Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorry Orchestra: Louis Armstrong’s America, Vols. 1 and 2

Allen LowePosted on

In a massive four-CD set, Allen Lowe and his adventurous ensemble conjure an alternate past while exploring real history. Their tribute to Louis Armstrong, the country he grew up in and the worlds he created employs a wealth of traditions and styles, from Dixieland to fusion. A sprawling, eccentric mix of contradictions, confluences and celebrations, it rewrites the past and charts a weird vision for the future . . .

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Dolphins, Aliens, & Drugs :: Brian Blomerth on The Life of Consciousness Pioneer John C. Lilly

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With Lilly Wave, cartoonish Brian Blomerth creates a vivid and oracular comix biography about the life and far out ideas of John C. Lilly. Though far from a typical biography (to start, all the human characters in the story are anthropomorphized in Blomerth's signature style), it nonetheless creates context in which to experience Lilly's most psychedelic notions. From the deep sea to outer space, this one is a journey. Dive in . . .

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The Cure :: Songs of A Lost World

The CurePosted on

Robert Smith never aimed to create the definitive soundtrack for our current dystopian moment, but he may have done it anyway. The argument against? He wrote some of these songs more than a decade ago and has been playing them off and on at shows for nearly as long. But despite the temporal disjunction, if you’re looking for some way through early November 2024, bleak, magisterial Songs of a Lost World makes an ideal companion. It is wise, spiritually charged and not at all bent on insisting that “we’ll get through this” or “things will get better . . .

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Anthony Moore :: Home Of The Demo

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Home of the Demo comes from a quiet period in Anthony Moore’s eventful musical life. The avant-garde keyboardist and composer’s art-pop-cabaret project Slapp Happy had run aground, after moving from Berlin to London and collaborating with Henry Cow for two albums. Virgin Records released his first solo album Out (1976) but passed on the subsequent ones, Flying Doesn’t Help (1979) and World Service (1981), both issued on independents . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, Channel 35)

SIRIUSPosted on

Seed of memory. 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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Transmissions :: Real Estate

Podcast Real EstatePosted on

This week, a talk taped earlier this summer with Martin Courtney of Real Estate. Real Estate has been releasing great albums since the late 2000s. This year, they released their sixth LP, called Daniel. Produced in Nashville by Daniel Tashian, who produced Kacy Musgraves’ breakthrough Golden Hour, it’s a mellow, refined sound—deeply rooted in acoustic ‘90s rock textures and dappled with pedal steel. It’s a record about growing up, and accepting all that comes with accumulated time spent here on earth . . .

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Richard Swift :: 4 Hits & A Miss

Richard SwiftPosted on

"If the freedom doesn't kill you/Well then man, I think the politics might." Richard Swift cracks that line in "The Original Thought," the opening number of 4 Hits & A Miss-The Essential Richard Swift, a 50-minute, 14-song collection that serves as a primer or introduction to the late songsmith. Lovely, charmed, oddball, and often ha ha funny, this playlist presents Swift as a pop wizard/joker/wisecracking oracle, tap dancing the line between sarcastic wit and transcendental wisdom . . .

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Limbo District :: Carnival

Limbo DistrictPosted on

Limbo District made its own rules. The Athens, Georgia post-punk outfit spliced hammering Afro-centric rhythms to Weimar cabaret decadence in theatrical performances that pushed late 1970s gender norms to the breaking point. They were out and gay before almost anyone, creative in a variety of artistic disciplines and an inspiration to a whole generation of wild, weird Athenians: Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Keith Strickland of the B-52s and members of Pylon . . .

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Helen Merrill :: S/T (1955)

Helen Merrill Midnite JazzPosted on

For the latest entry into our ‘Midnite Jazz’ series, we take a trip back to Manhattan circa 1954 and find a twenty-one-year-old Quincy Jones embarking on his first studio gig as an arranger for Helen Merrill’s eponymous debut album . . .

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Aquarium Drunkard Book Club :: Chapter 31

Book ClubPosted on

Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our monthly gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: a guide to Krautrock, Lucy Sante’s sermons for Bob Dylan, plot twist poetry, and tomes devotes to Alan Vega of Suicide and The MC5 . . .

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Rogê :: Curyman II

RogêPosted on

Rogê is steeped in bossa nova tradition, building lush, rhythmically restless compositions that are light as air but resonant with feeling. Here in his second U.S. released solo album, the Brazilian native now living in LA, pays tribute to the genre’s masters, covering João Donato’s "A Rã," “A Força,” from his collaborative album with Seu Jorge and “Lendo Do Abaeté” a song made famous by Dorival Caymmi, while also taking the form in new directions with original material . . .

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Mount Eerie :: Night Palace

Mount EeriePosted on

Phil Elverum emerges from unimaginable loss in Night Palace, returning from relentless (and understandable) exploration of his own wrenching experiences to consider again the largeness of the natural world, the purpose of art and human transience. This larger scope extends not just through the lyrics, but into the sound of this double album, which throws off the limitations of poetic, minimalist, lyric-focused indie folk and dallies with rock, drone, free improv, country and black metal . . .

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Tomin :: A Willed And Conscious Balance

TominPosted on

As the electric keys of the "Untitled Dirge" minisuite kicks off A Willed and Conscious Balance, it's evident that Tomin Perea-Chamblee's shapeshifting palette expands upon his own woodwind arrangements, transmuting an orchestral symmetry with the record's ensemble. It's a record with an ever-evolving framework, conveying the essence of canonical free jazz entities with a set of signifiers that sounds ambivalently modern . . .

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Bondo :: Harmonica

BondoPosted on

LA based post-rock quartet Bondo returns with their sophomore LP, Harmonica. Recorded live to tape by engineer and producer JooJoo Ashworth, Harmonica conveys an organic sensibility that only a live band can communicate. There is a tightness, a musical understanding through technique and dynamics with an added dimension of nuance - some improv, and the happy accidents that can only come from four people playing together live . . .

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Barry Archie Johnson :: Fortune’s Mirror

Barry Archie JohnsonPosted on

Though he's been playing for years, Fortune's Mirror, released by the esteemed VDSQ imprint, is Barry Johnson's proper instrumental debut, and has the distinction of possibly being the most "California" sounding solo guitar record to come out since Will Ackerman's first few albums for Windham Hill . . .

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