Sui generis. Ambient journeyman, Destroyer collaborator and jazz saxophonist, Joseph Shabason has captured and held our imagination over the course of two long-players: Aytche and Anne. As noted in our become a member or log in.
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Bill MacKay: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Chicago guitarist Bill MacKay returns with another winningly eclectic solo LP for Drag City. Fountain Fire sneaks up on you; its songs are unassuming at first, with a loose, conversational feel to them. Ahead of the album's release, MacKay joined Aquarium Drunkard to discuss his shifting approaches, cinematic inspirations, and establishing his own musical language . . .
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Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Calypso From The Cavern – A Carrouseaux Mixtape
Slide into this twenty track survey of the wild Afro-Caribbean vibe that originated in Trinidad and Tobago, prior to leaping to Panama, mutating and taking root in 1950s NYC. Or: a sonic carrouseaux of boozey partying peppered with humorous political commentary, along with a number of overlooked gems from the genre. Be kind and rewind. words / p schouten
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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, Channel 35)
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard every Wednesday at 7pm PST with encore broadcasts on-demand via the SIRIUS/XM app.
SIRIUS 558: Broadcast - Echo's Answer (Black Session) ++ Broadcast - Dead The Long Year (Black Session) ++ Broadcast - Look Outside (Black Session) ++ Arnold Dreyblatt & Megafaun - Home Hat Placement ++ Brightblack Morning Light - Fry Bread ++ Lower Dens - Tea Light ++ Brigitte Fontaine et Areski - C’est Normal ++ Pierre Bensusan Le conseil de guerre (AD edit) ++ Jessica Pratt - Opening Night > As The World . . .
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Longmont Potion Castle: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Can prank calls be an art form? It isn't hard to answer "yes" once you've heard Longmont Potion Castle. A new documentary, Where In the Hell Is the Lavender House, seeks to offer a glimpse at this obscured figure . . .
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Cotton Jones :: Paranoid Cocoon
Few contemporary artists have graced these pages as often as Michael Nau. As Cotton Jones, Nau and his wife, Whitney McGraw, landed on our radar a decade ago with the release of Paranoid Cocoon, officially propelling the long-time side project into a full-time endeavor. Eschewing the whimsical indie pop of their former group, Page France, this altogether new sonic guise seemed to arrive out of nowhere, yet fully-formed. Timeless, but right on time . . .
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The Feelies :: Look At Me
50 years ago a different Feelies, predating the Jersey bred post-punk demigods by seven years, approached perfection for three minutes and thirty seconds. The opening bass riff is a misdirection, ceding to a sonic and lyrical landscape that’s both bucolic and post-apocalyptic. When everything drops, right at a minute-thirty-five, we’re suddenly on the musical equivalent of a moving walkway - sped and slowed simultaneously. Let’s ignore the song’s forgettable coda - when you’ve tapped the motherlode, you’ll eventually only strike gangue. words /
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Tokyo Flashback: P.S.F. – Psychedelic Speed Freaks
For about a quarter century, P.S.F. Records was an amazingly reliable source for Japan’s wildest underground sounds. The label’s founder, Hideo Ikeezumi, passed away in 2017, but he’s paid fitting tribute to on Black Editions’ new volume in the supremely heady Tokyo Flashback series, Psychedelic Speed Freaks (Black Editions reissued the original Tokyo Flashback last year.) A lavishly packaged four-LP set made up entirely of previously unreleased material, it showcases the awesome breadth of the P.S.F. discography, ranging from Fillmore East-ready jams (Ghost, White Heaven) to hair-raising free jazz (Masayoshi . . .
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Kinloch Nelson: Partly on Time : Recordings 1968-1970
Some tunes have the easy melodicism and melancholy of early Neil Young, while the more atmospheric numbers might call to mind Bruce Langhorne’s classic Hired Hand soundtrack (the harmonica that wafts into the mix occasionally adds an especially lonely flavor). As a player, Nelson is an original; he rambles but never meanders, wanders but never gets lost . . .
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Julian Lage: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
During a recent set with the Nels Cline 4 at the Musical Instrument Museum, guitarist Julian Lage couldn't stop smiling. It was a repeated sight. Whether aggressively dueling with Cline or offering supportive chords, Lage appeared to be having the most fun. That joyful spirit is also audible on his latest record as a bandleader, Love Hurts. Working with drummer Dave King (of the Bad Plus) and bassist Jorge Roeder, the set was cut mostly off-the-cuff at the Wilco Loft, and it's a beautiful, layered testament to spontaneity . . .
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Helado Negro :: Running
Roberto Carlos Lange, the mind behind Helado Negro, feels like music's eternal optimist. This Is How You Smile, his new album, first saw daylight last week via Brooklyn's RVNG Intl. If not the one we deserve, Lange is definitely the hero we need. His music unfolds with a patient grace and an absolutely sublime beauty; his cooing vocals floating gently across electronic atmospheres, radiantly beaming about Latin pride, family, friendship, and love . . .
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Goat :: Let It Burn b/w Friday, Pt. 1
Heady psych, heavy on the fuzz, via Gothenburg's Goat. Released last spring, "Let It Burn" b/w "Friday, Pt. 1" combines the band's self-proclaimed "best song," written for a short film fittingly featuring a sacred goat pit against evil pagans, with a studio outtake jam that lives in a decidedly more placid space, transmitting warm, astral, free-jazz tones. Come for the doom, but stay for the cosmos. words / c depasquale
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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Scott Hirsch
Cut from the same dank and swampy cloth as JJ Cale and Bobby Charles, Scott Hirsch has paid his dues over the past two decades; both solo and with The Court & Spark / Hiss Golden Messenger. Last year’s Lost Time Behind the Moon found Hirsch mining languid, back porch Americana coupled with humid country-funk. Or: JJ Cale on cough syrup.
This installment of the Lagniappe Sessions finds Hirsch at his Ojai, CA studio, Echo Magic West, laying down three wildly emotional covers by the likes of Dire Straits, Commander Cody and Dylan – all of which will leave you wondering . . .
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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, Channel 35)
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard every Wednesday at 7pm PST with encore broadcasts on-demand via the SIRIUS/XM app.
This week: Things get pretty 'free' checking in with jazz and experimental, both new and vintage, during hour one. Then, guitar . . .
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In Memoriam: Sara Romweber (Let’s Active)
Sara Romweber was 17 the year I was born. She lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but had been talked into joining a band with a couple from about an hour and a half away in Winston-Salem. That band, Let's Active, would record and release their debut EP, Afoot, two years later, and its goofy, fun video for the perfect . . .
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