Nothing is simple. Self-knowlege is won painfully, insight by insight, song by song. On his latest album under the Pedro the Lion banner, Santa Cruz, songwriter David Bazan examines the complications of family, faith, and the past—and how it informs the present moment . . .
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On January 15, 1976—what would have been Martin Luther King Jr.’s 47th birthday—the pianist Harry Whitaker assembled a group of musicians at Sound Ideas Studio on West 46th Street in Manhattan to record what would eventually be released as Black Renaissance – Body, Mind And Spirit. Whitaker had gained experience playing piano in Roy Ayers’ band and as musical director for Roberta Flack for most of the 1970s, but this session was an opportunity for Whitaker to see his specific musical vision become reality . . .
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There are heavy hitters, and then there's The Dirty Three. A trio comprising violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White, these Australian independent rock legends recently returned with their first album in 12 year, the aptly titled Love Changes Everything. This week on Transmissions, The Dirty Three explore their history, reflect on the life and work of Steve Albini, and recall their days opening for The Beastie Boys . . .
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A regular sideman and session player for various jazz and rock acts in the Bay Area during the early '70s, trumpeter Luis Gasca eventually stepped back from performing. But his 1972 LP For Those Who Chant cements his legacy, featuring his Latin jazz stylings and players like Joe Henderson, Lenny White, Stanley Clarke and Carlos Santana . . .
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Julius Eastman was a minimalist maverick. Wild Up is a group of Los Angeles-based musicians who have anthologized Eastman’s works since 2021. In their fourth installment, The Holy Presence, Wild Up lands on Eastman’s final compositions, ones that reflect on religiosity and resistance . . .
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On her new album, Linda Thompson doesn't sing. But her ever-vibrant personality is on full display on the aptly named Proxy Music. Joined by vocalists like Rufus and Martha Wainwright, John Grant, Eliza Carthy and Dori Freeman, the record captures the melancholic spirit of her classic albums with Richard–who shows up here, too . . .
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First released in 1986, the collaborative record of dream pop deities Cocteau Twins and minimalist giant Harold Budd is still among the most interesting crossbreeds between so-called pop and so-called art music. By the time of its release, The Moon and the Melodies‘ mix of cerebral drone experimentation and crystalline emotional delivery was at least on par with those at the frontier of pop’s absorption of the avant-garde: John Cale, Laurie Anderson, Arthur Russell, and the like . . .
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Pharoah Sanders and Leon Thomas's thirty-minute magnum opus, 'The Creator Has a Master Plan' is arguably the paradigmatic work of spiritual jazz, setting the template of deep groove, free blowing and global rhythms that has long characterized the form. But it has also become, improbably enough, something of a standard, covered dozens upon dozens of times--both within the bounds of jazz and beyond them. We scoured a half century of covers and rounded up a handful of our absolute favorite incarnations . . .
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Selects from the AD mid-year review. 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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Stop Making Sense is unabashedly effervescent, like a jolt of straight dopamine. For being a concert film about a famous band at the height of their success, there's nothing about Stop Making Sense that's trying to be cool or sexy, flashy or pedantic — it's just trying to have a good time . . .
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Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. This week on the show, Joe Pernice of The Pernice Brothers, Scud Mountain Boys, and Chappaquiddick Skyline—as well as books, records, and other projects under his own name. The Bros are back with Who Will You Believe. Pernice joins us to discuss . . .
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On paper, journeyman songwriter Alejandro Escovedo's latest album Echo Dancing is a career-spanning look back at his song catalog. In actuality, the record is something more radical—a reimagining that embraces scuzzy electronics, minimalist electric blues, and dubby vocal effects. He joins us to discuss it, dig into his counterculture roots, and share which member of the Velvet Underground "scared the shit" out of him . . .
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Opposites attract in this unexpected collaboration between dubstep pioneer Sam Shackleton and out-folk innovator Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance. Yet the oddity itself is very beautiful. Shackleton’s music has never sounded so warm and present. Chasny’s work has never seemed visionary and forward looking. They meet somehow in a middle that no one foresaw, and it is a strange and lovely place . . .
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Time flies. As we're halfway through 2024, enter our first-ever midyear review to accompany our annual favorites list. As always, our list is unranked and unruly—not "complete" but featuring more than enough to get you started. Let it blurb . . .
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Like his previous album, the COVID-era 2022 masterpiece I Survived, It's Over, Nashville multi-instrumentalist Rich Ruth's new album Water Still Flows is absolutely audacious in its musical fusions and amalgamations. This one is a woozy kaleidoscope of spiritual jazz, post-rock, chiming minimalism, Berlin school synth sequencers, metal and drone. It is entirely possible that it shouldn't work, but somehow it does . . .
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