Maple and Edith Frost, as well as the Jim O’Rourke/Jeff Tweedy collaboration that’s driving all the kids wild on Rolling Stone.com these days. Ah, the future we can’t wait to get there! SPECIAL ORDERS SELL OUT! HEY, LOOK!
For us, it seems representative of what Fucking Champs fans are capable of because our boy Will, from Newbury Salem, was so excited to get this photographic image taken that he stuck his thumbon the surface of his extremely sensitive Polaroid film exposure. Maybe even more than once, since it has obscured the lower left hand corner of the image. A shame indeed, since the immortal slogan “Rock Out with your Cock Out!” emblazoned across the bottom of the poster display is also kind of obscured. But since we’re telling you now, it’s not such a shame. Display artists will note that this display uses the method of stringing several posters together in a row to create it’s effect through repetition, thus drawing the eye of all who pass by the postering area. Given that this is not only a Fucking Champs poster display, we’re already inclined to like it but it’s also promotion for a live appearance as well as a unequivocal positive endorsement. We wish we had more thumbs, but until we do, two fucking thumbs up, for sure. THE END IS NEIGH |
| And happy Millennium to you as well... Drag City December 14, 2000 |
