All around us, it seems, fall is falling. It’s always a sweet moment when the seemingly endless, six-month, day-without-light of work ends for all of us here at Drag City. We ride the lift up to the surface, where we take in the gentle breezes of a Fall evening, thanking the creator for any and all things. A quick piss in the bushes and we’re back to the salt-mines — because after all, October is a big month for business here at Drag City. It’s a month of big records, and bigger CDs. A month when touring can really pay off. A month that nobody ever says is a hard month to sell records in. Now that’s something special. So we’ll savor our October for a few precious minutes, if you don’t mind.

Let’s see… what have we cooking in this very special October of 2002? Well, there’s the Ghost American tour, which at this point has already happened. If you didn't see it, you’ve already missed the show of the year, wherever you are or were. That doesn’t happen every day, does it? In honor of their annual appearance at the Terrastock festival in Cambridge, Mass, we arranged for an additional week of tours from Chicago to, well, Cambridge Mass. And Ghost came en masse — six strong, they presented a deep and heavy, hard-folking, chamber-rocking night of psychedelic temple rock, the likes of which haven’t been seen in America since 1997, when last they toured in America. And believe us, it was worth the wait. Each night was better than the night before. The merch sprayed like water! A t-shirt was fabricated, and sold out. And onstage, Ghost presented a set for the ages. Purely memorable. As we bid them farewell this time around, we hope to have them back soon. Like next year perhaps — with a new Ghost album in hand! You heard it here first, freaks…

Also on the list of amazing things that just happened is the release date of October 8th. That day was a good one for new releases — a day that involved the improbable combination of talents found in Royal Trux Hand of Glory, The Continental OP “Slitch Music,” and the book known as Warm Voices Rearranged.

You need the backstory? Good.

Royal Trux Hand of Glory
Royal Trux — band of the 90s. Though they actually got their start in the mid-80s and didn’t really pass away until the year 2000, they were in many ways the quintessential group of the last decade in music. Crude yet sophisticated, post-everything, committed to the surface of rock and roll as much as its very guts, and yet living in real time, Royal Trux roamed restlessly through the indie-rock landscape, gaining, losing and re-gaining constituencies as they shed skins and donned new personae with each and every album they made. And as each and every album came out, critics had a habit of wishing that whichever current Royal Trux they were listening to at that time sounded more like some former Royal Trux — an incarnation that had almost certainly been dissed and missed in its day by those self-same critics! Suckers. This release is for them — because it gets almost no earlier in the day of Royal Trux than Hand of Glory. This all-new LP/CD release comes from the distant day of 1988, as Royal Trux prepared to make their second album. That album turned out to be Twin Infinitives — but along the way, surprise surprise, they went through several changes with regard to what the record should be etc. At one point, an album called Hand of Glory was pitched to Drag City — complete with cover graphic/logo — consisting of two long pieces. However, once the Twin Infinitives concept came about, there was no stopping it. So Hand of Glory fell by the wayside. But lo and behold, all these years later, the tapes were discovered forgotten in a basement. As they were still in perfect condition, they were designated for release. And so, here we are. The tripped-out, almost-there aura of early Royal Trux is available to one and all once again in all-new fashion. The two long pieces are distinct from each other “Domo des Burros (Two Sticks)” is a jam with multiple Neils and Jennifers rapping over the top, and “The Boxing Story” is a multi-sectioned trip into both concrete and extreme music, some of which it would appear was threaded into the fabric of Twin Infinitives. It’s lots of fun, and comes packaged uncompromisingly in all-black, with the originally pitched cover graphic and logo. For extra sonic fun, grab the 180 gram vinyl version — it’s deep. Royal Trux Forever!

The Continental OP “Slitch Music”
The Continental OP is a name that’s appeared in the producer credits of Bonnie ’Prince’ Billy’s Ease Down the Road and Papa M’s “Whatever, Mortal”. Now it appears as the artist credit on a record featuring both the Bonnie ’Prince’ and Papa M himself! Whatever is going on here…is good and should continue to go on. Because this first Continental OP record is as fine as it is short. See, “Slitch Music” is an EPs worth of music made for the soundtrack of a short film called Slitch, directed by Dianne Bellino, director of the video for the Palace song “Come In.” It was Dianne’s idea to get The Continental OP to score a few for her. Boy, they sure did too — and since the Slitch film itself features the startling appearance of Will Oldham as a typical surfer boy-type, the whole thing smacks of the kind of incestuousness that Palace fans have long loved! Not to mention the Papa M freaks — they like to keep it in the family way, aussi.

