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Willis Alan Ramsey :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Willis Alan RamseyPosted on

More than 50 years after releasing one of the great cult albums of the early ’70s, Willis Alan Ramsey remains an enigma: a singular songwriter whose long-awaited second record has yet to materialize. But as a recent live appearance and a first-ever vinyl reissue of his self-titled debut attest, Ramsey is very much still here — and already thinking beyond the follow-up he once abandoned. We caught up with the Texas songwriter to talk about the making of a classic, the decades since, and the music still to come . . .

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Surprise Chef :: Frogs In A Pond

Surprise ChefPosted on

Like the best giallo scores, Surprise Chef's Frogs In A Pond finds beauty in the uneasy marriage of the sinister and the seductive. Its analog warmth and locked-in grooves evoke a bygone era without becoming trapped in it, blurring the line between recordings from 2026 and 1976. The eerie mood of the compositions, mixed with the 8-track recording, creates an auditory twilight zone that’s both nostalgic and immediate . . .

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Valerie and Her Week of Wonders :: (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Halloween Luboš Fišer SoundtrackPosted on

This Halloween when the usual horror soundtrack fare begins to feel a little too familiar, there is Valerie and Her Week of Wonders. Released in 1970, Jaromil Jireš’s surreal Czech fairy tale is a bizarre, beautiful collision of vampires, witchcraft, religious repression, erotic awakening and dream logic. Paired with Luboš Fišer’s score, the whole thing feels like an intermittent phantasmagoria . . .

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Videodrome :: Psycho II (1983)

Halloween VideodromePosted on

About midway through Psycho II (1983), you realize you’re not watching a horror sequel, but a carefully constructed character study. Psycho II isn’t really interested in being a sequel or a horror film; it’s interested in the rehabilitation of Norman Bates, and how those in Bates’ orbit react to that. We may have entered the film expecting a boogeyman, but instead we’re watching a fatally flawed hero, and…we’re rooting for him? Yes, we’re actually rooting for Norman Bates . . .

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A La Altura: Visionary Mexican Music 1977-1999

Compilation MexicoPosted on

Experimental music history is still, in large part, a Euro-American project. Rare are the efforts that highlight Latin American pioneers like Beatriz Ferreyra or Jocy de Oliveira, and rarer still are histories of electronic scenes with a pop, new age edge. A La Altura: Visionary Mexican Music 1977-1999 excavates the ambient underground of Mexico City, tracing a vibrant, largely overlooked circuit of independent cassette culture, dubbed tapes, and street stalls. Compiled by Carlos Icaza and Mark McNeill after a decade of research into the city’s cassette history, it offers a long-overdue portrait of Mexico’s experimental . . .

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Chris Lyons :: New Love for the Old Flame

Chris LyonsPosted on

After a pair of excellent albums fronting his New Orleans quartet Silver Synthetic, last year's Painters Street saw musician and vocalist Chris Lyons venturing into promising solo pathways. On sophomore record New Love for the Old Flame, Lyons presents a dazzling collection hovering like the forlorn days of the golden AM dial. The comfort of a lazy afternoon personified in sound . . .

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Jimmy Webb :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Jimmy Webb The AD InterviewPosted on

Jimmy Webb has written some of the great songs in the modern American songbook. After turning 80 in August, he's releasing Yours For The Taking: The Found Songs of Jimmy Webb, via the revived Sun Records. Featuring guests like Michael McDonald, Graham Nash, and Amy Grant, the new album features both new recordings of long lost songs and original demos. With songs that stretch back across the decades, it's a collection that showcases Webb's mastery. He joins us to discuss the magic of a song demo, his upbringing in the church, and his lifelong love of science . . .

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

SIRIUSPosted on

Broadcasting 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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Ghost Dubs :: Oblique

Ghost DubsPosted on

On his second album as Ghost Dubs, German producer Michae Fiedler pares his beats and grooves further back, reducing his already minimal palette to the stark rhythmic and textural fundamentals. But the tracks on Oblique resist the remoteness of some ambient dub — they might be skeletal, but they’re not bare-bones . . .

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Transmissions :: Joe Casey of Protomartyr (2026)

Podcast ProtomartyrPosted on

This week on Transmissions, we're speaking with return guest Joe Casey of Protomartyr. The band's new album, Hotel Usona is a timely meditation on our empire in decline but also a document of defiance and even a kind of hope. Check in, tune out . . .

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Fela Kuti & Africa ’70 :: Live in Berlin (Berliner Jazztage, 1978)

Fela KutiPosted on

No retreat. No surrender. Filmed at the Berliner Jazztage on November 4, 1978, with Tony Allen still at the kit, this 87-minute document captures Fela Kuti and Africa ’70 at the end of their Herculean run. Unearthed decades later, the tapes capture the collective’s internal chemistry intact at the very moment its future was set to fracture . . .

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Introducing Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard: Longform Listening. Worldwide. 24/7.

Radio AD Radio Free Aquarium DrunkardPosted on

A Continuous Broadcast from Aquarium Drunkard.

Hand-curated. No playlists. Nothing to scroll. Nothing random. Everything intentional.

Transmitting from the hills of Northeast Los Angeles, Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard is a free, always-on radio station. Press play and you’re tuned in to what’s on the air right now, alongside everyone else. The broadcast continues and tracks advance whether or not you’re listening.

The app is free, but requires an active Apple Music subscription. All tracks powered via Apple Music.

James Barnes is the guru/architect. Justin Gage is the selector.

Tune in to an old new way to Listen . . .

Posted on Radio AD Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (Soundtrack, Angelo Badalamenti)

Angelo Badalamenti David Lynch SoundtrackPosted on

Mid-October approaches, and the owls are not what they seem. The best records belong to a particular hour, season, or state of mind. The soundtrack to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me seems to exist just beyond all three, somewhere between the last light and whatever waits after dark . . .

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Posted on Angelo Badalamenti David Lynch Soundtrack

Booker Stardrum :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Booker Stardrum The AD InterviewPosted on

Jazz grip. Booker Stardrum’s work spans solo recordings, electronic experiments, and collective improvisation. In 2026, he’s released his fourth solo album, Close-up On The Outside, alongside new records with Play Time, OOPS!, Silk Fence, and SML. We spoke with Stardrum about his compositional process and the challenges and possibilities of working across so many different musical settings . . .

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Posted on Booker Stardrum The AD Interview

RFAD :: October 2026

Radio Free Aquarium DrunkardPosted on

Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD 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 things off with a grab-bag of folk jazz and dream pop; Chad follows it up with an hour of Senegalese folk, Malian funk, Malaysian jazz, Filipino psych & more. Sunday, 4-6pm PT . . .

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Posted on Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard