Drag City

Destroy: Silver Jews, 'Dongs of Sevotion' by Smog, Neil Hamburger, most of their Red Krayola releases (apart from the wonderful title track on 'Corky's Debt to His Father'), the Stephen Prina alb.

Still the best 'alt rock' label in the world.

please search David Grubbs.

Search:

Royal Trux (skulls)
Smog Forgotten Foundation
Pavement Westing...
V/A Hey Drag City
Smog Julius Caesar
Royal Trux Cats and Dogs
Palace Bros. There Is no-One...
Smog Burning Kingdom
Palace Bros. Days in the Wake
Palace Songs Hope
King Kong Me Hungry
Flying Saucer Attack Further
Cynthia Dall Untitled
Smog Kicking A Couple Around
Palace Arise Therefore
Smog The Doctor Came At Dawn
Neil Hamburger America's Funnyman
Ghost Lama Rabi Rabi
Flying Saucer Attack New Lands
Smog Dongs of Sevotion
Flying Saucer Attack Mirror
Masaki Batoh Kikaokubeshi (although this was never really a DC release)
Edith Frost S/T
King Kong Movie Star 7" (A DC reissue)
Palace Gulf Shores 7"
Royal Trux Thank You (vinyl version)
Shellac The Bird...
The Sundowners The Girl With the Thing in Her Hair

agreed! outside of the palace stuff (and maybe if i was in a more charitable mood flying saucer attack), urgh. if i can say nothing else for drag city, they've disguised their essential tedium from me for quite a long time.

INDIE GUILT PART TWO

Ned wrote:
I like the idea that millions of indie kids laid down their money for Silver Jews records

you say some silly things, but this one is maybe the silliest! I just got into American Water after playing a few times with a guy who played on that record... it's a nicely recorded album with some great songs. Highly recommended for people who think the Silver Jews sold millions of records.

Drag City roster as a continuation of the weirdo Americana elements documented in Harry Smith's anthologies? That new Plush album that Drag City passed on is very Drag City 2002... better than the latest Jim O'Rourke album they did not pass on.

i think the album is MUCH better than pavement's album of the same year (the DULL Brighten The Corners), I think people who find Malkmus' playing interesting and are curious his ability as a sideman would enjoy this. He was really ON during the recording of this album, very smooth/fluid playing/arrangements...

keep : some ghost albums esp. "lama rabi rabi", the royal trux singles box

"cover by hipgnosis", ha ha it was funny 'cause it was true.

Search : Flying Saucer Attack, Smog, Palace, Silver Jews, Royal Trux,Scott Walker, Silver Jews,Ghost, Red Crayola reissues, Edith Frost

Destroy: New Red Crayola, Suntanama, Wierd War,Champs

There's much more music on this label than many others that I don't mind hearing once in a while but I wouldn't buy/ copy it

yeah well spotted, anyone who knows me knows i never owned any records by smog or palace or scott walker in the 1st place.

fuck hipgnosis & roger dean yeah!

hoorah to drag city for getting my pre-ordered vinyl copy of the excellent new bill callahan album to me a week before the scheduled release date

boo to drag city for not providing digital downloads with vinyl purchases. i don't understand why labels wouldn't do this as standard these days

you make me wish i'd pre-ordered. i'm seeing him in a week or two in a record store and thought about buying it to get signed. i don't do that or anything, just, how else will i have stories for my grandchildren involving someone so laconic?

lp is slow burningly lovely anyway. i think all thoughts are prey to some beast is good enough to sit in the distance/the well/truth serum spot each record seems to have.

oh they also sent me a nice poster promoting the album, though i don't really know what to do with it

i think they do supply digital copies for those purchasing vinyl in some cases. i believe they call it "ultraload" or something.

i decided a minute ago that i like drag city, not just because of all the music but because they actually have a mystique.

I don't know if they still do it, but they used to have really neat alternate artwork on their promo cd's. I contemplated collecting it at one point...

