drag city
ALBUM REVIEW: Dope Body – ‘Crack A Light’: shriekin’ and howlin’ at the altar
Crack A Light really won’t disappoint if you like guitars that shriek and howl in hardcore-stoner distress. A righteous noise purging
Soundtracks of Our Lives: Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Markers
MAGIK MARKERS came hurtling at us from a Connecticut basement in 2001, full of fire and noise and dirt and excellence. Back then there were four of them: singer-guitarist Elisa Ambrogio, bassist John Shaw, drummer Pete Nolan and Leah Quimby, but Leah fell by the wayside back around 2006. They began plying a line in …
ALBUM REVIEW: Magik Markers – ‘2020’: New England noiseniks’ filthy return
New England noiseniks’ full-length return after a six-year absence is filthy, trippy and even, at points, damn pretty. Righteous and cathartic, be glad they’re back
TRACK: Mayo Thompson & The Corky Band – Worried Worried
A MUSICIAN and visual artist who is best known as the leader of the avant-garde rock band Red Krayola, Mayo Thompson has released a wild live collaboration with The Corky Band entitled “Worried Worried”. In a post promoting the song, the act released this unusual explanation: “On January 9, 2020 – the day after the …
TRACK: Dope Body – ‘Mutant Being’: they’re ready to hurt those guitars, bwoy
BALTIMORE’S Dope Body are so back; they’re so ready for this and they need to make their guitars howwwwl. They’ve dropped anudda new track to usher you towards the noise explosion of their comeback LP, Crack A Light, which is only three weeks away now … T minus … “Mutant Being”, the beast in question, …
ALBUM REVIEW: Lama Lobsang Palden and Jim Becker – ‘Compassion’: Chicago meets Tibet in exploratory fusion
Compassion is a complex, often beautiful and sometimes challenging work, exploring the interstices where Tibetan healing meets Chicago instrumentalism
TRACK: Lama Lobsang Palden and Jim Becker – ‘Blessings’: where acoustic postrock meets Tibetan chant
2020, eh? As it wearies on, the need for music, the need for the good things, for stillness, to find our own thread to follow through it all, becomes ever more necessary. An album, then, as much 2020 as it perhaps 1968 is the forthcoming album on Drag City from Lama Lobsang Palden and Jim …
SEE: Dope Body’s ‘Jer Bang’: Baltimore noiseniks are back atcha; be glad
BALTIMORE’S knife-sharp noise outfit Dope Body, who released a trio of salvos at yr head for Drag City in the first part of the decade in the shape of Natural History, Lifer and Kunk, were a sad loss to our need for noise when they decided to call it quits in 2016. Less punchy guitar …
TRACK: Bill Callahan – ‘Ry Cooder’: a track for a legend, the penultimate ‘gold’
WE REALLY are that far down the line toward the end of the summer. Bill Callahan has released a track for Monday for nine consecutive weeks now ahead of Gold Record on September 4th, and we really are that close to autumn. His penultimate single drop comes in the shape of “Ry Cooder”: a meandering …
TRACK: Bill Callahan – ‘Cowboy’: whisky, water and whistlin’ our tired bones home
IT’S KINDA hard to believe that Bill has led us through the summer like an Americana pied piper, Monday by Monday, sprinkling the grey start of the week with a new tune for what … it’s been eight weeks now. Yep, we’re only three weeks away from Gold Record. Time grindeth relentlessly on. Today he’s …