Last updated 7/7/08

Tara Key Video Interview in PopMatters
Ever wonder what it's like to hang out with a guitarless TK? Well, Robin Cook found out at SXSW in Austin back in March. Enjoy.

Carrot Top Records Sweet 16 Party
We don't have the order and dates yet, and we're still hoping to rope in another surprise or two to add to the fun, but after a lot of discussion we can now confirm the following:

Fri Sept 26 and Sat Sept 27 The Hideout Chicago featuring
The Handsome Family
Antietam
The Coctails
Megan Reilly
KatJonBand (Jon Langford of The Mekons & Kat Ex of The Ex)
Speck Mountain
The Bitter Tears
Lys Guillorn

Logistics, price, exact running order of bands, along with several harebrained ideas are all being worked on. We'll post more details as soon as we get them both here and at The Hideout website. We can't wait!

Big, BIG ups to The Hideout for allowing us to invade for a whole weekend. Truly the most gracious club owners on the planet.

Dang that's a good weekend of music.


New Release Dates Set
KatJonBand's debut is now set for mid-September release and the North American issue of the amazing new album by The Darling Downs will now his our shores in October. Both will be issued on delicious vinyl!

Antietam Rocked Terrastock Louisville
Will get photos and thoughts posted on the sakistore blog as soon as I have 10 minutes to think.

Antietam's Brooklyn Library Show Photos
Antietam played THE BROOKLYN PUBLIC LIBRARY on Saturday. Was supposed to be outside on the steps but it rained. :-( Anyway, they had an easel with a sheet for each song using the Dewey Decimal System. Tara is a rare books librarian, so it was a natural. I guess it was a hit, with members of the audience going up to turn the page whenever the band forgot during the course of their 90 minute set. A couple of pics posted here. (Thanks Liz!)

Loads of New Releases on the Horizon
After taking the year off from new releases in 2007, 2008 is shaping up to be a record setting year with up to five more new albums to appear by the end of the year. New albums by The Darling Downs and KatJonBand are now in production! We'll post details here soon and get out Vol. II of the CTR Newsletter as well.

Antietam Vinyl Update
LPs in stock and now shipping! You're allowed to be excited! We are.

Antietam Vinyl Delayed
Of course it is! New street date for the very special triple LP in super hot packaging, with free digital download, is now March 11. We will ship all mail orders as soon as they arrive. We are hoping to see them here some time the week of February 18. Patience will be rewarded.

New Darling Downs Video Posted
A video for "Circa '65" from their new album has just been posted to Youtube. Check it out! Album release looks like April.

Release Date for Antietam Vinyl Moves Back
As predictably certain as a 2 degree January day in Chicago, the whopper triple LP vinyl for Antietam's new album has been delayed until March 11, making the end of winter that much longer around here.

Antietam Record Release Party Scheduled
After a flurry of planning, details for the long anticipated record release party for Opus Mixtum have finally begun to take shape. The big show is set for Saturday February 16 at Brooklyn's Southpaw. There will be special guests aplenty. So far confirmed are the delightfully persistent and creative The Scene Is Now and a rare live appearance by Dump, the solo vehicle for James McNew of Yo La Tengo. More details as they become available.

Jon Langford and Kat Ex Finish Collaborative Album
A year and a half in the making, Jon Langford of The Mekons and Katherina Ex of The Ex have put the finishing touches on their first musical excursion. It's been described by Jon as "death techno" but that seems mearly a relative term to the rest of their work. It's a rhythm-driven propulsive machine of major proportions with the dose of political outrage from these musicians in this age. Release details and hopefully live sho info will be posted here when available. Check this video of their live set at the Touch and Go 25th Anniversary Party and Hideout Block Party.

New Darling Downs Album a Happy Surprise
A copy of the new Darling Downs album, From One to Another, arrived in our mailbox recently. Not giving anything away yet, but we're sure glowing Aussie reviews will start landing on the Web any day. US release date still TBA.

Antietam Album Lands on Deck. LP slated!
Promotional copies of the new magnum Antietam album, Opus Mixtum, have arrived! We don't usually announce that event, but this is such a sprawling work of daring beauty that it just seems appropriate. We are so overwhelmed by it that you can watch for the first CTR vinyl LP pressing in nearly 10 years to accompany its smaller, digital sister. Talk about sprawling, the double CD looks to be a triple LP and will surely sound even more beautiful in full analog glory.

Handsome Family Sign on to Bare Naked Ladies Music Cruise
They were picked by by the Bare Naked Ladies to be musical guests on their next Ships and Dips Cruise. Details here.

