LEAP INTO LIFE
So what’s up? Or would you like to hear from Drag City first? Well, guess what we got goin’ on — we got records that we just put out, records that we’re putting out, and records we got in the back catalog. That’s what’s up with Drag City! Of course, there’s much more than that — but you didn’t say if you wanted the short version or the long version, punk! Here’s a bit more of the tale — in addition to all those records, we’ve got another book or two in our immediate future, there’s a DVD lined up for…sometime…and of course, more records and all them personal appearances in support of the records that have been planned out. Plus, the occasional T-shirt. And don’t forget that good old Papa M Farthing! There’s still a few shiny Papa M coins left to sell. Yes sir, there’s nothing but multiple-formatted, buy-and-sellable fun on all four sides of life here at Drag City.

Still, when you ask ‘what’s up?’ you want the hard info, don’t you? Not just the froth and the vitriol…which is too bad, really — we could foam at ya all day long here. Still, underneath it all, we want to give you more. And give it to you fast. Repeatedly. Sometimes dry. So here goes —

THE REST OF THE YEAR AT A GLANCE
Cynthia Dall — Sound Restores Young Men LP/CD
Royal Trux — Hand of Glory LP/CD
Mick Turner — Moth LP/CD
Gregg Turkington / Brandan Kearney
— Warm Voices Rearranged Paperback Book
Neil Hamburger — Laugh Out Lord CD,
(Smog) — Accumulation: None LP/CD
The Continental OP — “Slitch Music” 12"EP
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy — “Hard Life” 12"/CDEP

…Goddamn, you want even more information, don’t you? Fret thee not — that’s what your humble scribe is here for! So look for a massive section on what all these thangs are, written at you somewhere below here. But first, I think we all owe it to ourselves to deal with what we got going on right now…

WEIRD WAR BEGINS
As August dawned, so did the existence of Drag City’s newest band! Yeah: as of right now, there’s a Weird War section at your local retailer. Or there will be, once you take your People’s Right of Choice down to the record shop and demand a Weird War section! But don’t do it just because we told you so! Do it because you want to see something good make it in this world today. Do it because it’s an awesome record! Do it because we told you so! And in exchange, we offer this backdrop of biographical introduction and inspiration: Weird War is comprised of ex-Make Up-sters Ian Svenonius and Michelle Mae (vocals and bass/vocals, respectively), ex-Royal Trux-ster and current Neil Michael Hagerty frontman Neil Michael Hagerty (vocals and guitar, what else), ex-Love As Laughter member Jessica Espeleta (more guitar) and Steve McCarty (drums). They got together and cranked up some pure, collaborative, guitar-driven rocks. It’s a high-flying debut, I’m telling you. There’s a lot of super talent crammed into the grooves on the Weird War album (available to you in both CD and 180-gram vinyl format), so if you haven’t heard it, or heard about it already, please do so as soon to today as possible! No matter which side of the rock n roll equation you prefer, this group will supply you with what you need. You gotta get a little Weird War into your life, in preparation for their inevitable run of glittering live dates later this year.

KING KONG LIVES!
OK — so Weird War rules. So what else is true, not to mention happening? Try this out — King Kong is loose! Yep, and they’re traveling to the western states for their second-ever West Coast tour out that way, and first tour over-all in nearly five years. It’s been too long since audiences were treated to Ethan Buckler and his multi-ring circus. Chicagoans were recently treated to the pure energy that your average King Kong show generates and we were floored. Dance-floored, that is. Yeah, there were hordes of us down there — moving, grooving, shaking and frugging, alongside of those who danced their own original steps to the highly original funk workout that each and every King Kong song whips on you. What a night! People of Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Texas, Georgia and Kentucky — you’ve got a party coming your way. Check the Tour Page for the King Kong date nearest you.

