Haley Fohr is primarily known for her project Circuit des Yeux, an experimental pop vehicle propelled by Fohr’s distinct vocals and dramatic, operatic lens. An intriguing artist, she’s doubled down with her new project, Jackie Lynn, out now via Thrill Jockey. A concept album recorded in collaboration with Cooper Crain of Chicago’s become a member or log in.
My friend Sebastian turned me on to this record yesterday, cold, with no editorial save "listen". Glad I did. Turns out David Nance is a musician from Omaha with a record, More Than Enough, coming out in the states soon via badabing records. Home recorded, no fuss. Turn it up.
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Last June when we wrote about Whitney, there were just a few sounds wafting around the ether online. Fast forward a year and they have a full length out, Light Upon The Lake, via Secretly Canadian. The sum of its parts feels more associated with various late 70s private-press issues than anything released via the principal's former outfits (Smith Westerns, Unknown Mortal Orchestra). The below, a . . .
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After 30 years of Monkees reunions, the group has delivered a new album that captures the rollicking nature and aesthetic of their classic ’60s recordings. As a lifelong fan, I’ve spent a whole lot of time defending my fandom of this group; it’s an oft told tale of their manufactured origins, but unlike most other examples of this phenomenon, The Monkees (project) brought together four incredibly talented, charming, and charismatic fellas whose legacy is still enjoyed fifty years later.
Repeating the successful formula of the best Monkees albums, Good Times pairs songs from a diverse pool of songwriters alongside contributions from the group's members. It works beautifully. As an album, it manages to sound both rooted in the zeitgeist of the mid ’60’s and contemporary all at once.
Kicking off with Harry Nilsson’s excellent title track (itself demo’ed for the Monkees, and released on a relatively obscure Pre-RCA Nilsson LP and single), Micky Dolenz duets with his old friend Harry’s spirit in a way that works without seeming exploitative. Ditto the cameo appearance from the late Davy Jones; he’s heard here on a remixed outtake from ’67 ("Love To Love") that was probably his finest unreleased Monkees era track. XTC’s Andy Partridge brilliantly captures the spirit of the group in his brilliant "You Bring The Summer", in which Dolenz shows off his still-excellent vocal chops. "Gotta Give It Time" is a choice mod pop number written by bubblegum maestros Jeff Barry and Joey Levine, and "Whatever’s Right" was penned by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, who were the initial, official songwriters and producers of the group, responsible for their first hit, "Last Train To Clarksville".
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We've used a lot of words to describe Steve Gunn's unbroken streak of excellent records over the past few years, but I'm not sure if "fun" has been one of them. But that's the word that keeps coming to mind when spinning the singer-songwriter's latest, become a member or log in.
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 435: Jean-Michel Bernard — Générique Stéphane ++ Cotton Jones - Blood Red Sentimental Blues ++ Dungen - L.A. (Wil Malone) ++ Dungen - Alberto Balsalm (Aphex Twin) ++ Dungen - Franks Kaktus ++ Ryan Sambol - A Human Being ++ Krano - Mi E Ti ++ Jennifer Castle - Powers ++ Steve Gunn - Wildwood ++ Ryley Walker - On The Banks of The Old Kishwaukee . . .
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As with any artist whose career spans more than several LPs (let alone 30-plus) it's often difficult to pick a peak. That said, there is little doubt that 1973 featured Van Morrison at one of his highest of his highs. With numerous hits under his belt, some flops, and some good and bad times ahead, he set out across America and England with as powerful a set as any band could claim at the time.
The expanded It’s Too Late to Stop Now proves the original (now Volume I) was hardly a one-off in terms of the quality of the performances therein. That release was seemingly a live Greatest-Hits-Til-Now with some other bangers mixed in; Volumes 2, 3, 4 and their accompanying DVD prove that the three-month tour was one massive highlight and a mere sampling of what Morrison, and the Caledonia Soul Orchestra, could do.
The forty years in-between its original release and present day have muddied the context of It’s Too Late To Stop Now, an album from a promotional tour in advance of Hard Nose The Highway. Morrison is decidedly Irish in popular context, but his first ten years as a solo artist were almost entirely spent in America — New York and Northern California to be exact. The band for Hard Nose, like It’s Too Late, was entirely American. The aloof, or otherness, that Morrison has become known for was an entirely new concept to him in 1973 — a dynamic performer that had become introverted, scared in many ways of the scope of his own success.
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In the early '70s, progressive rock band Trî¤d, Grî¤s & Stenar emerged from the Swedish "New Left," part of the counter cultural "music movement," bearing a unique sound with elements of Swedish folk, Bay Area psychedelia, the minimalism of Terry Riley, gutsy American R&B and blues, and the British rock inspired by it.
