A.A. Bondy is back with Enderness, his first album in nearly eight years. Forsaking the minimalist folk of his previous records, it embraces synths and digital textures, demonstrating Bondy’s willingness to keep driving at new approaches: “…Joy Williams…talks about once you figure out how to produce an effect as a writer, you have to discard it, every time.”
Category: The AD Interview
Craig Finn’s I Need a New War: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
I Need a New War brings to end the trilogy Craig Finn started in 2015 with Faith in the Future and continued with 2017’s We All Want the Same Things, a triptych sidestepping the hard rock glory of Finn’s band the Hold Steady in favor of quieter, more introspective sounds and stories. Finn’s always written about hard luck characters, but increasingly, his lens centers more on the aftermath of the action than the action itself.
Lee Fields: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Soul singer Lee Fields reflects on five decades of making music for and with people, discusses the line between the sacred and the secular, and offers up cosmic advice: “The truth isn’t hard. A lie is hard. You have to catch yourself every time. People get caught up in lies, but when you’re dealing with the truth, man, it’s easy.”
Catching Up With Peter Prescott
Author and artist Dmitry Samarov’s new book, Music To My Eyes, was released last month via the Chicago based Tortoise Books. A 264 page love letter to independent music, Samarov’s words and minimalist illustrations flow in tandem, presenting a portrait of fandom and appreciation, from Nick Cave to Bill MacKay. Below, Samarov catches up with one of the subjects of his new book, Mission of Burma’s Peter Prescott.
Diane Coffee :: The AD Interview
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 […]
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 […]