WHAT HAVE WE DONE? Do we need to tell you more? Clearly, yes... THE O’ROURKE REPORT Then, the poster blew up. Have you seen the poster for Insignificance? Probably not, if you don’t own the vinyl (free poster inside every one, people - get 'em while they’re hot!) ...cause see, the poster is a bit explicit in it’s naughtily over-the-top sexualness — and the local merchants, they can’t display things of that nature in family stores anymore. Not without a bit of the old censorship, that is. It was controversial, and then on top of that, some shops started getting big money putting the poster up on eBay. So that was another headache, having them stamped out. Couldn’t we all just focus on the music? One time? Finally, Insignificance shipped. And then, there was a kind of hush - that pregnant pause that’s just a calm before the big one, you know? But now Insignificance, it’s out there. It’s really out there, man. If you haven’t checked into it yourself, you gotta take a look. Jim’s out on a limb - but nobody tell him, okay - because these records are pure, unselfconscious gold. And we’re in the gold-wanting business over here. So don’t fuck with our dreams, alright? THE LATE, GREAT SILVER JEWS ARE BACK! Meanwhile, in the land of the actual record we’re talking about here, Bright Flight brings new heaviness to the Silver Jews’ standard smart-and-catchy indie-country-rock blend. These guys have charmed the pants off of several nations worth of girls and boys in their time, and they could certainly have showed up with another dose of more of the same winning formula that made American Water so righteous — but no, instead Bright Flight is its own animal. And a real live animal at that. The world-fucking braggadocio of that former classic is faded here — and instead, there’s a bit of piteous ’I wanna be loved’ sentiment spread across the collected fictions on Bright Flight along with a bit of ’I don’t wanna die’ tomfoolery mixed in there, all contributing to a fragile and real picture. Bright Flight makes The Natural Bridge (the original Silver Jews confessional album) seem lite indeed. But that’s not true, it’s just because Bright Flight is so fucking heavy. And as heavy as Bright Flight is, the missing pieces from the record, the ones collected on “Tennessee” are ever so much more so. “Long Long Gone” is a classic that somehow didn’t make the record. Perhaps because it sums up the whole record in one (master) stroke. “I’m Gonna Love the Hell Out of You,” and “Turn Your Guns Around” are like throwback pieces to the scribble of early Silver Jews, filled with dissonance and little lines of hilarity (like “true love ain’t about getting yelled at all weekend”). Nuggets, pure nuggets! Again, the gold diggers in us is pleased. WHATEVER, PAPA M! “Whatever, Mortal” makes no exception to the rule established by the O’Rourke and Silver Jews records at this particular new release moment in time - a nebulous directive, perhaps best expressed as “Give ’em something new (up the old wazoo)!” Or perhaps not. But in any case, Papa M is the most changed of all three of our blockbusters here. See, there are like, whole websites devoted to the happy endorsement of all the Aerial M and Papa M records and their many moods that everybody loved so. People would just fall apart and dream when they first walked into the room and heard the music playing. And so, you got the idea see, that people liked ’em. But each record had a different odor - slowly shifting, towards something, it is sure...but what? The answers to the question are spoken verbally on “Whatever, Mortal” and accompanied by even more beautiful instrumental shapes alongside. The latest incarnation of M brings the noise that the M people have loved, placing it at the heart of a set of vocal songs. This is new. But the songs have that eternal Pajolian feel. You have to wonder what a song like “Beloved Woman” would be if it weren’t sung. And that’s how Papa M got his new groove on “Whatever, Mortal.” But beyond the blues roots that lie exposed, beyond the sudden need to express his hitherto-instrumental inspirations in pure, vocal, song, the M sound rings hardboiled inside. Sometimes when “Whatever, Mortal” is playing, it’s like looking down the barrel of a gun. Like lives are on the line. No joke. So, that’s a pretty vivid experience from a record. And we recommend it. Good Christmas music, this M stuff! THE CONTINUED ADVENTURES OF ROYAL TRUX AN EMOTIONAL SCHEDULING OF THE IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? The Licht take is this: as a fan and an actual guitarist of repute, he’s got a few observations and interpretations of the trends we’ve all been subjected to here in the US 80s/90s. Tracing the whole thing back to the sixties (what did you expect, going all the way back to the blues?), Alan