Hello there!

Happy Billy Weekend Eve!

Btw, did you grab a copy of the fifth issue or a 2025 subscription yet? $5 and up for individual issues, $33 and up for annual subs. There’s a form to request a free version of each, as well. Head on over to zine.trainsongz.net!

The first batch of orders is shipping Tuesday, so there’s still time. And if you’re one of the 1000+ who have already ordered, we are loading the zine-train for you now :)

So…I’ve been cooking this concept up for a while, and I’m excited to finally share it. Going forward, Train Songz is going to try our darnedest to have a zine-ular presence at Billy shows, especially weekend runs, by partnering with official volunteers on lot and local businesses who agree to stock the zine in exchange for the Train Songz community #influence. (So please do go support them. Every place that I reached out to came from a rec in our community.)

🏔️ We’ll be kicking things off in Denver.

(…which is pretty appropriate, considering Denver is and always has been the #1 zine-getting city.)

“Train Songz, you’re gonna be in Denver?”

No, there is no one Train Songz. “Train Songz” is not a person—it’s more of an amorphous locomotive spirit, chugging between dimensions in the multiverse. So Train Songz is not literally in Denver like that, no more than it’s in Saskatchewan or Szechuan. It’s in all of those places simultaneously, and also dimensions our simple minds cannot fathom. Are you following? No? Perfect. Me neither.

🛰️ Where to find Train Songz

We will have zines on lot, thanks to a handful of volunteers! (They will be prowling around proselytizing about the importance of print media in the Age of Algorithms, while sporting some pretty rad and not-for-sale-only-for-volunteers “Print Media Dealer” shirts.)

We will also have zines at the following local businesses, who have been kind enough to stock ‘em:

1. Velvet Banjo

2. Zuni Street Brewing Company

3. Crooked Stave

4. Samosa Shop

5. Vine Street Pub & Brewery

6. King of Wings Tap House

7. Fire on the Mountain

8. Rocky Mountain High

9. Esters

Do your research into these places…some of them have parties and buses associated with the Billy show, others are owned by fans, and some are just friendly businesses down to help us out!

Please note the zines will be dropped off Friday early afternoon at these locations and be on lot a few hours before showtime, but I don’t have exact times :)

🗺️ Train_Mapz

I’m INSANELY STOKED to kick off a baby version of Train_Mapz, a shared Google Map concept. I want to keep building on it, but for now it has (1) zine sponsors and (2) places stocking the zine in Denver. (Soon we’ll add Asheville, Atlanta, etc.) When I visit places I’m the first guy to be Googling “best lunch not that expensive Asheville + Reddit,” and I hope Train Mapz can be our own little version of that. And maybe they’ll have zines out! Maybe not. I hope they run out! But I also hope you find them. The duality of zinester.

If you have recommendations of places in Asheville, Nashville, or Atlanta that could be down to stock the zine…let me know. Respond to this email.

🛋️ For my couch tour folks…

I’ll see you on BMFSDB for live setlist updates. If you’re available to help with live setlist updates during the show (which is free on nugs!) so others can follow along, please fill out this form or respond to this email, and I’ll be in touch. We’re still looking for a few couch tour volunteers to update songs as they’re played on the nugs broadcast…or from the venue on your phone, if you’re into that sort of thing. But the last time I was on my phone at a show doing a train_songz post, the Wise Old Spinner next to me told me to put that dang thing away and enjoy what I came here for. You know what? Valid.

—The Conductor