For better or worse, there is something within us that won’t give up. For better, that is what Matt O’Keefe does with his music. We recently caught up with O’Keefe in his front yard to discuss three songs that will be released off his debut solo record, Warm Infinity.
Category: The AD Interview
Andy Paley :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Depending on your entry point, Andy Paley’s body of work might be familiar via a number of unique gateways. Recording with Phil Spector and the Wrecking Crew. Producing the Shangri-Las. Writing with the Ramones. Sharing the stage with Patti Smith. And, of course, Brian Wilson’s proclamation of Paley being “the greatest musical genius I’ve ever come across”. Now residing in Vermont, Paley connected with us to discuss his long trajectory traveling all avenues of music, as well as current projects still rooted in the Spector-inspired tradition of the sixties “girl group” and French yé-yé sound.
Jeff Tweedy :: On Wilco’s Cruel Country
On Wilco’s Cruel Country, Jeff Tweedy takes a dazed look around. He joins us to discuss why it felt important to cut the new album live, the influence of the Grateful Dead, and what it feels like to inhabit Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 20 years later.
Lee Ranaldo :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Ten years past the end of Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo takes the stage at a low key festival in northern New England with just a couple of guitars and a few microphones. He strikes a note, hard, on an aging acoustic, cocks his head a little, and seems to contemplate that reverberating sound. From an iPhone lying on a stool next to him, the sounds of urban life flicker—an indistinct voice, some running water, the sounds of faraway traffic.
A few days after the concert, we connect by phone to talk about Ranaldo’s experience of the pandemic, how it moved him to create this new piece and how his attitudes towards touring and performing have changed since COVID.
Zach Phillips :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Zach Phillips’ OSR Tapes is probably among the most admired contemporary labels you’ve never heard of. Defining Phillips’ style in one paragraph is as hard as summarizing the history of the dozens of pseudonyms he has composed under.
For this interview we caught up with Philips to discuss institutional experiments with labels, his relation to South American music, his poetry and friends in New York, his imagination of harmony, Agamben’s messianism, and more …
Taper’s Choice :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Since their live debut at Gold Diggers in December of last year, Taper’s Choice have rolled through a smattering of dialed-in shows: more nights at Gold Diggers, Big Sur freakouts, New York rooftops and playing amongst the wine vines of Sonoma. Ahead of their inaugural festival later this month (Choice Fest), we caught up with the band to get a bit more detail about what’s ahead, how fast things have come together, and much more.
Carson McHone :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Carson McHone has been singing on the barroom stages of Austin, Texas since she was 16 years old. She’s a rare contemporary country artist who was born and raised in the Lone Star State, rather than moving to the rootsy music mecca to try and make it. Her latest is Still Life, produced in collaboration with Daniel Romano, her husband.
Terry Allen :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
A singer-songwriter as acclaimed for his art career, Terry Allen has always done things his own way. From his blood-soaked travelogue debut Juarez, to sculptures that reside in airports, he’s devoted his life to staggering bodies of work that move effortlessly between gallery walls, theatrical stages, and public airwaves. And that’s barely scratching the surface…
Sharon Van Etten :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Sharon Van Etten’s sixth full-length, We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong, is, like much of the music being released this year, a pandemic album, reflecting a long, contemplative couple of years that Van Etten spent in Los Angeles with her family. But even during lockdown, she wasn’t alone. Band members and fellow musicians reached out to her. Collaboration flourished.
Return To Hot Chicken :: James McNew Reveals The Secrets Of Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
If you had to pick one album that encompasses the awesomely eclectic nature of Yo La Tengo’s vision, 1997’s I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One is your best bet. It’s got it all (almost), careening from crunchy noise-pop to spacey ambient, from free-form experimentalism to delicate balladry, from homespun electronica to blown-out Beach Boys covers. Somehow, the band fits all these puzzle pieces together, creating a masterful whole. The double LP’s closer aside, this isn’t a little corner of the world, it’s an entire galaxy.
Lyle Lovett :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
It’s been a decade since the last time Lyle Lovett released a new album, and 12th of June works as both an introduction as much as it does to catch up on the ten years passed. “I wanted this to be a proper introduction to me and the Large Band if people haven’t heard us, or just something that feels familiar to people that do.”
Sagittaire :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Lovely Music chronicles the early days of Ivan Mairesse’s Sagittaire project, pulling from material written between 2015 and 2017 in San Francisco, where Mairesse recorded the album before moving back to his hometown of Los Angeles. Mairesse takes an introspective approach to songwriting on Lovely Music, juxtaposing dark lyrics with lush pop arrangements, Fripp & Eno-esque guitar tones, and a tender vocal delivery.
Richard Thompson :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Music From Grizzly Man, is full of similarly stunning moments. The music Richard Thompson and his collaborators conjured up was the perfect accompaniment to Werner Herzog’s documentary about the ill-fated environmentalist Timothy Treadwell. But — like Neil Young’s Dead Man or Bruce Langhorne’s Hired Hand — it stands up just fine on its own.
Pink Mountaintops :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Next month sees the release of the fifth Pink Mountaintops full-length, Peacock Pools — an eclectic, ruminative album, that reflects Stephen McBean’s long fascination with punk rock, his newer interest in free jazz and the creative ferment that can happen when talented people have time and space to experiment. “I really like this group of songs as far as an album, even though the songs are all over the place. For some reason, in my heart, it feels very cohesive.”
Big Thief’s James Krivchenia on Blood Karaoke, Mega Bog, and His Wide-Frame Techno-Thriller Americana Computer Music
We caught up with Krivchenia to discuss his new work as a producer, early drumming moments, and his computer music process over the phone from his new home in Los Angeles.