Right as he finally began to be recognized as a proto-indie rock figurehead in the late eighties and early nineties, Alex Chilton found himself drifting toward the sounds of his youth. Right as people had begun clamoring for Big Star and the acerbic rock & roll Chilton wrote after that band’s end, he opted to crack open the Great American Songbook and channel his inner Chet Baker.
Search Results for: chilton
Alex Chilton :: Electricity By Candlelight, NYC 2/13/97
In 2009 I went to see Charlie Louvin play a small club in L.A. on a rainy night in February. Not long into his set the power went out. Sudden […]
Alex Chilton :: Jumpin’ Jack Flash / Free Again: 1970 Sessions
Released last month, Free Again: The 1970 Sessions highlights a fertile, if transient, period in Alex Chilton’s life and career. As the decade began the twenty year old Chilton found himself at a crossroads. Having […]
Sevens :: Alex Chilton – My Rival
( Sevens , a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, pays tribute to the art of the individual song.) There is an understood snarl to much of Alex Chilton’s latter work beginning […]
Alex Chilton :: I’m In Love With That Song
One of indie-rock’s most important pioneers and songwriters died today. Alex Chilton, founding member of Big Star , died at the age of 59. It is especially sad given that Big Star […]
The Mendoza Line :: Post-War
“We liked bands like the Mekons or Alex Chilton, that kind of vibrated on that strange frequency where you weren’t sure if this was entertaining all of the time, or if the feeling between the band and the audience was more agreeable or adversarial. And that just doesn’t scale commercially …”
Aquarium Drunkard :: 2019 Year In Review
Once again, our obligatory year-end review. The following is an unranked list of albums that caught, and kept, our attention in 2019.
Blanks And Postage: Like A Road Leading Home – The Elusive Sarah Fulcher and the Less Elusive Jerry Garcia
Of the many improvisers to regularly share a stage with Jerry Garcia, almost none were women. A new archival release from 1973 brings attention to one of Garcia’s least known […]
Oh, How She Dances: An Evening With Tav Falco & Panther Burns
… I can’t recall if Falco opened that show with “Oh, How She Dances” but it has been his set opener every time I’ve seen him in the intervening decades. The tune is a litany of sideshow freaks, an evocation of forbidden delights, and the de facto theme song of Falco’s 40-years-and-going outfit, the Panther Burns.
Unearthed, Vol. 5 :: Hoboken Nights
For fans of adventurous rock and roll in the 1980s, there was no better place to be than Maxwell’s. The Hoboken, NJ club (which closed its doors for good in 2013) consistently hosted the best and brightest artists of the era, often before they graduated to much larger venues. For our latest Unearthed bootleg mix, we’ve gathered together some choice audience tapes recorded at Maxwell’s between 1980 and 1990. There’s visionary jangle, guitar freakouts, breezy balladry and much more. And if this whets your appetite for more, get thee to the McKenzie Tapes site (where several of these performances were sourced), which is bringing NYC-area taper David McKenzie’s valuable vintage recordings to the digital age.
Zuider Zee :: Zeenith
Seriously, what was in the water down in Memphis in the ’70s, and how did all the power poppers know where to get a sip? Of course you had Big Star , […]
SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (7pm PST, Channel 35)
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU , channel 35, can now be heard every Wednesday at 7pm PST with an encore broadcasts on-demand via the SIRIUS/XM app. SIRIUS 523: Jean-Michel […]
SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (7pm PST, Channel 35)
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU , channel 35, can now be heard every Wednesday at 7pm PST with an encore broadcasts on-demand via the SIRIUS/XM app. SIRIUS 518: Jean […]
Katie Von Schleicher :: Sell It Back
Last year, Katie Von Schleicher released Shitty Hits, an earnest statement of blown out melancholic bedroom pop, invoking the likes of Emmitt Rhodes, Angel Olsen, and Alex Chilton. Over the […]
Shrunken Head: An Oral History of Jack Logan’s “Bulk”
(An oral history of Jack Logan’s 1994 double album “Bulk”, as told by Peter Jesperson, Peter Buck, David Barbe and Jack Logan.) “I’ve got a song you need to hear” […]