Wax Wonders: Grateful Dead – Anthem Of The Sun (1971 Remix)

Grateful Dead Wax WondersPosted on

A cornerstone of psychedelic music, 1968's Anthem Of The Sun has long been unfairly brushed off by critics and heads alike. While the group were unhappy with their studio debut (the garage-y, fun, tuneful and downright speedy The Grateful Dead, 1967), they pulled out all the stops for their second release, pushing the patience of both producers and their label along the way.

Not content with merely editing together the lp's individual songs into a seamless suite, the group managed to incorporate both studio and live performances into one seamless whole. It’s unclear upon listening what comes from where, and even though I’ve listened to the album hundreds of times, I’m often struck by how it consistently gives the impression of pleasant disorientation, coupled with a general ‘what the fuck is going on here?’ sensation.

Early on in the sessions, producer Dave Hassinger quit the project, frustrated and disgusted. Hassinger had notably produced The Rolling Stones and The Electric Prunes; in fact, it was his work with The Stones that spurred the Dead to hire him to man the mixing board. Regarding the initial Anthem studio sessions, which found the Dead cross-country from their San Francisco in New York City, Hassinger was quoted as saying:

“I gave up in New York. We’d been working for a long time on that second album, and they had put down some new tracks in New York, and nobody could sing them, and at that point they were experimenting too much in my opinion. They didn’t know what the hell they were looking for…they were going from one end of the spectrum to the other… It was like pulling teeth, until finally I couldn’t take it anymore.”

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Grateful Dead Wax Wonders

SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

SIRIUSPosted on

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 426: Jean-Michel Bernard - Générique Stéphane ++ The Fall   - Totally Wired ++ Psychedelic Furs - We Love You ++ A Certain Ratio - Shack Up ++ Felt - Something Sends Me To Sleep ++ Billy Changer - Chiller ++ The Cure - I’m Cold ++ Lilliput - Die Matrosen ++  Beat Happening - Indian Summer ++ R.E.M. - Stumble ++ The Feelies . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on SIRIUS

Dead Notes #12 :: June 8,1974 — Oakland, CA

Dead Notes Grateful DeadPosted on

1974 is one of the greatest and most transformative years within the Grateful Dead’s history, with two major events setting the tone: the official unveiling of the infamous ‘Wall of Sound’ and the band ominously playing “The Last One”, on October 20th, marking the beginning of an extended hiatus.  The Wall of Sound was the brainchild of the infamous LSD chemist-cum-audio engineer and early Dead benefactor, Owsley “Bear” Stanley, in collaboration with instrument manufacturer Alembic. The completed system (weighing 75 tons with . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Dead Notes Grateful Dead

William Tyler :: Attics of My Life (Avant Ghetto / WFMU Drive)

WFMU William TylerPosted on

Help keep independent freeform radio alive. WFMU is presently in the midst of its 2016 fundraising marathon. To sweeten the pot Jeff Conklin, host of the weekly program The Avant Ghetto, has put together Songs to Fill the Air - a 12 track compilation of contemporary artists covering the Dead. One of the artists taking part is William Tyler with his take on "Attics of My Life" - which you can hear below, along with his notes on the track selection and WFMU.

William Tyler :: Attics of My Life

As someone who traffics in non-denominational hymns of a sort, albeit without words most of the time, I was drawn to "Attics of My Life." I have always felt that most of the key songs on American Beauty are almost like all purpose hymns that would be appropriate at funerals, weddings, school graduations, and birthdays. "Ripple", "Brokedown Palace", "Box of Rain", and "Attics" fit this model. The Jungian marriage of Dark/Light that the Dead always embodied better than any other band in the world is so stark in these fragile, timeless songs. There's something graceful, unsettled, and truly spiritual in them and they constantly bring me comfort and insight.

WFMU changed my life. When I was in my early twenties, and there was a sort of independent radio graveyard in the Nashville airwaves, I started listening online and I've been devoted since.

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on WFMU William Tyler

Glenn Jones :: Fleeting

Glenn JonesPosted on

There's an abundance of great Takoma School fingerpickers on the scene these days, but I'd be hard pressed to name one more masterful than Glenn Jones. First coming to renown as a member of the unclassifiable Cul de Sac, in recent years, Jones has established himself as one of the most quietly powerful acoustic musicians we've got. His latest for Thrill Jockey, Fleeting, is a stunner from start to finish, offering 10 compositions for guitar and banjo that cast a lasting, luminous spell over the listener . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Glenn Jones

Heron Oblivion

Heron OblivionPosted on

Heron Oblivion may be the eponymous debut of this San Francisco based band, but for the musicians involved this is far from their first rodeo.

