Friends, the good people at Pitchfork are streaming the entirety of Mike Cooper’s Trout Steel (PoB-13) and Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper (PoB-14) through June 16, a day before the June 17 release day. Dig in.
Courtesy of Dangerous Minds, we’ve got another Mike Cooper stunner for you. “Country Water,” the opening track on the Places I Know/The Machine Gun Co. 1971-72 double album, is, true to its name, a riverine country rocker complete with sawing fiddle solos and some heavy-duty piano banging.
Listen to the long-form centerpiece track off of our reissue of Cooper’s classic 1970 album Trout Steel and read a dispatch from the man himself from Spain, concerning the poems of Rumi and the studio techniques of dub music.
It’s been incredibly gratifying to see the accolades and respect lavished on this record and on Patrick Haggerty in particular, who most certainly deserves our praise and admiration. Read on for LC mini-documentary videos and more international press on the album and Patrick’s story, including pieces by NPR, the CBC, The Guardian, Pitchfork, The Quietus, and The Boston Globe.
Folks, these are two critical tours not to miss, and they start this week. Catch two of the greatest bands working today, in fine company, including Kurt Vile, Angel Olsen, William Tyler, etc. Stay tuned for more dates TBA.
Redbuds are blooming, pawpaws are sprouting, and sweet tea is pouring–Spring has come to North Carolina. It’s the perfect season to announce a very limited-edition, deluxe repressing of Hiss Golden Messenger’s Poor Moon LP (2011, PoB-02), as well as our PoB “It’s a Shit Business” t-shirt, the perfect piece for a day at the races or a night on the town.
Alas, another Record Store Day is upon us. Tomorrow, April 19, is the party and we do encourage you to stop by your favorite independent shop and pick up a record or a dozen to keep the spirits moving. While we have no official PoB releases for the cause this year, several of our artists are pitching in.
After two years of work to liberate these long out-of-print masterpieces from the vaults, we are thrilled to announce pre-orders for the first artist-sanctioned reissues—and first-ever vinyl reissues—of iconoclastic English-born, Rome-based folk and experimental music legend Mike Cooper’s classic trio of early 1970s avant-folk-rock records: Trout Steel (1970), Places I Know (1971), and The Machine Gun Co. with Mike Cooper (1972).
Photos and details about our shows with Steve Gunn, Chris Forsyth & the Solar Motel Band, Promised Land Sound, and Lavender Country at SxSW and our L.A. Weekender.
Happy release day to Lavender Country! We’re honored to be working with Patrick Haggerty on this important project and delighted to read the avalanche of positive press. Read on for excerpts and links… and an image of Patrick’s incredible painting for PoB.
