***Since 2011, MIKE DONOVAN's been a Drag City stalwart, first with SIC ALPS, then as a solo and with THE PEACERS—but MIKE "THE MIGHTY FLASHLIGHT" FELLOWS has been a behind-the-scenes figure at Drag City since the early early days, playing live and on record with ROYAL TRUX, SILVER JEWS and WILL OLDHAM. And in fact, Donovan first laid eyes on Fellows way back in 1994, at yer legendary Drag City Invitational (we’re a matchmaker, blush!)! A multi-hy-phenate, Fellows has contributed to releases from ENDLESS BOOGIE, PIGEONS, WEEPING BONG BAND and PRISON in recent years. So when these two rambling musicians found themselves in adjacent communities in upstate New York, Mike D brought Mike F into the process of his new solo album. There The Mighty Flashlight turned ON, bringing his recording, writing, performing and mixing talents to the tabletop with such a seasoned vibe that he bought himself real estate in the album title itself! Something usually reserved for characters of legend (like Kiss’s adversary The Phantom of the Park) or giants of Dub (King Tubby, Scientist, Lee Perry et al, amen). The two-Mike combination makes the fourth Donovan solo album one that hits all kinda high water marks for the most and the best of what he’s capable of/plus inclined to do. And MF wanted to hear something different out of MD’s sound—so it could only be a meeting of the minds in the end.
LP $26.50
10/13/2023
***From sunshiney, smog-filled streets to an avian-strewn state of ur-nature, MIKE DONOVAN’s seen his share of the world, making records and playing shows all over the past 20 years with, chronologically, THE ROPERS, YIKES, THE HOSPITALS, SIC ALPS, TY SEGALL, THE PEACERS and most recently, himself. Time goes by and just seems to get faster as it goes. In June of 2017, MIKE led THE PEACERS sophomore effort, Introducing the Crimsmen, into the world. On 4/20 of ’18, his own sophomore solo release How to Get Your Record Played In Shops hit down. And now, a hot 23 months after the inauguration of the Crimsmendom, a third long-player in the time-frame arrives, as MIKE D whisks us away to his remote Exurbian Quonset. Exurbian Quonset sticks up like a fork in the road—it was drawn together as Mike prepared to be the last man from the old gang to leave SF, where he broke so many rules and new ground, working as a driver, a trimmer and a craftsman, cementing bricks into the foundation of the new centurion west coast rock and roll movement from his place alongside Thee Oh Sees over the past decade. It’s dedicated to the woman who married him and taught him both words in the title of the album—exurbian and quonset—and who he’ll whisk away with to somewhere just like the title. Mike's ouvre all the way down the line has been wedding silvery falsetto shiver-rock with sirens of noise, stand-up tin-pan pop singer performance...
LP $22.25
05/24/2019
MC $8.50
05/24/2019
***THE PEACERS / SIC ALPS lead singer MIKE DONOVAN steps out from behind the ash-stained curtain for his second solo album in the past five years: How to Get Your Record Played In Shops. The Donovan oeuvre is not something you’re meant to think about—instead, enjoy the soupy soak, sliding beneath its opaque and filmy surface to discover the sensual world in the moat below. But if you had time to think, you might reflect that this music blooms from ’neath the gritty carpet of the USA herself, sighted psycho-acoustically via SF futures and pasts, through rose-colored lenses shoved in and now cracking at the edges, amid hoots and cries from mystery pursuers in the historical, but now-less-than-fully-existent boho jungle. Yep: four Sic Alps, two (The) Peacers and two Mike Donovan albums along the line, Mike is still jiving down on main street, a footloose man of the world, twisting the dial, running ahead of the pack and through twists and turns, past dark characters in shady doorways. Then retiring for a mellow moment around the chambers, staring above the rooftops, through the tangle of aerials and wires. And then lifting the music-box lid.... (STREET DATE - 4/20/2018)
LP $21.25
04/20/2018
MC $10.50
04/20/2018
***Coming down from the ALPS-aintop recently, our boy MIKE DONOVAN broke away from the medicine show where they preached ol’ testament SICness. Something in the forest was calling. Signals emanated from the old dark hollow, with portraits of the Old Masters stacked in silence, collected the dust they are owed. Transistorized tunes echoed from inside a mossy log, crackling and rambling in the air of watery sunlight and tensed moon mist alike. Transfixed, Mike washed his hands in muddy water and wandered on to the oracle. And this is Wot he/she said... Here is a mysterious man, cheerful and dark. You don’t want to get in too deep but it’s too late. It is Donovan’s way this time around, and he’s flying the flag himself. Wot’s the name of this bolt from weed-ridden left field, the most hands-down, top-up debut alb. rolling ’round in 2013. Rife with riffing TUNES! Of course, Donovan’s debut comes following a distinguished run of tunesmithing for noise-popster poster boyz SIC ALPS, so he’s well prepared to go the solo route with a sac fulla songs. But shedding Sic skin so cleanly while still retaining the thing called “essence.” Lyrically, Mike’s sharpened the lead for a less random line drawn in the sand—but he’s still alit on allusive trips, lost in crystal canyons, turning a phrase with an acid flick of the wrist-watch. In this life, there is a brooding pregnance as he intones over some front-porch 21st-century j’accuse-tic blues with a blur of bygone, half-plugged,...
LP $19.75
10/15/2013
CD $13.75
10/15/2013
MC $10.50
10/15/2013