Ethan Miller and Noel Von Harmonson endeared themselves to fans of intense guitar music everywhere as part of Comets On Fire, while Charles Saufley was a member of kindred spirits Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound. Drummer/vocalist Meg Baird (formerly of Espers) released one of become a member or log in.

Posted on Heron Oblivion

The Lagniappe Sessions: Michael Nau

Lagniappe Sessions Michael NauPosted on

Lagniappe (la ·gniappe) noun ‘lan-ˌyap,’ — 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus.

Last November we debuted a track off of Michael Nau’s solo debut, Mowing, out now via Suicide Squeeze Records. And though this record bears Nau’s name alone, it’s a fine addition to the canon of Cotton Jones’ brand of Cosmic American Music. There’s no lack of Whitney McGraw’s smoky backup vocals and glacial autoharp, and no lack of marimba-touched exotica paired with pedal-steel country.

This latest installment of the  Lagniappe Sessions features Nau solo, in a trio of lo-fi, homemade covers, paying tribute to the likes of the unsung Kevin Coyne, fellow cosmic wanderer Damien Jurado and reggae avatar, Bob Marley, The artist, in his own words, below…

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Lagniappe Sessions Michael Nau

Bembeya Jazz National / Camayenne Sofa

Bembeya Jazz National Camayenne SofaPosted on

Our fascination with Guinea’s Bembeya Jazz National continues. Having previously featured a late 70’s funk platter and an earlier, more high-life oriented record, today we touch down with two more from the legendary West African group. The first, “Wouloukoro,” comes to us as a b-side from a 1971 single. Recorded live at the Palais du Peuple in Conakry, the Guinean capital, it finds the group still very much riding a cloud of high-life bliss, with Aboubacar Demba Camara’s impassioned vocals, celestial and serene steel guitar, and a buoyant rhythm section in lock. And speaking of bliss, note the sweet and all too brief trumpet that chimes in, dueting with heavenly steel guitar.

Bembeya Jazz National :: Wouloukoro

The second tune “Ballakî¨,” is culled from the group’s 1974 lp Special Recueil-Souvenir Du Bembeya, a collection of original compositions by Aboubacar Demba Camara, who was tragically killed the previous year in a car accident. The liner notes refer to the record as Demba’s “swan song,” a collection that showcases his sensitivity as a poet and innate musical genius. On “Ballak Demba sings sorrowfully, alongside enigmatic guitar and bass lines, with horns soaring in something akin to the tone of a funeral procession. Clocking in at over eight minutes, the final moments find Demba in lovely harmony accompanied by a female backup singer as the guitar steals away towards the end. Magic.

Bembeya Jazz National :: Ballakî¨

Courtesy of fellow Guineans, we have Camayenne Sofa's “Kî¶gnî¶ - Koura,” off the group’s 1970-something lp A Grands Pas. Here, steel guitar again leads the way for a slice of pure in-the-clouds high-life, as Camara’s commanding and heartfelt vocals, coupled with a Francis Bebey-esque organ line, transport the listener away to the unknown with a sound nothing short of sublime.

Camayenne Sofa :: Kî¶gnî¶ - Koura

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Bembeya Jazz National Camayenne Sofa

SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

SIRIUSPosted on

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 425: Jean-Michel Bernard - Générique Stéphane ++ Oliver - Off On A Trek ++ Linda Perhacs - Paper Mountain Man ++ David Wiffen - Never Make A Dollar That Way ++ David Crosby - I’d Swear There Was Somebody There ++ Neil Young - The Old Laughing Lady ++ Dungen - Franks Kaktus ++ Ellen McIlwaine - Can't Find My Way . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on SIRIUS

Jon Tiven of Prix :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Prix The AD InterviewPosted on

1975 was a strange time for rock & roll in Memphis.

Big Star, the flagship band of Ardent Records, was kaput, and the label itself was in flux, tethered to the financial woes of its distributor, Stax. Following the tumultuous sessions that would eventually be fashioned posthumously into Big Star's  Third/Sister Lovers, a young rock writer named Jon Tiven showed up from New York. A fan of Big Star who'd helped organize the Memphis Rock Writers Convention -- helping to forever align rock critics and the cult band  -- he embarked on a serious of sessions with Chilton and hooked with up with a young singer/songwriter named Tommy Hoehn. Together, they tapped into the Memphis scene orbiting Ardent Studios, enlisting Chilton, Jim Dickinson, Chris Bell, and a few more session hands for a series of recordings under the name Prix, mixing Big Star-like Anglophile pop with hard-edged rock.

Only a handful of the group’s recordings ever saw official release, winding up on Miracle Records and Terry Ork’s pioneering punk label Ork Records (a couple Prix cuts are featured on Numero Group's excellent Ork anthology, Ork Records: New York, New York). Apart from a   Japanese import CD, the group's recordings have remained unavailable until now: this month sees the release of Historix, featuring most of the group’s entire recorded output, via Hozac Records.