Slitch the film depicts gaiety and conflict during a young girl’s romp through the Rhode Island summer — fun in the sun, for sure — but with a little something darker, to boot.“Slitch Music” captures the various moods on display throughout with wordless, acoustic, pastoral kind of music that both little Willy and the Pajorilla have touched on from time to time in their long and winding paths. However, “Slitch Music” also features in its orbit a couple of stone-cold, old-school punk rock jams. It’s a delight, but it’s a 12"-vinyl only delight at this moment. Those of you who are vinyl-retardant, wait for the DVD+CD to hit our streets in December, perhaps. Slitch is coming!

Warm Voices Rearranged by Brandan Kearney & Gregg Turkington
And then we have Warm Voices Rearranged: Anagram Record Reviews, an hilarious new paperback book combining rock and roll trivia with grammar humor. Check it out — artist names and LP titles are twisted anagrammatically to spell hilarious reviews of the same. No artist is left unskewered — and you won’t feel so good yourself after you’ve spent an hour on the floor laughing until your sides hurt. Doesn’t that sound fun? It is — it really is. The book has already met with a ton of delight around the office, and now that it’s actually out there, we feel good that stores and various reviewers and such share our joy. The book is just plain funny.

Often as we’ve sold the book to shops around the country, we’ve heard the same pathetic moan everywhere — “what twisted freaks would come up with this?” Well, the twisted freaks whose names are on the cover, that’s who! Brandan Kearney and Gregg Turkington have been kicking around for years in and out of the San Francisco scene of weirdos and the occasional inspired thinker. As a matter of fact, both Brandan and Gregg have both held the position of designated inspired thinker in their own little circles from time to time. So heed the writings of their book, varlet! And getcher copy real real soon.

So yeah — Royal Trux Hand of Glory LP/CD, The Continental OP “Slitch Music” 12"EP, and Warm Voices Rearranged: Anagram Record Reviews by Brandan Kearney and Gregg Turkington. That’s October in a nutshell — a watermelon-sized nutshell, but a nutshell nonetheless. Run down to the head shop and pick up your copies — or stay right here and order them from our Catalog today.

LIVES IN THE BALANCE
What else is current? Live shows, mostly! First, there’s the Ghost tour you just missed. Or saw, depending on how hip you are. If you missed it, here’s what — do better next time. And next time is coming soon. Oh, not for Ghost, mind you — they won’t be back for awhile — but how does (Smog) grab you? Don’t answer that honestly, sweet perve o mine…instead, what do you think about Scene Creamers? Or would you prefer — Mick Turner? Again, keep your twisted replies to yourself, as you travel wordlessly to the Tour Page and check it out — because all of these acts will be at large in America. Both (Smog) and Mick will be touring in the shadows of their new releases — more on which below — but Scene Creamers are out there with nary a record to flog. Until January, that is. Until then, we suggest that you get out and see a group with no preconceptions in your brain — and make it Scene Creamers, too — it might do you some good.

Look also for west coast shows for Cynthia Dall and east coast dates for The Suntanama in November and possibly even December.

Oh, and for those of you who’ve been hurting for a Grubbs live appearance, good news. Good news if you’re a citizen of Europe, that is. David will be undertaking his second tour there in support of Rickets & Scurvy in the merry month of October. And then, maybe someday soon, he’ll play a show or two in America. But let’s not hold it against the Europeans we can’t open another new front in our on-going war against EVERYONE. Because October is also the month we’re extending the olive branch of U.S. Maple to all those Italians over there. Yeah, they love the Maple’s dark, swarthy, erotic rock — it kind of reminds them of themselves! And then right after that, we’ve got Edith Frost, who will be playing not only in Italy but also in Spain and Portugal as well as those peninsular nations of Norway, Sweden and maybe even Denmark! So good luck to all you Europeans — some serious entertainment your way comes in the month of October and November.

Long story short: for all ye faithful on both sides of the big ditch, just check out Tours page option for what we perceive to be “the latest” information on all these goings-on.

JUST SAY NO…VEMBER
Sure, we’ve got lots of live shows coming your way in October and November. But live shows do not a month make when you’re a front-running independently owned record label struggling to make it in this crazy world in which we live in! So what’s happening new release-wise in November? That’s simple — (Smog), Mick Turner, Neil Hamburger that’s what’s happening in November! So fuck you, naysayers.

