Year: 2023

Peter Sprague :: Bird Raga

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Summer is the time for fusion. No, not the heady thought-provoking churning jazz skirmishes with psychedelia of Herbie Hancock’s early Headhunters or Miles’ brooding early 70s offerings. This calls for truly catchy grooves, more funk than conventional jazz, and beats per minute that soar as high as the mercury. Jaco-era Weather Report fits the bill, as does the seemingly cocaine-fueled filth funk summoned anytime Miroslav Vitous picks up the electric bass. And lest we forget the odysseys of the craft’s perfectionists–Casiopea.

On Bird Raga, guitarist Peter Sprague dives right into this mode.

Transmissions :: Laura Snapes

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Today’s guest is writer Laura Snapes. Her work has been published by the BBC, Pitchfork, and NME, and she’s the deputy music editor of The Guardian. We’ve been aiming to have her for Transmissions for some time now, and now we’re so glad we’ve got this episode to share with you listeners, covering the psycho-geology of songs, the climate, varied definitions of the term “Americana,” and her recent listening: Julie Byrne, Be Your Own Pet, Róisín Murphy, and Jesse Lanza. Plus, the occult roots of Aphex Twin and what it means to “name” a nascent music genre.

Diversions :: Vacant Lots

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With its blasted out drums, scuzzy guitars, and sleek synths, Interiors, the fifth album from Brooklyn synth punk duo The Vacant Lots, cruises into a chrome-plated retro-future. He joins us to discuss Iggy and the Stooges, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Suicide, and other formative influences.

No Way Out: Loveletter to Complicated Dreams

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This week, we hear about the origins of Sunburned Hand of the Man. Here’s an amazing and extremely early glimpse of Sunburned playing live in late 1997. You can see many of the musicians described in this episode! You can check out Shit Spangled Banner’s Ass Run release here, and this is the Discogs entry for the “other” version. Click through the images to see the accompanying note from Byron Coley. Also, here’s Byron’s piece remembering Marc Orleans published in The Wire. And this is an album by Marc Orleans’s band Juneau. We were wondering if Lothlorien – the Tolkein-themed space in southern Indiana was real.

Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard: August 2023

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Rolling in from the other side. Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab, August 20th, 4-8 PM Pacific. This month, Chad DePasquale drops in with New Happy Gathering, featuring a patchwork of 2023 digs, both new and archival. Jason P. Woodbury’s Range and Basin comes forth with a Sun Ra and Sinéad O’Connor-inspired mix of remixes, dubs, and cosmic comfort blankets. Tyler Wilcox arrives with Doom & Gloom from the Tomb, featuring an hour’s worth of deep cuts/rarities/live jams/etc from The Band as a little tribute to the recently departed Robbie Robertson. And to close, a kosmiche lattice: New Horizons: American Visionary Music 1968-1986 presented by Tarotplane.

Transmissions :: Darren Jessee

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On this episode of Transmissions, Darren Jessee joins us for a freewheeling talk about influences, lyrics, creative process, and his time on the road with Ben Folds Five. We discuss a wide range of artists—Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Judee Sill, Gordon Lightfoot, and spend a lot of time reflecting on Neil Young, who Ben Folds Five toured with in the 1990s. Along the way, we inspect the notion of how songs change and shape our views, the tenor of the culture wars back in the ‘90s, and the value of occasionally overdoing it.

The Band :: Wollman Skating Rink, Central Park, New York City, June 30, 1971

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The Band certainly went through the ringer — alcoholism, drug addiction, shady business dealings, mental health woes, etc. — but when they stepped onstage together, that all disappeared. Check ‘em out on this audience tape from way back in 1971, entertaining the throngs in Central Park on a warm summer night. The Band weren’t jammers; they generally stuck pretty close to the script in a live setting. But the songs have an added warmth, those irreplaceable/irrepressible voices blending magically with deceptively complicated arrangements. There’s a sense of support amongst the quintet that you don’t hear in many other places, an all-for-one spirit that lifts both the musicians and audience.

Edsel Axle :: Variable Happiness

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Early on Rosali Middleman’s Variable Happiness comes a moment that absorbs your entire life. A downward cascade of notes that draw you in and refuse to let go until they only exist as a fragmented toll in the ears. This new LP comes under the alias Edsel Axle (hereafter which Middleman is referred in the spirit of the proceedings) and features no one other than the artist on electric guitar and a combo amp.

Anohni :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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Anohni has been making transcendent, unearthly music for more than two decades now. Her latest album, My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross, is perhaps her best yet, mining a rich vein of classic soul to deliver impassioned lyrics about love, gender identity, intergenerational connection, and the climate crisis. She joins us to discuss resilience, soul, and the role of an artist in our damaged culture.