Author: Justin Gage

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks :: Pig Lib

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Despite a slew of great tunes, Stephen Malkmus’ self-titled, post-Pavement debut felt restrained, reining in his more extreme tendencies. This is in stark contrast to the follow up record, 2003’s Pig Lib. Credited to Malkmus and the Jicks, this is the first record where SM is thinking of himself as a member of the rock band The Jicks. And as a Jick, Malkmus can to lean into his extremes (guitar indulgence, poetic weirdness), and it shows.

Ralph Towner :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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As a member of the pioneering chamber/world/GORP jazz group Oregon, as a solo artist and leader or co-leader, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist/composer Ralph Towner has been making wide-ranging, pigeonhole-defying music for more than half a century. Speaking to Aquarium Drunkard from his home in Rome, Towner was happy to look back at a few of the many highlights of his remarkable and varied career, from including but not limited to all-night concerts in the ‘70s, an impromptu jam session with Sonny Rollins, his jazz-snob regrets, kicking Bill Evans off the piano, looking for a sex-free crash tent at Woodstock, meeting astronauts and the vicissitudes of selenography. Most importantly, he showed that, nearing his 85th birthday, his musical mind is as restless and active as ever, even if there’s still one instrument he’ll never, ever play.

Keith Jarrett :: Live In Norway, 1972 (Molde Jazz Festival)

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August 2, 1972. Keith Jarrett performing solo in Molde, Norway the at the eleventh annual Molde Jazz Festival. Clocking in at 46 minutes, the concert is comprised of one continuous improvisation that Jarrett dubbed “Molde-72”. This recording was later paired with Jarrett’s return performance at the festival the following summer as the 2-CD collection, Keith Jarrett – Molde Jazz Festival 1972 & 1973 — a 2021 Japanese import.

Videodrome :: Christmas Evil (1980)

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Christmas Evil may seem like a hokey slasher film done up in garland and wreaths, but it’s a tragic character study that speaks directly to the motifs of the holiday season. With the thematic tissue of a Christmas film and the derangement of a horror film, filmmakers such as John Waters have referred to Christmas Evil as “the greatest Christmas film of all time.”

Amen Dunes :: Death Jokes II

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Damon McMahon clears away the complications that befuddled his intricate, sample-heavy Death Jokes album to reveal the lucid, often beautiful melodies underneath. In what the artist has stated will be his last album as Amen Dunes, he circles back to the eerie simplicity of the song, and it works in a big way. With Death Jokes II, McMahon pares down the excess and focuses on pure melody. His voice does most of the work on this remix, in all its wobble-prone, echo-shrouded, vulnerable sincerity.

John Zorn :: A Dreamers Christmas

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The Dreamers have always been John Zorn’s most immediately appealing project. With The Dreamers, Zorn finally set aside the kabbalistic solemnity that suffused so much of his late 90s work in favor of the pulpier, less austere sounds of exotica, surf, lounge, library music and mod jazz. When Zorn’s combo applied their considerable skills to classic holiday fare in 2011, they managed to make one of the greatest and grooviest Christmas albums of all time.

Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: December 2024

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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, Wilcox leads things off with a very wintry mix of stark sonic landscapes; DePasquale follows it up with an hour of baroque pop, post-punk & lo-fi soul. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.

Terry Riley :: Shri Camel

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Incredibly, Terry Riley’s 1980 mid-period classic Shri Camel had never been reissued on vinyl until last month. But Real Gone Music’s new edition gives listeners a fresh opportunity to revisit what was arguably the studio culmination of Riley’s solo organ-and-tape-delay performances of the 1970s. Over the course of four long movements, Shri Camel alternates between almost overwhelming spiritual intensity and mischievous humor and joy.

Tony Rice Unit :: Unit of Measure

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Truly, many of Tony Rice’s latter projects cannot be classified within a set genre but instead exist within the universal realm of ‘Guitar Music.’  On Unit of Measure, the picker continues to bare this distinction despite a more deliberate leaning-in toward tradition. After venturing to nearly every corner of the traditional music scene (and beyond), the peripheral experiences converge as a creative catalyst to Rice’s untimely and final reinvention of Bluegrass music.