Before 20,000 Days on Earth there was this. Produced by Bram van Splunteren, for Dutch television's VPRO in 1987, Stranger In A Strange Land captures Nick Cave at pivotal point in the long arc of his career. Here, we find a forty minute snapshot of Cave and the Bad Seeds during the near decade they spent residing and recording in Berlin. Regarding his time in the city,become a member or log in.
The best songwriting works like a Rorschacht test. Observed from different angles, it reflects as much about the listener as it does the artist. When I first wrote about Bruce Springsteen's "Youngstown" and "Sinaloa Cowboys" for Aquarium Drunkard back in 2008, we were entering the Great Recession and the twin tales of Americans by birth and by choice spoke to us out of the mid-90s in a way that seemed even more relevant than before. My thoughts followed because of my surroundings.
As discussed in my original piece, Springsteen was reflecting on a quieter aspect of the decade -- an era largely remembered for the Dot Com boom and a general juggernaut economy. And yet, a decade that was just as hard and debilitating for large swaths of Americans as it ever was. So how does 2017 view a track like "Sinaloa Cowboys" in particular? This weekend brought a whole new vision. Between our new president's executive order establishing a new border wall and a temporary ban on immigration/refugees from certain countries, the protagonists at the heart of the song are now more of a warning for where bad policy can take us.
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Always on a tear, Ty Segall has a new self-titled record out. Segall's tireless stream of releases means he and his rotating gaggle of shred-heads never linger too long on any one strain of blissed out fuzz rock. Ty has set aside the freaky drooling baby persona from last year's Emotional Mugger and returned to the rich, persisting influence of his main muse, T. Rex. Butbecome a member or log in.
Guitarist Ripley Johnson and keyboardist Sanae Yamada record together as Moon Duo. Since debuting in 2009, the two have assembled a discography of dizzying melodies, spiraling, fuzz-drenched guitar explorations, and hypnotic rhythms, sounding something like a hybrid of Suicide and Neu! The band's new album, Occult Architecture Vol. 1, arrives February 3rd via Sacred Bones. Inspired by hermetic literature and the writing of Mary Anne Atwood, Aleister Crowley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and others, it's the first half of a two-part sequence, embodying the concept of "darkness," while its companion will explore brighter tonalities.
AD recently spoke with Yamada and Ripley, seeking some explanation of the band's concept and attraction to magick. Below, our conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.
Aquarium Drunkard: I really like Occult Architecture Vol. 1. What led you to divide this record into two halves? It might be a little reductionist to say one half represents a dark side and one a light side, but was that sort of the idea?
Ripley Johnson: Yeah. We had a lot of material, so it just sort of made sense to organize it that way. When we were making the record, the seasons were changing. We started in the winter and then we went into the summer. It was just sort of a natural way to organize the material. We didn't want to do a double album, so it's two separate albums, but they're linked together. We wanted to create separation, because a double album is just a whole different beast. We didn't want the record to be this giant release that people had to really commit to digesting. We wanted each half to stand on its own.
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Lagniappe (la ·gniappe) noun ‘lan-ˌyap,’ — 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus.
Over the last couple years, the songs of M.C. Taylor and Hiss Golden Messenger have served as constant companions. On their latest album, Heart Like a Levee (Merge Records), HGM offers up songs about responsibility and love, duty and struggle. Songs for these times (and all times). "You can't choose your blues," Taylor sings, "but you might as well own them."
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“He’s a student of mine and he’s better technically than me or Fahey."
Those are the words of guitarist Robbie Basho, speaking of his then protege Richard Osborn, who studied with Basho in the late '60s and early '70s. But like so many proponents of the American Primitive guitar style, Osborn is nothing if not patient. Sidelined by an injury, it's taken a handful of decades for his playing to emerge. But it's here now: in 2010, he . . .
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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 467: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ Bob Dylan I Don’t Believe You [She Acts Like We Never Have Met] (Live, 1966) ++ Bob Dylan - Baby, Let Me Follow You Down (Live, 1966) ++ Van Morrison - Astral Weeks ++ Robert Stillman - Ruthie In May ++ Ryley Walker - Shaking Like the Others (Aquarium Drunkard Session . . .
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Hey Cowboy. In my experience listeners first encounter the orbit of Lee Hazelwood in one of two ways; either via his work with Nancy Sinatra, or by way of 1970's Cowboy In Sweden - his opus.
Beginning with the release of their 2012 compilation The LHI Years, Light In The Attic Records have been faithfully reissuing Hazlewood's discography and, in turn, reinvigorating his legacy. The latest in the series, a reissue of Cowboy In Sweden, is arguably the most significant release in the series yet.
Alternately recorded in the spring of 1970 in Stockholm, and a house on the island of Gotland (where the album covers for 13 and A House Safe For Tigers were shot), the lp was one of several fruitful collaborations with Swedish filmmaker Torbjî¶rn Axelman. In terms of atmosphere, Cowboy is both defined and augmented by the dual vocals of Suzi Jane Hokom and Nina Lizell, who collectively offset Hazlewood's baritone, imbuing the collection with an air of levity an grace.
