News

It's been five years since the last ER Jurken album. Five years! As we roll into the new year, we're relieved to say the wait is nearly over. His second album, To Be Continued, is out January 30th, and today ER's sharing another taste of what's coming. On his new single "Mighty and Concealed," ER & his pocket orchestra raise themselves up to towering heights on a gorgeously surreal rock mini-epic that recalls progressive rock’s gaudy yesteryears. As the band rages and pounds,... (read more)

2026, we’ve hardly known you! We’re ready to start things on the right foot, though. So: let us introduce the new year with an earworm flowing from the mind/pen of Animal Collective’s Geologist! Today, off his upcoming solo album, Can I Get a Pack of Camel Lights?, Brian Weitz unveils “Government Job” with a music video by Michael R. Bernstein (Religious Knives, Double Leopards).

“Government Job” multiplies a scratchy inch of percussion via drumkit, vibraphone and acoustic guitar... (read more)

Plucked from A Desert (Joshua Erkman’s 2024 feature, out NOW on DVD), this banger from Florida (U.K.), a mostly unheard electronic unit from Fresno, CA, makes for seductive soundtrack material in a sketchy party scene mode. “Taste Your Love (A Desert Mix)”is the movie edit: dark, throbbing dance floor miniature SKETCH, kneading your tension-filled pressure points, exculpating desire in shuddering waves. The “(Extended Party Mix)” levels up: time and repetition work on the relentless mechanical undulation of beats and synths, exposing another... (read more)

A surprise gift from Bill Callahan, just in time for the holidays! Before we all collectively check out for the season, Bill's here to end the year with a new song for every kindred spirit: "Lonely City," the second single off his forthcoming new album, My Days of 58. As the drums tease and take their time, Callahan strums his six-string forward with admiration, sending his voice out to the familiar, ever-changing places we call home: "First thing I do / When... (read more)

Following two records of mangled acoustic guitar strings and maxed out noise, Tashi Dorji’s next step down the improvisational path is a welcome surprise: he's gone electric, yet relatively reigned it in, and sought the silence! With his next full-length album, low clouds hang, this land is on fire, fast approaching, Tashi stopped by the office to bless our mess with an enrapturing performance for the latest in a series we like to call, the Drag City Steamroom Session. Broadcasting deep from the... (read more)

People! Have you looked towards Inland See? The new album from Bitchin Bajas is out now, pulsating with life-renewing energy, and their signals can be felt across the oceans. Charged up from a juiced US tour (including dates with Stereolab), and carrying that Inland See momentum into the Spring, today we're pleased to announce that Cooper, Rob and Dan will continue setting up groove towers with their first Continental European tour of 2026 set for April! 

Bitchin Bajas tend to... (read more)

Flash back, to a time of big men and bigger babies! January, 2016. The times: scary. Tomorrow: kiss it goodbye. This was the headspace for Emotional Mugger’s necksnapping sketch when it dropped that very month those ten fateful years ago. "LIVE" "AT" "THE" "BBC", out January 30, pulls the mask back over our eyes and transports us to their Marc Riley session for the BBC: fifty shows into a furious tour, with a five-headed monstrosity fully backing Ty. Hear their live... (read more)

Last September, Dean Spunt dropped a deep excursion in electronic sound & syntax called Basic Editions. Soon after, Dean hit the road, eager to continue this odd pastime of twisting out new sounds from old-school E-mu modules live and in front of innocent bystanders. And now! Here comes "OCCII Dokie": two new cuts and three fresh modulations of album material from a ripping set at Amsterdam’s OCCII club toward the end of the tour. The whole thing is out now!

Throughout "OCCII... (read more)

To Be Continued, out January 30 on Drag City imprint Country Thyme, is a grand entry in the canon of outside/inside rock and roll records by an emerging master of the form: ER Jurken. His sophomore LP is an exquisite and timeless musical expression that meets the desperation of the modern world on the beach, with a disarmingly allusive, tuneful and surprising spirit. Today, the lead single, “I Do,” releases with a music video directed by Mark Greenberg.

ER Jurken’s... (read more)

My Days of 58 is the mighty new album from Bill Callahan. The twelve tunes here open uncanny depths of expression as Bill continues to blaze one of the most original songwriting-and-performance trails out there. The first single, “The Man I’m Supposed to Be,” is out today.

Bill’s singular take on a folk rock confessional song with a country title, “The Man I’m Supposed to Be” goes past the point of genre boundaries, as Bill explores the feels of a life that was... (read more)