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Inspired by the underground, proto-punk sounds wafting in the late 1970s air and desperate to be heard, John Timmis created a character for himself: J.T. I.V. Born only to rock, this musical conception was a rabid personality crisis consisting of proselyte elitism and nihilistic excess. To a 70s wild-child like J.T., Brian Eno’s music cut through the noise like a switch-blade. So for this second taste of The Future, it's apt to share J.T.'s take on Eno's “The Fat Lady of... (read more)

From the beautiful to the jarring, intrepid explorer Bill Callahan charts a passage through all kinds of territory on his new album YTI⅃AƎЯ. Cascading images flow forth from his stream of consciousness, as if scanning the words gathered in a dream journal. Bill’s lyrics strain at the lines on the page, not content to be confined as simply ink on paper, or to separate the printing of the fact from the legend.

With this nu YTI⅃AƎЯ on display, Bill's got a string of... (read more)

80 degrees in the midnight shade. Just another breezeless night. The crickets and the sirens and the humming of florescents and neon all melting down in the groove. An emptiness it’d be a shame to lose. Except – is that the wind kicking up? Whether you knew it or not, here it comes now – you’re right in the path of Maria’s Hunt.

Formed in 2014 in Chicago by partners Joshua Condon and Eliza Weber, Glyders have kept busy, lighting up shows around town... (read more)

On Through A Room, the false dichotomy of composition and improvisation is thoroughly and rightfully abolished. Where Both was a chiseling down of spontaneous live performance, Through a Room treats its sounds as building blocks, combining them to mesmerizing effect. This exploration of terrain is an engrossing depiction of complex emotions and relentless catharsis.

Emerging from a sparse open field, “The Giant” is a synthesis of deep-listening techniques, moving from tone-generation to gamelan to avant howl and back again, with... (read more)

Meg Baird’s songs are rarely made up of tidy stories. In fact, for Meg, mystery itself is often the medium. With Furling, Meg’s fourth album under her own name, she explores the breadth of her musical fascinations and the environments around them—the edges of memory, daydreams spanning years, loose ends, loss, divergent paths, and secret conversations under stars. Furling moves through these varied spaces with the slippery, misty cohesiveness of a dream—guided by an ageless, stirring voice that remains singular and unmistakable.

Outsider freekz, make haste! It’s time to get back to The Future – the one promised back when rock and roll was king, remember? J.T. IV believed in the promise – and now, the late mystery man behind barely-released private press 7” records of the ‘80s like “Destructo Rock” and “Cosmic Lightning”, as well as a film holding the Guinness record for worlds-longest – 85 hours! - has been called back to our mortal coil, to live out his glittering, rapacious dreams once again. 

Spiders In The Rain captures Wand at their performative peak. Aiming to eviscerate the barrier between band and audience, with each person in the room collectively experiencing the exploration and transcendence, they forge entirely new pieces from their recorded catalog. This is not simply a live album, but instead the seizing of lightning in a bottle, demonstrating the group's stylistic sprawl and evolutionary expansion of their sound. 

With "Melted Rope", one the Wand crowd's most... (read more)

Shorty’s Ark is a hardbound picture book for young readers, a collaborative effort between singer Will Oldham and graphic artist Lori Damiano, based on the song “Shorty’s Ark” by Oldham and musician Matt Sweeney. Across its many pages, Lori Damiano colorfully illustrates each wild variety of creatures included within the lyrics to celebrate and engage an equal variety of young minds with the diversity that can be found around this great planet of ours.

With pre-ordering the book directly from Drag... (read more)

Bill Callahan's everyday alchemy: thinking about nothing in particular while swinging down the lane on the back of Jim White’s dancing beat, he’s free to be anything he can imagine. Once the girls chime in on backing vocals, you just laugh and hope to be part of it all too. Power of Now couplet: “I wrote this song in five and forever / I’m writing it right now”.

Get yer second dose of YTI⅃AƎЯ before it drops on CD/CS only (LP coming later!) on... (read more)

As Al Cisneros continues to move through the dub zone, a journey over a decade in length, his music and production continue to evolve and deepen. The sinew of the bass strings sets the pocket with ever-focused raw and relentless drive, while on the version, the mixing desk becomes it’s own instrument.

With a multi-segmented bass melody, the rhythm section on "Suicide of Judas" b/w "Akeldama" lays out an elaborate series of movements... (read more)