Guess who's coming to the Puget Sound area for a free tour of record stores next month? That's right, wolf boys and girls - Bonnie Prince Billy! Ear to the radio, with an eye on the record bin as usual, the Free Bonny instore tour is back again making stops at haunts both old and new. June 9 through 13 Pacific Nor'westers will have seven chances to hear the Prince for free when he visits Rainy Day in Olympia, Rocket Records in Tacoma, The Business in Anacortes and Sonic Boom in Seattle. Plus Bonny will return to the airwaves for live in-studio sessions at KEXP in Seattle and KAOS in Olympia.

There's even a kicker for all you overcast fetish freaks: The whole thing starts off on June 9 with an open invitation to Tenino where the good people at Wolf Haven International have tours open to the public (or at least the first 30 people) every hour starting at 10am so everyone can have the chance to meet Kiawatha, a very sultry little wolf recently adopted by Bonnie Prince Billy, and catch a special (still free though) Bonny concert on the actual grounds of the Wolf Haven! We've been told that you too can adopt Kiawatha, or any other wolf for that matter, but you can't take it (the animal) home with you. It's symbolic, okay! But if you absolutely need to have a piece of the Louisville slugger, consider ordering a copy of Wolfroy Goes to Town from your friendly mail-order record company. Check out the full schedule below:

Free Puget Sound June 9-13, 2012

Live with the wolves
6-9-12 Wolf Haven International, Tenino (12pm concert)

Live in the store
6-10-12 Rainy Day, Olympia 4pm
6-11-12 Rocket Records, Tacoma 3pm
6-12-12 The Business, Anacortes 7pm
6-13-12 Sonic Boom, Seattle 7pm

Live on the radio
6-10-12 KAOS 89.3FM Olympia 2pm
6-13-12 KEXP 90.3FM Seattle 3pm

For all of us earthbound creatures, the firmament with its revolutions of planets and stars, determining the spread of tides and the length of days and the drift of the calendar and the juxtaposition of our very personalities (astrology-wise, we're speaking) is a marvelous muse to have. Hanging over us day in and out, framed in the unattainable and yet somehow soul-linked to our own humble path across the face of this planet. There's an element of the uncanny to all of this and the sooner you accept it, the better your life becomes. Case in point: ten years ago in space and time, Ben Chasny, then five years into the journey that is Six Organs of Admittance, toured the west coast of the United States as he had done before, but this time featuring Comets on Fire as his backing band. The sound was heavy, but it wasn't Dust and Chimes-heavy, and it wasn't Nightly Trembling heavy either. Instead, a new way of informing matter had been witnessed by all concerned, Ben, the band and those who saw the shows - a Higgs Bosun element was fleetingly identified. Several tracks were taped for what turned out to be posterity - Six Organs of Admittance grew into and through the next phase, with Dark Noontide and Compathia taking the place of the all-band Six Organs of Admittance in time and space.

Ascent is the name of the forthcoming Six Organs of Admittance album, the one that comes at the end of the season after this one. There's a few moons and many tides between here and there, but casting his mind forward into the life of the record while writing it, Ben forsaw an epic of science-fantastic proportion - a trip involving humans in space, and the combination of fallibility and cold fate that our lives mean in the crushing all-jaws of the Universe. As soon as this idea had jelled, time-travel seemed to be the only way to realize it - for who better to help Ben launch the space-craft than his old CoF-mates? Especially since they all shared a bit of history that never happened? SO, they got together and made the record. Ascent is a fully electric, multi-headed rock and roll record born in space with one monocle'd eye cast toward the destruction of ....things. Men. Beliefs. Maybe even Earth? Sci-fi can be so hard to read, but it's great on the ears, especially with the sure hands of Ben Chasny at the controls. Recorded with Tim Green at his Louder Studios, the record is pure Six Organs Of Admittance - but a Six O that few have yet heard, one with classic Six Organs senses at the ready, spinning out exotic riffs with supreme sensitivity, with pure rock in the reserve tanks – and it sounds like more than we or you will ever hope it does. But don't take our fragile and transitory word for it, check out that future technology we shot into cyber-space last month, the mysterious QR-code, for a track from the album and hear for yourself what it sounds like to drive a hot rod through space.

If you're like us here at Drag City, you're looking high and lowbrow for something you can call entertainment. Well, we've got you covered for at least one day in the apparently ceaseless march of days that we have dubbed "the future." To wit: next Tuesday, May 29 Housing Works Bookstore will inaugurate The Lowbrow Reader Reader’s official commencement of existance on and off discerning bookshelves with a performance of "The Lowbrow Reader Variety Hour" at its Soho shop. While the lineup of comedians and writers is top-secret and not yet leaked (oh okay - YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST: Wyatt Cenac and the legendary Professor Irwin Corey!), we can tell you that Adam Green and Supercute will be providing the musical subcontext to the evening's edification. There will of course be laffs a-plenty as only The Lowbrow Reader has provided since 2001, but as with all events at Housing Works, the event will serve a serious cause: to raise money in the shop’s ongoing fight against AIDS and homelessness. Past Lowbrow Reader Variety shows have featured a plethora of engaging performers including Fiery Furnaces, John Mulaney, Jeffrey Lewis, Gilbert Rogin, and Joe Mande, so even if the impeccable pedigree of The Lowbrow Reader isn't enough to get you in the door, perhaps their shamelss way with connections will do it. Plus the opportunity to have TLR editor-in-chief Jay Ruttenberg sign your b- well, whatever you like that begins with B, how about that?

For more and more better information, you can check with The Housing Works.

