News

The smoke has cleared: Papa M has finally reappeared! Ballads of Harry Houdini is David Pajo’s latest bag of dirty tricks, revved up n’ ready for the big reveal next month. We’ll shut up (yeesh!) and get to the shredding though: “People’s Free Food Program” is here for all today.

Over a swirling bed of circus-like synth lines, Papa M constructs a shred-for-the-hills, golden-age guitarismo workout on "People's Free Food Program" — burbling with notes of R’n’B, dub reggae and rich, Corinthian leather.... (read more)

Break loose, West Coast: Prison is doin’ hard tour time this November! Sarim Al-Rawi, Matt Lilly, Paul Major and Matt Leibowitz (who knows, maybe more!) make up the live band this time 'round, seeking the heat in Los Angeles, Oakland, Eureka, Portland and Seattle. There's some scorched new jams cooked up for this trip, best experienced in the flesh — just keep your head screwed on! More on the horizon, too. After all: what must go Upstate...

Full... (read more)

Jim Franks is not a professional baker, because there are no such things as professional bakers. He is also not your father and never will be, nor is this a cookbook full of stories and recipes. This is a book about bread, titled Existential Bread, fresh out of Drag City’s oven on January 31, 2025.

Jim Franks is a baker and a poet who’s written a love story about bread — which is to say he’s written a life story about listening, learning, trying,... (read more)

December 10, 2001, Maida Vale: Bill Callahan’s “Smog”, out on the Rain On Lens tour, made a stop at the BBC and performed with demonstrative zeal for their British witness, shimmering and hissing with a Lynchian vibe of U.S. darkness in the invariable shadows of the fallen towers. The Holy Grail is the mythical relic from that very Peel Session, with Callahan & band (Jessica Billey, Mike Saenz and Jim White) covering Stevie Nicks, Lou Reed and Smog with... (read more)

The High Llamas’ classic 90s output comes back to life on vinyl for the first time in over twenty years: 1992's Santa Barbara, 1994's Gideon Gaye, 1996's Hawaii, 1998's Cold And Bouncy and the pairing remix album Lollo Rosso, and 1999's Snowbug. The vibrant and colorful sweep of this remarkable six-album arc shines in new pressings of the original masters, releasing November 22 — including the first-ever vinyl pressing for their debut album, Santa Barbara.

The High Llamas were founded by Sean O'Hagan... (read more)

Aye, more music from Anthony Moore, dead ahead! Home of the Demo digs up ten unheard songs from the Slapp Happy founder's tuneage treasury, containing some seriously smart stuff he made between 1978–1984 that finally gets to breathe on this upcoming archival release. The second single "Me and Neil Diamond" is out today, sailing into the night with some circa-'84 vocals from Echo & the Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch.

Gauzy, aquatic, dusk-flavored keyboards set the scene for this truly off-the-wall... (read more)

Everything Is Recorded welcomes one of Drag City’s own to its hallowed ranks with the new single, “Porcupine Tattoo” (feat. Noah Cyrus and Bill Callahan) b/w “Norm” (feat. Bill Callahan) – which means we’ll have copies of this insane shit on sale. Preorders up now!

Everything Is Recorded is the brainchild of veteran record producer and XL label executive Richard Russell – an ever-expanding electronic soul collective featuring a revolving-door series of singers, rappers and instrumental collaborators including Aitch, Damon Albarn,... (read more)

A lifetime in the making, Jill Fraser's Earthly Pleasures is out today! Her new solo LP of electronic compositions is the culmination of more than 40 years of pioneering modular work across television, games, film and performance. For this momentous occasion, a mesmeric new music video arrives today for Jill's single "Beautiful Summer".

"Beautiful Summer" is a track glowing with the aura of new life, a regenerative piece decorated with chimes and bells that hits the heavens in a little over seven... (read more)

Four years sit between Stateless and we will be wherever the fires are lit, the latest full album expression from acclaimed guitarist Tashi Dorji arriving November 22 on Drag City. These ten songs, as ever, are all improvised, utilizing different guitar preparations — tape for muting, metal for buzz, alternate tunings, inspirations from all over — to form a “sort of a sequel” to his 2020 album, in Tashi’s words. Still, there are no rules. With today’s announcement, Tashireleases the first single... (read more)

The “Great Escape Artist” is back — no, not THAT one, dude’s dead! We’re talking about Papa M (AKA David Pajo), and HE’s talking ’bout Harry Houdini. At least in the title of this record, anyway: Ballads of Harry Houdini. Six years since his last LP, the all-acoustic A Broke Moon Rises, Papa M rolls into the shred zone with a fresh, fine and fat-assed set of songs — and just SIX of ‘em, so you know they’re some groovers —... (read more)