Custom built for late night drives, Feast of Smoke finds Amber and Paul Oldham (Palace Brothers/Bonnie "Prince" Billy) mingling their voices over star blues, narcotized rock & roll, and swampy pop. They join us for a discussion about the record's roots . . .
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Molten astral jazz from the Motor City. By the time they recorded The Black Hole at the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival in 1973, CJQ (Contemporary Jazz Quintet) were Detroit’s answer to the electric clarion call resounding throughout the jazz world. With one foot in the stratosphere and the other in the streets, CJQ propel themselves with the same thrust of Miles’ Cellar Door band and Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi unit, while syphoning fumes of the raw energy given off by Detroit underground comrades like the MC5, Funkadelic, and the Tribe collective . . .
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When Sally Anne Morgan released the warm and welcoming Thread in autumn of last year, it felt like its own kind of Thanksgiving album—earthy, folksy, full of friends and radiating with joy. AD’s Tyler Wilcox called it a “natural, healing space, where everything is free and nothing is a weed.” What a striking and cerebral turn it is, then, for her to return this month with Cups—a solitary affair with a longer, more sustained compositional approach, allowing each note to bend of its own accord in search of melody and harmony . . .
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Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard returns for its regular third Sunday broadcast. Four hours of freeform radio from the RFAD crew on November 21 from 4-8 PM Pacific . . .
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Via satellite, transmitting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.
34.1090° N, 118.2334° W . . .
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With a Pavement reunion tour going all over the place in 2022, it's a good time to revisit Lance Bangs' excellent Slow Century doc. Originally released in 2002, it tracks the band from the scruffy early days as a "special new band" through their, er, slightly less scruffy time as indie rock darlings . . .
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“Video Life” this is not. Prior to being reborn in the late 70s while riding the crest of British new wave, guitar guru Chris Spedding kicked off the decade with his solo debut, 1970’s Songs Without Words. Originally a Japan-only release, the instrumental jazz album found itself reissued and augmented in 2015 with a number of the tracks shortened, along with the inclusion of bonus track “Sub-Continental Drift . . .
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Ahead of his DJ set on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab November 21, psych scholar Erik Davis joins us for a talk about the Jesus People Movement, Larry Norman, Judee Sill, Philip K. Dick and more . . .
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A heavy lidded instrumental, Wicked Lady cut this near seven minute riff 'n fuzz ripper in 1970. Both a testament to the endless endurance of the power trio as form, and an example of basement recording as unintended aesthetic, this shit just chugs. Like setting fire to grain alcohol, a late-night slab of hard psych perfect for summoning all manner of lower beasts and sub-creatures . . .
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Busy man John Dwyer doesn't slow down. In addition to Thee Oh Sees, Dwyer erects cracked, synth-heavy jams under his Damaged Bug moniker, mans the Castle Face label, and has been increasingly delving into jazz, free and otherwise, via multiple ad-hoc collaborations. Where last year saw the release of Bent Arcana, a half dozen tracks scanning krautrock, minimalist jazz, prog and fusion, 2021 introduced Witch Egg--Dwyer's latest improvisational outfit rounded out by Nick Murray, Brad Caulkins, Tom Dolas, and Greg Coates. The skronk is alive . . .
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Neal Casal once sang “Don't forget the old times my friend 'cause you know they were good times.” Today, Dave Schools of Widespread Panic and Hard Working Americans reflects on his late friend and a new tribute to him, Highway Butterfly . . .
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Ain't it funky now. Released in 2014 via Light In The Attic Records, this 18 track compilation of Sly Stone's short lived Stone Flower label continues to deliver empyrean dividends from the way-out. Over the course of four 7" singles, the label focused on a serpentine hybrid of minimal electro-funk, all delivered via house artists Joe Hicks, 6IX, Sly, and Little Sister. Produced and arranged by Stone himself, the catalog possesses an incredible lo-fi charm, slipping between proto-versions of Family Stone joints ("Just Like A Baby"), would-be anthems, and drum machine laden soul . . .
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Lloyd McNeill’s Treasures (1976) remains the most comprehensive work in displaying the merits of his artistic genius. The mind expanding “Griot” is a 17-minute epic that runs the gambit from deep spiritual heaviness to triumphant fanfare to a sure-strutted swagger that dances the listener into the blues-y shuffle of “As a Matter of Fact.” For the uninitiated and familiar alike, however, side two’s “Salvation Army” should be thrown on in memory of McNeill. A brilliant and bouncy affair, the group burrows into a victorious march with a groove that refuses to stop . . .
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Shot out of a hyper-creative canon, Kit Sebastian (Kit Martin and Merve Erdem) landed with a formidable debut in 2019's Mantra Moderne. Its audience held tightly to the album's global sprawl, advocating for more ears to agree and more music to arrive. The duo's follow-up, Melodi, answers those calls and then some. Intercontinental instrumentation is back - traversing sounds from the Cold War-era Balkans to rural South America - replete with Erdem's versatile, multilingual voice. Delightfully dancy, impressively intricate. Melodi’s momentum delivers a confident band for their first Lagniappe Session with Martin and Erdem . . .
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Charlatan channel science fiction into sound. Tying together various strands of Brad Rose’s multidisciplinary output, The Blades combines a chapbook of poems with the latest excerpt of a sci-fi novella, all soundtracked by an album of kosmische synth instrumentals . . .
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