News

Not two men – a wolf! Not just any wolf – a Superwolf. Spawned by Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, this mythical creature has roamed the wildernet (and most reality-based elsewheres) in LP/CD/CS/DL/DS/live concert and of course, promotional poster forms since 2005. Still, its plus-sized ambitions have always suggested MORE – but what? A film? Cartoon series? Children’s vitamin? Farmer’s friend? Intimate inanimate? Presidential anti-candidate? Every year, the list of potential nu-manifestations expands. So, with a swelling, itching braintrust, we returned to... (read more)

We here at Drag City love to give our artists a platform from which their voice can be heard (it's actually our literal job!), so for these isolated times, we've asked them if there's anything they wanna share, shout about, rave up, or simply give while we're all holed up in our bunkers. One of the very first responders was none other than premier voice of the people, Laetitia Sadier! Today she shares an essay ruminating on healthcare, government leadership, and humanity (oh my!),... (read more)

With Both, terminal collaborator Bill Nace (Body/Head, Thurston Moore) has found a stimulating, chiaroscuro-stubbled path back to the electric guitar's anarchic promise, drawn through eight colorful pieces that are equal parts sound, noise and music. It's free guitar for the new age: improv with intention, construction and destruction, all with the grain and air of performance captured and telescoped in a sonic particle collider. Makes sense, and not just because of the chaotic times!
 

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Spring 2020, and No Age are back out on the street! Effortlessly raw and extravagant in one practiced swoop, they set their live/bedroom internal clock and get out early into a glorious wind tunnel of naked beats and sunbaked guitars, forming a wave from with a new long player: Goons Be Gone! 

Enter "Feeler", the latest offering from Randy & Dean! This urgent punk groover is built around a primal snare-kick pattern and rippling waves of Tremelo emanating from a newly repaired Silvertone... (read more)

From Superwolf's home in the sea comes a new, long-awaited exclamation. "You'll Get Eaten, Too" is a sunbaked song-comet streaking through our suddenly emptied, wide-open skies. Ostensibly a song about meat and the star-crossed destinies of us all, here in the chain of organic life, the song explores affirmations, impermanence and downfall for anything that can evolve and grow (like bacteria....or a virus), in a taut and purposeful three minutes of rock anthem. Atop burgeoning arpeggiation and soaring string bends, Bonnie Billy and Matt Sweeney... (read more)

Jackie Lynn's  Jacqueline is hammering down the highway towards us all with an arrival date of April 10. Luckily, you don't have to wait that long to hear another slappin' track off the album, as “Dream St." lands ahead of time, plunging into the glittering American darkness, today!  The video for "Dream St." was shot by Tim Breen, who says, “Jackie Lynn taxis through her past on the corridor of dreams. A vortex rippling on the windshield. A memory sparked in a... (read more)

Whew, talk about prophecy! Showcasing a third offering from Sir Richard Bishop's excellent forthcoming record Oneric Formulary, "Mit's Linctus Codeine Co." is a timely single for these, well, times! Bopping with a jingle-like brio, this new "Mit's Linctus Codeine Co." twines middle-eastern surf guitar leads around a jolly acoustic chorded riff that'll make you think of just about anything other than the relaxing effects of Codeine! Such is the whimsy of Sir Richard: with his ace guitar wizardy, the most outrageous concepts are eventually made... (read more)

Save the world! It’s an imperative that looks different all the time. For us, the process always has a fundamental shape: release music to inspire, soothe and provoke, sending voices into the wild, blue (excellent) yonder to remind others that voices are best when heard, and to keep the conversation alive. As we have mostly worked with people who want the same of life and living it, our singing and playing partners have sent their own bodies out there as well, to further the cause,... (read more)

If you think today was bad, think about 1983! We had no clue, right? At the time, we needed bands like No Trend to point toward the subtext. Their cruelly negging anti-hardcore exploded into Washington DC back in '83, harshly contrasting DC's righteous straight-edge punk scene at the time. Satiric, sarcastic and diametrically opposed to the faddish stratification of youth subculture, No Trend's nihilistic rejection of the punk movement was itself a vital punk-rock expression. This savage mistrust in emergent cultural norms is familiar to... (read more)

The defiance of a fixed notion in Masaki Batoh's world and music is made clear (if the ambiguities of 2019's mortality meditation Nowhere, were unclear) by the title of his new album. Smile, Jesus Loves You shouldn't then, be taken at face value. It might be a politically bitter statement. It might not be political at all. In a time of insane corrupt leaders who clearly believe in nothing except what they can use, it is just a question for anyone who believes and anyone who doesn't.... (read more)