Internet Arms , Shaun Fleming’s third full-length as Diane Coffee , is his most fully realized work to date. Grappling with technology and our relation to it, the artist chose to embrace the […]
Category: The AD Interview
Lambchop :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
2019 marks 25 years that Lambchop has been releasing albums. The incredible quality across that stretch is even more impressive when compared to the relative restlessness in the group’s sound and size. Their latest, This (Is What I Wanted to Tell You), is one of their finest albums yet and marks another push forward – an examination of a sound started on 2016’s FLOTUS.
Stephen Malkmus :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
“Some of these songs have this kind of ramshackle rhythm first of all, and it’ll kind of get into something and then kind of fall apart a bit.” This is […]
Bill MacKay: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Chicago guitarist Bill MacKay returns with another winningly eclectic solo LP for Drag City. Fountain Fire sneaks up on you; its songs are unassuming at first, with a loose, conversational feel to them. Ahead of the album’s release, MacKay joined Aquarium Drunkard to discuss his shifting approaches, cinematic inspirations, and establishing his own musical language.
Longmont Potion Castle: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Can prank calls be an art form? It isn’t hard to answer “yes” once you’ve heard Longmont Potion Castle. A new documentary, Where In the Hell Is the Lavender House, seeks to offer a glimpse at this obscured figure.
Julian Lage: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
During a recent set with the Nels Cline 4 at the Musical Instrument Museum, guitarist Julian Lage couldn’t stop smiling. It was a repeated sight. Whether aggressively dueling with Cline or offering supportive chords, Lage appeared to be having the most fun. That joyful spirit is also audible on his latest record as a bandleader, Love Hurts. Working with drummer Dave King (of the Bad Plus) and bassist Jorge Roeder, the set was cut mostly off-the-cuff at the Wilco Loft, and it’s a beautiful, layered testament to spontaneity.
Michael Rother :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
With Kraftwerk, Neu!, and Harmonia, guitarist Michael Rother was instrumental in developing Kosmische Musik, or Krautrock. A new boxset charts his often pastoral and filmic solo trajectory.
Starflyer 59: Hey, Are You Listening?
While Starflyer’s early, reverb-drenched albums, named Silver and Gold for their monochromatic album covers, fit neatly into the shoegaze movement, it didn’t take long for Martin and assorted company to outgrow that mold, blooming into one of the truly essential—if largely unknown—forces in American indie rock. Young In My Head is a vital edition to that catalog.
Cochemea: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
On All My Relations, Cochemea Gastelum’s second solo album and first for Daptone Records, the saxophonist offers up a globetrotting swath of sounds, soul music of varying genres. Funk, R&B, Latin jazz, Indigenous chants and stomps, Morrocan Gnawa, cosmic jazz—leading his combo of Daptone stalwarts, Gastelum melds together elements of each to form a multi-faceted, spiritually cohesive tapestry.
Charles Ditto :: In Human Terms
An experimental minimalist from the Texas hill country, Charles Ditto self-released In Human Terms on his own label in 1987. He calls it “nootropic deconstructed pop minimalism,” and it slots nicely with the spacey ambient worlds of Michele Mercure, Pauline Anna Strom, and Savant. Picture round shapes floating through a light fog and you’re in the right astral territory.
Dave Harrington :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Dave Harrington is a modern-day guitar hero in an era that increasingly does not seem to care about such figures. His credits should be legendary, but as it stands, he […]
Jessica Pratt :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Jessica Pratt doesn’t have many contemporaries. Her nylon-string reveries exist in a precarious space between the then and now, and she seems destined to float as a cult figure for […]
Catching Up With Alejandro Escovedo
“I’m sitting here in Carrboro, North Carolina.” This is the voice of Alejandro Escovedo. On the day we’re speaking, I’m hoping to catch his performance that night at the Cat’s […]
Maston: Tulips, 45 RPM & Psilocybin
This is the story of taking mushrooms, unintentionally playing a record mastered for 45 RPM at 33, and discovering its shadow self . . . and then discussing the experience with its architect. Sonic examples, for the curious, included.
Chris Cohen: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Like his work with Deerhoof, Cass McCombs, Ariel Pink, and Weyes Blood, Cohen’s gentle psych-pop has always rewarded paying close attention. But Chris Cohen finds the songwriter addressing his world with more candor than ever before.