I see a new Bonny risin'! Coming this summer is an EP of new versions of Bonny classics from years gone by - fresh-minted by his constant companions of late, Ben Boye, Van Campbell, Emmett Kelly, Danny Kiely and Angel Olson. Before you roll your eyes, and ask "Greatest Palace Music too?" get an eye-full of the rolling going on in the Ben Berman-directed video, which premiered on the good ol' New York Times (remember them?) and is now up and lively on our sites, for you. Jeezus! Featuring a wraith-like Oldham shuffling merrily through the ancient lanes of Glasgow, bopping his way through a cemetery, stopping for drinks at local pubs and marching on through the flow of humanity with his band, "I See a Darkness" two-point-whoa is fun, friendly and of course, ghastly and horrifying. Why would we want it any other way?

The EP is to be called "Now Here's My Plan." There's five more songs a-comin' - but what will their videos be? Will there be any videos at all? "Now Here's My Plan" - coming on July 24th!

We wouldn't call it Starting Over, but we're about to let the Animals out of the cage, yu-huck! Dwarr lives. Dwarr's LIVE! It's gospel truth, brother! You thought the records were the only Dwarr experience to be had? Don't be a non-believer! Dwarr is risen and for the first time EVER is prepared to hit the road! Animals and Starting Over are masterpieces of loner metal, birthed from an inner darkness, reaching fruitless for the eternal light, bathed in murk, dementia and just enough low-brow studio techniques to scorch that metallic beef slab into a medium-rare, tasty treat. Translated to the live stage, who knows how it's going to go down? Solo? Power trio? Symphonic? Or maybe a bit like this video below... Whatever, it's Dwarr, live and on tour for the mother's father first time, and if that isn't enough (it is, but wait for it...) co-billed with Black Bananas and Magik Markers! A (un)holy trinity! The dream bill of your life only hits a few select cities. Hop on the nearest train to hell, see Dwarr rock the ages live!

5/12/12 Red 7 Austin TX w/ Black Bananas, Magik Markers
5/13/12 Walter's Houston TX w/ Black Bananas, Magik Markers
5/14/12 Siberia New Orleans LA w/ Black Bananas, Magik Markers
5/15/12 529 Atlanta GA w/ Black Bananas, Magik Markers
5/16/12 The Pinhook Durham NC w/ Black Bananas, Magik Markers

Tour diaries are integral artifacts for musicians and music fans alike. Often consumed as literature in book form, like that of the self-publishing, Morrison-of-the-80s former 'Flag front person, or as online hoot-action like that of fellow SST graduate Watt, they're literal indulgences by and for maniacs struggling through a universe they simultaneously strive to conquer, embrace, and avoid. Not to say that OM are maniacs, or struggling in anyway! But they're certainly a conquering force, simultaneously embracing all in their path - physical and spiritual. Thankfully, they've indulged us maniacs with that magic artifact: back from their European crusade, these OMbres built a magnificent tour diary for all you heads to freak on - video style! There appear to be 7 entries, and while the 1st and 2nd may've moved to another realm, 3-7 are all there for viewing. We always start at the end - don't you? Watch episode 7 below, then work your way to the front! Oh, and watch out for Advaitic Songs, coming July 24th!

Don't turn around, cause Laetita Sadier is back! Two years freshin' since Laetitia's solo debut, The Trip (dang, 2 whole years?... whatevs, we been trippin all this time!), the Sadier marquee now reads, Silencio! No, it's not a request for you to put a cork in it so someone else can speak; rather, Silencio is an invitation to sample silence, to listen to how silence resonates with truth. You hear us? Silencio is born from a natural need for stillness, as well as agitation! Step away from your computer (after you finish reading this) and get a little inwards, ok? Drift out from the noise of commercialism and marketplace prohibiting any inner-connectivity, and do it with the molten-cool, pop-sensation of Laetitia Sadier. Find the truth- and let Silencio find you- when it arrives July 24th!

Meantime, grab a seat in the front row for these special Laetitia Sadier tour dates:

5/16/12 Le Confort Moderne Poitiers, France
5/30/12 L'Excelsior Allonnes, France
6/3/12 OFF Fest Skopje, The Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia

Say, brother can you spare a dime? We've bet the Drag City farm on 2012 being a big year for Six Organs of Admittance and that leaves our dime-bag empty at present. But it's gonna come in a winner in time, don't you worry. Whether you inferred this already from our DC-prescribed daily digital horoscope or not, perhaps you're still too deeply consumed with yourself to realize any of the greater goals we, the human race, the denizens of Drag City, are meant to pursue together. Which is weird, because we've infiltrated most of the music you listen to, as well as the food you eat and the prophylactics you use, on a daily basis. Anyhow, we'll keep picking at it, for you. Warrior Ben Chasny's gonna keep it up, too. Like a restless space walker, Six Organs of Admittance is in constant, weightless motion. In fact, fresh off the debut 200 Years tour, Chasny's hurtling right towards Bologna as we speak! Albeit brief, American-born Six Organs of Admittance tours parts of the European continent over the next two weeks, with special acoustic performances as well as some collabs with Italy's Starfuckers. Take note! These beginnings are an important wrinkle to the fabric of our shared universe which will surely make honest sense to you in the not-too distant future. Meantime, warp your head around these dates:

5/5/12 Locomotiv Bologna Italy w/ Starfuckers
5/6/12 Motel Salieri Rome Italy Matinee show - 4pm
5/7/12 Btomic La Spezia Italy
5/9/12 United Club Turin Italy
5/12/12 Le Botanique Brussels Belgium
5/14/12 De Kreun Kortrijk Belgium w/Sir Richard Bishop and James Blackshaw

