In 1997, Drag City published Victory Chimp, a paperback book. This had been committed to text by Neil Hagerty from memories, wire photos, sheet music, cobol computer printouts and his own typewritten notes circa 1980-88. The story had to be told, but in 97 the long-form radio show was not quite the fashion and we certainly werent thinking about the coming onslaught of media mash-ups that would develop in our new millennium collage culture. But now, in 2011, Victory Chimp returns as an audio book. Not just any audio book, but a nextlevel audio book, which is only fitting given Victory Chimps once-and-future status as an out-level sci-fi paperback. The concept of reading with your ears is surely a nonsequitur that fits the logic of Victory Chimp, where sound is used not simply to create atmosphere, but to pace and forward the narrative. Its not quite the total work of art imagined by Wagner before he soundtracked the Holocaust, but VC pictures fascism as well, albeit from a radically different angle. And so we make the comparison. Not many things compare to Victory Chimp when it comes to form, largely due to its elusive play with it. Even Dos Passos caught shit for skewing structure once upon a time. - Drag City.
After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.
This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).
Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.
Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.
Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
