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Bob Dylan :: Pretty Good Stuff | Ep. 15 – Live Time Out Of Mind

Dylan’s Time Out of Mind turns 25 this year. Produced by Daniel Lanois, the album won three Grammy Awards and provided a new batch of songs—meditations on love and loss—that Dylan almost immediately began to work into his Neverending Tour setlists. This episode of Pretty Good Stuff explores those live versions of the songs from Time Out of Mind, with performances stretching from a week after the album’s release to the edge of the pandemic, when Dylan temporarily paused his relentless touring schedule. Rediscover how Dylan turned the studio masterpiece into a killer batch of road . . .

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Sagittaire :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Lovely Music chronicles the early days of Ivan Mairesse’s Sagittaire project, pulling from material written between 2015 and 2017 in San Francisco, where Mairesse recorded the album before moving back to his hometown of Los Angeles. Mairesse takes an introspective approach to songwriting on Lovely Music, juxtaposing dark lyrics with lush pop arrangements, Fripp & Eno-esque guitar tones, and a tender vocal delivery . . .

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Spiritualized :: Everything Was Beautiful

A bit more than 30 years ago, Jason Pierce shook off the end of Spacemen 3 in a sweeping, cosmic re-imagination of the Troggs “Anyway That You Want Me". Now three decades on, he’s still blowing fragile melodies into sweeping orchestral climaxes, finding a spiritual resonance in maximalist, elaborately arranged pop. Everything Was Beautiful is Pierce’s ninth album as Spiritualized, coming four years after the solitary of And Nothing Hurt and, perhaps more relevantly, in the immediate wake of Fat Possum’s reissue of the first four Spiritualized albums. It's a glorious summation of the Spiritualized . . .

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Pinky Ann Rihal :: The Short-Lived History of South Asian New Wave

A one-off Hindi-language New Wave project released in 1985, London-based Pinky Ann Rihal’s Tere Liye is a one of those anomalies that is almost too good to be true. Distorted guitars, emphatic synths and electronic drums create a layered backdrop for the dreamy Hindi lyrics of vocalists Pinky, Anne and Harry . . .

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Goodtime John & Bonnie Prince Billy :: New Life

For the last 20+ years, Irish singer/songwriter J. Cowhie has released music under his own name and the Goodtime John banner. Now he's back with the mighty Will Oldham aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy in the cut with him. On the recently released "New Life," Cowie applies AOR textures to his minimal form, conjuring up a grand but sparse sense of atmosphere that wouldn't feel out of place on a late-era Pink Floyd recording . . .

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Wamono Groove: Shakuhachi & Koto Jazz Funk ’76

Released earlier this year via the Paris based 180g, the label's Wamono Groove: Shakuhachi & Koto Jazz Funk ’76 compilation does not let up. From ultra-clean drum breaks (there are a lot of them), to its West LA Fadeaway-esque approach to Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" on Kiyoshi Yamaya & Kifu Mitsuhashi's "Sōma Nagareyama", the sets mesh of occidental groove with eastern textures is seamless . . .

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Ian Carr :: Belladonna

Of all the UK acts to tinker with the temperamental alchemy of jazz-rock in the early 70s, none slapped harder Ian Carr and Nucleus. Despite all the aesthetic trappings of an acid-folk gem on the cover, Belladonna lives in the venn between by Miles Davis’ dark, post-Bitches Brew fusion and the heady prog jamming of Soft Machine and Islands-era King Crimson . . .

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Richard Thompson :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Music From Grizzly Man, is full of similarly stunning moments. The music Richard Thompson and his collaborators conjured up was the perfect accompaniment to Werner Herzog’s documentary about the ill-fated environmentalist Timothy Treadwell. But — like Neil Young’s Dead Man or Bruce Langhorne’s Hired Hand — it stands up just fine on its own . . .

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Xisco Rojo :: Oumuamua/Hellmouth

Two from Madrid-based guitarist and experimental composer Xisco Rojo: "Oumuamua," a potent drone ode to that mysterious interstellar object that appeared back in 2017, and the apocalyptic "Hellmouth," a heavy metal ambient hymn where bliss blends with terror . . .

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

Everybody Likes Something Good. 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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Ame Son :: Catalyse (1970)

Like Gong on bad drugs, this record features wigged out flute, fried acid guitar that at times approaches a Sonic Youth / Dead C level of intensity, loose jazz inflected drumming, stoned out vocals, and a grainy, lo-fi drunken vibe that teeters on the edge of collapse. In other words, amazing. Check it out . . .

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Kurt Vile :: Transmissions

Return guest Kurt Vile joins us for an all-new episode of the Transmissions podcast. Joining host Jason P. Woodbury, Vile shares thoughts on the new record, unpacks what he learned during the pandemic, reflects on working with producer Rob Schnapf, digs into his favorite Bruce Springsteen deep cuts, and offers musings on Neil Young, Kesha, and Sun Ra . . .

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Joan Shelley & Bill Callahan :: Amberlit Morning

Joan Shelley’s sixth lp, The Spur, is set to drop June 24th via longtime label partner, No Quarter Records. “Amberlit Morning”, a duet with Bill Callahan, is the second taste, accompanied by a video shot in Red Hook, Brooklyn by Cyrus Moussavi and Brittany Nugent . . .

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Spectrum :: Geração Bendita

Sung in both Portuguese and English, Spectrum dropped Geração Bendita in 1971 as a companion soundtrack to the banned 1971 Brazilian film of the same name (Blessed Generation). Recorded at Todamérica studios in Rio de Janeiro, the ad hoc group consisted of actors/musicians from the film along with former members of the band 2000 Volts. The serving? Post-hippie comedown energy with loads of fuzz guitar, psych-folk jammers, harmonized vox, and indiscriminate Tyrannosaurus Rex leaning oohs and ahs . . .

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Dashiell Hedayat :: Long Song for Zelda

A heavy dose of tripped-out French psychedelia circa 1971, “Long Song for Zelda” slow burns its way through the mind, courtesy of Parisian prog-rock stalwarts Gong and novelist, musician, and pseudonym extraordinaire, Dashiell Hedayat . . .

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