Spring time's for tourin'! Last week, your patient attitude towards winter was rewarded with blooming Hair, from Ty Segall & White Fence. This week, the blossoms are fruiting. Sounds weird, but no - the baby born from Ty's & (White) Tim's (Fence) labor needs to grow, in space, in the free world- on the baptizin' road! The massive touring of Ty Segall & White Fence begins in Portland, OR, this Thursday, May 3, before going way out east and down through the belt! Fattening up and learning differn't slangs and dialects across this great highway system, we confirm our two dads will play separate sets. But who knows what kind of love will be made between them? Perhaps we should ask you to tell us- get up offa dat thing, and get yerself to these clubs and venues, each offering exclusive access to the Hair Tour. Ty Segall & White Fence say, DO IT!

5/3/12 Star Theater Portland OR w/ White Fence
5/4/12 Waldorf Hotel Vancouver BC Canada w/ White Fence
5/5/12 Chop Suey Seattle WA w/ White Fence
5/6/12 The Palace Missoula MT w/ White Fence
5/8/12 7th Street Entry Minneapolis MN w/ White Fence
5/9/12 High Noon Saloon Madison WI w/ White Fence
5/10/12 Lincoln Hall Chicago IL w/ White Fence, The Strange Boys
5/11/12 Lager House Detroit MI w/ White Fence, The Strange Boys
5/12/12 Horseshoe Tavern Toronto ON Canada w/ White Fence, The Strange Boys
5/13/12 Il Motore Montreal QC Canada w/ White Fence, The Strange Boys
5/14/12 SPACE Gallery Portland ME w/ White Fence, The Strange Boys
5/16/12 Webster Hall New York NY w/ White Fence, The Strange Boys, The Men
5/18/12 Johnny Brenda's Philadelphia PA w/ White Fence
5/20/12 The Earl Atlanta GA w/ White Fence
5/21/12 The End Nashville TN w/ White Fence
5/22/12 Hi-Tone Cafe Memphis TN w/ White Fence
5/23/12 White Water Tavern Little Rock AR w/ White Fence
5/24/12 Walter's Houston TX w/ White Fence
5/25/12 Mohawk Austin TX w/ White Fence

A NEW WORLD RECORD
Welcome back to the Drag City of doing things, viewing things and of course, screwing, bluing and tattooing things. It’s a big world and like us, you’ve been taking it in and dealing it out and you’re dehydrated, man! If you’re ready for another ear-draft of music-brew, you’ve come to the right place. This month’s episode of Q: Guess What? A: Drag Fuckin’ City! comes to you from the shores of the unsunny left bank(e) of gay Paree, where your correspondent is holding court in one of the famous cafes where Miller, Hemingway, Beckett and Burroughs once did their drinking and writing. That’s right — Max Miller, Horace Hemingway, Billy Beckett and Chauncey Burroughs once sat here where I currently type, beret in hand, cigarette holder poised to scratch that spot on my back that always itches when I’m about to say something brilliant. And given that this is only the start of this noos-letter, I imagine I’ll be scratching up a storm. But the point, dear readers both young and old, is that this month, we’re truly able to take in the epidemic effect of Drag City in places all around the world.

Yes, whether in a pub on Fleet Street or a salon high above the prostitute-ridden backstreets of Paris (thank God! where have all the street-walkers gone, Chicago? (north Cicero Avenue — local crime stats ed.), we present our card and are greeted with the look that can only mean: You mean? Drag City has sent a (man/woman/child) to us? And then out come the stories: O’Rourke was here in 1997, he broke five out of six strings but made us cry with the one remaining string and all his stupid jokes! When the Silver Jews played here a few years ago, David Berman saved a man from drowning — and then suggested a tip for his good deed! Bill Callahan mooned me in Thailand when I asked him for an autograph — he said he doesn’t go on vacation with me and slap the dick out of my mouth! The Fucking Champs ruined my birthday party! CAVE slept here — well, under the porch here, they seemed a little stinky at the time, so…! Royal Trux wouldn’t sleep here until we had the whole place fumigated! I gave Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy a lapdance — but only after he titillated me with an excrement-strewn striptease! Joanna Newsom flew over this part of the country — the whole town turned out to watch her private jet as it passed by! When will Ty Segall come back to Finland, he is the greatest living performer but his last record fucking sucked with its lack of Finnish content! Six Organs of Admittance — dude! And so on. We can’t go anywhere without being outed and then brought warmly back in (I don’t care if that’s what she said!) — and frankly, we’re sick of it. Our hands are sore from fist-punching your love-n-hating little faces! Get a life, you lousy fanboys and girls! Or better yet — get a couple-few of the new records from Drag City — they may just be better than anything we’ve EVER released! Ever.