takes on the NYC scene, the avant-garde, chart-busting synth-pop, the chilly days of the cold war, the even chillier days of post rock and more, breaking it all down into easy to read chunklets (not like that idiot fanzine - insightful and well-written instead). You owe it to the indie-rock fan in yourself get An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn, just as soon as we make it available! It’ll be $12 postpaid from our mail-order corps. And it will set you straight. This book could be your life - accept no imitations! HOLIDAY CHEERS AND JEERS • Silver Jews fans, look away! Jews CEO David Berman reports from Nashville that when within the confines of his own home, he’s a budding nudist! Since returning from a press jaunt in the UK, he’s been dressed in nothing but his boots for a week or so now! Way to ring in the holidays, DC! • (Smog) too is just returning from abroad (where he hung out with a broad or two in every town, we’re sure!) a well-deserved European tour in which a splendid time was had by all! The Rain on Lens Tour reached around to all four corners of the US as well as thoughout war-torn Europe. That’s nice work, Callahan — stand down! • In the new light of the new year, Papa M will be starting over again — with tourdates in eastern states, followed by points westward. It’s a chance to see this artist play his bold new material - and he’ll be practicing constantly, 23 hours on Christmas day, if need be — so don’t miss the shows. • At the same time, High Llama Sean O’Hagan is just back from a run of American solo gigs - a first in his career, and hard at work promoting the January premiere of a new musical piece with....a musical painting! It will be making the gallery circuit in the springtime. And more new Llamas by late ’02 — cheers, Sean. • And three cheers as well for the mailorder customer! We’re doing what we can to make sure all of you little FREAKS get your CDs, 45s and t-shirts (as well a special Papa M Coin for one or two of you special ones out there) before Boxing Day. Keep shining on the Paypal, kids - and God Bless America! Oops, looks like we only came up with items of good cheer this time. ’Tis the season, I suppose...we’ll try to come up with some jeers next time — who’d’ve thought it would be this hard? NEXT TIME/IN THE YEAR 2002 We’ll tell you more - at the dawn of January 2002 - next time. Drag City
Hey hey! Welcome back to our world. We missed you last month - really - and since we’re sure you’re asking why we missed you and wanting apologies and shit, well, here’s why. We were very, very busy selling lots and lots of records and CDs...Huzzah! It’s true - we were actually too completely consumed on the (lucrative) business end of this thrill ride to stop and smell the roses, much less extol their virtues in a snappy yet feeling twenty or so paragraphs. No, that smelled like work. So instead, we pleasured ourselves by focusing on selling LPs, CDs, comic books and more. But at the end of the day, the joke was on us - that was work too, and a lot more of it at that! Really, though - the only new news in November was: ’We sold another couple thousand, boss.’ Every day, that was the news. And at the time, it just didn’t seem to make very good copy. But it sure looks good now. And so, on with the show!
As we’ve just tried to state to you succinctly, we’ve not been doing nothing for the last six weeks - no, no - quite the opposite. But just in case you were in a cave for the whole month (as we understand many of our most faithful were), we have to tell you - the new releases were too good to be true! All-new full-length opii from Silver Jews, Papa M and Jim O’Rourke! Plus a Silver Jews 12”/CDEP called “Tennessee.” A King Kong demos disc, appropriately titled Breeding Ground. And, like a cherry on top, an honest-to-goodness comic book adventure - The True Adventures of Royal Trux #10, in fact! Everyone not living in a cave bought into a little bit of everything, making for a very exciting holiday season-like time for us here in the office, what with the brightly colored new titles laying about everywhere underneath the massive fir tree we inexplicably have growing through the floor (and ceiling) of our warehouse...And joy was had by all. You should have been there. Oh, what am I saying - you were there. Weren’t you? Anyway - it was great.
O’Rourke fans unite! Your moment of glory has arrived - Insignificance is now out, more or less, in all the far-flung regions of the world in which we live. But before Insignificance even hit the streets, the phone lines and Internet and fucking everything was on fire - speculation was running rampant, who would Jim be this time? After hearing the MP3 of “Therefore, I Am” on this very web site, confusion was at a premium among the O’Rourke horde. Had Jim gone rock?