SCENE CREAMERS INK DEAL
Extra! Extra! Fresh off the addition of the exciting new band Weird War to their galaxy of stars, Drag City has done it again! Joining the ranks are the Scene Creamers. And just to make this particular turn of events that much more incredible, two of the Scene Creamers (yoyoyo Ian and Michelle!) are also in Weird War! Two bands for the price of…well, two, we gotta admit. When we got this Drag City party started all those crazy years ago, who could have foretold that we’d pick up two new bands with two shared members in the year 2002? It’s just two much — and that’s just what we dig about it! Two times!

Scene Creamers have completed their first tour and are completing their first album this month. Look for more — lots more — on Scene Creamers in the days, weeks, months and years to come.

THE REST OF THE YEAR UP CLOSE
Okay, here it is — as promised, our foggy notion of how it will be for the remainder of 2002:

September come she will. That’s right, she will. September, and Cynthia Dall. Sound Restores Young Men is the album that young men and women have desired from Cynthia for some time now. And September 10th is the day they’ll recall as the day they first glanced upon it, and a new chapter began. As the curtain parts once again on the life of Cynthia Dall, fans and fiends alike will marvel at her new offering. For Sound Restores Young Men has a plentiful display of the Dall songcraft; over the course of twelve songs, Cynthia finds lots of little places to explore, with her guitars and pianos trailing behind. The album is possessed of more of a live-played edge (the results of playing live, no doubt), though no Dall record would be complete without mooning French horns sounding out over Cynthia’s echoed vocals from time to time. It’s majestic, y’know? And yet...more personal. You get up close to Ms. Dall on this one. Are you ready for that? On September 10th, find out.

October dawns, dark and angry. Is the end of the world at hand? Not yet, but the post-apocalyptic sounds of Royal Trux might just bring the rain this time. Yes, Pink Hearts Society cardholders — Royal Trux are back in your lives — but not the way you imagined, of course. Don’t forget this is Royal Trux we’re talking about. Hand of Glory is the name of their “new” one, but the gimmick here is that we’re talking Royal Trux from beyond the grave. Not only that, but — even eerier — all the music’s from like, thirteen years ago now. It’s like a cold-case file that suddenly heated up again. A trail gone dead indeed — Hand of Glory hails from the early years of Royal Trux, the years that led to their white dwarf/supernova/black hole mazasterwork, Twin Infinitives. It turns out that Hand of Glory was originally conceived of as the second Royal Trux album, offered up to Drag City, then mysteriously discarded by Neil and Jennifer. Twin Infinitives came out instead and made a ton of history in the process. Now you too can own these lost recordings which once stood alongside “Edge of the Ape Oven,” “RTX-USA” and all the rest of them classics. Hand of Glory — coming out October 8th, on CD and high-grade HQ180 vinyl.

Clear out your calendar for the first week of November. There’s a (Smog) release coming up that week may just leave you confined to quarters for a few days while you drink it all in. This is a special (Smog) release, people — a singles-and-rarities type record, available in LP and CD. Perhaps even more specially, it’s an LP and CD that feature the (Smog) hit single, “A Hit” on it. But not “Wine Stained Lips,” — because this ain’t no catch-all box-set or anything like that. It’s just an LP and a CD. And what’s more, Accumulation: None is a choice juxtaposition of (Smog) recordings from 1991 up to the present. There’s a few singles sides, some Peel Session cuts, and even an unreleased item or two (or one). The wonder of it all is how the various ages and shades of (Smog) all flow together, from the static-lined stylizations of “Floating” through to the more recent singer-songwriter poses. It’s almost like a new (Smog) release — and in fact, the craziest (Smog) collection in many a moon.

These are the releases that we know about. But then there’s the unknown...those records that are definitely going to come out except we’re not sure just when. What’ll end up happening is that they’ll jump onto the release dates described above. Or, more excitingly, they’ll band together in hubric symbiosis for release dates of their very own.