ON YOU LIKE WHITE ON FENCE —OR— THE TAO OF TY
New records? Glad you asked! Yeah, we’ve got a few. Well, actually, we have at least a dozen or so in varying range of completion, from mixed to mastered to fully arted up and ready to roll. Nothing however, is readier to roll than the record called Hair. It’s out in public officially this week, and digitally available to radio, too — but we dropped it a couple days early just so it could take part in this year’s acid test — RSD, in case you hadn’t heard of the new retail drug. You know, if everyone in record stores is running around like chickens with a new lease on life cut off, then we’re a-goin’ down to the henhouse too! And what better to bring to the party than a fast-n-durrty rock ‘n roll record with a fish’s-eye view of the world, loaded with multicolored (not to mention multicoloured, you Brits!) tracks with purple flashes all played and sung for you by two of today’s freakest talents? Yep, Hair grew out of Ty Segall and White Fence’s Tim Presley’s heads to help us blow the blue air right out of the sky and get down to whatever the yellow matter is ailing you. They’ve brought their good, bad and ugly vibrations out to ornament their batch of collaborative tunes and now they’re all out there, shaking like jelly on a jelly tree. It’s what they do, Ty and Tim, bringing the everyday miracle of their California days and nights into the lines of their song. West coast, y’all! They’ve got the hot weather down south and the cool breezes off the northern coasts. They’ve got a desert and mountains and all kinds of latitudes. They skate, they surf, they make movies and they make meth, just for a start. Fortunately, they make music too. The Cali way of life is definitely insinuated into the rock and the roll of Ty and Tim, who rocked themselves up in a room and didn’t come down until the metamusical porridge was just right. And now, Hair it is. We know we’ve used that before, but it really couldn’t be righter, so… seriously, this collab-flagration gives fans of both White Fence and Ty a choice of songs that never would have come otherwise — an oscillating alternate-history version of both sides of the coin. Given such currency, we’ll never stop flipping it — so grab some Hair in your own two hands and get permanently…waved? Fuck, extended metaphor bummer. Sorry, it doesn’t reflect on the album. The shit’s awesome.

A TRONICS FOR WHAT AILS YA
We don’t know how to tell you this gang — but oops, Sic Alps done it agin’. This is a band that’s all about a song, a line, a lick and a riff. Their albums are demonstrations on what happens to you when these little elements are fused together to engineer a whole thing with all great stuff. Which is awesome, and we love Napa Asylum, but since then, the Alps have been siccing their razor wits on single songs, and their counterpart, other single songs. There’s been a string of singles featuring this minimalistical appeal, each one better than the previous and all of them different from each other. “Breadhead” had four quick songs, one of them a Wailers cover. “Battery Townsley” was two longer numbers, one acoustic-fronted and groovy the other grungy-rockin’. Lately, there’s been “Vedley” which brought AOC (Album Oriented Consciousness) into singles format, weaving together a whole LP’s worth of tunes into a double-sided 7” collage and one of the most compelling mini-journeys we’ve had in, oh, at least years. So right there, that’d be a trilogy, right? Three great singles that go great together. Plus good things, like death, come in threes. You might imagine that we’ve discussed this at the last DC shareholders meeting, right? The cigar-chompers coming down on poor, skinny little Sic Alps — “don’t come back until you have an album!” Well, sure we did. But then they played us a single and turned us onto Tronics all in one fluid action — and in the excitement that followed, we found ourselves with yet another Sic Alps single. The bad news is, there’s no mini-genius Sic Alps songs to be found on the new single called “Pangea Globe.” The good news is, that’s because the four songs on “Pangea Globe” are all Tronics classics, like “Shark Fucks,” and “My Baby’s In a Coma,” all of which bring back the vibe of the Tronics heyday (’79—’80) while also delivering in prime Sic Alps fashion (NOW!). Shit, it’s so good. Then they went and recorded a whole album like we told them too, but NOT like we told them to, and that’s another story of total amazement and expectations both defied and superseded that we’ll be telling you in another few months. Meantime, the Beyond the Alps European Tour 2012 is underway, so pack up some fresh underwear, get on your elephant and we’ll see you there!

LOST AND FOUNDATION
The cycle of life is a bitch, kids — it really is. When you’re young, you’re taught all sorts of absolutes, the 2 + 2s of life. Then you grow up a little and suddenly, one and one don’t make two, one and one make one! You realize that the absolute of one is equaled by minus one and geez, it’s really empowering. You start thinking that you know it all again, the ambiguous ALL that there is to know, but you’re really not done growing and knowing yet. Today, we see that which we’ve called history, which we once recognized as a linear progression, as instead a circle, or set of concentric circles, superimposed over each other and connecting at odd intersects with moments of sudden recall in the future and/or trails of vapor in the past. Every moment is now, and you dig it. But you’re not done growing, and neither are we. Take for instance the strange case of Smog’s Forgotten Foundation. When we put this record out in 1992, it was a brave new world of sales for us on a brave new format — the first compact disc in the (three years and counting) history of Drag City. We made a few thousand of them and sat back, waiting for this new format to sell into all the places our 7”, 10” and 2xLP records seemingly couldn’t go. A few months later, our faces were red — while Smog had sold great on one hand, on the other hand, we were sleeping in a bed of unsold CDs! A bed not so firm as the fold-out sofa bed we had of unsold Vocokesh 12”EPs, we hasten to add. So anyway, ’92 turned to ’93 and we figured that we had a life partner in this sweet little CD. But then came the LP/CD/CS release called Julius Caesar, or as we pronounced it, Game Changer. Everything Smog began selling, even the “Burning Kingdom” lunchboxes! And by 1996, we were talking about a making an LP version of Forgotten Foundation since we didn’t have any more CDs to sell. It was hilarious! Hilariously unprofitable, that is. Do you know what the LP list price was back then? It was like we were trying to give them away! And we made a full-color inner-sleeve to represent for the additional chair paintings in the original artwork too! Whatever, we sold all the copies and since we’ve never stopped believing in LPs, we were never sorry we did it. In fact, ever since then, standard ‘round-the-urinal talk has regularly gone to: Hey — we gotta bring Forgotten Foundation again. Around 2005, we did just that — but this time, it was back on CD! They still sold semi-OK back in those days, and this time, we ordered conservatively. Well, semi-conservatively anyway — in 2005, you could still get away with bad guesses on CD! Christ, it seems like yesterday. Every day seems like yesterday these days. Not ‘cause we’re getting old…more like early onset Parkinson’s or something. Anyway, every time we bring back Forgotten Foundation, it always seems like a good thing — but it’s never felt like more of a good thing than now. Bill “Smog” Callahan is so far removed from the sound of his early records and the things he wrote songs about back then that this is truly like another artist altogether — one whose sound is strangely in tune with today’s digi-fuck’t home-recorder freaks. Bill’s sound back then was blunted and raw, but never lacking ambition and possessed of the vision to exploit limitations in the search for color and variety in his production sounds, such as they are. Plus, baby Bill was an aspirant axe-wielder of the electric circus, rolling out heady ebbs and flows of distortion, singing in falsetto, addressing the listener in a screamed and harshly-edited acapella and then turning around and dropping sweet-and-salty tunes like “Your Dress,” “I’m Smiling,” “This Insane Cop, “High School Freak”…ah! If only the dude who wrote these songs was still around! We could all sing along with him at the next show. But time passes, and people change, like we inferred at the beginning of this sweet little section or some other little section, back when we were younger than yesterday. You can never tell what’s going to happen. Except that you’re gonna die. But before then, make sure you save a slot on your holy record rack for Smog’s Forgotten Foundation. Even if he’s forgotten, you don’t have to.

DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SETS (BUT PLEASE DO ADJUST YOUR THOUGHTS)
While strolling through the Deutches Museum in Munich last week (we thought we could shortcut to our favorite bretzel-and-sauerbraten stand!), we came across an interesting visual demonstration piece that affirmed our longtime belief that when dropped, objects fall just with the same velocity in one era as another. This makes us excited to drop the archival recordings found on all four sides of The Thought Adjusters on the people of 2012. Since somewhere in the 1990s, the music of Father Yod, Yahowha13, and The Source Family, all of early-to-mid-70s vintage, has been eased back into the public consciousness, always with an eye toward not simply celebrating the amazing coming-together of humanity that was The Source Family, but also the continued teaching of Father’s learnings, with the benefit of humanity the ultimate goal. Never before has this been more evident than on the new double-album collection culled from deep within the hiss-encased tape archives of Isis Aquarian. Beneath the noise floor and around the instrumental sounds provided by Yahowha13 and many other members of The Source Family, Father teaches and preaches, bursting into spontaneous song in complete communion with the musicians. The songs are all extended head-jams, with thoughts and musical phrases unwinding without concern for time. This is a truly liberating experience, mentally and physically, as well as sonically. We can’t wait to experience the evolutions that occur when on May 22nd, when The Thought Adjusters hit the streets.

HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS
Natural History, that is! And that makes Dope Body the winners! Coming in May, their new album and Drag City debut is a pummel-horse destined to charge into and tear the fuck out the china shop that is your mind/life/relationship/study habits/gift-giving plan for the coming “holiday” season. If you’re anything like us, the sound of three kids rocking up a room plus another kid bellowing, boasting and whining like a beast in heat over under and around the other three plus one of those three being a guitarist with an incredible palette of sounds he’s painting over under and around the licks he’s got going on plus the other two guys rolling thunder both heavy and incredibly detailed is absolutely too much for you to bear not completely loving! And we do. We dug the shit out of Nupping from last year, but Natural History crowns it easily with a great batch of tunes that grind and grate before taking flight and finding hooks in the vocals and drums and guitar every which way. Natural History is a massive and powerfully physical rock experience and you’re stupid if you don’t check into it. Now, you might be stupid if you do too, but that’s not (entirely) our problem. Oh! And check these guys out on the road — whether they’re taking the stage or just playing on the floor right next to you, the brute sensuality of Dope Body is a show to behold. So behold! Natural History will be yours to own on May 22nd.

RAISED LOWBROWS
Nothing’s grimmer than a room full of funnymen, let me tell you. They’re all worried about their jokes, upset that they might not be as funny in the real world as they are in their very unreal mind — basically lost in a narcissistic mass of insecurity and self-pity. But once you get them (the ones Drag City didn't hire, that is!) alone and give them a keyboard — zing! You have a expert bunch of essayists, with wits running the gamut from drolly dry to ragingly wet. The comic essay is almost a lost art these days, particularly in old-fashioned print form (along with all other forms of writing that used to appear in print form! — Angry Old Ed.), so we take great pleasure in pointing a non-satiric finger at this summer’s first-and-possibly-only comic essay anthology, The Lowbrow Reader Reader. For the past decade or so, this mini-zine has brought together such diverse talents and Jay Ruttenberg and Shelley Berman and Lee Hazlewood and Mo’Nique and Neil Hagerty (never thought you’d see those names in a sentence together? It’s gonna be a long year, junior) on such comic (or at the very least, amusing) topics as the long-running CARtoons magazine, the comedy of Don Knotts and the antic genius of Adam Sandler. It’s a generous slice of comedic foie-gras and we’re pleased to be supplying it to the nations of aspirant funny observation-makers. Coming on May 22nd along with Dope Body and Father Yod and the Source Family!

