Based on my limited interactions with the mysterious songwriter, Liam Hayes doesn’t do anything half-heartedly. That much is clear from his records, like 2002’s Fed and 2014’s Korp Sole Roller, two chunks of magnificently realized […]
Category: The AD Interview
Ryley Walker :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Catch Ryley Walker one day, and he may be forecasting his future as a bald, ponytailed guitar shredder ; catch him another, and he’s sketching out a scene from the mid-2000s, scheming to pick up a book of pop theology and some blog rock . […]
Catching Up With The Love Language
“I’m stoked, man. Back at work after so long.” This is Stuart McLamb of the Love Language , standing on an L.A. sidewalk having just emerged from a barber shop. It’s a relatively new surrounding for the North […]
Daniel Lanois :: Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois
On their new collaborative album, Daniel Lanois and electronic composer Aaron Funk, better known as Venetian Snares, make for an unexpected “Canadian team.” As a producer and solo artist, Lanois’s work is dedicated to open, […]
Michael Rault :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Michael Rault’s new album, New Day Tonight, lends itself to repeated listens. It’s not just that the Canadian musician continues to build on his distinctively retro-but-not-old sound , but the complexity and layering accomplished on the LP […]
Sarah Louise :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
On Deeper Woods, Sarah Louise wanders deep into the woods seeking a sense of awe. Over the course of the album’s seven songs, which blend Appalachian folk melodies with droning ragas, she finds it over […]
Unknown Mortal Orchestra :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s fourth full-length, Sex & Food is both reflection and rumination on our times. Simultaneously grandiose and deeply contemplative, the record swirls with disparate sounds and themes – unified by a pessimism and fear of where we’re headed […]
Marc Ribot :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
On YRU Still Here, the third album from guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Shahzad Ismaily, and drummer Ches Smith’s Ceramic Dog combo, absurdist rage is made explicitly political, and flamenco is transmuted into scathing punk funk. […]
Wye Oak :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
On The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, Wye Oak synthesizes the disparate strands that have run through its discography over the last decade into one solid form. Synthesizers hum, electronics whirl, guitars mutate […]
Dean Ween :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Here’s how I first encountered Ween. I’m in junior high and in the lunch line at the school cafeteria, shuffling my tray along that metal railing, as my buddy, who as an adult would do […]
Orrin Evans :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
The movement of musicians into or out of a jazz ensemble isn’t the kind of news that draws much attention. They are so often juggling different projects and schedules that it doesn’t raise any eyebrows […]
Colin Newman (Wire) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
2018 looks to be a banner year for fans of the defiantly minimal Wire. Following 2017’s Silver/Lead, a record that marked the band’s 40th anniversary in the most inspiring way possible — by demonstrating its […]
Mark Renner :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
As a young man in Baltimore, Mark Renner created music that coupled the energy of punk and new wave with a sense of romantic longing. Recently, Brooklyn-based label RVNG Intl released Few Traces , a wide-angle […]
Bonny Doon :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Detroit’s Bonny Doon won’t kill you with kindness, nor will they burn much rubber on their musical journey. The foursome’s second full-length, Longwave , continues in the vein of forebears such as Berman/Malkmus coupled with the breathing atmospheric […]
Amen Dunes :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Over and over again on Amen Dunes’ fifth album Freedom, songwriter Damon McMahon punctuates lyrics with the word “man.” “We play religious music/I don’t think you’d understand man.” “I really gotta go/yeah man.” “Pride destroyed […]