Howe Gelb :: Coherence is Accidental (A Conversation)

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Poet philosopher Howe Gelb is a natural storyteller. And it turns out the Tucson-based songwriter doesn't even need his signature voice—husky and low, a rumbling, phantasmagoric presence fronting his genre-crossing band Giant Sand for more than 40 years—to get his tall tales across. On his latest, Weathering Some Piano, Gelb's voice does make a few brief but welcome appearances, but the focus is on his piano playing—solitary, unadorned, self-recorded at his home in Tucson "during random moments of weathering . . .

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Akiko Yano :: To Ki Me Ki

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Paris-based archival label We Want Sounds has become a house favorite, and their ongoing series of Akiko Yano reissues is one particularly sweet fruit to be pulled from that tree. Their sixth and most recent entry in the series came last year when they gave her third studio album, 1978’s To Ki Me Ki, its first ever release outside Japan . . .

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Dark Canyon :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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Long Days, Pleasant Nights is the sophomore album from Dark Canyon, the nom de plume of Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/engineer Mike Novak. We sat down with Novak to discuss writing and recording the album, becoming a new father, Stephen King's The Dark Tower book series, and much more . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)

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Portico pacifico. 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 . . .

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You Should Pay Rent In My Mind: Guy Picciotto | The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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In 1995 Fugazi released Red Medicine which to us here at AD was a radical shift in the band’s recorded trajectory. The arrangements grew more complex, the studio-as-instrument ethos becoming fully realized with more extreme textures. From lo-fi abstractions to widescreen feedback, to moments of tender beauty, the overall feel of the album felt more personal, even down to the packaging itself. To these ears it stands as a fulcrum which opened vistas in which the next records would further expand upon. Digging in, llyas Ahmed recently sat down with band member Guy Picciotto for a . . .

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The Weather Station :: Neon Signs

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Call it "brain fog," call it "attention economy burnout," call it the dregs of late capitalism: however you label it, Tamara Lindeman has been feeling it. With "Neon Signs," the sleek and driving new first single from her forthcoming album 2025 album Humanhood, she gives names and shapes to the sense of dread so many of us feel permeating our daily existence: "I’ve gotten used to feeling like I’m crazy—or just lazy . . .

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Transmissions :: Matt Sweeney

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Is Matt Sweeney the only guy to play on both a Current 93 and Dixie Chicks record? We suspect so. This week on Transmissions, he joins us to discuss the Monkees-like nature of his band, The Hard Quartet, with Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, Jim White of The Dirty Three, and Emmett Kelly of The Cairo Gang. He joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss . . .

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The Hard Quartet :: S/T

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The playing is great. The lyrics are knotty and evocative. The songs are distinct and individuated. But more than all that, what makes this self-titled effort so stirring is the joy that these four guys take in being and playing together. In short, this is no haphazard conjunction of people you’ve vaguely heard of. It is a meeting of giants who know and like and understand each other . . .

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Alan Sparhawk :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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Speaking from his dining room table in Duluth, Alan Sparhawk graciously explores the various paths that steered his first ever solo album under his own name, White Roses, My God. From the liberatory power of vocal processing to what he's been listening to lately, the talk is a revelation . . .

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Les Rallizes Dénudés :: 屋根裏 YaneUra Oct. ’80

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In the two years since Les Rallizes Dénudés began their campaign to officially release the recordings that have been stashed away in their sizeable archives, Takashi Mizutani’s famously enigmatic underground band has seen its stature rise slightly above ground, with write-ups in major outlets like The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, The Wire, and The Quietus. For a group that remained unsigned to any label and released very little material over the course of their three-decade existence, the Rallizes are remarkably well-documented: photos and recordings exist from their earliest days as student activist . . .

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Friends of Dean Martinez :: A Listener’s Guide

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Spaghetti western tributes, desert noir soundscapes, doomy post-rock, '70s rock grandeur. A guide to the music of Friends of Dean Martinez with pedal steel player Bill Elm . . .

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Broadcast :: Distant Call – Collected Demos 2000-2006

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Even funneled through the warbly quality of these 4-track relics, it begs the question: could the band have released a stripped down, psych-folk affair that worked as majestically as their spacey, electronic flourishes? These cuts envision that hypothetical quite clearly . . .

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Videodrome :: The Reflecting Skin (1990)

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The Reflecting Skin looks at explosions of both the emotional and nuclear kind and the ghastly fallout they leave behind. As the film navigates the battlefield of youth and innocence—of false narratives confused for honest declarations, of skeleton-filled closets that no one wants to open—it poetically reminds audiences that the worst nightmares occur during waking hours, committed by flesh-and-blood beings in the glow of golden sunlight . . .

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Bandcamping :: Autumn 2024

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An autumnal soundtrack, filled with ambient jazz, cosmic drifts, adventurous improvisatory situations and one hell of a Sonic Youth cover. Fill up your Bandcamp (or other digital service) cart and watch the leaves start to fall . . .

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Yoshiko Sai :: Mangekyou

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Before the explosion of city pop, before shibuya-key and Tokyo’s collectors mania, there was already Mangekyou itself, the 1975 debut record from Yoshiko Sai, then just a 22 year old dropout from the art school of Kyoto. Approaching the 50 year anniversary of Sai’s legendary debut, WEWANTSOUNDS has announced a reissue that will see the album available outside of Japan for the first time ever . . .

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