GODDAMN IT, WHAT RHYMES WITH JUNE? BLUES? JEWS? ZOOS?
As we said a long time ago, our production line is rife with finished, almost-finished and soon-to-be-finished records, and they come out once a month for the rest of time! We’ve faithfully inscribed a just-the-facts breakdown on the releases of this month and of May — but what about June? What about it? Do you really need to know? We just gave you six new releases to learn and sing — and given that one of them’s a fat book, you’ve got your (joyous) work cut out for you. Plus, we’re tripping down the Rhine right now! But okay, what the Hell — here’s your foretaste. They’ve made records for the likes of Holy Mountain and Siltbreeze — now, Blues Control comes to Drag City! Their new record is called Valley Tangents and it finds Blues Control finding new pathways and new ripples in their sound, inhabiting an entirely new kind of space than previously known. ALSO in June, take another journey into Drag City’s lo-fi hi-brow past…. with Early Times! And once you’re good and drunk on that sweet (and affordable! — Underpaid Newletter Ed.) whiskey, it’s time to give Early Times a spin! That second Early Times (no, you’re not seeing double. Yet.) is the title of the “new” Silver Jews record! New to Silver Jews legion (lesion?) of fans born in the late ‘90s, most likely, this record compiles the very first Silver Jews 7” record from 1992, Dime Map Of The Reef, and its hot-shit follow-up, 1993’s The Arizona Record 12” EP. Out of print for…TWENTY FUCKING YEARS?!? Wait. Really? We are old as shit! Jesus. I’m a little shaken up. One minute.

OK! Anyway, these records were for many at the time the penultimate in the “lo-fi” movement. Which was a “movement” in the same way the Great Depression was a “movement.” Notorious at the time for recording their songs solely onto the answering machines of friends, foes, heroes and villains of the time, the trio of David Berman, Steve Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich managed to create music that managed to transcend the entire notion of unlistenability, and carried a lyrical weight that was both literal and literally peerless at the time (and maybe even to this moment). An exciting time — and the records sold so well that the Joos were able to afford an actual recording studio! But all that stuff has been available since 1994 — no excuses, (fellow) 99%ers!

Also excitingly and historically lo-fi (that is, if you consider the work of S. Clay Wilson lo-fi!), is the new and three-years-in-the-making Galactic Zoo Dossier! Steve Krakow has taken a break from his inspiring winning streak curating the Galactic Zoo Disk reissue label (P&D’d by Drag City, natch!), and Issue #9 will feature a completely hand-drawn mix of psych-rock interviews (Arthur Brown! Rodriguez!), features (PsychedeliCanada! Kak?!), and another round of Damaged Guitar Gods & Astral Folk Maidens Trading Cards! And to soundtrack this ocular DMT — a CD of rare and unreleased trax from the likes of Mark Fry, Mainliner, etmutherfuckinc! Summer of Love 2012 officially begins with the tripper’s Koran —Galactic Zoo Dossier, y’all!

Oh yeah…soon! That’s what rhymes with June. I thought it was like, the new orange or something…

POP-UP GO THE WEASELS
Man, is the economy still tanking? Really? It seems like every day there’s another special new record store opening up. And we’re not talking just in Brooklyn, either. We’re talking Pilsen, Eagle Rock, Pimlico, the South Side — even down by the State Line Road, and lots of other places where selling music didn’t even exist back in the days when the big chains held down the Earth. How do the little guys do it now? Focus! They zero in the thing then love and then they buy and sell it. And we’re not talking jazz and blues or just simple metal, no — looking for records in today’s crops, you can get niched-out unless you know what you want and where to go! Obscure synthpunk and coolwave reissues on vinyl only! Indy New Age and DIY cassettes! International Psychedelic and Heavy Rock, no English speaking countries whatsoever! If you want it, chance are they’re selling them out of a closet somewhere — maybe in the newspaper stand on the corner. This is why bars and pubs are still happening around the world — it’s cheaper and easier to drink at home, but that old human contact is more readily found out in the world with all the humans! So go ahead, turn over that promising-looking rock — you might just find an enterprising young label who decided to cut out the middle man and the storefront tax and are hawking their merch direct to the public — just how bands sell merch at clubs they’re playing! Well why should they have all the good sales? Why don’t we all just go to the point of purchase, wherever it is, and start shoveling our shit into the mouths of people who don’t know better! Sure, times have changed. Formats have changed. Hairstyles have changed. But have they really? Really? We’re not that much different from those fly-by-night salesmen of the plains, with their longevity tonics and their vitality oils and what have you. And this summer, you might one of our shark-suited Drag City sales-shills rolling your way with a steamer trunk full of miracle music. Or an ice-cream cart. Or a mini-zeppelin provided our zeppelin pilot’s license comes through. The point is, it’s a brave new world of sales out there — if you’re brave and strong and stupid enough to make them - and one thing we’ve never been is not stupid (dumb is another issue entirely). Or brave and strong, come to think of it…Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter where we are, it’s what we’ve got, and as long as you pay your rates for the music, then we’re all doing great. So look for us on the funway, kids. The cotton candy spinning at the Drag City booth is the bossest, promise!

From a canoe in India with really great wi-fi,
Rian Murphy Drag City Inc.
April 2012

No innovation can avoid imitation in our trust-bust America; therefore, following in the paths of such luminaries as Thomas Edison, pork, the Negro Leagues, artificial sweetener and the U.S.S.R., we take a step towards saturation. There we go again, watering down the effectiveness of yet another mode of communication! What the fuck’d we go and do that for? Well, so far no one has used the QR-code to its full capacity, and Drag City is always of the opinion that a balloon’s beauty can only be seen right before it pops in your eye, so take a Q from us and get foggy with these things. For now, aim your camera phones at the blotchy square and behold a special taste of what’s to come. Can you guess what you hear? Yeah?!?! Riiiiiight, you better hold back until you confer with your friends just to be safe, so spread it around from port to portal and offer up your best guess!

