Eric Chenaux, Rafael Toral, Masahiro Takahashi @ Standard Time, Thursday

Eric Chenaux & Ryan Driver split the impressive TONE triple bill with Rafael Toral & Masahiro Takahashi with Brodie West!

ERIC CHENAUX & RYAN DRIVER 

Constellation Records' guitarist & singer Eric Chenaux returns home to Toronto for a foray with long-time collaborator Ryan Driver. Gentle acoustic guitar notes stretch out & ripple underneath electric psych inspired meanderings. Eric's voice weaves seamlessly among this textural landscape, like a silk sheet in the wind. Every movement is subtle, yet beautiful. A storyteller from a slower time, a player from the jazz tradition borrowing gracefully from the folk form. Two sonic ramblers existing out of time, but in step with their own hearts. 

RAFAEL TORAL 

Portuguese experimental guitarist & synthesist Rafael Toral comes to town in support of his newest record on Drag City, “Traveling Light”. A collection of jazz standards put through Toral’s elongated ambient treatments. Notes stretch and crackle as they become humming landscapes. Ethereal drones emerge out of woozy jazz phrases. Throughout his close to 40 year career he’s built a plethora of home brew electronic instruments that now work in conversation with his guitar work. Together this intricate textural & rhythmic dance moves his work into a totally other sonic universe where it feels like a rare bird sending its bent coos & tweets back to earth from a distant space station. Rafael catches these errant notes and arranges them perfectly. Don’t miss this! 

MASAHIRO TAKAHASHI with BRODIE WEST

Toronto-based Japanese composer-musician Masahiro Takahashi has been crafting gently spellbinding pieces that simultaneously embrace electronic abstraction and a palpable, even brittle, humanity. His delicate and evocative landscapes always seem to be illuminated in vibrant magic hour tones as golden synth lines emanate from between soft flickers of acoustic instrumentation. He has released music on an array of labels, such as Not Not Fun, JJ Funhouse, Slow Editions and his 2026 record In Another on Telephone Explosion Records. He also composes for films and art installations.

Get tickets for the TONE presentation right here. Check out a couple of performances below. 
 

R.I.P. Michael Yonkers, 1947-2026

Sadly, legendary Minneapolis-born outsider artist Michael Yonkers has passed away at the age of 78. He'll be greatly missed. 

From Drag City....

Songwriter, guitar innovator, private press legend and man Michael Yonkers has passed away at the age of 78. We join his fans to send our condolences to his other friends and family. He will be missed, but more importantly, Michael’s music, his DIY musical experimentation and his singular approach to conveying his songs over several dozen independently released recordings throughout his life, will be remembered.

Inspired as a teenager by the hair-raising freedom rock of The Trashmen’s “Surfin’ Bird” and the degraded electric sounds he heard in old blues recordings, Michael played and recorded mostly in his native Minneapolis in the late sixties and seventies, not being widely heard until 2002, when those geniuses at de Stjil issued The Michael Yonkers Band’s previously unreleased 1968 album, Microminiature Love. This provoked Micheal back into activity, and he reissued his catalog with several labels (including Drag City, fuckin’ A!), while collaborating with The Blind Shake, Plastic Crimewave Syndicate playing shows and making new solo recordings over the next couple decades.  

 Michael’s remembered for the blunt, bewildering post-garage/pre-power-trio attack of Microminature Love, highlighted by idiosyncratic vocal phrasing, a raw guitar presence in the style of The Kinks’ Dave Davies/Pink Floyd’s Syd Barrett and an interest in electronics. There’s much to be said as well for his subsequent 60s-70s releases, which continue down a quirky path in an entirely transformed, one-man-band setting, exploring his brooding and playful sides in an entirely transformed one-man-band setting, their psychedelia expressed more sensually, on an almost spiritual level.

Drag City’s corner of the lore, with the releases Lovely Gold, Micheal Lee Yonkers and Borders of My Mind (with Jim Woehrle), is an enduring source of pleasure around our good ol’ ivory bunker. Michael Yonkers was just the kind of artist our label was formed for. May he rest in peace.

Fred Armisen promotes new sound effects album on late night talk shows

Fred Armisen – who plays Uncle Fester on the Wednesday series – has a new sound effects album coming out via Drag City on September 26th.

Here's the scoop...

Fred Armisen, long known as one of the most curious actor/comedian/musician/ producer/ author/all-round good guys in the business, likes unusual ways of entertaining people. Like this one: 100 Sound Effects – slated for release September 26 via Drag City – is an album that that can be used as a library, an industrial tool for your own entertainment projects, or simply for brain-stimulating deep listening. 

From basic sounds ("Tent Zipper," "Wine Glass Breaking in Sink," "Basketball on Carpet)"  to more abstract scenarios ("Music Venue Employee Kicking Everyone Out While Throwing Away Bottles," "Disappointed Crowd – Dublin," "Thrift Store Perfunctory Search for Halloween Costume," "Haunted House Ghost Going Upstairs but the Door is Locked"), 100 Sound Effects is an album like no other! Note: It actually contains 101 sound effects. 

You can get a vinyl copy of Fred Armisen's 100 Sound Effects album via Bandcamp right here. Check out Fred Armisen talking about 100 Sound Effects with Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert – who both seem to be blissfully unaware of the concept of sound effects albums – followed by Fred's zoom chat briefly about the album (and other stuff) with Charles Brownstein for the Records In My Life podcast. Listen to Fred talk about 100 Sound Effects on The New Yorker's Radio Hour podcast right here.  

