News

You have been heard! You heard that we posted Jim O'Rourke's Bad Timing on Apple Music so you went there and heard it and you wondered why you hadn't heard all the other Jim O'Rourke Drag City records on your streaming service of choice (if you chose Apple Music). We halfway-heard you! And according to the bags of cards and letters sitting in the DC mailroom (not an actual room, more of a mis-labeled file folder on a PC we don't have the password for... (read more)

Since 2015, Kamikaze Palm Tree have been a musical mystery for those of us in our tree. Now, in times no less mysterious, Drag City welcomes them to our island resort, where the energy of their single "Flamingo", and its odd strain of 21st century rock, is in hard repeat on our poolside jukebox.

With "Flamingo", the duo of drummer/vocalist Dylan Hadley and guitarist Cole Berliner come enigmatically through the out door to burst the modern pop balloon with playful stereophonic charm, splitting hemispheres cleanly apart... (read more)

It was early in 2019 — no, November 2018! — that Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin met at Studio Rymden, in a quiet suburban district of Stockholm, to make the music that became Ghosted.

Rooting in the rich tonality and repeating figures of Johan’s acoustic (and sometimes electric) bass, the four tracks that make up Ghosted unspool themselves with the terse flow of krautrock jams — percussive riffs and repetitions that build continuously, with subtle shifts rippling across the stereo spectrum, captured in... (read more)

Oozin' and bloozin' from their very core, Dead Rider's experimental turns measure on a 1:1 ratio with rock solid energies of metalloid funk, various punks and roots, all boiled down into a single-dose transmission. And that's just in a lab prototype (aka studio recorded jam)! In live environs, Dead Rider critically redial their formula, setting controls for available local performance levels and pinning the meters as they spew forth with skronky guitar sludge, synthetic squelches and drum clinics in riddim pulsations: calculated to scorch and... (read more)

Wolves of ALL streets, take over! Superwolves would like to have words with you - sung words, expressions of emotion and elation. Will Oldham's unbound voice, soaring atop the sublime frequencies of Matt Sweeney's guitar licks and harmonies.

Captured at the Castro: "My Home is the Sea", is tried and true and now entirely new again! This live performance was snagged during the final leg of the Superwolves' 2021 West Coast tour at the legendary venue in San Francisco. Director Sai Selvarajan's camera floats... (read more)

Maybe you've heard by now - Jim O'Rourke's got bad timing. For many of you, though, this news will be good timing - for BAD TIMING!
Why is it that American composers always end up at least once in their careers writing a quintessentially American composition? God only knows, but Bad Timing has gone down in the O’Rourke discography as that composition. And a god-damned one-of-a-kind classic of that genre, and other ones too! Known as an exceptional improvisational and experimental wunderkind for most of... (read more)

The imminent threat of WWXIII! Climate catastrophes! A never-ending revolving door of openings and shutdowns, oy! What the world ONLY needs now is Bajas, sweet hypnotic Bajas. Sweet, spiritual Bajas! Appearing as if on cue from the depths of the universe and bearing the cosmos' burnished riches, Bitchin Bajas aim to inundate all who see them with analog-syntesthetic tones, immersive drones and kaleido-tonal soundscapes (plus a few rhythmic chords for good measure). Good luck and good fortune come to those who push the... (read more)

Building upon their unending quest to balm the world with riffs of love, and fresh of the release of the "Feel Good" LP Harmonizer, Ty Segall and The Freedom Band announce a slew of new tour dates for the summer! Get your beach bods ready, because this August, The Freedom band are committed to spreading the gospel of good music and good vibes across Europe for a total of twelve shows through Holland, France, the UK, Spain and more. You won't need a thermometer to... (read more)

Mess Esque, the Australian duo of Mick Turner and Helen Franzmann, got off to a fast start in 2021 with two quietly electrifying albums: Dream #12 and their self-titled debut on Drag City. Their music, part composition, part conversation and all restless travelogue, joins together two winding paths to find something that didn’t appear to be there in the beginning. Much like the homecrafted visions that comprise their songs, Mess Esque passionately willed themselves into verdant, lustrous being. And now, the world!

With only a few... (read more)

Matchess (aka Whitney Johnson) travels fluently between outer and inner space, on a perpetual search for the unseen world that exists behind the world that we see everyday. The evolutions of her music over six seeking releases between 2013 and 2020 have brought her to Sonescent, an album that transcends her previously established medium of psychedelic pop music - finding beyond those songs and sounds an new kind of expression, one where the whole album exists inside the meditation itself,... (read more)