With Light in the Attic’s release of The Night and Like Swimming, the story of Morphine unfolds deeper thanks so new liner notes by Ryan H. Walsh. He joins us to discuss the Boston trio’s singular sound.
Year: 2023
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
Transmissions :: Jarvis Taveniere (Woods)
Welcome to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions; this week on the show, we’re joined by arvis Taveniere of Woods. You know his long running Woods band with Jeremy Earl of course—and Woodsist, their record label and Woodsist Festival, which returns September 23-24 upstate with Kevin Morby, Avey Tare, Cochemea, Tapers Choice, Ana Saint Louis, Natural Information Society, Kurt Vile, Scientist, DJ Aquarium Drunkard—that’s our own Justin Gage—plus many more. The band also just released a glowing new album, Perennial, which finds the band in a gentle, rambling mode.
Videodrome :: Thief (1981)
Thief has been hailed as a Marxist neo-noir classic, a cinematic bridge between the gritty realism of the crime-dramas of the 1970s and the hyper-stylized action films of the 1980s. But besides being a genre bedrock, Thief is a nuanced character study that serves as an allegory for the trappings of capitalism.
Peter Case :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Peter Case might have made his name with the speedy rock trio The Nerves and the chiming Plimsouls, but he’s spent much of the last handful of decades following his muse into unexpected territory. His latest albums, Doctor Moan and The Midnight Broadcast, speak to his breadth, drawing deeply from blues and jazz—harkening back to classic works like his 1986 solo debut, which was crafted with T-Bone Burnett and Mitchell Froom. All along, Case has been interested in chasing songs in a very classic and rooted sense, and he’s keen to see where they might lead him—no matter how shadowy the terrain. Aquarium Drunkard rang Case earlier this year to discuss.
No Way Out: An Oral History of Sunburned Hand of the Man: Heavy Rescue
This week, we shift from the band’s chronological narrative to consider the many factors that bind this chaotic mass of people together in this creative yet uncommercial experience. We open with our focus on the role that music has played in the band members’ individual lives and how a shared love of music brought them all together. This morphs into a consideration of the band’s many artistic influences, with a close look at the impact of the Wu-Tang Clan on Sunburned. We hear about the complicated and often difficult backgrounds of many of the Sunburned musicians and how jamming with the band can often serve as a type of group therapy.
Baby Chuck :: Memphis In June, 2018
There’s a Paul McCartney record from 2005 called Chaos and Creation In The Backyard that came out just as I was beginning my senior year of high school. I’ve never listened to it, but I think about its title all the time…
Pharoah Sanders :: Pharoah (Box Set)
Everything about Pharoah Sanders’ eponymous 1977 album is a gift. It’s a masterpiece of quiet mystique and joy that almost never was. Despite the fact that the maestro himself was never satisfied with the album and rarely spoke about it, Pharaoh took on a life of its own over the next four decades to become one of Sanders’ most hallowed and revered recordings. Now available for the first time since its original release, Pharaoh has been rejuvenated with the splendor of a monumental box set from Luaka Bop. It’s a tremendous archival achievement that casts new light on a crucial point of transition for Sanders, going above and beyond with a veritable trove of liner notes, photos and ephemera, and two previously unheard versions of Pharoah’s meditative opus, “Harvest Time.”
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab :: September 17, 2023
Frequencies in flux, it’s Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. This month, Chad DePasquale drops in with New Happy Gathering, featuring a blend of rustic sounds, lo-fi gospel, and electronic psych-pop. Then Jason P. Woodbury’s Range and Basin, featuring slo-mo rock & roll, surf-tinged pop, and spaced out psych. Then Tyler Wilcox arrives with Doom & Gloom from the Tomb, indulging the “tune in/zone out” region with about an hour’s worth of one of Wilcox’s favorite songs: “By This River” by Eno/Moebius/Roedelius. Hypnotic! To close, The Vacant Lots share a mix of songs that influenced the chrome plated retro-futurism of their album Interiors.
Five For Richard Davis …
If you played bass on both Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch and Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, your legacy is going to be pretty much set. But if you’re Richard Davis, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 93, those are just two high points in a career full of lofty peaks. Davis could go as far out as necessary (he teamed up with fellow upright master Reggie Workman on Pharoah Sanders’ spiritual jazz epic “The Creator Has A Master Plan”) or add a little magic as an ace session player (did you know that he’s on Born To Run and There Goes Rhymin’ Simon?). To celebrate the bassist’s life and work, here are a handful of brilliant moments to check out.
Catching Up With Hiss Golden Messenger
“Words can mean different things, from day to day they change their meaning,” MC Taylor sings at the start of Jump For Joy, his latest under the reliable and stalwart Hiss Golden Messenger banner. Adopting a new character—named “Michael Crow,” with a subtle nod—allows Taylor a little space to move around. And tellingly, he uses much of that wiggle room to indulge in layers of funk (“I Saw the New Day in the World”), lithe soft-rock (“Shinbone”), and Dead-indebted shuffles (“California King”). Hiss Golden Messenger’s best records always balance honeyed charm with existential weight, but here the ratio feels exactly right: words change their meaning, after all, and though Taylor concludes the album confessing he “speaks a dead language,” it’s clear he’s got plenty of new things to say. Taylor joins us to discuss.
Karly Hartzman (Wednesday) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Helmed by songwriter Karly Hartzman, Wednesday has evolved from an Asheville, NC solo project to a full-fledged band with five albums to their name. On them, Hartzman’s voice careens from a near yodel to a clear scream, sometimes within the span of a single song, melodic riffs periodically punching through. And lyrically, their latest Rat Saw God continues to embody that Southern smaller-town spirit, weaving in hometown references and encapsulating the teenage sweet spot of horror-meets-ennui specific to the band’s origin point. It’s music full of haunted spaces: Gothic, but not in the sense of black lace and The Cramps; warmer, more like a red hoodie and some Drive By Truckers.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W
Bongo Joe :: Two Oil Drums And The Truth
Though seemingly lost to history, ‘Bongo Joe’ was one of the best street performers to have ever graced a sidewalk – a musical genius, true outsider artist, DIY instrument builder, and poet-philosopher whose legacy has gone painfully neglected save for those lucky enough to witness his performances. Using a set of discarded oil barrels, a DIY PA system, and custom mallets, Bongo Joe transfixed street audiences across Texas, first performing in Houston, then Galveston, next Fort Worth, and finally San Antonio, where he set up in front of the Alamo for decades.
Transmissions :: Floating Points
This week on the show, we’re joined by Sam Shepherd, AKA Floating Points. His discography is full of beautiful and strange electronic music—bubbling Buchalas, skittering beats, washes of synthesized sound, and even moody, spacious post-rock. But underneath it all, his love of jazz is clear. In 2021, he teamed with an actual jazz legend: the late Pharoah Sanders, as well as the London Symphony Orchestra for Promises, a single 46-minute composition broken into nine movements. Today, Floating Points joins us to discuss bringing Promises live to the Hollywood Bowl September 20th.