The Bug Club’s fourth full-length (and second on Sub Pop) swerves giddily pop-ward. The two principals, Sam Willmett and Tilly Harris, toss out the previous album’s hard-charging rock sound like last week’s recycling and settle, instead, on a cuddly twee vibe that matches very well with their fanciful lyrics.
Author: Justin Gage
Car Seat Headrest :: The Scholars
Car Seat Headrest’s 13th album is ambitious in every possible way, from the overarching conceptual framework to the exulting, triumphant sound to the sheer length of the tracks. The new record is that deeply unfashionable thing: a rock opera. Yet the theatricality, the sonic overload, the proggy construction do not, in any way, overburden the tunes, among the strongest and most anthemic of Will Toledo’s hook-laden career.
The Circling Sun :: Orbits
New Zealand’s cosmic jazz ensemble The Circling Sun comes forth with Orbits, the sequel to 2023’s Spirits and, like it, deftly serves up Yusef Lateef vibes on a platter. The group has all the irreverence and joy that makes spiritual jazz so compelling versus its more competitive, virtuosity-obsessed co-genres—especially when delivered by a group this numerous (an undectet!), you can almost hear the musicians having fun.
W. Cullen Hart and Andrew Rieger :: Leap Through Poisoned Air
Here’s an archival gem for Elephant 6 heads: a collaborative EP from the late visionary Will Cullen Hart and Elf Power’s Andrew Rieger. Though very brisk, the timing of this snapshot (culled from recording sessions circa 1999-2000) vividly conjures the opaque psychedelic sweet spot of the Olivia Tremor Control and beginnings of Hart’s essential offshoot project Circulatory System.
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.
Slide On Rainbows :: Early Roxy Music In Focus
A “state of mind” is how Bryan Ferry once described Roxy Music. Born from art school roots, the early era of the band conjures up all sorts of identifiers, undoubtedly anchored by the visionary presence of Brian Eno, postmodern decadence in the seventies rock hierarchy, and the art-rock genre turning itself inside out. Curating all sorts of Pop Art signifiers from film to the avant-garde to classic Americana pastiche, this angular approach to pop music remains quite unlike anything else that came before or after.
Cameron Knowler :: CRK
For the past few years, Cameron Knowler has quietly worked his way into the epicenter of the Soli revival. Making a name for his playing with the excellent Anticipation collaboration with Eli Winter a few years back, Knowler has since become a familiar face in the realm of steel string. Indebted to his instrument’s history; his playing steadfast, concise, and open to the possibility of the unexpected. CRK is no exception to this rule.
Mal Waldron :: Sweet Love, Bitter
Clouded by the obscurity of the film itself, Sweet Love, Bitter is a poignant example of the brilliance of jazz pianist/composer Mal Waldron. Adapted from 1961 novel Night Song (loosely inspired by the life and final years of the legendary Charlie Parker), Waldron’s soulful soundtrack is the perfect accompaniment to the gritty, somber themes and even lucid dream montages. After decades of languishing in obscurity, Sweet Love, Bitter proves to be a provocative, multi-faceted display of jazz culture.
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
Videodrome :: SLC Punk! (1998)
In many ways, SLC Punk (1998) is a love letter to the punk movement as it existed in the mid-1980s. But it’s also a salient example of “quarter-life crisis cinema,” tackling themes such as identity, disillusionment, and the fear of adulthood during that liminal moment of life when youthful idealism begins to clash with reality.
Sketch Show :: Audio Sponge
Even for Yellow Magic Orchestra loyalists, the new millennium timing of the short-lived Sketch Show made the project easy to fly under the radar. Audio Sponge is the 2002 debut from duo Hauromi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi. While veering back at seminal influences like Brian Wilson, the mellowness of the compositions here are downright hypnotically restrained; a canopy of soft glitch samples, acousto-electric rhythms and relaxed vocals that simply evaporate as soon as they’re uttered.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: May 2025
This month, Tyler and Chad are joining forces to pay tribute to Bob Dylan, in honor of the man’s birthday coming up on May 24. Tyler is zoning in on Dylan’s miracle year of 1965, playing some rarities, oddities and live performances, while Chad is taking a wider view with an hour’s worth of demos, outtakes, live cuts and album tracks from 1970-1993. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.
Joe Harvey-Whyte & Bobby Lee :: Last Ride
Last Ride journeys out toward that stoned and immaculate perimeter where reality blurs between the future and now, where truth and fantasy meld and the desert expanse of the mind begins to resemble the great celestial horizon. It’s here we find pedal steel maestro Joe Harvey-Whyte and psych-country vibe lord Bobby Lee, scouring these far reaches for the purest elements of their cosmic choogle—two sonic cartographers conjuring a landscape straight outta the technicolor acid western playing perpetually on the back of your eyelids, where nothing is as it seems, and everything’s right where it needs to be.
Scott Hirsch :: Hey Perdido
Via Ojai, CA, Scott Hirsch returns this spring via his latest full-length, Lost Padres, officially out today on Echo Magic. Hirsch describes the record as a roadmap, “a sonic strategy to get back home. A touchstone test to hold what you value as truth to see if it’s real or fool’s gold.”
Bennie Maupin :: The Jewel In The Lotus
Out of print on vinyl since 1977, Bennie Maupin’s solo debut, The Jewel in the Lotus, makes its welcome return to the format this month via ECM’s Luminessence reissue series. A counterpoint to the playful funk of Hancock’s Headhunters, The Jewel in the Lotus swings the pendulum well beyond Mwansishi’s heady explorations into more earthy, deeply spiritual turf.
A true headphone journey and an aural balm for a world that’s spinning a bit too fast.