Sad Song :: Lou Reed’s Berlin At 50

Transformer, released in late 1972, gave Lou Reed a dose of the success that had eluded him in the Velvet Underground days. He almost immediately brought that momentum to a halt with Berlin, which hit record stores 50 years ago this week.

To dig deeper into Berlin’s mysteries, check out an alternate version of the LP, gathered from a variety of sources over the decades — home demos, live shows, etc. — with a few guests along for the ride, including ANOHNI, Sharon Jones and John Cale. Caroline and Jim are waiting for you down by the wall with a little Dubonnet on ice.

The Budos Band :: Frontier’s Edge

The Budos Band swaggers into the fray in Frontier’s Edge with a brilliant squall of brass and a sinuous rhythm section, splitting the difference between classic 1970s blaxploitation and a serpentine ethio-jazz groove. The Brooklyn-born large ensemble—which includes a full horn line and multiple percussionists in addition to the standard rock instruments—made six albums and two EPs on soul-funk revivalist Daptone Records. Now, they’re continuing the saga on their own Diamond West label.

Gabriel da Rosa :: É O Que A Casa Oferece

Gabriel da Rosa’s debut album, É o que a casa oferece, arrives at an auspicious time as Brazilian music is becoming more ubiquitous, cresting a wave of popularity that has been building over the better part of a century. The last 90 years have seen Carmen Miranda’s polyrhythmic schtick in the thirties and forties, the smooth and sophisticated bossa nova craze of the early sixties, and in the seventies Flora Purim, Airto Moreira, and Milton Nascimento championed an adventurous style of Brazilian jazz. Now, a new Brazilian tide is rising, building off the previous waves’ continued relevance, and it’s washing ashore along the Southern California coast.

Cut Worms :: The AD Interview

Bursting with melodies and completely unironic passion, Cut Worms latest hits like a golden-hour cigarette on a fire escape, and that won’t change anytime soon. The fact that it’s one of the best records of 2020 feels irrelevant; it could have been one of the best records of 1960, given the vintage production sound created at Sam Phillips Recording Studio in Memphis, and to some crate-diggers down the line, if there is still such a thing, it should be one of the best records of 2080 too.

Aquarium Drunkard :: Decade / 2010-19

Well, that was fast. Decade is just about over, and as it draws to a close, its highs look awfully high in the rearview. Presented here, an unranked sprawl of 100 records that stuck with us, managing to break through the noise of an increasingly distracting age, and stick around in our heads.

Lee Fields: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Soul singer Lee Fields reflects on five decades of making music for and with people, discusses the line between the sacred and the secular, and offers up cosmic advice: “The truth isn’t hard. A lie is hard. You have to catch yourself every time. People get caught up in lies, but when you’re dealing with the truth, man, it’s easy.”