And don’t their fans love it! The sudden appearance of the “Tennessee” 12”/CDEP and Bright Flight LP/CD last month couldn’t have caught Silver Jews fans less by surprise. The weeks leading up to their respective release dates were punctuated with daily entreaties and eventual petulant outbursts from Jews-ites all over the world — love letters along the lines of “ “Tennessee” is supposed to be out now, where is it, when is it ever gonna get here?!? #$&*@##!!” We don’t know where they get their information, but boy, whatever they’re getting, they’re getting it from somewhere! It got to the point where the records still weren’t out but we would have killed just to shove the damn records into their sweaty little hands. Which is, after all, where you wanna be when selling a record. So, anyway — we get “Tennessee” out there — but do they thank us? No — instead, it’s “Bright Flight is supposed to be out now, where is it, when’s it ever gonna get here?!? #$&*@##!!” Nothing changes.
Selling all those O’Rourke and Silver Jews records was good fun, it’s true. But the real meat of the deal was to be found between the heavy leaves of “Whatever, Mortal” - the new emission from Papa M. As per the norm, Papa came in with the heaviest vinyl around — even twenty of these things lie around with industrial strength. Heavy is pretty too, you know. It’s pretty and everything, but...
They came. They saw. They rocked ya. And then — they were gone, swept up in the winds of change. Another golden era of rock and roll was over. Or was it? RTX fans will be shocked and righteously amused when they learn that an all-new Trux adventure is at their local newsstand right now. Yes, with the ultra-exciting comic book format, time once again has no meaning. 64 pages in length, The Adventures of Royal Trux #10 chronicles a few of the events leading to their sudden disappearance in the long, hot summer of 1999. Trux faithful and comics fans alike will delight in the pulse-pounding latest installment of Royal Trux’s long-running battle with the many and varied forces of evil. This time out, the whole gang is needed - Neil and Jennifer, the Catz back at HQ, Victory Chimp, Agent S, Hero/Zero, the Boss, and a host of unexpected guest stars. If your local dealer ain’t stocking this book, make your desires known! Or order the damn thing off this very website. Haven’t you heard? We’ve got PayPal now - take the wild ride today!
MARTHA QUINN BOOK RELEASE DATE
You know something? We need new crystal balls around here — these dusty old ones we’ve been using suck! Case in motherfucking point: we promised you that we’d have Alan Licht’s long-discussed (by us) rock book out by November 20th. Alas, it was not to be An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn has been pushed back into early aught-two. The folks at the printing press put it to us gentle — it takes time to make books properly. And so — we’ll sell no books before its time to, I guess...but until then, it’s hype time!
Is there anybody out there who’s a fan of reading rock criticism? Yeah, us neither! Because in this modern world, it’s a piss-poor undertaking anymore, this so-called rock criticism. These new “writers” (the quotes are ours — but they earned them!) just can’t seem to put a sentence together or have an opinion worth spending a sentence on. You can blame it on whomever or whatever you want — merged-out big-money publishing conglomerates, blockheaded editorial policy (not to mention blockheaded editors), trendy industry suckers in high places or the public school system that spawned them all! No matter which three you choose, we’ll agree with you all the way down the line. Because it’s all true! And until we manage to get our bands on the telly, the same goes for TV, too. But seriously good rock writing has pretty much gone the way of the buffalo. Fortunately, Alan’s book brings back some of that good old sense and sensibility to the long-abused, much maligned profession of rock criticism.
• If you missed the item above, the Drag City Almost-Free Press has taken another bold move with The Adventures of Royal Trux comic book! Props, please!
Guess what? Lost in the fascination of all these new records is the following comforting fact - we’ve got new records to release next year, too! Artists? Check it out — Neil Michael Hagerty, Brother JT, King Kong, Cindy Dall, Weird War, David Grubbs (x2!), Suntanama, The Continental OP...and who knows, by the end of the year, new records from High Llamas and Turn On too, perhaps!
Mid-December 2001