News

Playing guitar on most of Tim Buckley’s rambling folk-rock numbers, Lee Underwood’s former rock career typically manifested outside jazz influences. After a decade and more had elapsed, though, Lee embarked on a more cleansing, spiritual venture — an acoustic one, that is! — with his 1988 solo work, California Sigh. Drag City has unearthed this magnificent Lee Underwood/Steve Roach co-production for a first-ever reissue due out June 28; the second single, “Quietude Oasis”, arrives today with a... (read more)

Three marimbas, three voices, three psyches: This summer, Whitney Johnson’s long standing experimental project Matchess will deal sonic doubles across the U.S. with the amplified groupthink of a trio formation each night!

In June, Whitney will be joined onstage by Haley Fohr (AKA Circuit des Yeux) and Lula Asplund; in July, it’ll be Matchess, Haley, and Jenny Pulse. Their individual practices in experimental music, sound art, and performance will invoke the “two against three” principle to alchemize a... (read more)

Jettisoned through the atmosphere to pulverize our beckoning eardrums, The Key (Became The Important Thing [& Then Just Faded Away]) is Chris Corsano operating past every dimension. The upcoming album (out June 28) sees Chris in rare solo form, performing every part himself and overdubbing each frenzied instrument into six explosive tracks. Today, the important thing is experiencing the second single from the album, “The Full-Measure Wash Down”, with a new music video by Kim Alpert.

Gnawa-esque string drum acoustics... (read more)

Pulling out of a furious current, Dirty Three have planted their sea legs on dry land (Melbourne, Australia to be exact) to track their first album in over a decade: Love Changes Everything, out June 28 on Drag City. Our tried-and-true crew, Mick Turner, Warren Ellis and Jim White, are shipping out the second single today: “Love changes everything II”.

“Love changes everything II” is Dirty Three at midday: already in elegiac reverie, glancing pensively back at the waters of... (read more)

Following their collaboration on 2021’s Oscar winning Drive My Car, Eiko Ishibashi & filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi have returned with a deeply inspired synergistic exchange: Evil Does Not Exist, a feature film that evolved from Eiko’s absorbing new soundtrack of the same name (out June 28). Today, Eiko releases the film’s melancholy love theme and title track: “Evil Does Not Exist”.

In full orchestral flower, “Evil Does Not Exist” scores the passage of a thousand leaves and streams, places in time that,... (read more)

Arriving July 26 on Drag City, Are Possible is a spark-throwing, undulating fusion of styles spiraling from the Nathan Bowles Trio. Played (mainly) on banjo, upright bass and drums, these are songs made possible by the individual perspectives of virtuosic banjo player Nathan, double-bassist Casey Toll (Jake Xerxes Fussell, Mt. Moriah) and drummer Rex McMurry (CAVE) — working together in an easy-rolling manner, but one that contains an expansive, ass-shaking confabulation of ideas. Hear the first single off... (read more)

Lee Underwood’s syncretic blend of jazz, folk, and blues was a tremendous force behind Tim Buckley’s genre-stretching late 60s/early 70s music — but his 1988 acoustic guitar opus, California Sigh, has remained a unsung footnote to his story. Until now! On June 28, Drag City is excited to present California Sigh, fully remastered for vinyl and digital platforms. With today’s announcement is the title track, “California Sigh”.

Lee Underwood is usually mentioned first as Tim Buckley’s stalwart and lead... (read more)

What might appear to be the most unlikely collaboration of 2024 proves also to be one of the most invigorating listens of the year! Shackleton & Six Organs of Admittance are in full aural/metaphysical alignment on Jinxed by Being: a no-brainer fusion of Shackleton’s bass heavy cosmic dread and Six Organs’ ritual folksong, out June 28. Get on their wavelength today with the first single/video, “Stages of Capitulation”.

Longtime listeners know that both Shackleton and Six Organs of Admittance have... (read more)

With Ghosted II out n’ about — unshackled from its phantom hull, phasing through the walls — Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin deliver one more visual to play out their polyrhythmic skeletons. Summoned before us today is a new music video for the second track, “Två”, directed by Cédrick Eymenier, the trio’s longtime collaborator and soul-bound confidant.

“Två” opens with a portal of spiraling, metallic organs, cast in circles by Oren, above the muted bass harmonics of Johan and intermingling... (read more)

Wand regenerates again with their most ambitious work yet: Vertigo, out July 26 on Drag City. Turning from their Plum/Laughing Matter-era quintet, Wand now emerges in quartet form (Evan Backer, Evan Burrows, Robbie Cody, Cory Hanson) with a noir-tinged record looming with tension, theatrical elevation, and lush orchestration. With today’s announcement, Wand reveal a new single/video: “Smile”.

Vertigo is the sound of feet lost, regained, and lost again: a vision of Wand that is... (read more)