50 years ago a different Feelies, predating the Jersey bred post-punk demigods by seven years, approached perfection for three minutes and thirty seconds. The opening bass riff is a misdirection, ceding to a sonic and lyrical landscape that’s both bucolic and post-apocalyptic. When everything drops, right at a minute-thirty-five, we’re suddenly on the musical equivalent of a moving walkway - sped and slowed simultaneously. Let’s ignore the song’s forgettable coda - when you’ve tapped the motherlode, you’ll eventually only strike gangue. words /
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Tokyo Flashback: P.S.F. – Psychedelic Speed Freaks
For about a quarter century, P.S.F. Records was an amazingly reliable source for Japan’s wildest underground sounds. The label’s founder, Hideo Ikeezumi, passed away in 2017, but he’s paid fitting tribute to on Black Editions’ new volume in the supremely heady Tokyo Flashback series, Psychedelic Speed Freaks (Black Editions reissued the original Tokyo Flashback last year.) A lavishly packaged four-LP set made up entirely of previously unreleased material, it showcases the awesome breadth of the P.S.F. discography, ranging from Fillmore East-ready jams (Ghost, White Heaven) to hair-raising free jazz (Masayoshi . . .
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Kinloch Nelson: Partly on Time : Recordings 1968-1970
Some tunes have the easy melodicism and melancholy of early Neil Young, while the more atmospheric numbers might call to mind Bruce Langhorne’s classic Hired Hand soundtrack (the harmonica that wafts into the mix occasionally adds an especially lonely flavor). As a player, Nelson is an original; he rambles but never meanders, wanders but never gets lost . . .
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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 . . .
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Helado Negro :: Running
Roberto Carlos Lange, the mind behind Helado Negro, feels like music's eternal optimist. This Is How You Smile, his new album, first saw daylight last week via Brooklyn's RVNG Intl. If not the one we deserve, Lange is definitely the hero we need. His music unfolds with a patient grace and an absolutely sublime beauty; his cooing vocals floating gently across electronic atmospheres, radiantly beaming about Latin pride, family, friendship, and love . . .
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Goat :: Let It Burn b/w Friday, Pt. 1
Heady psych, heavy on the fuzz, via Gothenburg's Goat. Released last spring, "Let It Burn" b/w "Friday, Pt. 1" combines the band's self-proclaimed "best song," written for a short film fittingly featuring a sacred goat pit against evil pagans, with a studio outtake jam that lives in a decidedly more placid space, transmitting warm, astral, free-jazz tones. Come for the doom, but stay for the cosmos. words / c depasquale
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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Scott Hirsch
Cut from the same dank and swampy cloth as JJ Cale and Bobby Charles, Scott Hirsch has paid his dues over the past two decades; both solo and with The Court & Spark / Hiss Golden Messenger. Last year’s Lost Time Behind the Moon found Hirsch mining languid, back porch Americana coupled with humid country-funk. Or: JJ Cale on cough syrup.
This installment of the Lagniappe Sessions finds Hirsch at his Ojai, CA studio, Echo Magic West, laying down three wildly emotional covers by the likes of Dire Straits, Commander Cody and Dylan – all of which will leave you wondering . . .
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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, Channel 35)
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard every Wednesday at 7pm PST with encore broadcasts on-demand via the SIRIUS/XM app.
This week: Things get pretty 'free' checking in with jazz and experimental, both new and vintage, during hour one. Then, guitar . . .
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In Memoriam: Sara Romweber (Let’s Active)
Sara Romweber was 17 the year I was born. She lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but had been talked into joining a band with a couple from about an hour and a half away in Winston-Salem. That band, Let's Active, would record and release their debut EP, Afoot, two years later, and its goofy, fun video for the perfect . . .
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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 . . .
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Aquarium Drunkard :: SXSW 2019
Is there still a Tostitos stage? The last time Aquarium Drunkard threw a proper fête at sxsw (2013) our now sitting president was referred to as “the Donald.“ Man, this simulation just gets weirder and weirder…
Anyway, we’re back. Join us Tuesday night, March 12, as we take over the Patreon house on Rainey street from 8-2am. Here’s what you can expect: The Cactus Blossoms, William Tyler, Jess Williamson, White Denim, RF Shannon, y la Bamba . . .
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Open Door To The Galaxy: The Radio Plays of Jo Harvey and Terry Allen
With a series of radio plays recorded between 1986-1992, Terry Allen and Jo Harvey presented the mythic Southwest, a wide open imaginary landscape haunted by denizens Allen describes as “climates” rather than characters. A handful of these fated souls are profiled in Pedal Steal + Four Corners, a handsome collection of Terry’s longform audio works by Paradise of Bachelors that spans an LP, CDs, and a book rich in lore and photographic documentation . . .
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Deep Into Steve Tibbetts’ Life Of
On Steve Tibbetts' Life Of, the new age trappings are gone, the subtle accompaniment of piano, “gong cycles,” gamelan influences (based on his travels and study in Bali and Nepal), the still-in-there-someplace Midwestern Kottke vibes, all synthesized so exquisitely. The secret sauce in his playing is partly due to his instrument; an old Martin D-12-20 12-string with worn down frets and dead strings. He describes it as having a “peculiar internal resonance, as though it has a small concert hall inside of it . . .
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Like Some Cool River :: Reimagining Richard Thompson
Like Some Cool River is a sampling of Richard Thompson covers from over the decades, with inspired offerings from old comrades (Sandy Denny, Iain Matthews) alongside devoted acolytes (Robyn Hitchcock, Stephen Malkmus). There are a few surprises along the way, too. Dig in . . .
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Viajante da Fronteira (A Mixtape)
An imaginary journey back to the lagoon where Hermeto Pascoal, O Grupo, and some butterflies made music in the river. 17 otherworldly tracks from Brazil . . .
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