Posts

Death Is So On the Table :: A Conversation with Kevin Morby

Kevin Morby doesn't feel at home in this world anymore. The songwriter joins Aquarium Drunkard to discuss the holy and profane elements of his latest album, the double lp "Oh My God," detailing how the lens of religion allowed him to "tell a story of humanity . . .

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Freak Kingdom: Remembering Roky, Fresh Lagniappe Sessions + More…

It’s June. Already. Our weekly Sidecar email newsletter dropped this a.m. / smash that subscribe button and peruse the archives. Always loaded with supplemental reccs + more . . .

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Be And Bring Me Home: Remembering Roky Erickson

In 2010 Roky Erickson released his first album in 14 years, True Love Cast Out All Evil, backed by fellow Texans Okkervil River. Below, Okkervil's Will Sheff reflects on the iconoclast and his time spent backing him . . .

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Tim Maia’s Seroma Years (1972-1977)

... I started to see these two-plus albums (and a posthumous Vol. 3) as the centerpieces of Tim’s most prolific, creative and influential phase, what I’d like to call his “Seroma” phase, named after the rehearsal space and production company of the same name . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions: The Dream Syndicate

For this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions, legendary Paisley Underground band the Dream Syndicate tear into songs by Pere Ubu, John Cale, and the Stylistics . . .

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Andrew Wartts & The Gospel Storytellers

Egon at Now Again hipped us to the Gospel Storytellers at his office, shortly after the label set up shop on York Boulevard in Highland Park. At the time the record was a rarity, and a curious one at that. Drop the needle on the platter cold, and you'd swear you were dipping into gritty vintage from the early-mid 70s. But no, these grooves to the one true lord and savior were laid down by Wartts and his Storytellers in 1982. Gospel-soul, yes, but with a weighty undercurrent of considerable funk . . .

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Transfigurations 2019 :: Recent & Recommended Guitar Soli

The golden age of guitar soli continues! Check out a fresh batch of diverse efforts from some very talented players . . .

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

Black sand blues. Freeform interstitial airwave debris transmitting somewhere off the coast of Los Angeles.

SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.

34.1090° N, 118.2334° W . . .

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Los Fabulosos Festivals :: El Mensaje

The soulful "El Mensaje"—delivered in English (complete with requisite grunts)— leans heavily into the archetypal funk emissaries from north of the border transmitted south, via radio. Here, amidst its three and half minute workout, the Fabulosos Festivals eagerly extol the mantra "everything we do is goin' to be funky." It begs the question: did Lee Dorsey ever make it to the Panama Canal? No matter. At the very least his music did . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Sinkane

For this installment of the Lagniappe Sessions Sinkane renders a bit from Abbey Road -- as if it were an elastic footpath outside a cottage in Negril. Oh yeah, and then there's the dub version. But first, this super humid take on Peter Gabriel's 1986 commercial breakthrough, "Sledgehammer . . .

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Michael Nau :: No Quit

If you’ve spent any time listening to the Aquarium Drunkard show via satellite lately, you’ll know that Michael Nau’s “No Quit” has brought us continued respite from the quickly thickening air and ever-rising temperatures. The Cumberland, MD-based maestro's latest is the perfect summer elixir; his ethereal tenor kite-flying atop a gust of blown-out of organ, synthesizer and percussion. Like a lost Richard Swift gem. Is there any bigger compliment . . .

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Akron/Family :: Collected Recordings

It’s been six years since Akron/Family went on an indefinite hiatus. Following the release of 2007’s epic Love is Simple, founding member Ryan Vanderhoof quit amicably to live in a Buddhist Dharma commune, while the band ventured on into even more psychedelic and experimental territory.

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Catching Up With Lou Barlow

Lou Barlow has turned the last decade into something of a renaissance period. After the successful (and really good) reunion of the original Dinosaur Jr. lineup, Barlow also reignited the long dormant Sebadoh in 2013. Now the trio is back with their second album since reuniting, Act Surprised . . .

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Neil Young + Stray Gators :: Tuscaloosa

Intentional or not, Neil Young picked a rather poignant time to release a live album recorded in Alabama—and given his prickly history with the state (and with the South at large), Tuscaloosa feels like it’s arriving in the same way that so much of Shakey’s career has: just when we need it . . .

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