Drag City have announced the release of Mayo Thompson’s first-ever solo guitar album, also his first solo album in fifty-six years. Quiet Days in Cliché, out December 4th, is described by Mayo as just some strumming and notes to self. Mayo recorded the album on his smartphone, with Drag City describing it as “acoustic improvisations that draw threads through space, looking for what more could happen.” They added, “we’ve worked hard to persuade Mayo to share these ideas with the public as a figurehead of psychedelic music going back to 1966. We trust you will hear why.”
Thompson is probably best known for leading The Red Krayola, an American experimental and psychedelic avant-rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1966. Check out their 1967 free-form freak-out The Parable of Arable Land (International Artists), which featured instrumental cameos from the 13th Floor Elevators frontman Roky Erickson. Contrast that with their lo-fi, stark, avant-garde offering, God Bless the Red Krayola and All Who Sail With It, released the following year. They also recorded an album with John Fahey after they performed with him at the Berkeley Folk Festival. Unreleased at the time, Live 1967 was later released by Drag City in 1998. Likewise, Coconut Hotel, recorded in 1967, was considered so radical that International Artists refused to release it at the time, and we had to wait until 1995 for Drag City to release that one.
After disbanding in the late 1960s, Thompson resurrected the moniker in England. He recorded the influential album Soldier-Talk, co-produced with Geoff Travis of Rough Trade, and he later produced albums for Stiff Little Fingers, The Fall and The Raincoats.
After the band’s demise, Mayo produced his first solo album, Corky’s Debt to His Father, in 1970. Barely distributed at the time, it has become something of a classic. Fifty-six years on, we finally have his second solo album. Those first ‘strumming notes to self’ come in the form of K-Pook.
Pre-Order/Save Quiet Days in Cliché: https://lnk.to/quietdays