As part of When You’re Calling Me, an upcoming tribute to the Beach Boys Friends LP coming soon on Passing By Records, Floreana (AKA LA-based musician Victoria Mordoch) tackles “Diamond Head,” one of the album’s two exotica-flavored instrumentals. In her hands, it’s a great dot-connector, taking us from Les Baxter to Stereolab to today’s ambient jazz scene. And she gets there in under two-and-a-half minutes. Something tells me Brian would be pleased.
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Bandcamping :: Summer 2025
Could this summer get any weirder? Things are tumbling forward in 2025, with the future as unsteady and uncertain as can be. But the great music keeps on coming somehow, making the weirdness more tolerable. For your further explorations (and continued sanity), check out a handful of recent releases that we’re putting on repeat as the mercury rises.
Barry Walker Jr. :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
The Barry Walker Unit’s At the 13th Moon Gravity Well is very much a band effort, with Rose City bandmates Ripley Johnson (guitar) and John Jeffrey (drums) and Mouth Painter bassist Jason Wilmon joining Walker for a loose-limbed, thoroughly exploratory collection of live recordings taped last year at a local pub. With four instrumental tracks clocking in at over 40 minutes, this is deep, transportive stuff, giving Walker and co. a chance to stretch out and get loose, regularly finding moments of collective ecstasy. There’s groove mixed with freedom, melody crashing into dissonance. A total thrill from start to finish. To get a little more background on this magnificent record, we chatted with Barry a few weeks back from his home in Portland.
Yesternow: Editor’s Note Volume Two
Greetings from Todos Santos, Mexico. I’m back down here for a few days having first visited during the pandemic era in August of 2021. We’ve been listening to this massive, humid, playlist that I compiled just prior to that trip on repeat via the bluetooth speaker on the beach: Lust For Listening. All heaters, summer crate style. Think: 88°F, salt water, Mexican lagers and mezcal. In my bag I’ve been re-reading a tattered copy of Graham Greene’s prophetic 1955 expatriate novel, The Quiet American. The more things change, the more they remain the same …
Transmissions :: Bureau of Lost Culture (Bonus Episode)
We hope you’ve enjoyed Tyler Wilcox’s All One Song series so far but we’re back with, well, something different: it’s a bonus Transmissions conversation between host Jason P. Woodbury and musician, writer, and podcaster Stephen Coates, host of the Bureau of Lost Culture.
Willie Nelson’s 4th of July Picnic (1974)
Living legend Willie Nelson will once again be hosting his annual 4th of July Picnic this year, more than 50 years after the Lone Star State tradition kicked off. For those of us who can’t get down to Texas this Independence Day, this concert doc from ’74 will have to do. Don’t worry, it’s about as good a time as you can have — you can practically smell the reefer, sun tan lotion and BBQ as tens of thousands of fans enjoy a weekend of the burgeoning outlaw country scene’s best: Jerry Jeff Walker, Sammi Smith, Waylon Jennings, B.W. Stephens and many more.
Aquarium Drunkard :: 2025 Midyear Review
The clock never stops, but sometimes music manages the impossible: slowing time for a moment. It’s in those vibrational encounters with music that we find peace and we find ourselves. In the spirit of sharing the stuff that moved us, we’re back with our midyear review. As always, the list is unranked and unruly; there’s more than enough here to guide you into those rare encounters with deep time.
All One Song :: Steve Gunn on “Will To Love”
Welcome to the very first episode of All One Song: A Neil Young podcast, presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Join liner notes author, musician, and Shakey historian and Doom and Gloom from the Tomb host Tyler Wilcox along with an array of great musicians and writers discussing their favorite Neil Young song, diving deep into Shakey lore and getting personal about this amazing body of work. It’s a series for Neil heads by Neil heads. Up first? Steve Gunn, with a look at Neil’s epic fish daydream.
All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast from Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions
All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast is coming this summer from Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, hosted by Shakey historian and superfan Tyler Wilcox. Tune in via the Transmissions feed starting Wednesday, June 25.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: June 2025
Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month, Chad kicks it off with some languid summertime folk & woozy dream pop, and Tyler follows with some singer-songwriter-ish zones. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.
History Repeats Itself: Guitarist Steve Caton on ‘80s L.A., Electric Minimalism and the Eternal Return of Repetition Repetition
A new compilation excavates the curious history and powerful sound of Repetition Repetition, a 1980s L.A. guitar/keys duo that merged the transcendental dissonance of the avant-garde with the serene pulse of new age and the limber nerves of rock ‘n’ roll. Surviving member Steve Caton recalls the scene, hanging out with a Toto guitarist, meeting with Harold Budd and a wedding-reception run-in with Jon Hassell.
Weird Herald :: Just Yesterday
OK, so not every northern California band that played the Fillmore West or the Family Dog back in the late 1960s needs to be rediscovered and given a deluxe reissue treatment. But Weird Herald deserves your attention — and anyway, barely anyone heard them during their brief lifespan. On the scene from 1967 to 1969, the group released just one promo-only 45 and didn’t even see too much success on the Bay Area club circuit. But Just Yesterday, a new compilation drawn primarily from ancient, nicely toasted reel-to-reel tapes, proves beyond reasonable doubt that Weird Herald had more than enough talent to go along with their relatively bad luck (not to mention pure tragedy).
Dylan Golden Aycock :: No New Summers
Though he’s released music in a variety of configurations and collaborations over the past few years (not to mention invaluable work behind the scenes with his ever-reliable Scissor Tail Editions label), Dylan Golden Aycock hasn’t released an album solely under his own name for quite some time. But the Tulsa-based guitarist comes back swinging with No New Summers, a seven-song effort that ably shows off his many talents — and even adds some welcome new vistas.
Aquarium Drunkard Book Club :: Chapter 33
Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our monthly gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: all things Roxy Music, some narco strung out street-lit by way of east Texas, the infinite puzzle that is the crack in the cosmic egg, the ever erudite and entertaining travels of the late Patrick Leigh Fermor, and more. Your librarians for this installment are Justin Gage, Tyler Wilcox, Ian Everett, and Mark Neeley.
Transmissions :: Justin Gage (2025)
We close out the 10th season of Transmissions with a special look under the hood with Justin Gage, who founded Aquarium Drunkard 20 years ago in 2005. Initially envisioned as just a place to share cultural recommendations with friends, Aquarium Drunkard blew up as the blog rush began. Suddenly, Gage found himself running a respected media outlet. 20 years later, he joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss how Aquarium Drunkard has stayed true to the maxim of only the good shit.