IN THE STREET/TRUX TOUR
It's started. Pound for Pound is out there. Way out there. It’s possible that never before in the history of rock and roll has there been a moment when this kind of record could have made sense. Now that we’re here, though, it makes total sense. So we’re psyched. Royal Trux lives again. The word from the kids out there is a mystic and psychic one - that Pound for Pound makes total sense, etc. And also that they were taken aback and that it took all weekend to get their heads together. And that now that they did, they can’t get “Small Thief” out of their heads, that the whole thing just had to sink to a certain level in them to where they could recognize it. Of course, all we can say is, Yeah! The world has another Royal Trux record to confuse and amuse it. And so that makes it a better place again. And this is only the beginning...because starting on June 14th in Baltimore, MD, RTX take to the road, American-style. The Pound for Pound tour starts in the east, then the northeast and finally the near-east, near-mid-west and near south, ending up in Newport KY on July the 4th (God Bless America). Ten days later, it all starts all over again in Georgia on July 15th, a winding path through Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona all the way out to the Pacific Coast, where they'll play up and down the coast, finishing in Vancouver, of all places. And then, for the rest of you on earth, it's off to Japan, Great Britain, continental Europe, Scandanavia, Australia and whatever else lies beyond. It won't stop. RTX-2000.

RETAIL PROMO
Visitors to our website may have noticed a contest for retailers has been posted. Yes, this summer, imaginative and (hopefully) excessive displays of Drag City new releases will be pitted against each other in a battle for POP supremacy. We’re here to supply the new releases and the posters, of course, and we intend to respond to all requests as they come in. As the new releases come, the focus of this contest will change, but for the moment, it’s all about making Royal Trux come alive in your local shop. An as-yet-unspecified prize and subsequent national exposure (on this very site!) are the prize for the most adventuresome display! Further details are available elsewhere on this page.

IT’S SMOGGIN’ TIME! YES!
On Tuesday, June 20th, Smog’s American tour not only begins, it also ends! The Park West Theater in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood is where this drama will play out, and Mick Turner is also on the bill (so to speak). Bill’s got an all-new band to play his all-new album (as well as his battered old steamer trunk stuffed full of fantastic old Smog hits), and there are plenty of good seats still available. As well as good places to stand that are still available. Given that there are no other dates being played in the U. S. of A, we recommend that you drop everything, pick up your friends and make it on up to Chicago!

YOUR (MAIL) ORDERS
Drag City mail-order customers, listen up! We are in a transitional period right now, stuck in between employees to execute your desires. This means that orders are piling up, emails are piling up and correspondence is on hold - hopefully only for another week or so. Call it a fortnight at least. But don’t call us - we can’t do anything about it for the at least the next week - er, fortnight. After that, we’ll have a new mail-order guy. We request continued patience and beg for forgiveness – what else can we do (other than send you your damn orders)?

LIFE IN JULY
Last week, we broke down the potential Next releases on Drag City records for Summer, 2000. You can look for yourself – we talked up the Smog, Neil Hamburger, Pita and Rian Murphy/Will Oldham releases but good...so now perhaps we should discuss what’s brewin’ for July!
ITEM!Life in July is going to feature a cool, Southern breeze. A breeze that is, if you happen to slap David Grubbs’s The Spectrum Between into your CD changer-hole. This new LP is an exciting and pleasant listen, a cool record that, like all David Grubbs records, features song, lyrics and singing that combine David’s unerring sense of melody with something kind of exotic and experimental. On The Spectrum Between, the featured group plays guitars, drums, percussions, organ, brass and woodwind instruments, and more, all combined to make the most direct, most straightforwardly enjoyable David Grubbs record to date. As a matter of fact, you could say that for David, it just keeps getting more direct and more more straighforwardly enjoyable all the time! And good for him. We can't wait for you to hear it too!
ITEM!More cool breezes are predicted with the arrival on these shores of a brand new album from Movietone! Yes, those of you sticky young things looking for another brand new record to worship, look no damn further - The Blossom Filled Streets is for you! It’s been all the way since 1997 that we heard Movietone’s superb second LP, Day and Night. The Blossom Filled Streets is an excursion further into the sound that so many related to back then - the low-key jazziness, the cool fire of Movietone's ensemble playing featuring Kate Wright’s icy (and lovely) vocal stylings, the hypnotic, impressionistic result that is the music of Movietone. Make sure you make your reservations soon for a stay with Movietone this summer.
ITEM!Mats Gustafsson is known to some of you as one of Sweden’s finest young composers and musicians. Others recognize him as one of the world’s great progressive reed players. On this new Blue Chopsticks release, his strength as an interpreter is showcased as well. On the Windows CD, Mats covers several Steve Lacy compositions, as well as a Cecil Taylor number and of course a couple of originals. Steve Lacy himself wrote liner notes taking the listener through the proceedings, and we couldn’t have put it better than him: “very beautiful, very original–full of surprise and very stimulating.”

Drag City
June 6, 2000