Handsome Family Begin Work on New Album & Songbook
Brett and Rennie have recently begun work on two huge projects. First, they have begun the task of assembling the definitive Handsome Family songbook. Debate about formatting has begun but it far from finished. Because they don't have enough to do with touring, editing their songbook, writing & painting, they have also begun work on the material for their next studio album. No details yet, but we'll post them as soon as we have any tidbits of information on either project.

Handsome Family to appear with Greil Marcus at UNC
Brett and Rennie will be appearing at the Southern Folk Life Center at the University of North Carolina with culture critic Greil Marcus, their longtime champion, for a reception followed by three hours of music, lecture and Q&A—ALL FREE! FREE! FREE!
--Nice interview and article on their appearance in Indy Weekly.
--Check out Greil's new book The Shape of Things to Come.

Antietam picked to open for The Sea and Cake in Brooklyn
Show is set for September 29 at Warsaw and the band is now hard at work polising the edges and upping the art quotient of their regular set. Good luck! We're all pulling for you.

Handsome Family and Darling Downs in Australia
Tim Chmielewski kindly sent us this link to pics from the Sparks' Feb 22 appearance at Melbourne's East Brunswick Club. Also includes some captivating shots of openers The Darling Downs. Thanks Tim.

All Music Guide Picks "Let Your Ghost Go" for Best of 2006
"Singer/songwriter Megan Reilly has the voice of an angel. The Memphis native sheds the folkie-pop sweetness of her 2003 debut, "The Arc of Tessa," for an elegant affair of sad songs. The amber tones of "Let Your Ghost Go" look at loss with a hint of optimism. It's as lovely as Loretta Lynn's best, and a flawless match to peers such as Cat Power and Edith Frost. Covering some of rock's finest songwriters like Thin Lizzy's Phil Lynott, Van Morrison, and Bob Dylan takes guts, and Reilly obviously has the grace and goods to do it."-MacKenzie Wilson All Music Guide "Under the Radar in 2006"

Megan at the Lakeside
Mike Wolf at Time Out NY picked Megan's 11/29 show at the Lakeside Lounge. The lucky ones who showed up to pack the music room were treated to a set that was nearly transcendent in its beauty.

“Are there more of us than you?” Megan Reilly asked from the three-inch-high Lakeside Lounge “stage” on a recent Wednesday. There were six people watching the nonchalantly elegant country-pop singer and her five cohorts, so it was a fair fight. “Doesn’t matter,” she concluded, smiling believably.
Many play music for fame, financial gain or to get laid. Others play simply because they’re musicians—the perks are nice but not necessary. Reilly & Co. fall into the latter category. Though Let Your Ghost Go (Carrot Top), Reilly’s slow-burning album from this past February, is just her second, she’s been singing and writing for years. She left Memphis for NYC in the mid-’90s, bringing along slow-moving ways and a distinctly Tennessean country-noir vibe. Fame or not, top-shelf players around town have been drawn to her since she arrived, and her potent band now includes drummer Steve Goulding (Mekons), bassist Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu), veteran guitarist and producer James Mastro, keyboardist Eric Morrison (Home) and his multi-instrumentalist wife, Jenny Morrison. Mastro’s finesse is particularly key: His soft, reverbed twang suggests both the heart of Texas and the blue sea, both deep.
In the tiny Lakeside, Reilly’s vocals are restrained. But she can do the Walls of Jericho thing easily, without sacrificing any of the ache embedded in her nuanced voice. You can sense that power when she backs away from the microphone to sing “Tropic of Cancer,” which you’ll surely hear tonight. It might not matter to her if only six people come, but it should to the rest of us.—Mike Wolf

Hopefully Godlis will come through with some of his awesome pix so we can post them here.

Megan Reilly NYC Residency
Megan has landed a residency at the comfy Lakeside Lounge in New York. Oh, why is Chicago so far away?

Handsome Family Land Dates with Reunited Wall of Voodoo
Stan Ridgway has gotten the band back together! Aside from their massive radio hit, they were art-damaged, post-punk pioneers who brought a dash of country music and the notion of daring narrative to a scene that was otherwise rapidly careening to vapidity. If you're on the west coast, do yourself a favor, and us a vicarious one, and go see both bands!

Happy Birthday Touch and Go!
And thanks for giving everyone another chance to see the splendor that is Scratch Acid again.

Handsome Family Video
David Bromley, director at icbm in Australia, has kindly offered us the use of this video for the lead track on Last Days of Wonder, "Your Great Journey." G'day David!

