ONE – and there are many more, but for now, this – one of the many reasons we over at Backseat Mafia love the good folks at Drag City, is that they have a huge roster of brilliant artists who mix and collaborate and create anew; and that DC fosters and releases such new breeds and their tunes.
One such act is New Bums, “Back in slagtion … that duo nobody thought to ask for” – the creative shore of Six Organs of Admittance’s prolific psych voyager Ben Chasny and Donovan Quinn, of erstwhile Jagjaguwar psych-folk mainstays Skygreen Leopards (if you missed ’em, they were lovely – check “Disciples Of California” for size).
The duo first ventured into the world of recorded sound for Drag City six years ago now, their debut album Voices In A Rented Room containing such raggedy lovelies as “Black Bough” and “Your Girlfriend Might Be A Cop”.
They’re now crowning a year which has seen a few DC stable delicious old guard revived and full of fresh sonic blood: Dope Body, Magik Markers; Ben and Donovan have dropped a first single ahead of their first LP in what will be seven years by then, Last Time I Saw Grace, due in mid-March ’21.
You can have a quick dip in that single, “Billy, God Damn”, down below; it’s freewheelin’ slide blues with confessional whisper and intriguing lyrical alleys; even a little haunted glam backing vocal. Curious.
All the remaining information we have to hand is the following communique: apparently they’re “deeper in their nocturnal jungle where all the folly and failure in the world is like an elegant fever dream you want to have every night, and do. Dry humor and pathos pop in a collapsed acoustic vein!”
New Bums’ Last Time I Saw Grace will be released by Drag City on digital download and vinyl on March 19th; you can pre-order yours from the label or at Bandcamp.