Topping this enigmatic list of gonna-be releases is a mysterious new work of instrumental music from Mick Turner. Moth is the name, and it is destined to come out in LP and CD. Mick’s solo albums all feature little or no singing and all played mostly by Mick with the aid of a lot of little loop-making devices. So why do they all sound so different? That’s part of the mystery, of course. The grainy, compressed sound of the Mick Turner solo debut, Tren Phantasma gave way to the built-up sound of Marlan Rosa, which is absent here; on Moth, there’s lots of absence, lots of space around the instruments. Basically, Mick’s a man of many hats. And he’s got good taste in hats. So if space is to your taste, then help yourself to his new brim, Moth, coming sometime in October, probably.

Stop us if you've heard this before. An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase, such as 'stain' to 'satin.' When this process is applied to the titles of classic pop and rock albums, the resulting anagrams are both eerily accurate and disturbingly prophetic. This fall, you’re going to get a chance to see that for yourself when a new paperback hits the newsstands. People, we’re here to tell you, Warm Voices Rearranged is convulsively funny. Noted humorist Gregg Turkington has collaborated with Brandan Kearney on a decidedly unlikely volume of humor. Yet, now that they’ve started the trend, it’ll be more popular than Letters from Summer Camp. Here are a few samples:

Barbra Streisand Wet
Drab breasts in water.

Sonic Youth Dirty
Ouch! Yon tit is dry.

Yes Time and a Word
Weed is mandatory

See what we mean? This book will illuminate many a trip to the crapper for years to come. As well as any other room besides the crapper that you may choose to go into. Don’t get us wrong, this book’s gonna play everywhere — the comedy hit of the coming season! You’ll have your chance to buy it soon, as Warm Voices Rearranged will be out just in time for the 2002 holiday season, sometime in the October-November area. Look for it on Amazon!

For the first full-length Neil Hamburger release since 1999’s Left for Dead in Malaysia, “America’s Funnyman” took to the stage with designs on winning over the large portion of the American public out there who’s got religion. The result is an all-new CD entitled Laugh Out Lord. Formally, Laugh Out Lord resembles the Raw Hamburger album, in that Neil is casting his lure for more fans in the fertile waters of a particular genre. As we’ve told Neil over and over, if a comedian wants to expand his audience, he’s got to choose what portion of the audience to seek to expand. Having won over the Blue crowd, Neil has since moved on to hopefully greener pastures with the religious thing. But just in case he hasn’t, we’re making this release CD only — we're told it's the most popular format of all! We'll see....

JEWS T-SHIRT GOES GOLD!
My oh my — another thing that keeps us busy around here is the simple task of keeping the Silver Jews t-shirts in print. Jews fans, long denied their shirt of choice are speaking in mighty numbers — from the very tiny-boned (XS) to the very big-boned (XL) (anorexics and morbidly obese — please call first!) . Them and people and people like them in every size in between have ponied up for either the classic “Peace” design or the hard-core fan’s delight — the “Cartoon” shirt — and in the process, the Silver Jews have earned a pile of cash. Look for us to turn that cash back into shirts soon — different colored shirts, for you slavish completists out there.

TOUR FORECAST
Your Drag City Tour Forecast for Autumn-Winter 2002 looks good. In addition to what we’ve already told you about (King Kong, Weird War, whatever else is on the Tour Page), there’s also US dates for U.S. Maple coming up in September, with European dates to follow in October. Fans on both sides of the pond, get up and get yourselves to these essential shows! More details as we receive them! There may also be some Edith Frost Euro-dates to report in November — and we’ll also be sure to let you know as soon as we ourselves know more.

Back on the homefront, there will be some kind of crazy Cynthia Dall tour put together for November, and also some (Smog) tourdates around that time as well when Accumulation: None is released. And The Suntanama are going to continue to acquaint themselves with their American fanbase, in addition to all the great unwashed out on the side. But the most unusual, exciting tour forecast we can think of is those Ghost dates that are going to happen for a week or two around the Terrastock appearance they make. No solid times and places yet, just hang with us.

