Drag City

Yea, Rian's emails and copy for the website are generally awful. I can't even decipher what he's going on about half the time. I wouldn't mind if it was entertaining, but then you get stuff like this:

"but basically, the same source material that had been gathered to build 2011's Wolfroy Goes To Town was used, in a different time and under different circumstances, allowing the songs to impact in new ways upon the singers and the players – making a different record in the process. It’s a wild and kind of unprecedented thing to do, and the way that the material turned out so great the second time, just...wow"

Which is just the most redundant crap.

he does seem in love with the sound of his own voice

above all though i kind of feel like rian is having a joke at the reader's expense, which doesn't exactly make me want to run about and blow a few hundred books on his product

jesus christ i can't write

run OUT and blow a few hundred BUCKS on his product

that newsletter was awful

(and sorry for making you post it amateurist, i realized after that it is available here http://www.dragcity.com/news/2015-01-27-the-drag-city-newsletter-january-2015

i do often wish there was a straightforward way to preview drag city releases, i'd buy a few more of them if i could easily preview. you can always find youtubes and soundclouds of bits and pieces but it can be a pain

Yeah, it drives me crazy when the preview track cuts off before the intro is over. Just give us 2 streaming tracks a record, please!

Just read the rest of the newsletter, assface.

Gee, thanks. I can't wait to give you more of my $$$

that newsletter is unreadable, yeah. but it's not like you really need track previews. a howling teakettle + any random third-rate 70s psych album will do the trick.

which album are you talking about?

o come on, you know the one, it's kind of square and roundish inside, yeah, that one

i do often wish there was a straightforward way to preview drag city releases, i'd buy a few more of them if i could easily preview. you can always find youtubes and soundclouds of bits and pieces but it can be a pain

― marcos, Wednesday, February 4, 2015 11:05 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^

though I don't even see many Drag City albums at record stores, either

what is a "record store"?

follow the beards (works for either of the last 2)

the owner of my favorite record store has a pretty cool beard

i do wish drag city was on spotify, but i understand, old school slow listening unheard music risk taking is the wave. i just want to listen to a bunch of smog and palace records, i feel like i'm ready for that shit right now but i'm not at all interested in just buying whatever their supposed "masterpiece" is, i mean come on.

yeah, I would just like the ability to listen to the albums on Spotify that I already bought on vinyl

the owner of the record store around the corner is beardless. he's also sketchy like a used-car salesman, and i avoid him like the plague.

coincidence?

Lone voice of dissent / devil's advocacy here, but I find that I actually listen to Drag City releases because I have to make an effort to play them, rather than, oh, I don't know, having something playing while I'm typing this, not knowing the song title or where it's sequenced or how it relates to the rest of the album, etc. I got stoned and just sat and listened to the new Jessica Pratt the other night and it was a great experience. There are probably a few 2015 releases I like better, but I haven't 'communed' with any of them in quite the same way. I agree it's frustrating to not have a copy to listen to on my iPod or in the car, but I have tens of thousands of other things to listen to in that context, and you do, too. Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying "thanks, Drag City, for making us all better, more appreciative listeners!" but I also definitely don't view their decision to not offer downloads with their LPs as some sort of "dick move."

yeah honestly i don't care about samples. i got by for a long while without samples of albums! (unless, of course, it was in the form of a single released to radio!) i respect drag city's interest in doing things their way. i just wish the prose in their newsletters wasn't so fucking arch and condescending.

information rules!! screw the authenticity bullshit, there are more than enough great groups writing/performing classic american songs than can fit on a single compact disc (walks a million miles away from the source of his inspiration)

Lone voice of dissent / devil's advocacy here, but I find that I actually listen to Drag City releases because I have to make an effort to play them, rather than, oh, I don't know, having something playing while I'm typing this, not knowing the song title or where it's sequenced or how it relates to the rest of the album, etc. I got stoned and just sat and listened to the new Jessica Pratt the other night and it was a great experience. There are probably a few 2015 releases I like better, but I haven't 'communed' with any of them in quite the same way. I agree it's frustrating to not have a copy to listen to on my iPod or in the car, but I have tens of thousands of other things to listen to in that context, and you do, too. Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying "thanks, Drag City, for making us all better, more appreciative listeners!" but I also definitely don't view their decision to not offer downloads with their LPs as some sort of "dick move."

