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AD Presents :: Lee Fields @ One Eyed Jacks, New Orleans – 11/11

Aquarium Drunkard Presents Lee FieldsPosted on

Monday night, November 11th, Aquarium Drunkard welcomes Lee Fields & The Expressions to New Orleans @ One Eyed Jacks. We’re giving away three pairs of tickets. To land a pair, leave your name and email address below with your favorite Fields record. Winners notified via email. Tickets at will-call night of show . . .

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The Stranger Song: Leonard Cohen and McCabe & Mrs. Miller

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Robert Altman’s 1971 film McCabe & Mrs. Miller is a western quite unlike any other. It has in fact been described as an anti-western. Gone are the heroic, alpha-male and defenseless female archetypes, the numerous and gratuitous gunfights and the proud American spirit. In their stead is a quiet, moody and subtle depiction of frontier life on the cusp of a changing America. The film effectively debunks the myth of America's 'old west' and presents characters and situations that are nuanced and resonant; men who are weak, women who are guarded, violence that is random and senseless, and pillars of American society that are corrupt. Altman’s style, especially in the 70’s, is unmistakably distinct - the overlapping conversations, the gorgeously hazy cinematography, and the meandering nature of the film all lend it an entirely authentic and human quality.

A fan of Leonard Cohen’s 1967 debut, Songs of Leonard Cohen, Altman brilliantly chose three songs from the LP to serve as the film’s soundtrack. The rest of the film's music is diegetic, either performed by a citizen of the film’s fictional town of Presbyterian Church (who offhandedly toys with a ukulele or fiddle, adding a humorously ironic score to the casual conversations in Sheehan’s bar), or by a player piano in the brothel.

But the three Cohen songs, “The Stranger Song,” “Sisters of Mercy,” and Winter Lady,” work in perfect harmony with the film and allow Cohen to play the part of an invisible, informal narrator, filling in the blanks left by the naturalistic, show-don’t-tell, style of the film. As nothing much is offered by the film’s dialogue in the way of back-stories, motivations and desires, it is left to Cohen and his songs. And as McCabe and Mrs. Miller swoon across with the film’s patient, meditative narrative, a larger picture emerges, like pieces of a puzzle falling into place.

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Cate Le Bon :: I Can’t Help You (Via Mug Museum)

Cate Le BonPosted on

Dig this earworm. First track off Mug Museum, Cate Le Bon's third LP, out next week - stateside - via Wichita Recordings. Let the angular Tom Verlaine/Television comparisons ring out. The record was cut earlier this year with Noah Georgeson and Josiah Steinbrick, here in LA, where the Welsh artist now calls home.

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Zachary Cale

Lagniappe Sessions Zachary CalePosted on

Lagniappe (la ·gniappe) noun ‘lan-ˌyap,’ — 1. An extra or unexpected gift or benefit. 2. Something given or obtained as a gratuity or bonus.

Released earlier this year, Zachary Cale’s Blue Rider marked the singer-songwriters fourth full-length release – a deft meditation of fingerpicked guitar, drifting feedback and reverb laden vocals. This week’s installment of the become a member or log in.

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Who Is Don Muro? :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Don Muro The AD InterviewPosted on

In early 2013, Jared Cheek and Jason Nickey came across a weird little record while working at the Bloomington, Indiana record shop, Landlocked Music. Titled It’s Time, the 1977 LP featured a black-and-white image of the man responsible for all the sounds within, songwriter Don Muro, surrounded by various synths and audio gear.

“Looking at the front cover [Jason] thought it seemed like something that I might be into, so we put it on and I loved every song on it,” Cheek explains.

Googling Muro’s name, Cheek found the artist still active, both as a performer and music educator. He shot off an email, inquiring if Muro would be interested in Cheek’s label, Flannelgraph Records, reissuing It’s Time. Muro promptly responded, and Landlocked offered to co-release the LP.

“I'm assuming that the process of reissuing a record from 36 years ago is normally not this painless, but Don's enthusiasm and helpfulness has made it a real joy,” Cheek says.

