There have been few bands in the twenty-first century that have been as thrillingly alive to the history of American music as the shapeshifting Portland, OR free rock ensemble Jackie-O Motherfucker. They paired folk with free jazz, post-rock with Protestant hymnody, New York minimalism with Negro spirituals. The sonic collective unconscious of the United States, in all its strangeness and suffering, seeped through their sound. A welcome twentieth anniversary reissue of their best-loved and most accessible album Flags of the Sacred Harp offers a fresh opportunity to reconsider their inimitable form of musical archaeology.
Author: Justin Gage
Golden Brown :: Whisker Fatigue
Colorado guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Stefan Beck gets a lot of love around these parts as one-third of Mountain Time motorik outfit Prairiewolf. Fortunately it hasn’t been getting in the way of the solo work he puts out under his Golden Brown moniker. The new album Whisker Fatigue practices a rare form of psychedelic austerity, whipping up a heady atmosphere through subtraction. Some might call it ambient, but it is really what happens to acid rock when it is reduced to its essential elements.
Hiroki Tamaki :: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Originally released in 1980, before the Bhagwan had ventured to America to begin the now infamous Oregon ashram and its ill-fated demise, his spiritual teachings reached Hiroki Tamaki in Japan. Compelled to reach far outside his classical training for a full length tribute to the guru, Tamaki lays out a mind altering trip into some confounding musical spaces. An all-you-can-eat buffet of prog-ladened synths, ethereal vocals, spoken word meditations, and pedal to the floor jamming shouldn’t work this well – but damn if it doesn’t.
Charles Tolliver’s Music Inc. :: Live at Slugs’ Vol. 1 & 2
The resurrection of Strata-East is nothing short of monumental, and that’s a fact. While each album on the legendary jazz label is a masterpiece in its own right, there is perhaps no clearer line to the heart of the Strata-East psyche than Charles Tolliver and Music Inc.’s Live at Slugs’ Vol. 1 & 2. Originally issued in 1972 as two separate albums, Live at Slugs’ is finally presented in all its majesty as a proper double album, transferring the full impact of this tour-de-force scorcher that occupies the intersection of heady post-bop, modal elegance, and spiritual fervor.
Seke Molenga & Kalo Kawongolo
Recorded in 1977 at the hand of Lee “Scratch” Perry in the legendary Black Ark lies one of its most beguiling and misunderstood creations. Two talented Congolese musicians were brought to Jamaica to record an album only to be unceremoniously dumped by their promoter and fend for themselves. Found begging on the streets of Kingston by Perry himself, as the story is told, The Upsetter took it as a sign from Jah to take them in, and a serendipitous musical collaboration followed.
Dubwise Summer: An Aquarium Drunkard Mixtape
Summer equals dub. It is the elemental music of the season. And not simply because it comes from a tropical island. Everything in dub feels suspended in the heat and humidity: a little slower, a little hazier—all the elements delayed in the muggy atmosphere. There is something about the laid back languor of dub that feels especially appropriate this time of year, when the sun is high and the stakes are low. In that spirit, we’re serving up a couple hours of some of our favorite cuts from the golden age of dub.
Nate Mercereau, Josh Johnson, Carlos Niño :: Openness Trio
Openness Trio marks the first major release for the small group of L.A. musicians Nate Mercereau, Josh Johnson and Carlos Niño, as well as a significant milepost for the drifty, electronics-infused style of jazz they favor, appearing on the storied Blue Note label, once a haven of the old guard. Meditative, vibrant and lush, Openness Trio reenvisions the crystalline perfume of West Coast New Age not as daffy escapism but as the transcendental successor to avant-garde spiritual jazz. Equal parts incense and neon, it’s a testament to a place and a sound that sees the geographic and sonic realms as eternally impermanent and always incomplete.
Brightblack Morning Light :: BBC Maida Vale Session (October, 2006)
Before its candle was extinguished, Brightblack Morning Light burned languid, hot and, indeed, bright. Formed in northern California by Alabama natives Nathan Shineywater and Rachael Hughes, the group released several long-players and a pair of 7″s before ultimately disbanding in 2009. The following session finds the pair at Maida Vale studios in west London, augmented by additional players in the autumn of 2006. Cut several months following the release of their now-classic s/t debut, the set works up and elongates four of the album’s tracks. Slip in, ease back and listen for the green flash as “Friend of Time” stretches out far beyond the horizon.
Habibi Funk 031: A Selection Of Music From Libyan Tapes
Habibi Funk’s latest compilation is a trip into the Libyan cassette scene of the 1990s. While the collected songs were crafted for clear commercial appeal, designed to soundtrack romantic singalongs during late-night ballads in pre-war Tripoli, the end result achieves something way more complex, accidentally or not, by folding African music back unto itself through a process of re-diasporization.
The Reds, Pinks & Purples :: The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed
It has become a futile exercise to attempt using any other synonyms for “prolific” when it comes to the output of songwriter Glenn Donaldson. From the DIY outset of excellent Reds, Pinks & Purples debut Anxiety Art in 2019, we have been gifted a dizzying number of proper albums, EPs and various assorted outtakes (for those counting, that’s over 200 songs in the six year stretch). With The Past Is A Garden I Never Fed, Fire Records collects fourteen rarities and previously unreleased tracks from the sprawling RPP archival vault.
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 …
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Aux Meadows
Aux Meadows, the Oakland-based trio of Steve Dawson (dobro, lap steel), Joe Imwalle (synths, piano) and Chris Royalty (guitar, bass), touch down for this latest installment of the Lagniappe Sessions. As noted in our Midyear Review, the group’s latest LP, Draw Near, is one of our favorite records of 2025, a sentiment that is only reaffirmed by the following three covers. Here, the trio works up Another Green World era Eno, Sonic Youth’s mid-90s high watermark “The Diamond Sea,” and “the killer” himself — Jerry Lee Lewis.
Jeanines :: How Long Can It Last
How Long Can It Last continues to expound upon Jeanines’ specialty: short bursts of sunshine pop driven by jangly guitars and earworm melodies. At times, How Long Can It Last sounds like lost singles from Dolly Mixture and Marine Girls, bursting with teen-verve giddiness, textured by a homespun fidelity that adds an immediate intimacy to the recordings. At other times, the album recalls something Johnny Marr would have recorded for The Smiths with a sped up tape machine. A thirteen-track record that clocks in at just over twenty minutes, Jeanines don’t waste any time. They enter their songs at their most exciting point, and they get out of them quickly, leaving you wanting more.
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
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.