Jagjaguwar Announces Join The Ritual,
Third Quarter of 25th Anniversary Celebration
New Album Features Angel Olsen, Bruce Hornsby, Cut Worms, Jamila Woods, Nap Eyes, Okay Kaya, S. Carey & More Covering Songs From the Record Label’s Formative Influences
Bruce Hornsby’s Rendition of Dinosaur Jr.’s “Feel The Pain” & Jamila Woods’ Reimagining of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” Out Now:
Today, Jagjaguwar invites listeners to Join The Ritual, as the record label begins the third quarter of its 25th Anniversary through a celebration of those who have guided its history. With a nod to the company’s roots in Dungeons & Dragons, Join The Ritual is a new album out September 24th that pays homage to the artists and fellow independent titans like Drag City, K Records, Too Pure, Touch & Go and more who originally inspired Jagjaguwar to take a seat at the table and enter the wild, dark magic ritual of music. On each of Join The Ritual’s 11 tracks, Jagjaguwar artists, alumni and one very close friend recreate songs that captured the imaginations of company founder Darius Van Arman and partner Chris Swanson. Angel Olsen covers Smog’s “Cold Blooded Old Times”; They Hate Change takes on Stereolab’s “The Seeming and The Meaning”; Cut Worms, Nap Eyes, Okay Kaya, Pink Mountaintops and S. Carey deliver their own renditions of formative cuts from Simon Joyner, Built to Spill, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub and Low, respectively.
Find the full tracklist below, and listen to the first two offerings out now: Bruce Hornsby’s new arrangement of Dinosaur Jr.’s “Feel The Pain,” and Jamila Woods’ reimagining of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car,” produced by McClenney. Listen to both here: https://jagjag.co/feel-the-pain-fast-car
As the story goes, “Jagjaguwar” came from a Dungeons & Dragons name generator. While the game played a significant role in the early lives of Darius Van Arman and Chris Swanson, they agree with the case made by writer Paul La Farge in the September 2006 issue of The Believer, positing that Dungeons & Dragons is not a game at all, but rather a ritual – one that brings about a union, or an organic connection between initially separate groups. From teaming with Bloomington, Indiana-based record label Secretly Canadian in the late 1990s, to cultivating communities and forming familial relationships with seemingly superhuman artists and their most treasured collaborators, Jagjaguwar has grown through the belief in the idea of ritual as a conjoining practice.
Join The Ritual marks the third installment of Jag Quarterly, a year-long series of four projects that enter and expand the worlds built through Jagjaguwar’s 25 years of work alongside some of the most mythical artists in music. Centered around collaboration and the celebration of community, each edition of Jag Quarterly is titled by a different mantra of the label’s past, imbuing it with new meaning through creative endeavors that unite artists both within and outside of the Jagjaguwar roster.
Before Join The Ritual, Jagjaguwar unveiled This is a Mindfulness Drill, a full-length tribute to Richard Youngs’ Sapphie from Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Moses Sumney, Perfume Genius, Sharon Van Etten and Emily A. Sprague. The inaugural installment, Dilate Your Heart, showcased the spellbinding poetry of Bloomington’s own Ross Gay on an album of new music from Bon Iver, Mary Lattimore, Angel Bat Dawid, Gia Margaret and Sam Gendel.
Pre-Order Join The Ritual on limited edition opaque white vinyl:
https://jagjag.co/join-the-ritual
Stay updated on all things JAG25 in the XagXaguVar zine:
Bruce Hornsby by Sarah Walor
Jamila Woods by Bradley Murray
Join The Ritual Tracklist
Spencer Krug – “Red Dress” (Jad Fair)
The Besnard Lakes – “Good Morning, Captain” (Slint)
They Hate Change – “The Seeming and The Meaning” (Stereolab)
Angel Olsen – “Cold Blooded Old Times” (Smog)
Bruce Hornsby – “Feel The Pain” (Dinosaur Jr.)
Jamila Woods – “Fast Car” (Tracy Chapman)
Nap Eyes – “Car” (Built to Spill)
Carey – “Weight of Water” (Low)
Pink Mountaintops – “The Concept” (Teenage Fanclub)
Cut Worms – “One For The Catholic Girls” (Simon Joyner)
Okay Kaya – “Nightswimming” (R.E.M.)
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