A Song Saved My Life Tonight
This quote from Rennie that ran in the huge, amazing cover story in the Minneapolis City Pages really hit home. It's why songwriters write, musicians play, fans buy their albums and go to shows, and music business people work 12 hour days.

"There's something about songs that lets them do things we can't do for each other," says Rennie Sparks in the story. "It's a different language, almost a dream language. It can make you feel alive again, aware of beauty again. You feel like suddenly you're in a magical place. A song can feel like it's saving your life. It's important. Art has a purpose. Feeling alive is very hard to do sometimes. It's easy to be numb."

Handsome Family Tour News
Got this note from Rennie today:
For this tour, "the Handsome Family will be:
Brett Sparks (guitar, vocals)
Rennie Sparks (bass, banjo, vocals)
Stephen Dorocke (mandolin, lap steel, violin)
Jason Toth (drums)
This will be the first tour we’ve ever done with four people in the band."
And as far as we know their first US tour with a drummer since the departure of the beloved Mike Werner following "Milk and Scissors." We can't guarantee that you'll see this lineup at every stop on the tour, but we're really looking forward to it, and any chance to see Stephen play anything is always a treat.

Antietam Meets Eleventh Dream Day
Whenever these ex-Louisvillians are within a day's drive of each other, it seems like they end up on stage together. After Antietam opened for EDD at NY's Mercury Lounge April 11, 2006, Tara was asked on stage for the EDD encore and this devastating cover of Joy Division's "Isolation" is the result. Wish we'd been there to see it but this will have to do. Also joining them is Kiki Yablon of Red Eyed Legends on guitar. Gleefully posted with the kind permission of all concerned.

CTD Webstore Open (sort of)
The long promised web store for our sister distribution company, CTD, Ltd (Carrot Top Distribution), has finally moved into early testing stages. Feeling brave? Check saki out.

Handsome Family on the Internet Radio
The Sparks will appear live in session with BBC 6 Music's Gideon Coe on May 17th at 11.30am (GMT/6:30am CDT) and then with BBC London's Robert Elms on May 18th at 2.30pm (GMT/9:30 CDT). Times are GMT, so do your math, Americans! (We know that Americans lag behind in this area, but we're confident in the cognitive abilities of HF fans.) Thanks to the wonders of modern technology you can listen in via the links on the DJ names.

Handsome Family US Summer Tour Dates Announced
Check the Shows page if you're in the eastern 2/3 of the country. More US dates in the fall! We won't forget you out West.

Handsome Family European Tour Blog
The Guardian Online are running blog postings written by the Handsome Family's Rennie Sparks on their European tour exploits. Read it here.

Megan Reilly Opens for Verlaine
Megan has just landed the plum opening spot for Television's Tom Verlaine in May 16 in Washington DC, May 17 in Philadelphia at the Theater of Living Arts and at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC Thursday May 18 and Friday May 19. Why is NY so darned far from Chicago?

New Handsome Family Bio/Album Preview
New bio with a preview of their new album is now posted. That should get you excited for June 13.

Megan Reilly Record Release Party Set
Megan will play her record release party with her crack band on Saturday April 1 at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York with special guests The Scene Is Now. Please note the special early start time of 6pm!!

Making "Last Days of Wonder"
Posted a few pictures taken while visiting Brett and Rennie while they was busy mixing their new album. You can see them here.

Handsome Family Album Title, Track List, Release Date!
Coinciding with their amazing, bring the house down show here last night at the beloved Old Town School of Folk Music, Brett and Rennie have announced that their new album of love songs will be poetically titled "Last Days of Wonder," to be released June 13 in the US and May 30th in Europe to take advantage of their UK tour.

Tracklisting
Your Great Journey
Tesla's Hotel Room
These Golden Jewels
After We Shot the Grizzly
Flapping Your Broken Wings
Beautiful William
All the Time in Airports
White Lights
Bowling Alley Bar
Hunter Green
Our Blue Sky
Somewhere Else to Be

The darkly funny "Grizzly" and beautifully dark "William" both got coming out parties at their show last night. Both were performed to near perfection and were warmly received.

Expect US tour dates in July and October.

Darling Downs to Get US Release
We could not be more pleased to be working with two legends of the Australian music scene, hell any music scene, Ron Peno (Died Pretty) and Kim Salmon (The Scientists, Beasts of Bourbon), who together make up the Melbourne duo The Darling Downs. Their countrified debut album, the hypnotic "How Can I Forget This Heart of Mine?," will be out April 11, 2006. More info real soon now once we finish quietly lighting incense and praying for a US tour.

Megan Reilly CD Release Date Set
"Let Your Ghost Go" will finally be released March 28. We'll be posting show dates and press praise as we get them.