The reissuing process isn’t the only thing atypical about the story. It’s Time is a genuine original as an album. Its songs ping-pong between oscillating synth pop, ambient soundscapes, and crunchy AOR-inspired power-pop rippers; its lyrics blend charming naivety and smirking, cocksure glances. It’s no “outsider record” by in traditional terms -- Muro clearly knows what he’s doing with a pop song -- but it still resonates as far left of the sounds dominating the burgeoning FM airwaves of the day.

Don Muro :: Lay Low Day

After the jump...we catch up with Muro to discuss the reissue of It’s Time and beyond...

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AD Presents: Scout Niblett — Berlin, Germany / November 8th

Aquarium Drunkard Presents Scout NiblettPosted on

We’re in Berlin for six months. Next up — AD presents Scout Niblett, Novembr 8th, at Privatclub. Harmony Molina supports. We're giving away a few pairs of tickets to AD readers. To enter, leave a comment below with you name and a . . .

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Noon EST, Channel 35)

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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.

Monster Rally guests on the show  this week -- his set can be downloaded,

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Jonathan Rado :: All The Jung Girls (Diane Coffee Cover)

Diane Coffee Jonathan RadoPosted on

Jonathan Rado :: All The Jung Girls (Diane Coffee cover . . .

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Videodrome: Ghouls, Grind, Gothic & Gore: A Halloween Helper

Halloween VideodromePosted on

(Welcome to Videodrome. A monthly column plumbing the depths of vintage underground cinema – from cult, exploitation, trash and grindhouse to sci-fi, horror, noir and beyond.)

Aside from 14-year-olds and the few dozen AD readers recently thawed from 50-year cryo-sleep, no one wants to read another list of must-see horror films for Halloween. But seeing as splatter films and spectacular exploitation are the lifeblood of this column, it makes no sense to let the last few witching hours of October pass without showing a little love for scary movies.

When the need arises this all-hallow’s eve to screen a dark and brooding tale of terror, consult this list for a full rundown of hideous, hair-raising and at times downright deplorable cinematic gems to impress or scare the living shit out of your dearest fiends and neighbors. Ordered by sub-genre for your convenience, you loathsome devils.

Ghost Story —  The Legend of Hell House (1973)

A worthy entry in the surprisingly roomy pantheon of atmospheric ‘70s British chillers, this one runs on legit talent with iconic genre actor Roddy McDowall in the lead and a screenplay penned by the legendary Richard Mathieson. An original twist on a familiar theme–witnesses offered big bucks to disprove a haunting–comes strong with the creepy theatrics, campy but ominous dialogue and a full spectrum of psychological violation. Relies on suspense over gore, but deals in themes of madness, cannibalism, rape and evil while maintaining the creep factor shared by the best horrors of the early 1970s film era.

Witches — Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970)

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders may be best described as Czechoslovakian experimental concept horror, if that means something to you. Regardless of what it is, this beautiful piece of visual imagination falls neatly into “what the hell did I just watch” territory. It’s kind of a moral fable about the loss of youth and innocence, ushered on by painted druid priests and fanged forest warlocks. Attractive adolescent Valerie is beset by vampires, perverted sprites and lesbians in a Wonderlandian waking dream, where she must navigate the fantasy landscape to “survive.” An excellent choice if you’re looking for an ambient film filled with colorful, terrifying and often perverted imagery.

Gothic —  Castle Freak (1995)

Though it is by far the newest film on this list, Castle Freak shares a natural kinship with the low budget grindhouse movement of the 70s and 80s in its exploitative concept and respectful attention to graphic gore. As every fan of horror knows, the genre has deep roots in the medieval castle story. Castle Freak succeeds by taking that time-tested premise and gruesomely marring it with the murderous antics of a hairy, deformed mutant cannibal roaming the stone hallways of an ancient Italian castle. All that being said, Castle Freak is a surprisingly effective B movie horror with a top-notch creature-villain.

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The All Night Workers :: Why Don’t You Smile Now

Lou Reed The All Night Workers The Velvet UndergroundPosted on

A blueprint for the nascent VU.

