Jagjaguwar is for Lovers: The Virginia Years Bundle

PRE-ORDER: Orders will begin shipping on or around December 4

Thirty years ago, Jagjaguwar was a baby label throwing DIY shows in the basement of a Charlottesville sushi joint. To celebrate three decades, we've put some of those early Virginia-era releases on vinyl for the first time ever.

Jagjaguwar is for Lovers: The Virginia Years includes the debuts of early label stalwarts Drunk and Manishevitz, as well as the lightning-in-a-bottle, one-and-done albums of South 1998 and The Union of a Man and Woman.

- Drunk - A Derby Spiritual (1996)
Includes bonus track "Berlin (Demo)"

- The Union of a Man and a Woman - The Sound of the Union of a Man and a Woman (1998)

- South 1998 - South (1998)
Includes bonus track "Settled Room"

- Manishevitz - Grammar Bell and the All Fall Down (1999)
Includes bonus track "Depotee"

A Derby Spiritual

A revisit to Drunk’s 1996 debut ‘A Derby Spiritual’ will reveal to the listener a record more charming, gentle and — dare I say — colorful than its stoic, 90s slow-core reputation might insist. And one might even note that Rick Alverson’s voice has a defeated Tom Petty lilt heretofore unchecked. The Richmond band sound careful, creaky and lean to be sure. But the decades have allowed this old sad bastard a warming amber glow. The black hole radio play at the end of the stunning opener “Collarbone” seems to predict the coming of ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.’ And here in the curious present, strummers like “Germany Skies," “Gideon’s Trumpet” and “Gizmo" could be slotted in right alongside the indie-country boom of today. The odd waltz of accordion and violin on cuts like “Indeliberate Matrimony” and “Coming Home” sound — dare I say again — like ‘The Lonesome Jubilee’-era Mellencamp at the bottom of a barrel of hooch. Alverson’s lyricism drifts betwixt the hopeful nihilism of fellow VA-songwriter/poet of the era David Berman and the profound post-beat minimalism of Robert Creeley. I swear, when he sighs “I feel willy-nill/I pissed upon your window sill” on the high-n-lonesome harmonica-forward “Window Sill” it sounds damn-near romantic in the Lendermanian sense of the word. Yes, it’s reassessment time, friends. And what an auspicious time to reassess! As part of Jagjaguwar’s 30th anniversary, we are pressing ‘A Derby Spiritual,’ Jag’s second-ever release, on vinyl for the first time. A three-decade wrong at long last made right. In fact, we’re putting a handful of those early Charlottesville era of Jagjaguwar releases on wax as part of the label’s 30th anniversary celebration. Stay tuned for more on the matter. The newly-expanded LP includes additional bonus track "Berlin"

The Sound Of…

Blistering avant-punk made by Virginia teens, 'The Sound of…The Union of a Man and a Woman' squealed and squalled and ear-piercingly feedbacked its way into Charlottesville legend in 1998 and thusly our dilated hearts. Formed when Neil Campbell, John Harouff and Kurt Beals were pre-teens, The Union of… was fully formed when they released their debut (and only) album, careening from Big Black racket to stretched-out Dead C art-rock. Minor Threat graduating from the Glenn Branca Academy of Compositional Fuckery. And coming in white hot with a raw, uninhibited spirit only available to us in those treacherous and glorious late teenage years. “Are Your New Shoes Fit for the New Dance?” sounds as fresh as it did in 1998. It all comes back around, kiddos. Get on the merry-go-round and keep your earballs open wide. 'The Sound of…' is an art-punk thrill ride that’ll bring your acne and body odor screaming back the fore. In a good way. Glad to be getting this one on vinyl for the first time in celebration of Jagjaguwar’s 30th anniversary. 

South

South 1998’s (née South) self-titled debut might just be the closest ye olde Jagjaguwar ever came to releasing music that would also sound at home on, say, ECM Records. Squint your ears and you’ll hear it — Pat Metheny-clean fancy-chord guitar puzzlings, each patiently layered into languid, hypnotic Steve Reich math cul-de-sacs; interlocking hammered dulcimer and vibraphones that fall and billow like the rare heavy snow day in a southern town; the hushed-n-confident vocalizations of Patrick Phelan and Nathan Lambdin, backed by the steady rhythms of drummer Tod Parkhill. Upon its initial release, we called the Richmond, VA project an “exegesis on the great ambient-rock moments of the 20th century.” We stand by that. But upon further investigation and with the hindsight of nearly 30 years since the LP’s release, its little tricky riches have only blossomed.

It’s hard not to make some sort of comparison to a more contemporary crop of artists when revisiting South 1998, now renamed for SEO purposes (who knew back then!?!?). The experimental slowcore experimentalism of Copenhagen’s Escho records and ML Buch; a bit of cloudrock scene leaders (and Jag label mates) Chanel Beads; a great many of the releases on the esteemed (and underrated) Norwegian label Hubro. But it also deserves a place on the shelf next to its post-something, pre-something-else contemporaries of the day — Tortoise, Bark Psychosis, The Sea & Cake. South 1998’s hands-down Jagjaguwar classic was never lost per se, but we’ve found it again for you, on vinyl for the first time ever as part of our 30th anniversary celebration. A reissue of the original South S/T album, with an added bonus track “Settled Room".