constant escape
winter withered, warm
Never got around to visiting their location in Chicago, but Drag City was central to my last phase of music listening. The players, albeit on a rather tight bench:
I'll start with potentially my favorite album: Hippo Lite by DRINKS (Cate le Bon and Tim Presley). If you only listen to one song, listen to the first, Blue from the Dark. It, the album, was written and composed over the course of some bender at Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort, a commune in southern France, "a place known for its ancient fountains and silk museum—with, they mention, no wifi."
Don't know much about Cave, other than I liked Allways when first heard it, around the time of its release.
The Hackney brothers, led by eldest visionary and guitarist David, had trouble securing gigs in Detroit, being in a band called Death and playing white boy music.
"a budding rock/funk band, heavily influenced by Motown & Parliament, ultimately evolving into pioneers of punk music"
One of the local legends in the Chicago psych scene is Steve Krakow, otherwise known as Plastic Crimewave Syndicate.
From what I gather, having attended one presentation and one show of his, he worked at Reckless Records, not sure which location, and spearheaded the Million Tongues festival, for however few years it lasted. It might have gone away and come back, but I'm under the impression its been swallowed by the past.
He also operates a psychedelic publication called Galactic Zoo Dossier, wherein he reports stories of lost/forgotten Chicago musicians, complete with graphics and all, including trading cards and unique mix cassettes. His "Secret History of Chicago Music" also appears as a panel in one of Chicago's newspapers, I forget which. I'd pick it up for the show list and his work alone.
I suppose this one should come with some volume/intensity warning. At the festival, even having equipped the complimentary Red Bull ear plugs, you could feel every fiber shake in the wake of this stuff, for hours. This wasn't the music that was played there, just what was listed on Drag City's site, presumably released through them.
Truly beautiful Scottish folk.
Perhaps not technically associated with Drag City, ONO is another fascinating group. They gave a very theatrical performance at the Drone Activity festival, as well as the 2019 Chicago Psych Festival at the Hideout, which I attended as well. Here is the main artist of ONO, travis, performing alongside Steve Krakow, AKA Plastic Crimewave Syndicate, at the festival.
And from their album Spooks. Picked this up from the local section of Shuga Records' store. A note to end on.
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