News

Rock! It crunches beneath your feet as they shuffle their infinite pattern, it echoes down deep in the chasm when you leap across. Tim Presley knows how it feels as it crashes against him; now White Fence is sinuously tooled up to shoot out neighborhood lights everywhere. Exquisite guitar extroversion! 

Throughout the epic daze of these 20teens, we've known/loved the music of White Fence, growing increasingly addicted to their contempo-psych twisted pop tunes, all marked by a distinctive signature; the classically-informed pop... (read more)

Neil Hamburger is once again singing in front of a band with his new album, Still Dwelling! This time, instead of pandering to the US of Red States with more contempo-country rock as he did on Sings Country Winners,"America's Funnyman" is letting a song go out of his heart (thirteen of 'em, actually! (Songs, not hearts)) with assistance from the great hitmakers of the past century. Yes, Still Dwelling is a lushly orchestrated covers record, with an original thrown in for good measure!  

So does... (read more)

Fountain Fire is Bill MacKay's second solo album on Drag City. The Chicago-based guitarist's continued sonic journeys in conversation with himself follow a travel-worn map written in his own hand. Bill has followed the trail from familiar confines to unknown places, catalyzing a style equally enamored with the traditional and the avant-garde to make his most expansive and forceful music to date. 

You can hear it in the opening track; as the lava and lakes of "Pre-California" simmer to boiling, Bill assembles a bridge of guitars, layering beams of rumbling... (read more)

An album like Still Dwelling is all too rare these days! Exquisitely compiled, elegantly arranged and beautifully performed with a score of talent that would make The Wrecking Crew blush! You'd be more likely to find an album like this in the thrift shop than in the new release bins of today's record stores - until now, that is. It's about time! A perfect pop record, recorded by none other than America's Funnyman---Neil Hamburger.

Still Dwelling is still on the release... (read more)

Masaki Batoh's forthcoming solo album and title track "Nowhere" considers that when you die, you are gone from this world permanently - but if that's too existential for you, the groovy chorus with thrumming bass and wah-wah suggests that your energy ascends to something greater!

Today we gift you with a video for "Tower of the Silence", a song that utilizes full-dimensional acoustics to put Masaki Batoh's immense talent on display. Filmed and edited by Aimaiworks / Tomoco Nakatsuka, the video... (read more)

They say every journey begins with a single step, or in this case a single song! More specifically, we speak of a lone, warped, and colorfully-labeled 7" record dated 1975 from Aurora, Illinois, (yes, home of Wayne's World), stumbled upon by Galactic Zoo Dossier/Galactic Zoo Disk Svengali Plastic Crimewave. That 45---a private press single by StumpWater, featuring the tunes "White Washed Afternoons" b/w "Watcher's Brawl."

A search surprisingly yielded immediate results, as StumpWater was still active and gigging!? Peppering... (read more)

Welcome, dear reader, to 2019, where in the first few weeks of this infant year you have the opportunity to see three major players in the field of music and entertainment. It all takes place at the Tomorrow Never Knows Festival in sweet home, Chicago, where not only do you get to laugh your ass off (and your heart out) with Neil Hamburger, but you get to rock the fuck out with CAVE and Wand, the latter two on one fucking bill! Imagining... (read more)

Bill Callahan fans, frenz n' family, it's in the spirit of the holidays that we gift you some fresh BC news! Prepare to hear a lot more from Bill, in ways you never thought possible: via Twitter! That's right, you can now read ruminations straight from the Calla-mind, 140 characters at a time. Follow @billcallaman to receive his special Christmas message on December 24th!
 

As the clock inches closer to midnight on 2018, let's never forget, No Age's Snares Like A Haircut kicked things off this year with a loud and heavy bang! Dean and Randy led a thrilling charge through the months that would come, with tours all over the USA and Europe. But that was only the beginning of their intercontinental conquest - coming in February, 2019, the No Age experience heads to the land down under! That's right, Australia and New Zealand, join No Age... (read more)

Ooh! Feel that tremor? Us too - if our seismological readings are correct, OM are hitting the road in 2019, bringing that big, droning low end to the masses in North America and Europe! OM shows are downright spiritual - they're the ultimate chance for communion among all creatures of the Earth! And isn't that exactly what this planet needs right now? Listen, it's no secret that the OM Army is jonesing for new OM music - we're really hurtin'! But dammit if a good... (read more)