Following a sold-out release concert at Austin’s historic Paramount Theatre (hello, Houdini Hole), and already sailing forth into an armada of critical acclaim, Terry Allen today releases his magisterial new record Just Like Moby Dick into the deep blue sea. Order it from us, or find it in your favorite ship-shop or ocean stream. See you at the GRAMMYs.
Nap Eyes will release their new album Snapshot of a Beginner, their most concentrated and hi-fi effort to date (produced by Jonathan Low and James Elkington), on March 27th via Jagjaguwar / Royal Mountain, in partnership with PoB. This one’s for the procrastinators and the slow learners. This one’s for the bungled and the botched, for the fumbled and humbled. This one’s for the late bloomers. (Get 20% off the Naps catalog with coupon SNAPSHOT.)
Featuring backing vocals by Moby Dick secret weapon Shannon McNally, “Abandonitis” is a dusty and doomed Tex-Mex shuffle, while “All That’s Left is Fare-Thee-Well” delivers one of the most penetrating moments on the album, with Allen, McNally, and co-producer Charlie Sexton trading vocals. Both songs are, appropriately, about leaving and being left behind. Plus, more shows announced, including New York!
The first taste of a three-song suite—titled “American Childhood”—that forms the emotional core of upcoming album Just Like Moby Dick, “Bad Kiss” tells of a high school girl who enlists, leaving home and an abbreviated romance for the war-torn Middle East. But history repeats itself in an endlessly stuttering cycle of brutality and death: “It’s just the war/Same fucking war/It’s always been/Never ends.” Also, see images from Terry’s exhibition at Nina Johnson.
Today is the ninth anniversary of our very first release, Said I Had a Vision (two songs of which appear in the Oxford American’s new SC Music Issue.) Just in time, we’ve received our first Grammy nomination, for Best Album Notes for Terry Allen’s Pedal Steal + Four Corners. So there are ample reasons for celebration. Use coupon code KRAMPUS for 20% off all non-preorder items.
What a surprise to wake up to our first Grammy nomination, for our own Brendan Greaves’s exhaustive book accompanying Terry Allen’s collection of radio plays and long-form narrative audio works.
Following the release of their album Abundance Welcoming Ghosts in September, Red River Dialect have announced a string of UK tour dates for February 2020. The band also play their sold-out album launch tomorrow night, Saturday 16 November at Servant Jazz Quarters. To celebrate, they’re sharing the beautifully animated video for “BV Kistvaen”, made by animator and band member Robin Lane Roberts.
The Texas art-country legend shares “Death of the Last Stripper” and “City of the Vampires” along with details about his new 2xLP Panhandle Mystery Band record (featuring a vinyl engraving by the artist), Austin preview concert, documentary/concert film, Miami art exhibition, and Moby Dick t-shirt.
When the circus comes to town / In the city of the vampires / And there’s nary a soul to be found / When the sun glints off the church spires / The citizens have all gone to their basement / To wait for the night time in their coffins / So you better go exercise the elephants / Ohh Ohh while you can
Today is El Día de los Muertos, an apt day to celebrate Itasca’s captivating, sublime new album Spring, which is now in stores and streaming worldwide. Songwriter Kayla Cohen’s careful, impressionistic prose and swoon-worthy arrangements have earned acclaim from, among others, The Fader, NPR, Uncut, and MOJO, whose lead review lights on themes particularly redolent on the Day of the Dead.
