A Good Band Is Easy To Kill documents the final tour of indie-pop band Beulah in the fall of 2003. Although in many ways an early-aughts time capsule from over twenty years ago, the documentary showcases how little has changed for touring indie bands and the tribulations of life on the road . . .
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With more-than-welcome new jams from Tortoise hitting this month, it's a good time to dig back into the band's extensive live collection on Archive.org. If you're looking for somewhere to start, you can't go wrong with this 1996 gig at Bimbo's in San Francisco. The David Pajo-era lineup of Tortoise starts out soaring with a gorgeous “Gamera” and pretty much stays at a beautiful elevation for the rest of the show . . .
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Peruvian artist, researcher, and sound experimentalist Alejandra Cárdenas, who records under the moniker Ale Hop, joins forces with Congolese guitarist Titi Bakorta for the ecstatic Mapambazuko, released earlier this year on the Uganda-based label Nyege Nyege Tapes. Recorded in the Ugandan capital of Kampala, the album’s blend of soukous-infused guitar patterns and industrial-tinged electronics makes for an enthralling listen, where frenetic Congolese rhythms dash and dart across a terrain of glitchy, squeaking oscillations . . .
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Phi-Psonics is a spiritual jazz collective headed by Los Angeles-based composer and acoustic bassist Seth Ford-Young, whose prolific session work can be heard on releases such as the recent stunner by Takuro Okada. The uninhibited, meditative soundscapes of previous studio offerings The Cradle and Octava quickly made waves after catching the attention of Manchester jazz label Gondwana, flashing nods to A Love Supreme and a lush framework playing off of Ford-Young's Mingus-inspired upright bass, lifting woodwinds and the Wurlitzer piano of Mitchell Yoshida . . .
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“What is ashwaganda?” asks the first track of this reggae-jam-surf-groove opus, and fair enough, let’s look it up. Ashwaganda, it turns out, is an evergreen herb that smells a bit like wet horse, commonly prescribed for anxiety and stress. It's a good time all the way through, and maybe that’s enough for now. We’ve had plenty of floating anxiety over the last few years, why not a dose of floating good will . . .
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As the Amadors (notably unaccompanied by the rhythm section) run through a subtle blend of stroke tremolos, arpeggios, and golpes, they remind their elders that they have the utmost respect for their history, clarifying that, actually, there’s so much to get excited about—all of us—and remain so, even decades after the release of this astonishing, idiosyncratic treasure of Spanish rock culture, which surely deserves to be devoured by international listeners, with the same fervor that it is in Spain, at this point in history. Do yourselves a favor . . .
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“Still no reverb (mostly)” — a brief recording note found in the liners for Aux Meadows’ latest, Draw Near. And yet! These 11 gorgeously dusty instrumentals conjure up as many wide-open spaces as any echo-laden cosmic Americana group you might mention. This is the sound of musicians listening to one another, dreaming in real time . . .
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Outré California. 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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Call it “brain fog,” call it “attention economy burnout,” call it the dregs of late capitalism: however you label it, Tamara Lindeman has been feeling it. With “Neon Signs,” our favorite song from her 2025 album as The Weather Station, Humanhood—out now on Fat Possum Records—she gives names and shapes to the sense of dread so many of us feel permeating our daily existence. This week on Transmissions, she joins host Jason Woodbury to discuss Humanhood—the album, sure, but also the concept of what makes us human . . .
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California-based indie veteran Jim Putnam has worn just about every hat imaginable in the music industry. This eponymous solo record on French label We Are Unique! recalls the assiduous songwriting from his previous Radar Brothers venture and beyond: a trusty slice of sunbaked comfort. Coming as no surprise, the stark and layered orchestration comes courtesy of the journeyman playing all of the instruments himself . . .
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Mick Turner’s guitar playing is instantly recognizable. From his role as the binding agent in the seminal band Dirty Three to his numerous solo albums and now his latest group, the dreamy duo Mess Esque, there’s no other guitar player with Turner’s distinctive sense of rhythm and tone. His sound can be hesitant, composed, jagged, and ragged, yet consistently in command and always compelling. AD caught up with Turner about the artistic blind date that started Mess Esque, how he collaborates with lyricists, his approach for painting versus music, and more . . .
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Keith Jarrett didn’t have to make a rock album filled with noodly guitar and muted boogie. But he did, and in its unusually obvious imperfections, eccentric choices and rambling longueurs, it shows the famously demanding pianist at his most mercurial and relaxed. In his perpetual hunt for wells of inspiration and rivers of feeling, Jarrett’s curious detour still leads to some fascinating backwaters and rewarding reservoirs . . .
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Hot on the heels of their thrilling debut, Basic is back with Dream City. The Basic formula remains in place, with percussionist Mikel Patrick Avery’s hypnotic electro-acoustic rhythms providing the sturdy foundation for Chris Forsyth to weave fantastical six-string tapestries. It’s far more than just “shredding over the top,” however — in fact, Dream City features some of Forsyth’s most lyrical and imaginative playing, forgoing flash for melody, fireworks for pure texture. This stuff has a pleasingly neverendless feel, like we’re only hearing choice snippets of an eternal jam. Basically beautiful . . .
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Over the past decade, Destroyer has shifted seamlessly into middle age. Where restless, lesser artists might have manufactured reinvention narratives or settled into the indie oldies circuit (imagine the money to be made from a Kaputt 15th anniversary tour), Bejar and his muse have kept on truckin’: ken, Have We Met, LABRYNTHITIS, and now Dan’s Boogie. Not career-defining statements, but statements out of which a career is defined . . .
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For over 20 years across countless releases and contexts Jefre Cantu-Ledesma has been honing in on the liminal space between sound and silence. His new album Gift Songs feels like the most realized version of this concern. In a time when information overload and short attention spans are at an all time high, Gift Songs feels like a transmission from another place inviting the listener to slow down, take a breath, look around. You'll be glad you did . . .
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