For a price, of course! In the midst of record store day madness last weekend, perhaps your ear, eye, or ear-eye hybrid caught something about a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy condom. It wasn't your imagination! That Bondom should've been catching for you! And now, it can. In case you came up dry at your favorite music hole, Bonnie "Prince" Billy condoms can be obtained by anyone with the desire, the need and courage to purchase them from our ephemeral shop, Drag City's house of aphrodisiacs and prophylactics, for a limited time only!! Have a hot date and expect to go all the way? Bonny got you covered, man! Girls night out but you want to feel secure? Keep a little Bondom in your purse, cause you never know when you'll meet Mr. Somebody. Besides, who knows what he'll be carrying? You want a face you can trust in the bedroom, something the Bondom provides with each and every sexual experience. Buy now and avoid later life regrets -- these are going alarmingly (some might say depressingly) fast!

Still crazy after all these years, that Bill Callahan is. Although it's strange, given the quiet-storm elder statesperson he's become, sweet baby Bill seemed more than willing to talk to people 20 years ago. Dutch people! We're talking about Smog on their first trip to Europe, back on the fringes of a world still connected by printed matter; Blurt and Breakfast Without Meat 'zines were still-relevant memories. Anyways, Bill, drummer Ron Burns, and none-other than the late and really great Cynthia Dall, in what's now a sweet yet strange remembrance, are captured through the mysteries of film in this archived video from 1994 in Nijmegen, Holland, at that LoFi Festival. That's a mere 2 years after Drag City issued Forgotten Foundation on CD - our first, swoon! - and 3 years before first putting it on LP. Many of you may've forgotten about Forgotten Foundation - and many more of you may've only come into existence - since then, which makes this all the more real: Forgotten Foundation is available on LP, its deserved format, once again! For the first time since the dark aged 1990s! Your record store has it, and they're open every day of the year, not just record store day, OK?! Need we say more? Duh-hickey, you can order it from us, too!

The People Under The Stares are back! Drag City & The People Under The Stares love showering you with comedic gifts, and the one we gonna bring to the party this summer is no exception! The biggest, most tightly wrapped, icing-topped, cream-filled, new car smelling, bikini-clad, groove-boned, gold-rimmed, pimped, dankest, purest, electric-day-glo, slap-sticky, cut-up, epic, bare-backed, chocolaty, willingest-to-talk-about-feelings, puppy-eyed, diamond-encrusted, organic ones are always the best, right? Well since we don't have the bread for that kind of ham, we'll instead give you the double-yer-pleasure fun-wash of Neil Hamburger and Tim Heidecker, twice in one day! YES! Tickets for both an early show for the kids and a sure-to-be-x-rated late show are on sale now! Aw, who knows which will be which, all we know is if you put those two laffensteins in staggered mirrors facing each other, you've got endless chuckles, baby! Friday, July 27th at Chicago's Lincoln Hall, 7:30PM and 10:30PM: The People Under the Stares present 4 Clowns & A Crook: Neil Hamburger, Tim Heidecker, DJ Douggpound and The Kenny "K-Strass" Strasser Yo-Yo Extravaganza!

Hey, sex-brain! A mouthful of breast (or man-ass!) tastes so good with mitt full of thigh (or man-thigh!), doesn't it now? But when it comes to making it past third base and sliding deliriously into home, sweet loam, you better hop on the sex beat with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, girly-man! You've heard about Wolfroy Goes To Town, stick your hand inside our secret sac and grab a Bonny Billy prophylactic so you too can go to town, SAFELY! Drag City freely encourages sexual adventure in every position you wanna be in; just keep your discharge to yourself, alright? Boys, don't have cum in her hair when your dick is hanging out - no diggity, you gotta bag it up with Bonnie! As if you needed another reason to line up early at your favorite Mom n' Pop LP shop this weekend -Bonnie 'Prince' Billy condoms are available for purchase exclusively at stores just in time for Record Store Day! When it comes to Record Store Day surprises, you sure can't beat a condom, with which to carry your most precious limited-edition Record Store Day "release."

What the hell else is up with our fine 'Prince' besides the Bondom? How bout this for news: Will Oldham has been nominated for an Italian Oscar!!! His collab with the cooly vampiric, Talking David Byrne as The Pieces of Shit has earned nominations for Best Original Song and Best Composers at this year's David di Donatello, the Italian Academy Awards. Oldham wrote the words, Byrne did up the musics for "If It Falls, It Falls," one of several The Pieces of Shit tracks in the film, This Must Be The Place, starring Sean "I Am Sam" Penn as an aging goth rocker. "If It Falls, It Falls" happens to be the Italiano favorito! Congratulazioni, Will! Buona Fortuna! That's a wrap, folks - just don't forget to wrap it up with your partner this weekend using a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy condom!

We dread the barber, you know? Keep that shit long and lustrous, baby! Fear the "Scissor People!" If you're gonna get it cut, keep those DNA fibers in a plastic bag, son! Hair, the short long-player. Ty Segall & White Fence, the mohawk of mind-melds. It's a collab cut, the latest fade. Hair is in style, solid like your cow lick, the thing that's born on you. Look at it, looking at you, "Take Time." Feel it on your head and body, now get it in your eyes: advertisements for Hair, the new album from Ty Segall & White Fence out April 24th and available for preorder now, are being shown nearly across America! All heads, hairy and hairless, can see commercials for Hair in Chicago, LA and Santa Barbara for the next two weeks on the Comedy Central and Cartoon Networks. The rest of yous, just wipe those pretty locks from your eyes and watch it right hair:

Life rules a bunch: Black Bananas are in season! Can't look anywhere without seeing some Black Bananas paraphernalia, some wicked press shot, vanity 7", or a sick new video, like dis one for "My House!" "My House" bouncin' on some gangsta hydraulics, "My House" wailing at the spiritual vortex- mi casa es su casa, homie! Put on some leather, make sure it's tasseled, and start smoking again, cause Black Bananas are about to hit the road, bringing their living room to your house. Come to think of it, better cover your furniture now - these Black Bananas leave a mark, and they're ripening for the whole month of May!

