No Way Out: An Oral History of Sunburned Hand of the Man: Flex

In this week’s episode, we try to wrap our brains around how Sunburned Hand of the Man actually makes their freeform music. Through the episode, we consider the semantics of improvisation and practice in the context of this free form entity. In that context, we learn how the open nature of the band manifests in unspoken rules of not telling each other what to do. This, in turn, allows the band members to enter and commit to the jam in a way that is more authentically connected and elevated . . .

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Modern Nature :: No Fixed Point In Space

Space is the operative word for Modern Nature. Since his days leading bands like Mazes and Ultimate Painting, Jack Cooper’s music has gone panoramic, leaving ample room for softly uttered vocal melodies and semi-improvised instrumentation. On the loose ensemble’s latest album – now including members of The Necks, This Is Not This Heat, and the legendary Julie Tipppets (FKA Driscoll) – Cooper’s poetic lyrics are delivered patiently, leaving pregnant pauses between each line as the instruments swell and contract. Songs begin with the melancholy, drifting post-rock sound pioneered by Talk Talk, before bristling strings, eerie horns, and . . .

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Holding Court :: Ryan Walsh on Morphine

With Light in the Attic's release of The Night and Like Swimming, the story of Morphine unfolds deeper thanks so new liner notes by Ryan H. Walsh. He joins us to discuss the Boston trio's singular sound . . .

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

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 :: Jarvis Taveniere (Woods)

Welcome to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions; this week on the show, we're joined by arvis Taveniere of Woods. You know his long running Woods band with Jeremy Earl of course—and Woodsist, their record label and Woodsist Festival, which returns September 23-24 upstate with Kevin Morby, Avey Tare, Cochemea, Tapers Choice, Ana Saint Louis, Natural Information Society, Kurt Vile, Scientist, DJ Aquarium Drunkard—that’s our own Justin Gage—plus many more. The band also just released a glowing new album, Perennial, which finds the band in a gentle, rambling mode . . .

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Videodrome :: Thief (1981)

Thief has been hailed as a Marxist neo-noir classic, a cinematic bridge between the gritty realism of the crime-dramas of the 1970s and the hyper-stylized action films of the 1980s. But besides being a genre bedrock, Thief is a nuanced character study that serves as an allegory for the trappings of capitalism . . .

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Peter Case :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Peter Case might have made his name with the speedy rock trio The Nerves and the chiming Plimsouls, but he's spent much of the last handful of decades following his muse into unexpected territory. His latest albums, Doctor Moan and The Midnight Broadcast, speak to his breadth, drawing deeply from blues and jazz—harkening back to classic works like his 1986 solo debut, which was crafted with T-Bone Burnett and Mitchell Froom. All along, Case has been interested in chasing songs in a very classic and rooted sense, and he's keen to see where they might lead . . .

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Baby Chuck :: Memphis In June, 2018

There's a Paul McCartney record from 2005 called Chaos and Creation In The Backyard that came out just as I was beginning my senior year of high school. I've never listened to it, but I think about its title all the time . . .

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No Way Out: An Oral History of Sunburned Hand of the Man: Heavy Rescue

This week, we shift from the band’s chronological narrative to consider the many factors that bind this chaotic mass of people together in this creative yet uncommercial experience. We open with our focus on the role that music has played in the band members’ individual lives and how a shared love of music brought them all together. This morphs into a consideration of the band’s many artistic influences, with a close look at the impact of the Wu-Tang Clan on Sunburned. We hear about the complicated and often difficult backgrounds of many of the Sunburned musicians and . . .

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Pharoah Sanders :: Pharoah (Box Set)

Everything about Pharoah Sanders’ eponymous 1977 album is a gift. It’s a masterpiece of quiet mystique and joy that almost never was. Despite the fact that the maestro himself was never satisfied with the album and rarely spoke about it, Pharaoh took on a life of its own over the next four decades to become one of Sanders’ most hallowed and revered recordings. Now available for the first time since its original release, Pharaoh has been rejuvenated with the splendor of a monumental box set from Luaka Bop. It’s a tremendous archival achievement that casts new light on . . .

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Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab :: September 17, 2023

Frequencies in flux, it's Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. This month, Chad DePasquale drops in with New Happy Gathering, featuring a blend of rustic sounds, lo-fi gospel, and electronic psych-pop. Then Jason P. Woodbury’s Range and Basin, featuring slo-mo rock & roll, surf-tinged pop, and spaced out psych. Then Tyler Wilcox arrives with Doom & Gloom from the Tomb, indulging the "tune in/zone out" region with about an hour's worth of one of Wilcox's favorite songs: "By This River" by Eno/Moebius/Roedelius. Hypnotic! To close, The Vacant Lots share a mix . . .

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Five For Richard Davis …

If you played bass on both Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch and Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, your legacy is going to be pretty much set. But if you’re Richard Davis, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 93, those are just two high points in a career full of lofty peaks. Davis could go as far out as necessary (he teamed up with fellow upright master Reggie Workman on Pharoah Sanders’ spiritual jazz epic “The Creator Has A Master Plan”) or add a little magic as an ace session player (did you know that . . .

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Karly Hartzman (Wednesday) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Helmed by songwriter Karly Hartzman, Wednesday has evolved from an Asheville, NC solo project to a full-fledged band with five albums to their name. On them, Hartzman’s voice careens from a near yodel to a clear scream, sometimes within the span of a single song, melodic riffs periodically punching through. And lyrically, their latest Rat Saw God continues to embody that Southern smaller-town spirit, weaving in hometown references and encapsulating the teenage sweet spot of horror-meets-ennui specific to the band’s origin point. It’s music full of haunted spaces: Gothic, but not in the . . .

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Catching Up With Hiss Golden Messenger

"Words can mean different things, from day to day they change their meaning," MC Taylor sings at the start of Jump For Joy, his latest under the reliable and stalwart Hiss Golden Messenger banner. Adopting a new character—named "Michael Crow," with a subtle nod—allows Taylor a little space to move around. And tellingly, he uses much of that wiggle room to indulge in layers of funk ("I Saw the New Day in the World"), lithe soft-rock ("Shinbone"), and Dead-indebted shuffles ("California King"). Hiss Golden Messenger's best records always balance honeyed charm with existential weight, but . . .

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

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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