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Ram On LA: A Los Angeles Music Sampler (2009 Redux)

Aquarium Drunkard Presents Paul McCartneyPosted on

Originally released in 2009, the AD-curated Ram On LA compilation brought together a dozen Los Angeles artists paying homage to Paul & Linda McCartney's 1971 masterpiece Ram. Having recently witnessed retrospective publications and documentaries dissecting bgone '90s and 2000s-era music scenes in cities like NYC and Athens, Georgia, the comp represents a snapshot of a particular LA indie scene (one in which no defining sound represented the overall zeitgeist). Retrospectively, a look back on those halcyon days of both the music scene and that era's internet musical landscape make the compilation well worth a reappraisal and a . . .

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Sean Pratt :: Prairie Whistle Call

Sean PrattPosted on

The unbroken horizon of the American steppe reigns over Sean Pratt’s Prairie Whistle Call. Over the course of its nine cuts, the songwriter distills desolation and grandiose into a deeply personal and downright gorgeous ode to the golden roads and rolling fields he sings of. We’re presented with an Americana that stands on its own; a far cry from the derivative indie-folk that the moniker tends to carry today. In hushed tones imbued with hues of melancholy and self-discovery, Pratt brings us into his corner, commanding a restrained attention . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show (The Halloween Edition)

Halloween SIRIUSPosted on

Trick or treat. Broadcasting from the Hollywood Forever Cemetery … The Aquarium Drunkard Show. The Halloween edition, Wednesday night / 7pm California time. SIRIUS/XM ~ Channel 35 . . .

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Posted on Halloween SIRIUS

All Hallows’ Aquarium Drunkard II

HalloweenPosted on

Check your candy bars for razor blades, kids, it's once again time for All Hallows' Aquarium Drunkard. The damned souls around here are coming to take possession of your sound system and there aren't enough exorcisms in the world to get them out of your house. Might as well enjoy the monster mash dub, spectral free jazz, pagan folk, creature-feature punk, and cult TV soundtrack grooves they are spewing up for the spooky season. It's like Shakespeare said, Hell is empty and all the devils are here . . .

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Posted on Halloween

Transmissions :: Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris PodcastPosted on

Welcome back to Transmissions, a weekly interview podcast created and curated by Los Angeles online music magazine Aquarium Drunkard. This week on the show, host Jason P. Woodbury speaks with a living legend, and one of our all-time favorite vocalists and songsmiths: Emmylou Harris . . .

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Nicola Alesini & Pier Luigi Andreoni :: Marco Polo

Harold Budd Nicola Alesini Pier Luigi Andreoni Roger EnoPosted on

Nicola Alesini & Pier Luigi Andreoni's 1996 'ambient-word record' Marco Polo. Vine-like, lush and minimal, layered and discreet, with assists from Japan's David Sylvian (vocals), Pierrot Lunaire's Arturo Stalteri (bouzouki, harmonium), Roger Eno (keyboards, percussion, vocals), David Torn (guitar), and Harold Budd (percussion). Fourth world, indeed . . .

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Posted on Harold Budd Nicola Alesini Pier Luigi Andreoni Roger Eno

Makaya McCraven :: Off the Record

Jazz Makaya McCravenPosted on

On his first proper offering since 2022's career highlight In These Times, jazz drummer and composer Makaya McCraven compiles a set of four new EPs into one for Off the Record. Hence the package's namesake, each set of songs takes the organic improvisation from various previous live recordings. There's an aural alchemy in McCraven's post-production wizardry, the fervent compositions feeling like fresh studio iterations as much as previous live experiences culled from the archives; each set uniquely featuring a different live lineup with plenty of the musician's collaborators and International Anthem labelmates . . .

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Posted on Jazz Makaya McCraven

Videodrome :: And Soon the Darkness (1970)

VideodromePosted on

An underappreciated British horror gem with a Hitchcockian flair, And Soon The Darkness (1970) ushers in the “tourist-paranoia” and “daylight-horror” subgenres in a lean 94 minutes of suspense and mystery. It’s a film ripe for rediscovery this Halloween season — or any season you may find it . . .

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Tortoise :: Touch

TortoisePosted on

It’s been nine years since the last full album of new music by Tortoise. 2016’s The Catastrophist feels like it came out a lifetime ago. But any doubt that time or distance has diminished the long-running outfit should be dismissed by a new album Touch, which demonstrates that, despite a nine year interval, Tortoise can be counted on for music which is unpredictable and exhilarating . . .

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Nala Sinephro :: The Smashing Machine Original Soundtrack

Nala SinephroPosted on

Nala Sinephro might not be the first name you’d think of when it comes to wrestling-movie soundtracks, but the emerging ambient jazz star’s work for Benny Safdie’s biopic has plenty of force. Her brief but evocative score uses her familiar tools – harp, synths, sax, occasional percussion – to create an atmosphere of tumultuous reflection and serenely ominous potential. In its tenderness and ambiguity, it traffics in a different sort of destruction . . .

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

SIRIUSPosted on

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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Posted on SIRIUS

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Cochemea

Cochemea Lagniappe SessionsPosted on

Cochemea Gastelum returns with his second Lagniappe entry following up his session from 2021 covering Big Star and the legendary Cuban band, Irakere. This latest installment finds the NYC based multi-instrumentalist and arranger on the heels of his third LP, Ancestros Futuros, released last month via Daptone Records. For his encore session, Gastelum pays tribute to his southern California roots covering War's "All Day Music," and Flip Your Wig era Hüsker D . . .

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Posted on Cochemea Lagniappe Sessions

Transmissions :: Pam Grossman

Pam Grossman PodcastPosted on

Welcome back to Transmissions, a weekly podcast series from Aquarium Drunkard. This week on the show: Pam Grossman, host of ⁠The Witch Wave⁠ podcast and author of a new book, ⁠Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity⁠. This show, at its core, is about the relationship between magic and art. What do we mean by magic? Let’s turn to Grossman's book for a helpful take. She writes that magic is quote, “a way of shifting one’s entire mode of being in the direction of Creative Force and interacting with it…When magic is working properly, there is . . .

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Posted on Pam Grossman Podcast

Adeline Hotel :: Watch the Sunflowers

Adeline HotelPosted on

An electric keyboard shimmers as guitars carve indolent arcs of jazz-adjacent sound in “Dreaming,” the vocals barely over a whisper. A string orchestra starts up in the chorus, as Dan Knishkowy murmurs the question, “Am I dreaming?” Fair point. The sound envelopes like a technicolor reverie, cool, removed and satin-y smooth. It’s more akin to quiet storm soul or the fusion-touched jazz rock than the Americana you may have come to expect from Adeline Hotel . . .

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Radio Free Heaven: A Mix Inspired By Philip K. Dick and The Transmigration of Timothy Archer

MixtapesPosted on

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, Philip K. Dick’s underappreciated final novel, is framed by death. It begins with a singularly famous death—the assassination of John Lennon in 1980—and follows the reverberations of that event backward in time to the San Francisco Bay Area of the late 60s and 70s, where Episcopal Bishop Timothy Archer is in the midst of a crisis of faith. The book is a characteristically Dick-ian smoothie of thematic contradictions: sacred/popular, surreal/mundane, historical/fictional, faith/gnosis . . .

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Posted on Mixtapes