Murray Stassen
Drag City don’t chase hit records. What they look for in a new signing – according to Rian Murphy, the man at the helm of this storied Chicagobased business – is “someone with a sense of humour”. Humour doesn’t pay the bills, though, unless you’re a comedian, of course, and the vast catalogue of music this company has released is no joke.
However, Murphy’s brief answer to the question of how he would define a typical Drag City signing sums up the sense of community the label has developed over nearly three decades. If an artist shares the company’s outlook – whether that’s in terms of humour, creative freedom or acceptance of the collective weirdness of all the other individuals on the label combined – then there’s a good chance they’ll be working together for a long time, regardless of how ‘inaccessible’ their records may sound.
Drag City’s discography includes releases by David Berman’s Silver Jews; acclaimed multi-instrumentalist folkie Joanna Newsom; 60s crooner turned 21st-century avant-garde mystic Scott Walker; garage-rock genius Ty Segall; alternative country singer-songwriter Bill Callahan; indie pioneers Pavement, and the off -kilter psychedelic two-piece project of White Fence’s Tim Presley and Welsh artist Cate Le Bon, called Drinks.
The label’s roster is eclectic to say the least, making it easy to see why the company is regularly referred to as “experimental” in the music press; but Murphy tells us that with its music encompassing “various permutations of rock and roll”, in no uncertain terms, Drag City identiffes as a ‘rock’ label.
“As it says on the website: ‘Guaranteed to satisfy the most tolerant listener’,” says Murphy. “We’d like to think that the eclecticism has played a part in what people think of us, but it’s ultimately whatever records people like are what defines us.”
Drag City was founded by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn, who set up the label in Chicago in 1989, releasing its first 7” single (DC1) in 1990 in the form of Hero/Zero by Royal Trux, the garage-rock duo consisting of Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty.
DC2 was Demolition Plot J-7 by cult rockers Pavement. It was their second EP and their first release for Drag City. DC3 and DC4 were the Twin Infinitives double LP by Royal Trux and Pavement’s Perfect Sound Forever.