19 IN THE SHADE

WOW! If this is our last year on Earth, we’re going out with a BANG. Just a few months into this thing, we’ve been so set to the grindstone that your humble scribe hasn’t found the moment to compose a deathless Drag City’s newsletter – until right this minute, of course. By which we mean, 15 minutes before this minute. No foolin’, though – we got hot stuff – and not simply the distressed magma... (read more)

Our hearts and minds and dreams and lives are heavy today. RIP Scott Walker, you were twilight personified.

Mike Donovan's Exurbian Quonset is a genre, a thought process, a way of life and a full-grown branch of the rock and roll family tree! As many steps as it takes to get something 'perfect', it takes just as many to get to what you might call its opposite --- a place underwater, where songs sung through gills bubble to the top for all of us on dry land to hear. Mike excels by presenting the tangible and the unknown, making music that's perhaps... (read more)

This month marks CAVE's triumphant return to Europe for a bonafide tour - including a single date in the CAVE-thirsty UK, with a huge run through Spain, naturally! To celebrate, the first full-length CAVE album, Psychic Psummer, is back in print after years out of it. Questing listeners can once again drop the needle on the launch-pad moment where CAVE came into their own, evolving into a collective capable of full-length mastery. Their expertise in collating trippy dance jams of all colors... (read more)

Wand's upcoming fifth full-length is a dramatic evolution in the life of a band who've grown ecstatically since their debut, taking even further flights of fancy from the reinventions of Plum and "Perfume." The longer Wand wander from the pulse of their inception, the more teeming life they absorb: Laughing Matter maneuvers spectacularly from start to finish, brimming with eclectic visions, explorations, and exhalations.

For a sample of these new reaches in the Wand-iverse, look no further than "Walkie... (read more)

Bill Callahan is riding for a feeling and the focus turns outward, again! Nuance and ambiguity within plain-spoke expression are at the  center of Callahan's exquisite gift, but there's nothing you could possibly misinterpret about this missive here: Bill is heading out on a tour of the US this June, ta-da! Criss-crossing the United States like the proverbial un-landing javelin, Billy C is bringing his music to the people for the first time in months, years...maybe ever, for you newbies? Fuck! Imagine living your... (read more)

Chicago guitarist, composer and improviser Bill MacKay's informed and creative approach to the electric guitar is breathtaking. Fountain Fire, his second Drag City solo album (and third DC album overall, including the 2017 duet album with Ryley Walker, SpiderBeetleBee), signals new flares in Bill's flame-stoking fascination with traditional and improvised music, burning everything down to a charred, smoking essence. His playing is free yet precise amid magnetically compelling compositions, and, for the first time, he sings, with all the sweetness... (read more)

 I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk is unrivaled as standout record of the year in 2019. The latest from Tim Presley's White Fence is a keenly engaging listen, revealing a depth in the detail that provides aural stimulation for days! It's the kind of music that makes you wonder, with awe, how it might be played live - well folks, now you have the opportunity to find out! Behold, Tim Presley's White Fence announce the IHTFLH European tour, set to land this coming August!... (read more)

Music might be fun! It's an interactive experience, not a chore - or worse, a meaningless task repeated endlessly for an unclear reason, like clicking on a playlist and going about your regular, everyday (TEDIUM) business. That's why Drag City/Sea Note are proud to bring back a favorite format from the days of standalone physical records: 7 inches, baby! Times TWO. And you KNOW what 7 and 7 is...

On April 5th, a pair of established-yet-enigmatic acts are dropping two very distinct singles.... (read more)

Back in print for the first time this era is David Berman's Actual Air. Released in paperback edition in 1999 by the now-defunct Open City and praised everywhere in the then-ascendant print press industry (including names that still make waves today like The New Yorker and GQ), David Berman's first (and only) book of poetry was and is a journey though shared and unreliable memory. Uncannily inspired, Berman's poems walk you through doors into rooms where where one might hear "I can't remember... (read more)