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February 22 street date. "Big Gold Dreams" documents the vibrant independent music scene to emerge in Scotland across the late 70s and 80s. Initially ignited by punk, labels sprang up inGlasgow, Edinburgh and elsewhere to give a voice to the explosion of new acts across the country. Named after Fire Engines' memorable single and Grant McPhee's recent TV and DVD documentary, "Big Gold Dreams" includes many of the Scottish music scene's most important names as well as countless obscurities. Includes landmark tracks by The Rezillos, Simple Minds, Skids, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Primal Scream, The Waterboys, Cocteau Twins, Aztec Camera, The Shamen, Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie and many others. Includes recordings from key labels such as Zoom, Postcard, 53rd & 3rd, Rational, Fast Product/Pop:Aural, Supreme International Editions, Creation, Egg, Sarah, etc. Boasts lengthy essays and band histories by Grant McPhee, Neil Cooper and Tim Barr, within a lavishly illustrated 70-page booklet.

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January 25 street date. William’s new record, Goes West, is the best music that he’s ever made. I’m sure of this because I know and love all of his music intimately, and this album moves me the most, and the most consistently. The first time I heard it was in the late spring in the Texas Hill Country, rolling between limestone and scrub. I was on a cleanse then—no alcohol, no drugs, no evil thoughts—and was astonished at the emotional clarity that the album held. It offered up a model for what I wanted my head to feel like. Goes West marks a sort of narrowing of focus for William’s music; it sounds as though he found a way to point himself directly towards the rich and bittersweet emotional center of his music without being distracted by side trips. Perhaps this is down to the fact that William only plays acoustic guitar on the album, a clear and conscious decision considering that he is one of Nashville’s great electric guitarists. The band that performs Goes West alongside William—including guitarists Meg Duffy and Bill Frisell, bassist and producer Brad Cook, keyboardist James Wallace, drummer Griffin Goldsmith, and engineer Tucker Martine—is the best and most sympathetic group of players that William could have assembled to play these songs. The second time I heard Goes West, I was also in Texas and I was on LSD with my friend Brad and we were driving out of Marfa on Highway 90. It was around sundown and the music sounded like it was coming out of the clouds and dancing right in front of my eyes. I know that sounds exactly like what someone on acid would say, but the whole reason I took the acid in the first place is that I was looking for some peace of mind after a long, hot, sweaty summer. Goes West gave me that. We stopped the car and looked out over the expansive horizon and I felt better. We turned around and headed towards town. --M.C. Taylor, Durham North Carolina

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Merge Records was started in the summer of 1989, by Laura Ballance & Mac McCaughan, the same summer they formed the band Superchunk in Chapel Hill, NC. The first couple releases were cassettes (remember those?), by WWAX and Bricks, followed by the first Superchunk (then known only as "Chunk") 7" single.
The vinyl 7" was the format of choice for the first 3 years of the label, with cash borrowed from friends to finance projects (including singles from Erectus Monotone, Angels of Epistemology, and more Superchunk) and bedrooms serving as Merge HQ until 1992, when the first Merge full-length release, Tossing Seeds by Superchunk, was released on CD, LP, and cassette.
With this release Merge also forged a relationship with Touch and Go Records of Chicago, who have done an admirable job manufacturing and distributing the bulk of Merge's full-length releases since then.
Since '92 Merge moved from one charming-yet-run-down office to another until 2001, when we finally made the move from Chapel Hill down the road to a fine old building all our own in historic Downtown Durham, NC.
In 2004 Merge Records is celebrating its 15th birthday, and while our roster has changed, rotated, permutated and expanded over the last 15 years, the quality we look for in records as fans is still there in the music we put out on Merge.
Thanks for listening!

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February 15 street date. THE LONG RYDERS, FOUNDERS OF ALT-COUNTRY IN THE 1980S, saddle up for the fi rst time in thirty years with their biggest and best slice of Americana yet, the aptly named Psychedelic Country Soul. The album was produced by Ed Stasium (Ramones, Belinda Carlisle, The Smithereens) and features a eleven Ryder originals and a cover of their friend Tom Petty’s great song, “Walls.” Recorded in Los Angeles at Dr. Dre’s studio, Psychedelic Country Soul is, in Long Ryder Sid Griffi n’s own words, “the album we were always trying to make . . . each fl avor which made the band unique is there be it C&W, rock’n’ roll, troubadour folk music, raw R&B, or out-there psychedelia.” The Long Ryders (Griffi n, ex-Jayhawk Stephen McCarthy, song publisher Greg Sowders and NASA veteran Tom Stevens) are supplemented on the album by old friends The Bangles on harmony vocals and stellar sideman Dave Perlman (Everly Bros. Hoyt Axton) on pedal steel guitar. Yet, ultimately the album is The Long Ryders. With Griffi n’s familiar electric 12-string guitar, McCarthy’s virtuoso Clarence White licks, Tom Stevens earthy bass and Greg Sowders swingin’ drums, Psychedelic Country Soul is an album for 2019 made with the fl avors of yesterday which has the sound and the spirit of tomorrow. Get ready for the ryde of your life.

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