Herbie Hancock Septet: Live at the Boardinghouse January 16, 1973

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Recently, a previously unheard Sextant tour FM broadcast from SF’s legendary Boarding House emerged. It’s well worth your time. This group is especially good when they stretch way way way out. And they certainly do that here: most of the performance is made up of a 40+ minute spiral through “Hidden Shadows.” Everyone gets a chance to shine, of course, but let’s give it up for the rhythm section of Buster Williams and Billy Hart, who hold things down and lift things up simultaneously, letting the prog-funk-jazz mutant grooves spin and swirl all around the . . .

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Barry Walker, Jr. :: Paleo Sol

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Pedal steel guitarist Barry Walker, Jr. has long spun out his unearthly twangs for rustic psychedelicists like Mouth Painter, North Americans and the Rose City Band. The lingering, shape-shifting overtones that float from his instrument imbue an instant mystery and ambiguity. He puts the “cosmic” in “cosmic country.” Now on this solo album—accompanied by drummer Rob Smith from Animal, Surrender! and Jason Willmon from Mouth Painter—he puts his ineffable sound at center stage, in songs that traverse drone, Americana and Reichian minimalism . . .

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The Olympians :: Strawberry Kiwi

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Sometimes things just take time. It's been a whole decade since The Olympians, the orchestral funk and soul combo led by songwriter Toby Pazner (Sharon Jones, Lee Fields, El Michels Affair) dropped their self-titled debut on Daptone Records. But 2026 sees the group's long awaited return with In Search of a Revival, due out February 13th on Daptone . . .

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Jana Horn :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Jana Horn The AD InterviewPosted on

Over the last few years, and now three records, Jana Horn has quietly asserted herself as a songwriter of great merit amongst a vast and seemingly bottomless sea of artists also in search of answers through song. Her most recent LP, a self-titled work written during a period of transition in her life—notably a relocation to New York City having graduated from a writing program in the University of Virginia—captures movement not just in the physical sense of moving from one physical place to another, but of progressing the flow of her interior life . . .

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Shintaro Sakamoto :: Yoo-hoo

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In some ways, Shintaro Sakamoto's fifth record Yoo-hoo follows a continuation of the pop-centric sensibilities of Like A Fable: lifting backdrops of surf guitar, Spector-like orchestration and funky exotica crafted for the dancefloor in a way that only Sakamoto could usher into existence. Yet another work of an auteur of his musical craft, the album sees Sakamoto channel midcentury Japanese styles like "Mood Kayō", drawing from Latin rhythms and Hawaiin compositions. As has become customary, the musician is able to masterfully curate shadowy corners of the past to create something exceptionally neoteric . . .

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Mean Red Spiders :: Starsandsons

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Toronto’s Mean Red Spiders released their opus, Starsandsons, in 2000, to little lasting acclaim. On the one hand, the album came too late – their psychedelic, arty sensibilities were out of sync with the changing tides. On the other hand, it was too early – critics and fans didn’t have the right language to fully grok what the Mean Red Spiders were on about. But as contemporary
“shoegaze” and “dreampop” bands have mined the ‘90s aesthetic for their own sound, it’s given us a newfound appreciation for some overlooked classics, and Starsandsons is ready for a reappraisal . . .

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Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: January 2026

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Airing every third Sunday of the month, Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month, Tyler kicks it off with his annual Honey Slides mix of Neil Young oddities with an array of weird/wonderful Shakey covers and Chad follows with an hour of gospel + soul. Sunday, 4-6pm PT . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Trummors/Prairiewolf

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A meeting of the minds. Last year saw Trummors lit out for the territories touring some esoteric, off-the-beaten path venues in Colorado and New Mexico with Prairiewolf. This installment of the Lagniappe Sessions commemorates the experience with the following collaboration of the two bands reimagining early '80s George Strait along with a Joni Mitchell chestnut . . .

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The Box Set: An Appreciation, Vol. 1

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The initial standard for a compact disc was 74 minutes. Legend has it the length was decided upon in order to fit all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony onto a single disc. In terms of format, the arrival and adoption of the CD in 1983 changed not only how we listen to recorded music, but how it's presented as an art form. No longer beholden to the 22 minute confines of a "12 side, artists began experimenting with the medium... as did labels. Welcome to the first installment of The Box Set: An Appreciation . . .

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Lô Borges: The Sneaker Album

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Lô Borges was under immense pressure to record his debut record. The eight songs he had co-composed for Clube da Esquina had the luxury of time to gestate and included contributions from many other musicians in the collective. In contrast, Lô had very little time to compose and record the songs for his debut, which consisted of fifteen brand new songs, nine of which he was the sole composer. Reissued this month via VAMPISOUL . . .

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Glyders :: Forever

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Chicagoans Joshua Condon and Eliza Weber have been Glyders since 2014, but Forever, technically their second album, marks their debut as a trio, with full-time drummer Joe Seger. The trio makes up for lost time, though, blending their Gram Parsons/Byrds/New Riders ballads with surprisingly souped-up scorchers, burned-out breakdowns and best Western boogies. At a time when cosmic country threatens to leave the galaxy entirely, Glyders return it to Earth, while still keeping an eye on the skies . . .

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Wussy :: Funeral Dress

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Released twenty years ago, Cincinnati band Wussy's gritty and homespun debut Funeral Dress established the beginning of a remarkably consistent discography. With a distinctively midwestern blue collar ethos, co-vocalists Chuck Cleaver (of nineties alt-country outfit Ass Ponys) and Lisa Walker deliver a tour de- orce of breakup songs and all sorts of assorted angst. There's a touch of Lucinda Williams meets Crazy Horse sway in Walker's leads, while droning guitars make way for Cleaver's infectiously oft-kilter songcraft . . .

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Dylan Day :: The Unanswered Prayer

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Unadorned and strikingly confessional, The Unanswered Prayer flickers humbly at the edge of darkness like a votive, holding space for anyone who might need a little light. Conceived and developed in front of audiences at low-key gigs around LA, Day patiently crafted each piece until the emotional core was revealed. When it came time to put it all to tape, he opted to stay true to the live nature of the music, recording the album straight through in a single half-hour session with only a microphone and a vintage Gibson LG2 . . .

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Julianna Barwick and Mary Lattimore :: Tragic Magic

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Recorded in Paris, Tragic Magic was sponsored by the InFiné label and the Philharmonie de Paris, providing the duo with access to historic instruments from the Musée de la Musique’s instrument collection. And while there are certainly archaic resonances to these lovely cuts—the madrigal purity of “Perpetual Adoration,” the fairy-tale gentleness of “The Four Sleeping Princesses,” the percussive fervor of round-like, Brian Eno-penned “Melted Moon”—the two musicians also reach for the unknowable future . . .

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Will Epstein :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

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Throughout his career, Will Epstein has amassed film scoring credits, including an IDA Documentary Award nomination for his score for Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV (2023), by attuning to the micro-moments on screen and crafting the music to match them. So it comes as no surprise that, with the release of his latest lyrics-forward album Yeah, mostly (out on Fat Possum Records), he applies this focused attention as well, sourcing his imagery and subject matter from life’s small moments that may otherwise go unnoticed as a person goes on living . . .

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