Lagniappe (la ·gniappe) noun ‘lan-ˌyap,’ — 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus. Earlier this month we caught up with James Jackson Toth whose long-running Wooden Wand project had just released its first […]
Month: May 2017
Pearls Before Swine :: Island Lady
“Island Lady”, via Pearls Before Swine’s 1971 album Beautiful Lies You Could Live In , was described by its author, über-hippie turned civil rights lawyer Tom Rapp as “starkly bleak” in the liner notes to a later live collection (The Wizard […]
Bettye Swann :: Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye
Best known for the 1967 bubblegum soul hit, “Make Me Yours”, Bettye Swann was born one of a family of fourteen children in Shreveport, Louisiana. Her impassioned vocals (just ever so slightly off-kilter) bring to […]
SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU , channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST. SIRIUS 481: Jean-Michel Bernard — Générique Stéphane ++ Jean Michel […]
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy :: No Time to Cry (Merle Haggard/Iris DeMent)
No stranger to covers, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy returned to the fold earlier this month via his latest long-player, Best Troubador . An inspired collection of Merle Haggard covers, the vinyl edition of the double album arrived […]
Transmissions Podcast :: Lonnie Holley
Welcome to Aquarium Drunkard’s recurring Transmissions podcast. Today, we finish our mini-series in collaboration with the folks at Mexican Summer . In March, AD’s Jason P. Woodbury headed out to Marfa Texas to attend Mexican Summer’s Marfa Myths Festival, a four-day, […]
Videodrome: The Bizarre & Bewitching World of Cult Animation
(Welcome to Videodrome . A recurring column plumbing the depths of vintage underground cinema – from cult, exploitation, trash and grindhouse to sci-fi, horror, noir and beyond.) In a more civilized age before digital effects and […]
New Sounds / West Africa
“When the Europeans took blacks as slaves in the US, our ancestors brought their culture with them. They mixed their music with modern instruments, and created the blues, and that invented rock n roll, rhythm […]
Bill MacKay :: Esker
In recent years, guitarist Bill MacKay has served as Ryley Walker’s six-string sparring partner , built luminous soundscapes with Rob Frye (Bitchin Bajas, Cave) and led the jazz-inflected Darts and Arrows collective. A varied resume! MacKay maintains this healthy sense of adventure on Esker , his eclectic Drag City debut. […]
Some For Harry: A Haruomi Hosono Companion
“It was really pure art. Pure art. Anyway, producing great works was the ultimate goal; we had eyes for nothing else. We heard nothing else. We still had no sense of society. There was no […]
SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU , channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST. SIRIUS 480: Jean-Michel Bernard — Générique Stéphane ++ Can — […]
John Darnielle :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Since forming the Mountain Goats in 1991, John Darnielle has sung about remarkable people: wounded couples, Texas death metal aficionados, doo wop singers, professional wrestlers, horror authors, heretics, prophets, long-dead classical pianists, and occasionally, John […]
FORM Arcosanti :: 2017
It’s a Sunday afternoon at the FORM festival at Arcosanati. Mother’s Day, actually. I’m watching Phil Elverum of Mt. Eerie sing the most pained songs about the mother of his daughter, his late wife, the […]
Trummors :: Headlands
Consider your cosmic country rock needs met for the summer. Trummors’ Headlands is a gorgeous sonic road trip through the beauty, sadness and mystery of the American west (or what’s left of it), packed with sunburnt […]
Roky Erickson :: All That May Do My Rhyme/Where The Pyramid Meets The Eye
In the 1990s, Roky Erickson was rediscovered. Psychedelia’s forgotten man, a cult hero for decades, got a new lease on his creative life. In the mid-1960s, his legendary 13th Floor Elevators roared out of Austin, […]