Anyway, here’s the skinny on these three crazy new releases. Ahem. OK, (Smog)’s release is called Accumulation: None. It’s a single-LP/single-CD collection of singles sides, almost-single sides, and other songs. Among the sides collected on the collection is (Smog)’s only number-one hit, “A Hit.” There’s also songs from his earliest Drag City release, “Floating,” Peel session songs and even a brand-new song, never before released anywhere. All this provides the average (Smog) fan, as well as the rest of us dumbasses, with a view to a golden decade of (Smog). Make ready to make room for Accumulation: None.

Moth is the name of the new Mick Turner LP/CD the third in a series of Mick Turner LPs that have graced our sweet world since 1997. Yes, it’s been a golden half decade for Mick Turner — and that doesn’t even count all his other years as an artist with the Dirty Three and others - and to celebrate, he’s got a new record, a new tour, and god knows what else (we don’t ask too many questions). The sound of Moth is also new — a new take on the instrumental style of music that we feel is the sole dominion of Mick Turner. Starting with guitar, and adding sparing touches of other sounds, including his signature guitar loops, to get that swayingly nautical feel going, Mick’s sound ebbs and flows from album to album. Moth is definitely a low-tide moment, as each of his pieces is stripped back to a new bareness. And beauty, of course. This Moth is for you.

That’s what we’ve got in November. You can deal with it, trust me.

YOU SET THE SCENE CREAMERS
They are who you want them to be — even if you didn’t know it! Scene Creamers are all about satisfying desires — first and foremost their own of course. That’s what led them to hit the road before they’d even finished their very first album — they dig the live thing. Plus, they get off on the energy. Even better, they like the travel etc so there’s nothing left to do but get out there for Alex Minoff, Michelle Mae, and Ian Svenonius — aka your Scene Creamers of the foreseeable future. So go see them live — but stick around for I Suck on that Emotion, their debut album set for January release on, you guessed it, Drag City Records. We’re all about us, it’s true! And Scene Creamers and everyone else on the label.

FUR THE RECORD
Are you getting the vibe yet? That annual feeling that you’ve been cheated? That there’s something out there you don’t know about yet, but need to? You know, the itch? Because something is happening out there, believe us. And what it may or may not be, this week anyway, is Loose Fur.

Glenn Kotche, Jim O’Rourke and Jeff Tweedy. There! I said it. These three guys and no one else make up Loose Fur. And when they get together, something happens. Something musical. Something lyrical. Something profane. And something catchy too — just like any good marriage.

It’s folk. It’s rock. It’s fucking great, really hypnotic, and it’s coming this January, 2003.

Oh, and don’t worry — there will be live shows (starting in December, see the tours page). Loose Fur is for everything. Don’t forget it.

UNDER THERE
…under where? Exactly. That’s what we sell our new T-shirts as when the winter comes — underware. See, T-shirts function excellently as under-shirts to whatever array of sweaters, button-downs, petticoats, hairshirts and flannels you may be draping over your exterior. Personally, we think that you’d have to be blind in an eye or two to relegate these fine shirts of ours to your inner layer but that’s your call, innit? Just to make sure, check out our T-shirts page once again there’s an exciting new design for Bonnie ’Prince’ Billy, a racy nude display on The Fucking Champs, a deluxe “Big Bang”-style King Kong shirt (with lettering on the sleeves!), those Silver Jews shirts that we’ve been crowing about and more, much more. Fans of Neil Michael Hagerty, Edith Frost, High Llamas, U.S. Maple, Mick Turner, you’ve been warned. You’ve been re-warned. Now, how about you buy a fucking shirt, ay?

WHAT ELSE CAN WE BRING YOU?
So…out now, you got Royal Trux, The Continental OP and Warm Voices Rearranged. Coming soon, you got (Smog), Mick Turner and Neil Hamburger. On the road, you got (Smog), Mick Turner, US Maple, David Grubbs, Edith Frost, Brother JT, Cynthia Dall, The Suntanama, Bonnie Billy and all the rest. On the mailorder catalog, you got a raft of new shirts on Silver Jews, Bonny Billy and King Kong. And coming next year, you got astonishing new releases from Scene Creamers, Loose Fur, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, and lots more. What else can we bring you?