In short: the Drag City Tour Forecast...is Awesome!

GETTING YOUR SUNTANAMA
Attention, all freaks, from you mail-order freaks to the government-issue types! You’re all in the same boat. Summer’s almost gone — have you got your Suntanama yet? Up until Weird War came along, The Suntanama were our newest band. Their self-titled debut LP/CD features their NYC swagger applied with folkish flair to a full set of ethereal blues-rockin’ tunes. Pretty soon they’re gonna be the toast of the H.O.R.D.E. set, so be the first freak on your block to come around — to The Suntanama.

Don’t forget, if you haven’t gotten your Suntanama yet, you could do so before leaving this very website. Thanks to our constantly-updated mailorder catalog page and the Paypal link found therein, your impulse shopping is easier than ever to not think twice about.

This week, in addition to our best-selling Silver Jews shirts, all the Mego stuff and the DC back catalog, we’re also offering a couple of interesting things hitherto unoffered in the DC catalog. However, we have previously offered things like them, so describing these new things should be no problem.

You know what Concentrick is, right? It’s Tim Green’s pet project for sounds achieved in a recording studio that have no place on one of The Fucking Champs’ records, to whom he contributes to on a regular basis. Every once in awhile, Tim goes into his Concentrick guise, and a new CD comes out. Lucid Dreaming is the third Concentrick CD and the lightest one yet. We’ve got copies, and so can you have copies. Order it up.

Also on the menu is this pretty little paperback book called J&L Illustrated #1. With a title like that, it could only be an anthology, right? Right! Ah, it’s the end of the newsletter — we’re out of surprises. Minus Times editor Hunter Kennedy is a contributing editor (and contributor) to this collection, which encompasses eight short fictions and dozens of drawings. See more about it on the Special Order page. As a matter of fact, go there now!

FUCKING CHAMPS PONDER NAME CHANGE
Oh, and speaking of The Fucking Champs — The Fucking Champs have, as always, been getting lots of fucking shit for their name — which is totally fucking unfair, as you and I know — because after all, they’ve changed their name once already, from The Champs to The Fucking Champs. Anyhow, if they absolutely had to bow to public pressure, one possibility would be another name change. As all-powerful as they are, you know another name change isn’t going to hurt our Champions. Besides, don’t you think they’d sell a lot more if they called themselves The Friendly Champs? Let us know soon…

THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS LOOSE FUR
Hey gang! Here's a new name to roll around on your tongue — Loose Fur.

Got it? Start using it in a sentence or two, would you? Because Loose Fur is that heart-stopping aggregate of Glenn Kotche, Jim O'Rourke and Jeff Tweedy that we've grown fond of mentioning from time to time. These guys made history when they got together to play on Jim O'Rourke's last masterwork, Insignificance. They made history when they all worked on Wilco's last masterwork, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Yeah for awhile they were getting busy with all the history and masterworks and so forth. But what did they do when they went home at night? Make history, what else! They'd go home and heat up a burrito or something, I don't know. Then they'd run down to the studio, arriving no earlier than the stroke of midnight. That was when the good times would begin for these three. They'd plot and plan and rock and jam until the break of day, stopping only then to go their separate ways. Then, a couple of months later, it would begin all over again. Nobody knew what to call it, but finally they had enough things recorded to be called a record.

Flash forward to the present. Here we sit, flashing back on you. But a few things are now true. The band is called Loose Fur. And their album should be in stores no earlier than January 2003.

Start getting used to it now. And then, when the time is right, you can get Loose. Loose Fur, that is.

Whew. That’s really it for this one. We’re off to promote us a couple tours, book us a couple more, and pre-sell a few of these delightful records we just previewed to you. Like it or not, now you’re gonna have to dig it.

See you in September.

Rian Murphy
Drag City Inc.
August 2002