LINKS

Drag City Fred Armisen

Midweek Mixdown: David Pajo

Papa M's David Pajo plays music from a few of his favourite M's – Mekons, Miller, Mavis and Mary Margaret right here.

Tracklisting: 

C418 - Moog City

ROGER MILLER - My Pillow

JIMMY REED - Little Rain

ALAN WILSON - London Blues

FRED WESLEY & THE JB'S - You Can Have Watergate Just Gimme Some Bucks And I'll Be Straight

THE WAITRESSES - I Know What Boys Like

CREAM - Deserted Cities Of The Heart (Live)

MEKONS - My Body J.F.K., Pt. 1

MEKONS - Snow

MEKONS - You Wear It Well

THE LEFT BANKE - She May Call You Up Tonight

MEKONS - Where Were You?

ROGER MILLER - The Tip Of My Fingers

MAVIS STAPLES - You Are Not Alone

MARY MARGARET O'HARA - Dream I Had (I)

C418 - Moog City 2

ROCKETS - On The Road Again

David's new Papa M album "Ballads Of Harry Houdini is out now via Drag City. Get it via Bandcamp right here.

Meg Baird previews Furling album with the dreamy "Ashes, Ashes" and more

Meg Baird's long awaited new album Furling is out Jan 27 via Drag City. Watch Rachael Cassells' clip for "Ashes, Ashes" below. 

Bill Callahan & Bonnie Prince Billy vs. Scout Niblett

Bill Callahan & Will Oldham's lethargic stab at "Kidnapped by Neptune" is off their new covers album Blind Date Party. 

Whaddya mean you don't know Bill Stone

Maine singer/songwriter's overlooked folk/psych gem Stone is being reissued by Drag City in February. Listen to Charlotte's Town.

Pre-order a limited-run vinyl repress of Bill Stone's rare Stone album via Bandcamp right here. 

Purling Hiss, Writhing Squares, Shade @ The Monarch Tavern, July 16

Philly's Purling Hiss offer some "Useful Information" from their Interstellar Blue EP out Tuesday on Drag City. 

Cate Le Bon w/ Tim Presley @ Velvet Underground, Thursday

Check the video for the title track from Cate Le Bon's new Rock Pool 12" EP along with what's in Tim Presley's bag.

Watch the video for Laetitia Sadier's Oscuridad

Faun Fables vs. Brigitte Fontaine

Brigitte Fontaine's original '68 version of Éternelle has the edge thanks to the input of Vannier and Barouh.

Death rockumentary hits T.O. August 16

Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was Death. Formed in the early 1970s by three teenage brothers from Detroit, Death is credited as being the first black punk band, and the Hackney brothers, David, Bobby, and Dannis, are now rightly considered pioneers. But it wasn’t until recently — when a dusty 1974 demo tape made its way out of Bobby’s attic and was issued by the Drag City label nearly thirty years after Death’s heyday — that anyone outside a small group of punk enthusiasts had even heard of them. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family chronicle, the story of Death is one of brotherly love and fierce, divinely inspired expression. A Band Called Death opens Friday (August 16) at TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King West at John) and runs until Thursday (August 22). Call 416-399-TIFF for tickets or visit the TIFF site right here.

NOTE: Producer Scott Mosier will be present for a Q&A following the 7:15pm screening on Friday, August 16th to field queries better answered by the film's directors Jeff Howlett & Mark Covino and/or the members of Death.

Overdue documentary on Detroit proto-punks Death finally unleashed

On VOD/iTunes May 24th and in theaters June 28th

Before Bad Brains, the Sex Pistols or even the Ramones, there was a band called Death. Punk before punk existed, three teenage brothers Bobby (bass), Dannis (drums) and David  Hackney (guitar) formed a band in the spare bedroom of their Detroit home in 1971, began playing a few local gigs and even pressed a single in the hopes of getting signed. But this was the era of Motown and emerging disco. Record companies found Death’s music— and band name—too intimidating, and the group were never given a fair shot, disbanding before they even completed one album. Equal parts electrifying rockumentary and epic family love story, A Band Called Death chronicles the incredible fairy-tale journey of what happened almost three decades later, when a dusty 1974 demo tape made its way out of the attic and found an audience several generations younger. Playing music impossibly ahead of its time, Death is now being credited as the first black punk band (hell...the first punk band!), and are finally receiving their long overdue recognition as true rock pioneers. Watch the trailer below...



LINKS
Death site
Drag City label

One For The Weekend: Black Bananas

She's baaaack! Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux and RTX (Rad Times Xpress) infamy has returned with a hard-pummeling vengeance in the form of the Black Bananas' debut album Rad Times Xpress IV for Drag City. Although singer/producer/journalist Herrema – the original poster girl for Calvin Klein's controversial "heroin chic" ad campaign – is a proud product of the Chocolate City, this new release reveals, like never before, the irreparable damage done by years of listening to Parliament and Funkadelic records at wall-shaking volume.

Check out Grant Singer's behind-the-scenes video for Overpass followed by the dope promotional montage created for the album release. By provocatively intercutting film clips of biker violence, surfing and snake handling with a roaring tiger and people being chased by vans at night, the Brain Drain crew give you a reasonably good idea of what you can expect when Black Bananas open for Sleigh Bells at the Phoenix on Monday (March 26).     


Overpass by Black Bananas



Rad Times Xpress IV promotional video