5/9/12 Solar Culture Tucson AZ
5/11/12 Old No. 2 Laredo TX
5/12/12 Red 7 Austin TX w/ Magik Markers, Dwarr
5/13/12 Walter's Houston TX w/ Magik Markers, Dwarr
5/14/12 Siberia New Orleans LA w/ Magik Markers, Dwarr
5/15/12 529 Atlanta GA w/ Magik Markers, Dwarr
5/16/12 The Pinhook Durham NC w/ Magik Markers, Dwarr
5/17/12 Chameleon Club Lancaster PA w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/18/12 Nelsonville Music Festival Nelsonville OH w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/19/12 Blind Pig Ann Arbor MI w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/20/12 Lincoln Hall Chicago IL w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/21/12 High Noon Saloon Madison WI w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/22/12 400 Bar Minneapolis MN w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/23/12 The Aquarium Fargo ND w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/25/12 The Palace Missoula MT
5/26/12 The Comet Tavern Seattle WA w/ Broken Nobles, The Crypts
5/27/12 Star Theater Portland OR w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
5/30/12 The Fillmore San Francisco CA w/ Kurt Vile And The Violators
6/5/12 Galaxy Costa Mesa CA Burger Records Presents: Black Bananas, King Tuff, Nu Sensae, Crazy Band

Kids these days, making records with their 4 tracks, their cell phones, their Mboxes... lest we remind you of some of the gay 90s pioneers for such experimental recordings? You know them as arena-style rockers today, but back when they were little muppet-baby types, David Berman, Stephen Malkmus and Bobby Nastanovich used to get fucked up after fucking up their day jobs and make songs, which they wrote by playing onto cassettes and microtapes via innovative studio techniques like direct to boombox and answering machine. Yes, a scant 20 years ago, before your digital voicemails, there were separate machines that automatically answered the analog phone for you and recorded messages to tape. Sounds cool, don't it? Yeah, it did! Anyway, let's stay on track. These young Silver Jews did some real damage to their own health and the well being of the record industry with two EPs back in the day, circa '92,'93 - one on 7" called "Dime Map of the Reef" and one on 10" called The Arizona Record. Each are fuzzed up and blissed out like your favorite contemporary records, only earlier, each long outta print. Time is now, of course, so we figured time dictates the release of such recordings again. The Joos call it, Early Times. So we call it that, too. Early Times arrives June 19th on LP, CD and Cassette!

Let's celebrate with some funny, huh? Looks like Drag City & People Under The Stares homie Eddie Pepitone gots a new documentary, and the geezer knows where to go for its sound- right up Silver Jews alley! Watch below and fuck all the dialogue, pay close attention to the music in the background!

At Drag City, we're on a mission to make the things we know you want. Usually, we make the thing we know you want in multiple formats so as to effectively cover the duality of your mind and the poles of your personality. Just cause one shoe fits don't mean the pants will, too, right? Are you with us? Perhaps not, but we'll get you there! For years, Drag City has published books in the traditional formats, both hard- and soft-covers as well as two recent entries into the books-on-tape (CD) field. These are the formats we love, and for years, we knew you preferred them, too. But this is the end of days, so we gotta own up: it's time for a little foray into the world of digital-books. No better child to shine than Slow Fade, Rudolph Wurlitzer's dark and humorous novel about the unshakably transient worlds of movies and rock n' roll, accounted through the cultural lens of the 1970s! We've described it as the life you'd like to lead, or at least have read to you, and now it's the life you can lead online, in your current preferred state of virtual reality!

Slow Fade is available as an ebook from us, as well as from the big, dumb digital sites you frequent besides Drag City. Download now, and compliment your virtual s(h)elf!

We are shocked and deeply disappointed to post this notice: Cynthia Dall passed away at her home in Sacramento last Thursday.

Cynthia was a muse that crossed over into actual-artist-dom. Her self was her original art, a spirit and image that was inspirational on first sight. The '90s were a great time to start playing music when you didn't really know the first thing about it other than you liked it, and Cynthia was able to use her unique abilities along with her incredible energy to inspire those around her to help her make two really great albums.

It hasn't sunken in yet that we won't be hearing from Cindy again. Though she hadn't released a new album in ten years, she called in regularly, sometimes to talk about her music and plans, sometimes to talk about everything BUT music and plans. She was an enormous fan of the world, and there were few topics that didn't engage her in some way. Even outrage was conveyed with an enormous vivacity that could not be suppressed. It was this energy that lifted her up above the melancholy that infused her songs, and the devastating visions they often conveyed.

When Cynthia rang us the week before last with an update on the progress of new demos, we were glad to know it; glad to think of her getting her music together and to think of another chapter in the Dall Saga. It is stunning not merely because of the loss of that vision and that unheard record; more stunning and hurtful is to know that we will won't be talking to her anymore. A light has gone from this world — and we hope you will join us in hoping that it has gone to place of greater peace.

Goodbye Cynthia — we'll carry your love and joy and sorrow with us until we too are gone.