Drag City

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.