It's now twenty years since U.S. Maple and Talker were sent tot he Drag City offices. Their third album took the egretions and abrasions of their early music to a new height of quiet horror, their contribution to the summer of '99 - a hot, trying season, one that won't soon be forgotten. Talker was recorded by Martin Bisi and produced by Michael Gira at Bisi Studios. U.S. Maple made two more records after Talker before dissolving in the mid-aughts. Talker has been out of... (read more)

Ty Segall presents "Ice Plant", his most beautiful song to date, as the final pre-release single from his forthcoming album, First Taste, due August 2nd. "Ice Plant" presents a completely different side of First Taste following the previously released full band, fleshed-out singles "Radio" and "Taste." Between a percussion-based intro and simple piano outro, both performed by Segall, "Ice Plant" strips back any instrumentation, solely spotlighting the mesmeric voices and harmonizing of Segall and newest Freedom Band member, Shannon Lay.... (read more)

After over 20 years of record making, Major Stars have arrived at "roots" and "seeds" of their inspiration. Riding a creative hot streak including 2016's Motion Set, the creative current is presently in a mega-waxing state, with momentum that won't quit! In times like these, it's easy to feel connected to sources like roots and seeds - and when you lay the needle onto this platter, you too will feel this inspiration.
 

Laughing Matter is one of the deepest head trips of an album of this (or any) year, and its creator, Wand, simply won't quit! Fresh off a triumphant tour of the USA, this summer is about to become certifiably endless as Wand set their sites on Europe (for the 2nd time this year!) in August! Taking it to festivals across the mainland before practically immigrating to the UK, where Wand's  no-clubs-pubs-or-halls-left-behind approach indicates a deep affection for olde Blighty, it's a satisfyingly dense tour... (read more)

Ow! Summer 2019 won't be the summer that wuz without a blast from Dead Rider! Once the smoke clears, you'll be burning HOT down the avenue with the deal of a lifetime: a new single straight off the lot, "The Sale"! Dead Rider's  industrial-strength deviant blues-funk is boiled down to a single-dose transmission: tolerable toxicity, with variable-speed beats and raps pushing golden age automaton U-S-A-isms (with a swirl of acrid bitterness for taste, of course) - a... (read more)

More than 50 years since he wrote his first country hit, Chris Gantry lives and sings today like the raw outlaw he was back then, just with a wiser world view that only comes with great - and sometimes not-so-great - life experience. While many of his contemporaries have been lost to the years, Chris continues to write and perform with grizzled purpose and ferver, as the song-stories found on his forthcoming Nashlantis album testify! Nashlantis is a country-folk séance of the human spirit; at... (read more)

With molten fingers working across a wooden fret board, Bill MacKay has all the sparkling you need to ignite your deepest summer fantasies! See, the freshly released and aptly named Fountain Fire has made waves with all the heads out there, and Bill's doing his damnedest to shoot the curl right into your ear-hole - both on record and totally live! Yes, MacKay's coming for you with all the hottest six-stringed, in-the-flesh action residents of the Midwest and East Coast can possibly handle... (read more)

"Every song that's nevermore sung/will sound again upon the Evernew Tongue"

Whether we understand the reference in the line, it sums up Alasdair Roberts' approach as a singer and songwriter, now halfway through its third decade. Down the years, he has devoted himself to the history of traditional songs, playing them forward into our ever-evolving world as their meanings continue to evolve within him. Whether singing the auld songs, using inspiration from a line of text, or taking a time-honoured air as as... (read more)