Languid melodies weave in and out of piano figures, a lush but minimal sound. The music billows out in an organic way, phrase leading to phrase, one long vibrating note spilling into the next without the guardrails of rhythm or measure. That’s maybe a surprise when you consider that Joshua van Tassell is a drummer by trade. His solo work, however, is lithe and open-ended, a nocturnal conversation between piano and strings.
Year: 2023
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, 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
Videodrome :: American Movie (1999)
In its examination of aspirations, complacency, and the fine line between talent and persistence, few documentaries have come close to capturing the pursuit of artistic ambitions with as much raw sincerity as American Movie.
Transmissions :: Penelope Spheeris
This week on the show, Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury joins Penelope Spheeris, director of The Decline of Western Civilization trilogy, The Beverly Hillbillies, Little Rascals, Suburbia, and Wayne’s World. Spheeris is the host of Peter and the Acid King, a true crime podcast set in the Los Angeles punk scene of the early ‘80s concerning the unsolved murder of Peter Ivers, host of New Wave Theater.
David Grisman :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Mandolin legend David Grisman spoke with AD about jazz, mandolin, his long partnership with Jerry Garcia, when Bob Dylan hit him up for lessons, and the new edition of the Garcia/Grisman jazz collection, So What, on vinyl for the first time.
Leo Takami :: Next Door
Leo Takami first hit our radar with his 2020 album, Felis Catus and Silence, a beacon of light in a potently dark year, shaping Windham Hill-inspired guitar compositions with elements of jazz, minimalism, classical music, Japanese gagaku, and ambient textures. The Tokyo-based composer and guitarist’s follow up arrives with Next Door, an album that once again finds Takami handling all the controls himself, creating his own fantastical dreamscapes and, this time, leaning a little more into easy listening and lounge.
Happy Thanksgiving :: Doug Sahm And Friends – Austin, TX 1972
Tradition runs rampant around Thanksgiving: generations of old recipes, football, Alice’s Restaurant, and, of course, a parade of balloons shutting down NYC. What else do you need? If you thought you were covered in the Thanksgiving tradition department, we did too…until a few years ago, when someone blew the dust off a long lost tape — Doug Sahm’s Thanksgiving Jam.
John Fahey: “Voice of the Turtle,” America’s First Composer, and Other Excursions
… though John Fahey would employ a similar strategy on America’s second side (after a dose of fretboard gymnastics on “The Waltz that Carried Us Away” and “Knoxville Blues”), with “Mark 1:15,” it is “Voice of the Turtle” that comes across as the true pivot point for the guitarist as a composer. And it was just that, which he was becoming. From revivalist interpreter, to experimenter, to composer of, perhaps, the most fundamentally American works.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: November 2023
It’s time for another installment of Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab, four hours of sounds from AD selectors and friends. Up first, Chad DePasquale shares The New Happy Gathering Holiday Special: crunchy leaf folk, woolen country, and a palm wine-jazz cocktail. Then, Jason P. Woodbury concludes Range and Basin with a longform instrumental drift, encompassing digital soundtrack jazz, lunar epics, and synths. Then, Tyler Wilcox shares a special Doom and Gloom from the Tomb, featuring tunes heard in his CD-focused Bonus Tracks column. And to close, Gabriel Birnbaum shares a broadcast of his Foxy Digitalis Mix.
Rubber Band Gun :: Shut Up and Deal
Shut Up and Deal is the latest from Rubber Band Gun, the solo vehicle of musician, sound engineer and producer Kevin Basko. Recorded in his own studio, Historic New Jersey, the album’s soundscapes weave a double image that evokes the careless whimsy of a Vegas casino—but also said establishments shadowy corner booths. The album
art—hand-painted by John Andrews—mirrors that atmosphere, featuring two grinning jokers holding up either side of a signature RBG playing card.
Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels :: The Last Roundup
We complained in a Bonus Tracks column a few months back about the Gram Parsons archive series, which had kicked off with a Vol. 1 way back in 2007, leaving us hanging for Vol. 2. Someone must have heard our prayers for more unreleased Parsons. The Last Roundup offers an unearthed soundboard tape of Gram and his short-lived Fallen Angels band playing Philadelphia’s Bijou Café in the spring of 1973. The recording comes from just a few days after the Fallen Angels’ previous/posthumous live LP, so there’s quite a bit of overlap here — but no one’s going to complain, considering the dearth of pro tapes from Parsons’ all-too-brief solo era.
Yo La Tengo :: The Sounds of the Sounds of Science
With a 78-minute runtime and only a single track not eclipsing the eight minutes, The Sounds of the Sounds of Science is an almost meditative aquatic soundscape created for a series of short films by avant-garde filmmaker Jean Painlevé. Specializing in underwater cinematography, the French director’s short films (ranging in dates from 1927-1982) were compiled by Criterion in a collection titled Science is Fiction, with eight of them receiving YLT scores to break the deep sea silence.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Graves
Earlier this year, Graves (moniker of veteran singer-songwriter Greg Olin) released his best record yet in Gary Owens: I Have Some Thoughts, a country gem influenced by “a lineage of West Coast dreamers, surfers and skaters”. The California-based musician treats his inaugural Lagniappe Session with a similar country touch, the five eclectic tracks accompanied accompanied by pedal steel guitar, Wurlitzer piano and more.
William Eggleston :: 512
William Eggleston, one of the world’s most celebrated photographers, first turned to music in 2017 with Musik, an improvised album performed entirely by the artist on a Korg digital keyboard. His follow-up, 512, shifts the main field of action to a Bösendorfer grand piano and invites like-minded collaborators—Sam Amidon, Leo Abrahams, Matana Roberts and Brian Eno among them—to deconstruct beloved standards.
Hardcore Iconoclastic :: Mark Lightcap on the Woozy Drifts of Acetone
Ahead of the career-spanning collection i’m still waiting. guitarist Mark Lightcap joins us to discuss the evolution and mythology of Acetone, his Southern California trio. “We’re just stirring this cauldron of musical information waiting for the flavor to congeal in a way that we like.”