THE GOOD NEWS...
Hey, the good news is in abundance – let’s count the ways, shall we?
Yeah, we’ve seen David Grubbs successfully through an American tour, a little road trip to places including New York City, French Canada, and Louisville (among others), all in the company of The For Carnation! Somehow, he survived. He got lots of sleep, too. The show in Chicago that almost ended it all was a triumphant homecoming for David, as he drove his tuneful numbers home mightily in the face of the usual motley crew of talking non-listeners at the non-Empty Bottle club. The music won, we’re happy to report. And The Empty Bottle can fuck off. But P.S. hardworking Empty Bottle staff: much love and shout-outs to all of you (except Bruce, of course). Noah rules!
Yeah, good news also that David Grubbs’ new full-length LP The Spectrum Between is engaging our nation to it’s fullest. David’s ability to write anthemic songs (with lyrics that not even poets can understand) is paying off in a MAJOR way, with “A Shiver In the Timber,” and “Gloriette,” in heavy rotation on college radio airplay charts around the country for at least another couple months. Plus, the press is starting to show up. Finally, a record that challenges our mostly illiterate national press corps! Hell-o, Spin magazine.
So that’s great. Next up for Grubbs – some dates scattered around Europe and Italy in particular. Nothing’s confirmed yet, but as soon as we have dates, you’ll be able to find them here. Until then, David is going to keep working – but will you?
Also good news is The Fucking Champs have a fully national tour planned in support of their fully national forthcoming LP, IV. It’s true – they’re gonna rock us! The dates are posted elsewhere on this site, but that's hot fucking news all by itself. Look for IV in your local shop just as soon as we can get it there. Naturally, the clock is ticking.
What else? Of course – the Neil Hamburger tour! Indie rockers Trans Am have stepped forward and asked that Neil be included on their bi-coastal tour coming up in September-October. Some of the west coast dates will be on the bill with the aforementioned Fucking Champs. God, what shows those will be! Don’t forget, this is the first big Neil Hamburger tour in America in a couple years – certainly his first time out on the road here since his star power increased so definitively (thanks to hard work – and the tireless efforts of all of here at Drag City). Don’t forget – it all starts at Old Ironsides in Sacramento.
WORK AND DISPLAY
Our retail contest is getting out of control! The submissions are coming fast and furious now, as imaginative retailers nationwide are scrambling to promote new Drag City records from Smog, Royal Trux and David Grubbs! It’s great, and the best part is that there hasn’t even been an official prize announced – in other words, these people are getting involved out of pure love. Awesome!
Last time out, we declared that we might have a winner with the inspirational entry from Portland Oregon’s Music Millennium (see last week’s newsletter - ed.). But this week’s featured display emphasizes commerce over art – a concept we’d like to deliver to the nation C.O.D!
As you can see, the message here is sales, with the posters wrapped around the very counter where the sales register is located – clever, eh? As they put it in their letter to us, it guarantees “maximum visibility.” Now that’s marketing! Additionally, they made it fun by adding word balloons instructing customers to buy records. Most delightful is of course the display rack around the corner filled completely with Drag City titles dating back to the Stone(d) Age (1993, by our watch), giving a wide variety of artists another chance at being promoted. Our hat is off to Chuck and the gang at Vinyl Solution down in Tuscaloosa that’s Alabama, y’all their display is a nice piece of work!
THE RUMOR MILL
You heard it here first – these puny little months aren’t enough to contain us here at Drag City we’ve simply got too much going on! As usual, we’ve got old new releases and new new releases. The old ones were premiered before the anxiously awaiting world on July 31st and now David Grubbs, Neil Hamburger and Mats Gustafsson are that much more of a household name than they were on July the 30th. But with barely a moment to catch our collective breath, we’ve got late August releases to concentrate on. And they’re going to be just as great as those late July ones!
Now then – one never knows exactly what is going to happen around here until the very moment it happens – but rumor has it that we’re going to be releasing an amazing bunch of records somewhere around August 28, 2000. And the way I hear it, that amazing bunch might just include:
Rian Murphy & Will Oldham “All Most Heaven”
Led by a couple of veterans of the Drag City scene (Murphy and Oldham, fool!), “All Most Heaven,” is a star-studded affair, featuring contributions from a number of famous (and otherwise familiar) artists and musicians. Musically, it harks back to the good old days when stars were bigger than life! Packed with beautiful melodies (and nonsense rhymes), “All Most Heaven” will satisfy your short-term listening demands like few other EPs in recent memory. Will Oldham’s vocal deliveries on these mini-epics are among his finest-ever performances. Also in the most-ever category – the artwork for this record. You will laugh like you seldom have when you look upon the (frilly) sleeves of “All Most Heaven” – but only if you buy it (FYI).
Movietone The Blossom Filled Streets
Finally! We’ve been looking forward to another Movietone record since 1998, about a year or so after we released Day and Night to the North American territories. But if we’d have known how long we were going to spend looking forward, we would have thought twice about it, believe us! You can’t rush those Bristol kids – they live in a time of their own. And thank God, too – since their time is clearly prettier, more relaxing and more evocative than the time we see passing before our windows every day. The Blossom Filled Streets builds on the mystery and the chilly atmospherics of the now-distant Day and Night, amounting to a brand new, pale blue, ultra-melodic day (and night) by the seaside with Movietone. It’s enough to make you forget the deep-seeded menace you feel every time you leave the house, isn’t it?
Kev Hopper Whispering Foils
We know what (most of) you are asking – who the deuce is Kev Hopper? And what exactly does whispering foil? Surely you can’t whisper down a shouter, can you? Who knows – you can make it if you try, remember, people? We’re not the whispering kind ourselves...and besides, that’s not what Kev is on about anyway – although there is a certain kind of supreme delicacy being celebrated here. After all, what kind of music gets played by a singing saw? The gentle, sensual, beautiful kind of music, that’s what kind! And Kev Hopper’s got that kind of music in spades. Whispering Foils is comprised of let’s say, 21st Century exotica, shall we? There’s a bit of sampling, some light beats, a bit of bossa nova, some wordless backing vocals, good vibes (and good marimbas, too), and best of all, those sweet melodies that only the musical saw of Kev Hopper can provide!
Pita Get Out
Some LPs are just records. Others are victories. This release on the Moikai label is definitely one of the victorious nature. You see, the violent laptop constructions of Pita were previously declared impossible to press in vinyl. Of course, this was in Europe, where their first reaction to any job you might bring them is a resounding NO! Here of course, we ask the much more workable, Why? Or, if the situation calls for it, Why Not? This technique has landed us behind more closed doors than we’re at liberty to discuss, but it’s also seen a number of projects through to conclusion when the rest of the world said NO. So now, we’re pleased to present, on Moikai records, the first-ever vinyl pressing of Pita’s extreme (and extremely beautiful) Get Out. Not only are these unreal sounds in the grooves, but the grooves are blue! Colored vinyl, anyone? Get Pita.
AND MORE!
And you know what? We might just throw The Fucking Champs Drag City debut LP/CD (IV) and a new EP from The Red Krayola (“Blues, Hollers and Hellos”) on the end of August pile if there’s a way, we’ll find it. They’re both amazing records and they deserve to come out as soon as fucking possible.
Ah, but we’re almost out of time here, so more on these releases next week. And more!