Speaking to Aquarium Drunkard of the records import, label founder Matt Sullivan notes "Cowboy In Sweden is Lee's undeniable masterpiece. It's that moment when he's running from American ladies and the law (praying his son wouldn't be drafted), trying desperately to create a hit after so much success in the 60s, all while trying to keep his struggling label afloat. CBIS ultimately marked the final album released on LHI."
The LITA reissue boasts a pair of bonus tracks, alternate versions of "Easy And Me" and "Pray Them Bars Away". Below, check out both a taste of the former and stream the Axelman/Hazlewood film Cowboy In Sweden -- a project lovingly resuscitated via Light In The Attic as part of the deluxe edition of the lp.
Lee Hazlewood :: Easy And Me (Alternate Version)
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Been revisiting this one since our Deep Folk 6 mix (via Ben Watt) last spring -- Marine Girls second lp, 1983's, Lazy Ways. For those unfamiliar, prior to her teaming up with Watt to launch Everything But The Girl in 1982, Tracey Thorn co-founded this short lived post-punk outfit; a group whose entire recorded output consists of two full . . .
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In 2007 I invited the California duo known as Clutchy Hopkins to guest DJ my radio show. These were the days of MySpace and flip phones. At the time (still?) there was little known about who was behind the moniker, or the origin of their music.
And now they are back. According to a press release this morning, aided by producer/DJ, Fat Albert Einstein, there is a new collaborative album in the can entitled High Desert Low Tide, which promises to "take listeners on a journey . . .
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On last year's Golden Sings That Have Been Sung, Chicago-based singer and guitarist Ryley Walker came into his own. It wasn't his first great record, but it was his most realized, a work that added shades of jazz, psychedelia, and experimental rock to his soulful folk sound. Writing about the record, AD's Chad DePasquale noted: "On two previous two long-players, comparisons to artists like John Martyn, Bert Jansch, Tim Buckley, and Nick Drake dominated conversations about Walker, but his latest finds him exploring English jazz folk through the unique lens of the Chicago experimental scene he came up in, folding in elements of improvisational jazz and experimental textures."
We caught up with Walker last fall at Fivethirteen Recording in Tempe, Arizona, to discuss the record and hear a few songs. Keeping with his spirit of experimentation, Walker and band decided the setting was right to try out a few new tunes. We're happy to debut three of them, "Shaking Like the Others," "I Laughed So Hard I Cried," and "Two Sides To Every Cross," here for the first time, along with our interview.
Transmissions Podcast :: Ryley Walker
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Rock Pool is an extension of the madcap musical world of Le Bon’s last record, Crab Day. She calls these songs the “killed darlings” of that studio session, in which she conjured the ritual tunes for an absurdist holiday of the mind, her “crab day.” The sound is playful: wild fun in constant danger of unraveling, or perhaps some FLUXUS game for rock band. However, the playfulness is contained in deftly composed songwriting, bursting with formal . . .
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Address Los Angeles, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, explores the lesser-to-unknown corners of LA: be it an address, an artist, or a fleeting thought.
By 1905 Jacob Adloff was enjoying a great degree of success. In the 27 years since he’d moved to America from his native Germany, he’d made a name for himself bottling and distributing beer, was a partner in several saloons, and had married into a well-established pioneer family. At the age of 45 his prize investment was surely Vienna Park -- a beer garden, restaurant, bowling venue, outdoor space and gathering area.
Spanning 20 acres Vienna Park was often raucous, with concerts, fairs, ample evening illumination and manicured gardens. Located at the corner of Western Avenue and Jefferson Boulevard, in what is now called Jefferson Park, Vienna found itself just outside of city limits -- until 1896. As history is cyclical, local pressure and a growing city wrapped it within its bounds, reigning in the parks more libidinous behaviors.
Nearby, Charles Victor Hall was becoming a small-time oil tycoon, and owned several properties near Adloff’s which were occupied by the cities more prominent and wealthy (read: less Eastern-European) citizenry. Hall, under the guise of an Improvement Society, set out to convert the land into a public park, driving the crowds, and Adloff, away. And while no bucolic utopia was to come, Adloff likely read the writing on the wall. He subdivided his lot and set out to sell -- but not before building at least nine homes on his own plots, some of which still stand in the neighborhood today. Adloff had many other interests in his care, including a popular saloon on the corners of N. Main and Chavez, in the heart of old Chinatown and on the site of the future Union Station.
Simultaneously, racial covenants were making moves to ensure that an area which had come to see some of the greatest diversity of European immigrants and descendants stay white. In 1928, ruling on a case involving a tract of land mere blocks from the former site of Vienna Park, the California Supreme Court ruled that the covenants could continue to bar occupancy by non-Caucasians -- but not the ownership of the land itself.
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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 466: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ Sun Ra - We’re Living In The Space Age ++ Honeyboy Martin & The Voices - Dreader Than Dread ++ Johnny & The Attractions - I'm Moving On ++ Andersons All Stars - Intensified Girls ++ King Sporty - DJ Special ++ Freddie Mackay - When I'm Gray ++ Hopeton Lewis - Sound And . . .
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The enduring enigma of the unknown. A cornerstone of various compilations (both authorized and not) focused on subrosa 70s North Afican folk and pop, Abadane was a short-lived Algerian outfit -- "Freedom (Hourya)" is their legacy.
1970's Algerian Folk And Pop by Freedom (Hourya
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