Prix didn't take off, but Tiven's enjoyed a long career in music, working with the Jim Carroll Band, producing records by Wilson Pickett and Frank Black, and writing songs for artists like Irma Thomas and Robert Cray. Inspired by renewed interest in Prix, he's begun a new incarnation of the group featuring Sid Herring of the Gants and is currently recording new material. Sadly, Bell, Chilton, Dickinson, and Hoehn have all passed, leaving Tiven as one of the last standing musicians able to shed light on the frenzied recording project. Aquarium Drunkard spoke with Tiven via the telephone to discuss the group and new reissue.

Prix :: All Of The Time

Aquarium Drunkard: How did Prix get started?

Jon Tiven:  I went down to Memphis from New York City to produce some Alex Chilton tracks, which came out as Singer Not the Song and later as Bach's Bottom. I came back to New York and I couldn't find a label [for the songs]. I was working with [Memphis singer/songwriter] Van Duren, trying to get him a record deal. He said, "Why don't you come back down here [to Memphis]? You can join my band and we can see where we get." He had a band with Jody Stephens and Chris Bell, so I was happy to join that band. We did a couple of gigs with another guitar player who doubled on bass named Mike Brignardello, who was very good. I basically felt like a third wheel on a bicycle. There wasn't much for me to do. I enjoyed it, but I wasn't doing enough to merit having a five-man lineup. It was basically Van's thing.

Rather than just bide my time, I decided to do some recordings with [singer/songwriter] Tommy Hoehn. Van and Tommy were a little bit competitive with each other at that point. Van had a song called "Grow Yourself Up" -- which I thought was a very good song -- and Tommy wrote a song called "Blow Yourself Up," which was not an accident.

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Prix The AD Interview

Wax Wonders :: Abdou El Omari

Abdou El Omari Wax WondersPosted on

In the mid '70s, to western ears, records rarely arrived more exotic than these Moroccan beauties featuring organist Abdou El Omari. Combining rock / funk / progressive jazz and (very psychedelic) Moroccan melodies, these are the types of records that get collectors salivating, opening their wallets deep to capture a piece of El Omari's Moroccan magic. Regarded in his homeland as an innovator who took traditional music and added a contemporary flavor, the following two singles (1976) compile a good chunk of an entire album that Abdou laid to tape. With a rhythm sometimes reminiscent of Can (a . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Abdou El Omari Wax Wonders

I Cut Meat and Sing My Song: The Soft Boys, 1976-78

The Soft BoysPosted on

40 years after they emerged from Cambridge, The Soft Boys remain a totally singular band: both ahead and behind their times, Robyn Hitchcock and co. blended an array of influences (Barrett, Beatles, Beefheart, Barbershop, Britfolk, Byrds and many other things that don’t start with “B”) into something pretty magical and unique. Compiled by Evan Kindley, the following is an excellent collection of early Soft Boys rarities (drawing from a sprawling Chronological Hitchcock project making the rounds). Demos, rehearsals, outtakes, alternate mixes, live cuts, etc. And as an added . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on The Soft Boys

Ty Segall :: Music For A Film 1

Ty SegallPosted on

Speaking of Can, in 2013 Ty Segall released "Music For A Film 1", the A-side to a split 7" with Chad & The Meatbodies via Famous Class Records. The Can intonations abound, here -- the shit just rips. I picked up the digital upon its release (100% of the digital sales go to the Ariel Panero Memorial Fund, dedicated to restoring music education in American public . . .

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Ty Segall

Lucinda Williams :: The Ghosts of Highway 20

Lucinda WilliamsPosted on

Is there ever a point in your life where it's in some way easier to lose someone? Does getting to spend a little more time with them - well into and past their expected life span - somehow ease that pain, or does it make it all the sharper? Does the larger swath of places dotted with your memories of them give you happiness or does it make the whole Earth seem haunted?

Lucinda Williams' twelfth studio album, The Ghosts of Highway 20, is as much about the memories of her father, poet Miller Williams, and her own life as it is the characters who dot the length of the title road. The term 'ghosts' here holds a variety of meanings -- memories of loved ones, people who exist when we need them to and fade out when not, and our past selves. All of this creates a fantastic tapestry interwoven with the heartbreak over the passing of her father in 2015. The previous year had birthed Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone -- an lp marking the first collaboration between father and daughter, with Lucinda adapting one of Miller's poems for the album's opener,   "Compassion". And while that was the only track Miller Williams was directly a part of, on this album his presence is a constant.

Only the good shit. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its patrons. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by pledging your support.

To continue reading, become a member or log in.

Posted on Lucinda Williams