News

"Bill Nace’s Through a Room represents a seismic progression from Both, his startling 2020 debut solo LP for Drag City. Nace’s career has been defined by a relentless probing of ways to frame the complex menu of human emotions, and that the guitar has been his primary tool for exploring this terrain is of little consequence. On this new release, he also employs tapes, hurdy gurdy, doughnut pipe, quelle est belle, as well as his latest instrument of choice, taishōgoto. This is also,... (read more)

Since 2014, Wand have made five albums (+ EP) in the studio and a living (of sorts) playing on the road. Business/pleasure: the two sides of their (multiverticed, decagon) coin, flipping in the strobe light of ongoing self- actualization. And yet, while doing both at the same time — making a record while playing live — they’ve now made their best one yet.

How d'ya get Spiders In the Rain? Start by going back to January 2020. Do you remember? Wand do. They’d been touring ... (read more)

Shorty’s Ark is a book for young readers, a collaborative effort between singer Will Oldham and graphic artist Lori Damiano, based on work by Oldham and musician Matt Sweeney.

Drawing inspiration from the story of Noah, Shorty’s Ark names and pictures a wild variety of species to inform and engage an equal variety of young minds with the diversity that can be found around this great planet of ours. The flood stands as metaphor for current impending changes in our planet, and... (read more)

Mess Esque are "Taking It Outside" in the UK and Europe this August and September.

Helen Franzmann (McKisko) and Mick Turner (Dirty Three, Tren Brothers) hit the road later this summer, with the main event at London’s Cafe OTO, a stop in Manchester’s Psych Fest and a string of shows around the Euro Zone with a Mr. Kurt Vile and his esteemed Violators. Australia's Mess Esque coalesce from ripples of Mick’s aquatic guitar moods and Helen’s dreamy vox and lyrical imagery, initiating pensive nights, full... (read more)

The toothpaste's almost out the tube! Kamikaze Palm Tree’s desperately dreamed-of Drag City debut drops in just a few mini-weeks (on 8/12) - but who's counting, or even prepared to wait that long? Hungry for more is our assumed default, so hands in the air, 'cuz KPT are delivering another scoop of Mint Chip. This time it’s “The Hit” - both literally and figuratively! At nearly twice the length of the other Mint Chip hits, “The Hit” presents as a fully-rendered tune from youthful... (read more)

Hot on the heels of their September tour, Wand are pleased to extend their road-stay with more live dates creeping through October! With upcoming shows at clubs, ballrooms and a couple of festival gigs, Wand's adaptability allows them to make you experience multi-dimensional bliss in any room size or shape imaginable. No strangers to the road, each Wand outing breathes new life into, and broader perspective of, their expansive catalog. Ripe with mutations and maturations from each new and exciting lunar phase of the band, ... (read more)

In the fresh wake of Ty Segall's new album release (the festival of da-LIGHT now known all 'round the world as "Hello, Hi"), Ty's booked some solo acoustic dates across this grate land of ours. Yes, he'll soon be strumming his way back through the country he and the Freedom Band just rocked for the first time in forever - but when the hawk flies this Fall it'll be just a man and his acousticaxe, playing tunes and the melodies; a cozy, fuzz-free setting... (read more)

Extended guitar hero Oren Ambarchi returns with Shebang, the latest in the series of intricately detailed long-form rhythmic workouts that includes Quixotism (2014) and Hubris (2016). Like those records, Shebang features an international all-star cast of musical luminaries, their contributions recorded individually in locations from Sweden to Japan yet threaded together so convincingly (by Ambarchi in collaboration with Konrad Sprenger) that it’s hard to believe they weren’t breathing the same studio air! Expanding on the techniques of these past works, intricate themes and variations build... (read more)

First thought, best thought. Until the next thought: a guiding principle for No Age in the 16ish years they’ve been around. Constantly responding to their own streams of consciousness with reductive flexibility, they’ve taken the basic duo of guitar and drums with vocals WAY farther than anyone listening in halcyon Weirdo Rippers days could have guessed. Expounding on those atomic possibilities, they’ve zig-zagged with serpentine precision, ranging outside and back in again—as befits the present thought, whenever it comes. And now, six albums into it... (read more)

Some songs are so good, you just can’t get them out of your head. And you never want to! Storing them deep inside allows you to dig 'em up again, like (re)discovered treasure, so they can reinvigorate your worldview all over again. And so the love grows. For Ty, The Mantles’ 2009 slice of garage-pop perfection, “Don’t Lie” is one of those songs. Having played and toured with The Mantles in the Bay Area back in the day, Ty descends compassionately into the... (read more)