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus DVD Release Set
Image Entertainment will finally released the DVD for Andrew Douglas' film about Jim White and the creepy American South on March 14. You get 3 Handsome Family songs and some excellent banter in a junker car along with Johnny Dowd, Harry Crews, 16 Horsepower & David Johansen. Astutely listed as "Comedy."

Carrot Top Records Top 10 for 2005
Andrew Bird-Mysterious Production of Eggs
The Books-Lost and Safe
Rodney Crowell-The Outsider
Darling Downs-How Can I Forget This Heart of Mine?
Cole Guerra-Scarves and Knives
Cheikh Lo-Bambay Gueej
Mercury Rev-The Secret Migration
Stina Nordenstam-The World Is Saved
Patrick Porter-Lisha Kill
Roots Manuva-Awfully Deep

Not Quite Making the Cut
Danny Barnes-Get Myself Together
Cowboy Junkies-Early 21st Century Blues
The Fall-Heads Roll
Goblin Market-Haunted
My Dad Is Dead-A Divided House
Amy Rigby-Little Fugitive
Marina Rosenfeld-Joy of Fear
Emiliana Torrini-Fisherman's Woman
Ali Farka Toure-Red and Green
Lucinda Williams-Live at the Fillmore

Megan Reilly Record Release Party Date Announced.
Megan has confirmed April 1 as the date for the record release party for her new album "Let Your Ghost Go" at The Bowery Poetry Club. She'll be joined by The Scene Is Now. More info VERY soon!

Mark Greenberg on Gapers Block
Mark Greenberg of The Coctails was interviewed for an audioblog entry over at Gapers Block. Mark discusses the subtle difference between reunions and just plain shows and talks about some of the instruments that litter his northwest side studio. Check it out.

Special Coctails Shows Announced
Today The Coctails announced two rare upcoming shows. Thursday December 15 they will do a special in-store performance at the Rotofugi Designer Toy Store and Gallery in Chicago to celebrate the release of their Presspop action figures (they're not dolls!). On Sunday December 18. the band will headline a show at the Abbey Pub to celebrate the release of their new Japanese-only 10" from the nice people at Presspop Music.

Handsome Family Announce Chicago Show
To celebrate the DVD release of the indie film Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus, the Handsome Family will play a show at the beloved Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago on February 11.

Megan Reilly Track on New Loose Music Compilation
London's Loose Music is featuring Megan's new song "On a Plane" on their latest genre-busting alt.country compilation, "Start Your Own Country." This series helped introduce The Handsome Family to their loving audience in Europe. Our hope is that it will do the same for Megan.

Megan Reilly's New Album Finished
Megan has put the finishing touches on her beautiful new album and given it the title "Let Your Ghost Go," after the song on her album dedicated to musical idol Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy. It is planned for a February 2006 release. We'll post some music and more details on her artist page on the website in the near future

Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus
The guided tour of the Weird South by Jim White opens at the Siskel Center in Chicago on Friday 9/23 and runs through next week. It features an appearance by and music from The Handsome Family among others. Nice review in the Chicago Sun-Times from 9/18 is here and information on the soundtrack is here. The Handsome Family are in Castaneda-esque desert seclusion and hard at work on their new album due out next year.

Coctails Tour Notes
I asked Mark to tell me what their dining experiences were like while playing their recent shows in Japan. His response was so good, that I print it here for your enjoyment.

"Yes, much great food. They really have their food thing down. Sushi was very similar to ours here. We ate that a few times.... one at one of those sushi-go-round places. I had raw octopus and squid there. They do this 'pancake' thing in Kyoto and I guess in Osaka too that is really amazing... not like pancakes...more like crazy omelet things on a hot plate at your table....each one crazier than the last. Yum! Lots of noodles...udon, soba, ramen. There was a place we went whose specialty was this crazy fried pork thing with bbq sauce. We went to a tiny mom and pop place one night that only served tuna... like 30 different ways. Wow! Yum. I even loved the snacks at their version of 7-11. They had a maki roll...sea weed, rice and something sweet in the middle... it was a long roll like the kind you have before you cut it into smaller pieces. They had them stacked up in the store where our stores would have corndogs or something. Anyway, it came wrapped in plastic, the rice roll separate from the seaweed so when you open it up, you roll them together and it is as fresh and crunchy as can be. I got addicted to those. They were only a dollar."

Megan Reilly Gets Graham Parker opening slot
Megan has been asked to open two shows for Graham Parker at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music in October. Be sure to catch this rare solo acoustic performance sure to include songs from her new album, "Let Your Ghost Go," due out in early 2006.

