It opens with an abduction—and only gets crazier from there. Groupies is the latest series from KCRW’s Lost Notes music podcast. Written and hosted by Dylan Tupper Rupert and producer Jessica Hopper, the show’s eight episodes span the end of the ’60s, the birth of the ’70s Sunset Strip culture, and the dawn of punk rock, illuminating the lives of women often written out of the story or viewed as mere accessories to their rock star companions.
Category: The AD Interview
Jeff Parker on ETA :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
“With the ETA band, there were all these other experiences dealing with music that people were composing. So, when we would improvise, all of that other stuff was informed in what we were doing.” Visionary guitarist Jeff Parker joins us to discuss The Way Out of Easy, recorded live at his residency at ETA.
Bob Holmes (SUSS, numün, Ambient Country) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
One of the ambient country scene’s biggest proponents for almost a decade now has been Bob Holmes, whose work with SUSS, numün and the Ambient Country podcast — among many other efforts — have spread the gospel far and wide. Holmes’ latest project is Across The Horizon, a collaboration with Northern Spy Records that brings onboard various like-minded artists drawn “from the wide landscape of instrumental music” (including Luke Schneider, Marisa Anderson, William Tyler and more) to curate a series of digital releases that will culminate next year in a double LP compilation of stellar sonic explorations.
J Spaceman on Stranded in Canton :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
“It’s almost a Biblical connection.” Today at Aquarium Drunkard, Jason Pierce, aka J Spaceman, discusses Harmony Korine, Jim Dickinson, and his new soundtrack to William Eggleston’s 1974 documentary Stranded in Canton, released this week on Fat Possum Records.
The Soundcarriers :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
There was an eight year gap between Nottingham, UK band The Soundcarriers’ 2014 album Entropicalia and 2022’s Wilds, but thankfully the retro-pop combo have returned after a much shorter wait with Through Other Reflections, a spellbinding collection of beatific harmonies, motorik pulses, reverberating flutes, and fuzz guitars, all eased along by the haunting vocals of members Leonore Wheatley and Dorian Conway. Multi-instrumentalist Paul Isherwood joins us today to discuss the new album, creating music for the sorely missed television program Lodge 49, and the enduring influence of Scott Walker.
Jennifer Castle :: Letting The Songs Out
“I don’t want to teach anybody anything with a song. I’m not trying to steer anybody towards anything with a song. I’m not trying to be manipulative. I’m trying to let it out,” she says. “I must want it to come into being, so I just try to let it out as honestly as I can and then work from there.”
Office Culture :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Inspired by a dream in which he produced a CD called Enough, the latest from Office Culture signals a shift in songwriter/producer Winston Cook-Wilson’s whip smart songcraft: employing a wide cast of collaborators, including guest appearances by Alena Spanger, Sam Sodomsky’s The Bird Calls, and Jackie West, he turns his attention to rhythms, textures, and mood, creating mini-movies with each of the album’s 16 songs. From clanking, layered polyrhythms, to melodious fretless bass, to pensive piano ballads, it’s a dynamic listen that feels as personal as it does ambitious.
Sun Araw :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Sun Araw’s Cameron Stallones doesn’t stick to one mode. Since 2007, he’s exercised extreme artistic freedom, creating tapestries of experimental pop, zoned-out soundscapes, MIDI-symphonies, and dub-inflected synthscapes. On his 10th album, Lifetime, he spent years manipulating his bandmates’ contributions digitally, blending improv and post-production, resulting in a florid space of clapping drums, guitar scrawls, and oozy synths, all aided by sunny, yacht rock ready melodies. He joins us to discuss the record, as well as his collaborations with legends like Laraaji and The Congos
Anaïs Mitchell :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
There seems to be something downright mystical about everything Anaïs Mitchell does. With Bonny Light Horseman’s Keep Me On Your Mind/See You Free, a double album and their third release to date, blends conversational songwriting and a cast of characters culled from our collective mythology to expand upon their already rich brand of storytelling and music-making. Anaïs joined us via Zoom from her family farm in Vermont.
The Necks :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
The Necks have created conditions for themselves as a band that embraces a constant pattern of departure and arrival. In the leadup to the release of Bleed, Aquarium Drunkard interviewed Lloyd Swanton (bass), Tony Buck (drums, percussion), and Chris Abrahams (piano, keyboards) of The Necks by email, comparing and contrasting how they work in the studio as opposed to performing live, the band’s decision-making process while recording, the mountains of live recordings in their archives, and more.
Hataałii :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
There’s a sign on the cover of Hataałii’s Waiting for a Sign, bearing the words “authentic real deal.” It’s the kind of billboard familiar to anyone who’s driven through the large swaths of Native-held land in the American Southwest. Signs hocking goods, promising hearty meals, beckoning you off the road and into some cafe, trading post, or casino. But that’s only scratching the surface. He joins us for a conversation to dig deeper.
Howe Gelb :: Coherence is Accidental (A Conversation)
Poet philosopher Howe Gelb is a natural storyteller. And it turns out the Tucson-based songwriter doesn’t even need his signature voice—husky and low, a rumbling, phantasmagoric presence fronting his genre-crossing band Giant Sand for more than 40 years—to get his tall tales across. On his latest, Weathering Some Piano, Gelb’s voice does make a few brief but welcome appearances, but the focus is on his piano playing—solitary, unadorned, self-recorded at his home in Tucson “during random moments of weathering.”
Dark Canyon :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Long Days, Pleasant Nights is the sophomore album from Dark Canyon, the nom de plume of Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/engineer Mike Novak. We sat down with Novak to discuss writing and recording the album, becoming a new father, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower book series, and much more.
You Should Pay Rent In My Mind: Guy Picciotto | The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
In 1995 Fugazi released Red Medicine which to us here at AD was a radical shift in the band’s recorded trajectory. The arrangements grew more complex, the studio-as-instrument ethos becoming fully realized with more extreme textures. From lo-fi abstractions to widescreen feedback, to moments of tender beauty, the overall feel of the album felt more personal, even down to the packaging itself. To these ears it stands as a fulcrum which opened vistas in which the next records would further expand upon. Digging in, llyas Ahmed recently sat down with band member Guy Picciotto for a wide ranging talk about the album.
Alan Sparhawk :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Speaking from his dining room table in Duluth, Alan Sparhawk graciously explores the various paths that steered his first ever solo album under his own name, White Roses, My God. From the liberatory power of vocal processing to what he’s been listening to lately, the talk is a revelation.