It's not like you couldn't have a digital copy of their albums if you really wanted to.

youtube is the only suitable alternative. I like to imagine the artists cringing at the sound quality as I listen to their masterpiece on youtube.

i don't know i feel like there are 10 drag city artists i am very curious about but i just haven't gotten around to hunting down samples to explore them. and the drag city artists i know and love (e.g. bishop, callahan, oldham) i own like everything they put out

I like to imagine the artists cringing at the sound quality as I listen to their masterpiece on youtube.

― It's strange to me too. But we're talking about praxis, man. (Sufjan Grafton), Thursday, February 5, 2015 2:48 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea, way to stick it to 'em

purchasing unheard physical media is the only thrill i have left available so thank u drag city for keeping that frontier spirit alive

xp I also set myself on fire to make my listening distracted

as an ignorant dude who shuns Spotify, I say 'right on' Drag City, fuck that shit.

I wonder if this bit at the end of the February newsletter has anything to do with this thread...!

"Yes, sometimes we hate you. Sometimes you hate us. It’s all in the game. We can’t make it without you and we love how we love how you love us – and by "us" we mean, all the artists on Drag City and their various and sundry contortions in the name of entertainment without limits. Thanks always for listening, and a long life to everyone. We’re the greatest -"

they kind of are the greatest. who else kept the vinyl faith back in the day? the dans, corey r, bettina r, gerard c, not many more

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/07/vinyl-records-savior-of-the-music-industry/374291/

Thousands of electronic/ dance labels.

I also definitely don't view their decision to not offer downloads with their LPs as some sort of "dick move."

It's not like you couldn't have a digital copy of their albums if you really wanted to.

I do think it's a dick move, or at least a snooty one. I ride buses for like four hours a day for work. I'd love to listen to some of those albums on those rides. As for the latter sentiment, I don't download stuff illegally, so it makes their policy feel extra frustrating.

They didn't give out free cassette tapes for your walkman along with your records in the 80s.

my mp3 player didn't work so great back then either

a better comparison would be if most labels did give out cassettes for free with records in the 80s

a persons expectations for your product depend on your competition

I'm sure there's some overhead involved, but it must not be too much if Kranky can have a system running for this long.

I do think it's a dick move, or at least a snooty one. I ride buses for like four hours a day for work. I'd love to listen to some of those albums on those rides. As for the latter sentiment, I don't download stuff illegally, so it makes their policy feel extra frustrating.

― Your Ribs are My Ladder, Thursday, February 19, 2015 3:16 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

what an entitled thing to say.

it may come from a sense of entitlement, but it's not unreasonable

i think it's unreasonable to expect a label to offer downloads if that's not part of their business model. much more reasonable for a person to buy a copy and make the mp3s themselves if that's what they want.

yeah, I guess I don't really understand how much offering downloads with vinyl would change a label's business model. I haven't noticed a strong difference in price between records that do and do not have download codes.

but it costs something. I'm sure even the little inserts with the download codes are significant.

you can buy The Natural Bridge on amazon, and it comes with 'autorip'. so I guess Drag City does give you downloads now anyway. you just have to buy the record through amazon. That's actually a pretty sensible way to do it.

the trick is to not buy the vinyl

maybe they could sell CDs in the vinyl sleeves

and include an insert for a free McFlurry

some labels do slip a CD into the vinyl

the music industry is so weird these days, i don't blame labels for just about anything

As for the latter sentiment, I don't download stuff illegally, so it makes their policy feel extra frustrating.

I guess your best bet then is to ask for a kind ILX soul to share their digital copy.

I don't expect labels to offer me a download code with my vinyl purchase. I'm happy when they do and a bit disappointed when they don't. Drag City doesn't sell its records cheap. A new LP from DC will likely cost more than one from Sub Pop, Matador, Thrill Jockey, Castle Face, Goner or Jagjaguwar (in some cases, quite a bit more). Albums from the latter labels typically come with download codes. Merge sells records for about the same price as DC and include a download code. It's not that they owe me anything, but rather that they kind of stand alone, both in terms of what they charge and what they offer in return.