Outré California. 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
Author: Justin Gage
Jim Putnam :: S/T
California-based indie veteran Jim Putnam has worn just about every hat imaginable in the music industry. This eponymous solo record on French label We Are Unique! recalls the assiduous songwriting from his previous Radar Brothers venture and beyond: a trusty slice of sunbaked comfort. Coming as no surprise, the stark and layered orchestration comes courtesy of the journeyman playing all of the instruments himself.
Keith Jarrett: No End, Newness and the Power of the Low-Key Jam
Keith Jarrett didn’t have to make a rock album filled with noodly guitar and muted boogie. But he did, and in its unusually obvious imperfections, eccentric choices and rambling longueurs, it shows the famously demanding pianist at his most mercurial and relaxed. In his perpetual hunt for wells of inspiration and rivers of feeling, Jarrett’s curious detour still leads to some fascinating backwaters and rewarding reservoirs.
Basic :: Dream City
Hot on the heels of their thrilling debut, Basic is back with Dream City. The Basic formula remains in place, with percussionist Mikel Patrick Avery’s hypnotic electro-acoustic rhythms providing the sturdy foundation for Chris Forsyth to weave fantastical six-string tapestries. It’s far more than just “shredding over the top,” however — in fact, Dream City features some of Forsyth’s most lyrical and imaginative playing, forgoing flash for melody, fireworks for pure texture. This stuff has a pleasingly neverendless feel, like we’re only hearing choice snippets of an eternal jam. Basically beautiful.
Destroyer :: Dan’s Boogie
Over the past decade, Destroyer has shifted seamlessly into middle age. Where restless, lesser artists might have manufactured reinvention narratives or settled into the indie oldies circuit (imagine the money to be made from a Kaputt 15th anniversary tour), Bejar and his muse have kept on truckin’: ken, Have We Met, LABRYNTHITIS, and now Dan’s Boogie. Not career-defining statements, but statements out of which a career is defined.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma :: Gift Songs
For over 20 years across countless releases and contexts Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has been honing in on the liminal space between sound and silence. His new album Gift Songs feels like the most realized version of this concern. In a time when information overload and short attention spans are at an all time high, Gift Songs feels like a transmission from another place inviting the listener to slow down, take a breath, look around. You’ll be glad you did.
Videodrome :: Leviathan (1989)
Released in tandem with a plethora of other aquatic-based horror/sci-fi thrillers, George P. Cosmatos’ Leviathan (1989) is a prime example of cinematic micro-trends and the old Hollywood adage, “give us the same, but different.”
Radiohead :: The Bends… at Thirty
This month marks thirty years since the release of Radiohead’s sophomore album, and first masterpiece, The Bends. Threatened with relegation to status as one-hit wonders, the Oxfordshire quintet answered the success of Pablo Honey with an album even more infectious and confident than the last, a collection of songs which took the band’s inherent contradictions in stride. In twelve tracks and fifty-eight minutes, The Bends travels the spectrum from oppositional to vulnerable, from artistic to commercial, from alienated to universal and back again—frequently in the same blow.
The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)
Outré California. 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
Jeffrey Lewis :: The Even More Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis
It is probably fitting that Jeffrey Lewis’ visual homage to Dylan’s 1963 second album is a bit of a goof. Lewis remakes the iconic cover in much the same way he’s been remaking literate, ironic folk singing for the last several decades —naked and confrontational and without the slightest instinct for self-protection. The cover, too, is just the beginning. Lewis never saw a cliché or consensus opinion he didn’t want to upend, whether it’s the “do what you love” twaddle of career self-help or the myth of drug-assisted creativity. His venom goes down with surprising ease, blended as it is with a deep, wry acceptance of what it is to be human.
Okonski :: Entrance Music
Okonski return with Entrance Music, revealing the flipside of the perpetual afterhours reverie of Magnolia. For their sophomore outing, the trio gently open the curtains to find themselves in the light of a new day, unimpeded by anything that isn’t melody or mood. Entrance Music drifts along like a perfect daydream, homey and lived-in, but maintaining a sense of spontaneity that leaves no doubt pianist Steve Okonski, bassist Michael Isvara “Ish” Montgomery, and drummer Aaron Frazer are attuned to the same ephemeral frequency.
Seán Ó Riada :: The Playboy of the Western World
Not quite an original score, though not quite a rehashing of trad-folk mythos, Seán Ó Riada’s The Playboy of the Western World is not your typical soundtrack. Much like the scores of Morricone, Greenwood or even Jack Nitzsche’s for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ó Riada’s work moves beyond the film for which it is meant to complement. Though steeped in tradition, the application of modern composition techniques and a healthy dose of heady experimentation takes The Playboy of the Western World well beyond the humble origins of the songs that constitute it. Erin go brách, or at least through today.
The Cult of Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson wasn’t a natural fit to become a Hollywood leading man. But in the misfit era of the 1970s, his rough and edgy all-American charm made him the perfect choice for a number of iconoclastic directors. His star may have fallen in the 1980s but there are a number of cult movies throughout his five-decade career that take advantage of his one-of-a-kind charisma.
Silver Synthetic :: Rosalie
From the ballads to the effortless melodic hooks, Silver Synthetic’s formula is one permeated with a clear sky buoyancy; an aural antidote of glowing laid-back comfort. Described by label Curation as “the album we have been waiting for”, Rosalie is best served with the windows open. The perfect companion to the budding springtime breeze.
Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz :: The Invisible Road: Original Recordings, 1985-1990
The RVNG Intl label comes through yet again with an absolutely uncategorizable, absolutely essential archival collection. The Invisible Road gathers a host of valuable tracks from the duo of Sussan Deyhim and Richard Horowitz, whose adventurous sound blends caffeinated downtown minimalism, traditional Middle Eastern modes, almost Kate Bush-y avant-garde synth pop and more.