Formed in 1969 after Bo Anders' previous groups Pî¤rson Sound and International Harvester ended, TG&S recorded an excellent self-titled studio album, but like their counter parts on the American West Coast, the Grateful Dead, the group's power was best exhibited in a live setting. In the interest of documenting the group's in-concert power, Anthology Recordings released a tremendous box set earlier this year, featuring three documents of that live wildness: 1972's Djungelns, '73's Mors Mors, and Kom Tillsammans, featuring previously unreleased material recorded in '72.
Often, the group's live sound is droning and mantric, group vocals tangled up with steady rhythms and repeated riffs, but sometimes it melts into pure blues-driven freakout mode. Even when the band approaches conventional pop material, like their cover of the Stones' "The Last Time," it's stretched and mutated. The group's sound wasn't necessarily one of direct political action; in the liner notes, bassist Torbjî¶rn Abelli writes: "We were invariably criticized by the representation of the orthodox Left: 'Why aren't you out there protesting? The masses are listening to you -- and all you can do is sing about the MOON!?'" But it was the sound of a kind of rebellion, a "ritualistic battle cry" for freedom, Abelli writes.
Trî¤d, Grî¤s & Stenar :: Sanningens Silverflod
Aquarium Drunkard reached out to Trî¤d, Grî¤s & Stenar guitarist Jakob Sjî¶holm for insights into the group's influences, progression, and the Swedish counter culture of the late '60s/early '70s. Like the band's legendary live sets, Sjî¶holm's answers flowed in unexpected directions.
Aquarium Drunkard: Where did your interest in music start?
Jakob Sjî¶holm: The first memory I have is from when I was three or four years old...my uncle used to come and visit us in the countryside during summer and there was an old harmonium he used to play and sing old Swedish folk songs on. I was completely spellbound by this and never wanted him to stop playing. He visited us every year and that was always the highlight of the summer for me.
AD: What were the circumstances behind you joining Trî¤d, Grî¤s & Stenar?
Jakob Sjî¶holm: [Pre-Trî¤d, Grî¤s & Stenar group] International Harvester was a band, but also a collective of different artists. As an example, we had a performance installation at the Pistolteatern [a theater] in Stockholm in 1968 where we used music, painting, photography, films, theater etc. I was [initially] involved in this larger Harvester collective, [which grew into Trî¤d, Grî¤s & Stenar].
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Lagniappe (la ·gniappe) noun ‘lan-ˌyap,’ — 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus.
The Lagniappe Sessions return with Dungen whose 2015 lp, Allas Sak, remains one of our favorite releases of the past year. Below, the group take on the underknown Wil Malone composition, L.A.; appropriate as . . .
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Welcome to the third episode of Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions podcast, our recurring series of inspired conversation and unexpected sounds.
On this week's episode Jason P. Woodbury speaks with Nashville-based guitarist William Tyler. As a sideman, Tyler's guitar work has appeared on records by Lambchop, Charlie Louvin . . .
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It's a great idea to cover Brian Eno's deathless "Music For Airports 1/1" in the style of Miles Davis' electric jazz masterpiece In A Silent Way. But does the Long Beach, CA-based collective Psychic Temple actually deliver on this promise? Oh, yes. Led by guitarist Chris Schlarb (and featuring living legend Mike Watt on bass), become a member or log in.
Don’t let the all-American corporate name fool you. Wells Fargo were an edgy, guitar driven and politically dangerous band from 1970s Rhodesia -- a group that defied the odds of political apartheid and took incredible risks in performing their music. While their sound draws parallels to the more melodic works of Jimi Hendrix and (especially) Black Merda, Wells Fargo cut a unique take on rock n roll; one of haunting melodies and relentless rhythm.
At the time this style of music . . .
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Kacy Anderson and Clayton Linthicum are second cousins, barely past the legal drinking age in their rural home, and have been playing music together for over a decade. Their music is steeped in the traditions of Southern Appalachia, the British Isles, and their Saskatchewan homeland, yet it is wholly forward-looking. Their recently released third full-length is a monumental leap forward for the duo, and one of the finest Canadian folk albums in decades.
Front and center on Strange Country is Kacy’s subtle and twisting voice and Clayton’s . . .
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Extremely sad to wake up to the news of British folk legend Dave Swarbick's passing at the age of 75. Swarbrick was the violinist on several Fairport Convention classics, played in a duo with Martin Carthy, made countless records on his own . . .
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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard twice every Friday — Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 435: Jean-Michel Bernard — Générique Stéphane ++ Damo Suzuki / Kraftwerk ++ The Young Senators - Ringing Bells pt. 2 ++ Les Olivensteins - Fier De Ne Rien Faire ++ White Fence - Trouble Is Trouble Never Seen ++ Ghetto Cross - Dog Years ++ Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Wawa ++ Thee Oh Sees - Tidal Waves ++ Ty Segall - Cat Black ++ Willie Loco . . .
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