TALL DWARFS TOUR GIANT SUCCESS
Their long awaited tour went off with a bang thanks to fanatical support and the most kind backing of the wonderful folks at Cloud Recordings and Olivia Tremor Control. The Dwarfs name was even spotted at Wrigley Field during a baseball game with the Arizona Diamondbacks. We hope they're back before they're 64! Click the pick for larger photo.

TALL DWARFS' GIANT TOUR!
It's true! They're doing a little mini-tour as Cloud Recordings is going to re-release "Weeville" & also put out "Fork Songs" for the first time in the US.
Their little tour with Olivia Tremor Control is:
July 29 Subterranean, Chicago
August 2nd Bowery Ballroom, New York City
August 3rd Bowery Ballroom, New York City
August 4th Chapel Hill, NC (Tall Dwarfs only)
August 6th 40 Watt, Athens, GA

Josh Madell Releases a New Record
Antietam's Josh Madell has been working with Tralala (formerly Tight Fit) for the past year or so. Tralala has a record coming out on Audika on June 22, 2005.

The Coctails Live at Lounge Ax Repressed!
After a long absence, we've finally gotten it together to repress this crucial jewel in the Coctails crown. It contains several songs that were only released on this live document that had become live favorites but never made it onto an album for some reason.

Carrot Top Records Top 10 of 2004
1. Patty Griffin-Impossible Dream
2. Ponys-Laced with Romance
3. Books-Lemon of Pink
4. Secret Machines-Now Here Is Nowhere
5. Edison Woods-Seven Principles Of Leave No Trace
6. Kaki King-Legs to Make Us Longer
7. Ray LaMontagne-Trouble
8. Devendra Banhart-Niño Rojo
9. Anne McCue-Roll
10. Cynthia Nelson-Sophie Drinker Record

DUMP will be opening for The Coctails on Jan. 15!
We're all quite excited about this. For those not familiar, and bless your hearts, Dump is James McNew of Yo La Tengo.

Help Jamaican Hurricane Recovery Effort
One of our favorite places in the world, Treasure Beach, Jamaica, and the surrounding St. Elizabeth Parish were devastated by Hurricane Ivan. The folks there have no electrical power, potable water or land phone lines. What they need most right now is MONEY. Please donate, even if it's $20. $12 buys a new zinc roof for a family who can't afford it
http://treasurebeach.net/guide/ivan/ivanrelief.html

The Coctails Popcorn Box WILL ship on time for November 9 street date. Preorders will be shipped first.

Coctails Chicago record release show moved to Saturday January 15. Surprise opening band in work. (Hint: It won't be the Pixies!)

Pixies management has uninvited The Coctails to play in NYC, Boston, and Minneapolis this week. Thanks! For now, your only chance to see them is their appearance in Chicago at the Aragon and at their record release show which is now tentatively scheduled for December.

The Coctails Popcorn Box almost ready to roll!
This three CD set now has a name, an extra CD, and a birthdate- November 9, completely coincidental to their upcoming show(s) with The Pixies. 52 page book full of loads of words and goodies. PREORDER IT NOW and we'll ship them out as soon as we get them in.

The Handsome Family Play With Giant Sand at the Getty
Reservations for the Giant Sand / The Handsome Family show at the Getty Center become available on Sept 24 @ 9am. People who want to go to the show need to call 310-440-7300 or they can email the Getty see: http://www.getty.edu
This show is FREE / open to the public / all ages.
The theater space holds 350 people.

Carrot Top Records bands play on same bill in huge label breakthrough!
Antietam will celebrate the release of their long, long awaited new album, Victory Park, with their NYC show at Tonic on April 9, 2004. Opening the bill is chanteuse Megan Reilly and her all-star, superlative band who promise to play new songs. We cannot remember a night when two of our bands appeared together. This should put to rest the long-running rumor that there really was only one band on the label for the last 10 plus years.

Coctails Compilation in the works
Label and band are making final decisions on which tracks will make the cut for their upcoming double CD collection of vinyl only cuts, singles, comp tracks, live takes, alternate & out-takes & ephemera. We're hoping for a fall release with rumors of a reunion show swirling following their 2 song performance at a Christmas singalong. So many off-key takes and so little time and space!

Cynthia Nelson has a new album done and ready to go.
We're doing our best to find a place to shoehorn it into the schedule.

Megan Reilly is working on new songs for her sophomore album.

More rumors have surfaced of a Jamey Barnard Phone Revenge album sometime in the next year. Tapes have been remastered...who knows?