Bonnie "Prince" Billy - New Album, New MP3

Download: Bonnie Prince Billy - "So Everyone" (Demo)

From the Drag City Newsletter:

We put together a sales slate of perfect balance, and then we go and add something else to throw the whole GD thing out of whack! It’s the Drag City way — and besides, who are we to not release a fantastic new Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy album that we feel super-strongly about? It’s called Lie Down in the Light and it’s coming along on LP and CD in May with these other records that I just described. You heard it here first. Did that just happen?

Oh, yes it did! Not only that, but the label was generous enough to give away a track from the upcoming record. The song is "So Everyone", and it's available in demo version. As long as there are tapes hissing, you can count on me to be a happy camper. And, though hearing the finished product would be good for the sake of comparing/contrast, this demo has the bare-bones quality of vintage blues and folk recordings--as a frame of reference, this track is more Leadbelly than Robert Johnson.

Lie Down In The Light is available in May.

Listen to "So Everyone" at the top of the post.

Bonnie Prince Billy on MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Fred Armisen Presents: Jens Hannemann "Complicated Drumming Technique"

Drag City posted this on YouTube yesterday afternoon. It's a commercial for the upcoming DVD Fred Armisen Presents: Jens Hannemann "Complicated Drumming Technique". More details about the DVD, which consists of a drum lesson given by the prestigious Jens Hannemann (AKA Fred Armisen), here. The DVD will be released on Oct. 23rd.

Tonight, you can watch Jens play the drums with the house band on Jimmy Kimmel Live at 12:05 A.M. CDT.

(Jonathan Graef)

New Track from Mick Turner of The Dirty Three

Download: Mick Turner and Tren Bros. - "Swing (part one)"
Download: The Dirty Three - "Ocean Shore"
Download: The Dirty Three - "Sirena"
Download: The Dirty Three - "1000 Miles"
Download: The Dirty Three - "Odd Couple"

Drag City has posted an MP3 from Mick Turner and Tren Bros. forthcoming collaborative album entitled Blue Trees. For those of you who don't know, Mick Turner is one-third of The Dirty Three The Dirty Three, an instrumental, classical and post-rock influenced trio from Melbourne. Blue Trees is the fourth solo album from Turner. From the sound of it, it looks like Blue Trees will continue the mellow, minimalist and subdued instrumental sounds of Turner's day job. Click on the previous link to access the band's Wikipedia page, and click on the MP3's above to hear more of The Dirty Three.

Blue Trees is due out on August 21st, 2007, on Drag City. Order it by clicking on the link in the previous sentence.

(Jonathan Graef)

Preview: Bill Callahan, Woke Up On A Whaleheart

Download: Bill Callahan - Sycamore
Download: Bill Callahan - Diamond Dancer
Download: Bill Callahan - Honeymoon Child

Austin, TX, native Bill Callahan has been recording and releasing albums for Chicago's Drag City (under the moniker Smog) for the better part of 15 years. Though Callahan/Smog started out making highly experimental, mostly instrumental, low-fi records that featured songs with a freeform melodic structure, he has slowly (and very surely) grown more professional sounding, with the instrumentation on his albums becoming increasingly more diverse. He has recorded with the likes of Jim O'Rourke (Sonic Youth, Wilco) and with members of Chicago post-rock legends Tortoise.

A week from tomorrow (4/24/07), Callahan releases his newest studio album, and the first bearing his given name, Woke Up on a Whaleheart. I have been able to find a few MP3 files floating around on the internet and have posted them above. All three tracks are excellent, and you should give them a listen. "Diamond Dancer" has got a rock-steady, almost disco, beat, a slinky violin line, soulful backup vocals, acoustic guitar and harpischord. It is arguably the most verse-chorus-verse-y of the three. "Honeymoon Child" has a similiar, but slightly more driven, midtempo beat that emphasizes the one in the same fashion as "Dancer" does. However, the instrumentation is simpler - the focus point on "Child" is more on the kind of snappy, trebly guitar line that appears in most of the songs featured in Quentin Tarantino movies. A smooth bass line, Callahan's used-to-be-sardonic-but-is-now-gentle croon, and a bed of strings - orchestral and pedal - are also worth noting. In a strange way, "Honeymoon Child" sounds like Leonard Cohen writing a song after listening to hours of Dire Straits.

But the real gem here is "Sycamore," which marries the sweet guitar arpeggios of Big Star with Callahan's trademark deadpan vocals, lyrics which lean heavily on nature and religion, and a folk-derived main chord progression. It's seriously amazing, and will more likely than not become your new favorite song.

As I mentioned before, Woke Up on a Whaleheart comes out next Tuesday, April 24th. Pick it up at your locally owned record store, or order it directly from Drag City.

(Jonathan Graef)