There was an early comp they (or maybe Ajax?) was going to put out called "Hey Dan K." which after a quick googling shows had Cannanes and M0unt@1n G0@ts songs on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Hey-Dan-Koretzky-Various-Artists/dp/B000005NGW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1268195446&sr=1-1

Like the random ESP Summer biography that appears below it.

I don't know if they still do it, but they used to have really neat alternate artwork on their promo cd's.

The posters too -- Smog's Knock Knock:

http://i9.ebayimg.com/08/i/001/3c/89/1242_12.JPG

ha, never seen that before but that's Dan Osborn of DC in the Dr's uni

boo to drag city for not providing digital downloads with vinyl purchases. i don't understand why labels wouldn't do this as standard these days

They still don't do this, which seems insane to me. Is it some kind of principle thing with them?

yeah, it does seem kind of stubborn. i'd be more likely to buy a record w/ mp3 downloads.

i don't thnik it's principle since they sell mp3s.
love going over to the drag city site to see what they're up to: right now a portuguese guitar player and pete shelley electronic records. such a cool label.

and a new collection of alan lomax scottish field recordings!

the carlos parreda thing is pretty great, wasn't familiar w/ that dude before.

aren't those scottish recordings kinda 'lomax-esque'? i thought they were new, collected by ali roberts, sorta following in the footsteps. may be wrong

nah, they're actually Lomax recordings, complied by Alasdair Roberts, I believe.

I don't see Newsome or Callahan but jamming some Silver Jews now - yesssssss!!

The game may be rigged and all streaming services should be overthrown but until we get there I'm happy that these great artists will have a better chance at exposure and that I can easily put friends onto their music

smog/callahan

aw man, so good - thanks!

Listening to Papa M's Live from a Shark Cage right now -- yay!

So this is what those cryptic, passive-aggressive Instagram posts were about...

weird. I can see the page for smog/callahan from the links above but it doesn't show up in searches. can't see silver jews, papa M, etc

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ePunOqQbOYoQwd1298g3Z?si=7KMKvouVS0KP4KpR-but2g

seems the indexing isn't up to speed

NP: The High Llamas - Talahomi Way

A mini modern masterpiece. :)

Listening to Papa M's Live from a Shark Cage right now -- yay!

― jaymc, Sunday, April 1, 2018 11:54 PM (thirteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I actually got excited chills realizing this is available now. And I actually still have my CD of it, so I don't know why I don't just listen to it on CD, but I never listen to CDs.

Perhaps now is a good time for a renewed S/D for this label. I listened to tons of this stuff in the 90s (Palace, Gastr del Sol, Aerial/Papa M, and others from that period). In the last 15 years or so I've probably only listened to some of the bigger artists. As I scan through the artists on the label now, there's a bunch I don't know.

the whole chicago circuit is worth looking into- ryley walker/bill mackkay, bitchin bajas, circuit des yeux, they all kinda run in the same circles

Dope Body is sick

natural information society/ka and meg baird also

global otm -- it is very tight crew + natural info society is sooooooo goooooood
if alasdair roberts is in there, i recommend him a lot

imo it would be characteristically drag city to give this to spotify people for only a short period of time -- maybe 6 month contract -- and then not renew their contract.

definitely search the six organs / rangda / richard bishop universe

oh yeah
dang i forgot about them
RANGDA

people are going to be like omg why did i not...oh yeah

I am going to check the hell out of this Helena Espvall & Masaki Batoh album!

^^ both of those are great

Is Matt Sweeney + Bonnie Prince Billy - Superwolf up? (not seeing it via search) That used to be a big favourite of mine.

yeah that one might be my favorite oldham

supposedly some of his palace (music) stuff is up but i couldn't find any

the palace bros 7"s are up which if you ever wanted to hear what "Trudy Dies" would sound like with mellotron and a left-field "out" guitar solo, well... here's your chance!

The very first Palace Brothers album is there, but that's the only full-length.

the palace bros 7"s are up which if you ever wanted to hear what "Trudy Dies" would sound like with mellotron and a left-field "out" guitar solo, well... here's your chance!

