Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Drag City roundup

Drag City has been one of my favourite record labels ever since they started out in the late eighties. Pavement, the Palace Brothers, Royal Trux and Silver Jews recorded their first stuff for this independent Chicago label, so go figure. They´re often cutting edge, very consistent and always cool, so I made it a habit to keep track of their new releases.

I managed to overlook last year´s album by P.G Six however, an omission I regretted when I heard their I´ve Been Traveling somewhere recently. Great song! So I bought the album just now and although I´ve Been Traveling is the obvious highlight, Slightly Sorry is definitely an album I´ll play more often. It´s kinda dark and moody, with some nice fingerpicking that´s vaguely Spanish sometimes, while the ghost of Neil Young is never far away. It´s no masterpiece, but I´ve got a feeling we´ll hear more from the New York group´s singer and multi-instrumentalist Pat Gubler in the future.

Just out on Drag City is an album by one Baby Dee called Safe Inside The Day. It´s produced by Matt Sweeney and Will Oldham a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Billy, who also provides backing vocals on some tracks. A big plus in my book, as I try to collect everything the former Palace Brother has a hand in. I´m not sure about this one yet though. I kind of like Teeth Are The Only Bones That Show, but I don´t know if I can stand a full album of Dee´s ´chamber-cabaret´ to be honest. Please download and see for yourself.

P.G. Six - I´ve Been Traveling MP3
P.G. Six - Not I The Seed MP3
Baby Dee - Teeth Are The Only Bones That Show MP3

2 comments:

Paul said...

I love the Replacements and Louvin Brothers this week, but I also wanted to say thanks for turning me on to "I've Been Traveling." What a great tune!

Ramone666 said...

My pleasure Paul! And thank you for filling me in on Hank Thompson. Up until now I never paid any attention to the guy: my bad.