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, April 2, 2018 10:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the original vers tbf, think that was the first thing i ever bought by them

They got in right before the IPO!

So, uh, I'm guessing these guys are about to give up on the CD format completely. It's been tapering as an option on their releases for the past couple years, but now it seems like a CD release is the exception rather than the rule. The New Bums album is vinyl only and the just announced Peacers album is vinyl and cassette only. Not surprised, I guess, just bummed. Weird that cassettes must be hitting higher sales numbers for them though.

yeah that’s a drag (hahah). Kinda surprised they’ve held out this long. I still think CDs might be cool again in 20 years or something if we still have an energy grid and stuff.

I mean, I think it depends on the genre and labels, really. Seems like a lot of jazz and prog stuff is still getting heavily released in the CD format and it still seems to be strong for the deluxe reissue world, but who knows. I don't think it'll ever go away completely, just become more of a niche thing. I mean, I know Numero Group gave up on them (which makes me extra sad knowing that Husker Du may now never see a decent, proper release on that format).

It bums me out... don’t people listen to albums in the car (and want better sound than an streaming over Bluetooth)?

I do! I mean, I still buy CDs all the time. I have some vinyl, but it's expensive as shit for a lot of titles compared to CDs, a lot of labels stopped giving download codes, pressing issues, pressing delays meaning the vinyl can sometimes come months later, I spend a lot of time away from a record player, etc. I like vinyl, but CD is still the most functional for me.

I'm really curious about the economics regarding cassettes these days though, is there really that much of a market that labels would pick that over CD as lower quantity second physical media option?

And, lol, at the risk of this becoming my own personal physical format blog, I would be curious to know if it would ever be possible/economically feasible to expand that Bandcamp vinyl pressing on demand thing to CDs as well.

cassette sales doubled in 2020 fwiw:

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-55476419

Amazing that Drag City avoided streaming for so long only to abandon CDs shortly after embracing streaming.

Thanks sleeve, wonder how the US figures compare. I know cassettes keep a pretty decent following for metal, experimental and noise bands, but it just seems so weird for cassettes to be where manufacturing dollars are spent at this point in time. But, I guess that's why I don't run a label.

Is there a corresponding jump in sales of tape-decks?

Amazing that Drag City avoided streaming for so long only to abandon CDs shortly after embracing streaming.

Haha. Yes! I have a huge number of Drag City CDs precisely because they were shunning streaming. It was an effective strategy. No more Drag City CDs would mean 100.00% streaming their new releases here. I'm not about to become an olde worlde analogue format fetishist.

It bums me out... don’t people listen to albums in the car (and want better sound than an streaming over Bluetooth)?

― one of the only artist who is genuine (morrisp), Thursday, January 21, 2021 3:39 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

finding a new car these days with a CD player factory installed is turning non-existent. cars are turning to that point where you need a discman to hook into the AUX to get that satisfaction, a sorta pre-CD players in cars era.

That’s interesting, it’s been standard in our last few leased vehicles (most recent is a 2019).

my 2018 subaru doesn't have a cd player, i only even thought to look a couple weeks ago!

It would skip like crazy careening over all those rugged trails and dry stream beds!

https://i.imgur.com/fkwePBI.jpg

Those sun visors were great... if you wanted to scratch the shit out of your CDs.

What is God? Records about – curated by someone in particular? (I tried searching for info, but just found some similarly-named labels.)

Ty Segall I think?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Segall#GOD?_Records

Don't seem to have a thread on them so I'll toss it in here, but the new Wand live album is fantastic. In a more just world, they'd have at least half of that rabid King Gizz fanbase.

Really can't wrap my head around which releases these guys decide to put on CD and which they don't.

Recent albums by Wand, Bill Callahan and Dirty Three did, but not for Papa M, Tashi Dorji and the upcoming Geologist record. I'm sure they have data on which "big" records make it worthwhile, but I find the inconsistency kind of annoying.

maybe they leave it up to the artists?

Possible too!

"maybe they leave it up to the artists?"

Correct answer.