In the early 1960s,  just prior to the formation of the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed worked as a staff writer for the rip-off, cash-in label Pickwick Records. Concerning his time spent with the label, Lou himself was quoted as saying "There were four of us locked into a room and they would say, 'write ten California songs, ten Detroit songs'. These releases would largely head straight to the bargain bins with titles intentionally designed to confuse . . .

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Diane Coffee :: My Friend Fish

Diane CoffeePosted on

Diane Coffee is tormented, liberated, terrified and triumphant. More altered attitude than alternate persona, Coffee is Shaun Fleming’s creation, a life crafted in tight, varied snapshots. Saturated with swagger and fanciful fits, My Friend Fish  whirls both emotionally and musically, steadied only by bravado, where even sadness is boldly pleaded.

An overlooked touchstone in the parade of critically appointed influencers for Fleming and his other group, Foxygen, is that of Beck - the gangly and stretched 21st-Century-bluesman by-way-of slacker-prophet. As such, Fish  shows flashes of  Odelay, Mutations,  Midnite Vultures  and  Sea Change. "All The Young Girls," Fleming's iteration on the Princely tenderness of Midnite Vultures' closer  "Debra," is particularly demonstrative of the sleazy steeze that seeps from both records. Whereas “Hymn” and “Tale of a Dead Dog,” are the bombastic, airy, folksier singles from a record that otherwise features a heavy dose of vibed-out R&B and vibed-out Punk.

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AD Presents :: Monster Rally – Volume II (A Mixtape)

Mixtapes Monster RallyPosted on

66 minutes and 4 seconds. Monster Rally - Volume II: A new collection of danceable funk, afro-soul, incredibly smooth hip hop, rainy dub, and multi-ethnic garage rock. Our second collaboration with Monster Rally, whose new LP - Return To Paradise - is out this week via Gold Robot Records.

Aquarium Drunkard Presents :: Monster Rally II (A Mixtape)

Monster Rally - Smoke
Earn-Es back
Sylvania East Side Symphony . . .

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Lou Reed :: Between Thought And Expression

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When I heard the news of Lou Reed's death yesterday, I didn't immediately reach for a record, but instead picked up my copy of  Lester Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung. Re-reading Bangs classic Creem interviews with Reed, I was once again struck by their relationship, as it's the same type of relation any music geek ends up eventually having with rock and roll: we worship at the alter of our heroes - the people who make cool and art look so effortless - and eventually we learn that they're a bunch of flawed, pitiable rats just like the rest of us. And it makes us angry. We become flustered and super critical. How could someone who wrote "All Tomorrow's Parties" or "Who Loves the Sun" or "Venus in Furs" be anything less than a benevolent, thoughtful and magnanimous Prometheus? In a bit of Orwellian double-think, we hold those thoughts simultaneously - we revere and revile. Or more accurately, we revere and we realize - realize that these artists we've grown up worshiping are just as human as the rest of us. We do and we don't accept that, and the collision of those truths leaves us wounded.

That's how Bangs felt about Reed. It's how and why he could write in a set of unpublished notes:

"Lou realized early on that all you need to do is touch the other's cheek and just give them some small recognition and then let them be and maybe record it and thereby perhaps justify their tragedy through art. And all art is an act of love towards the whole human race. Aw, Lou, it's the best music ever made, the instrumental intro to 'All Tomorrow's Parties' is like watching dawn break over a bank of buildings through the windows of these elegantly hermetic cages..."

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The B-52’s :: The Downtown Cafe – Sept 2, 1978 / Atlanta, GA

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The B-52's 1979 debut album ushered in a practically fully formed sound/band. No one else was doing this...whatever 'this' was. It's also one of my all-time favorite debuts of any band/genre. Captured live in Atlanta in 1978, these clips find the group at their most primal. The set is chopped up (spliced into songs), all of it worth checking out via Youtube. Here's "Rock Lobster" - and be sure to stick around for the five minute mark. Shit . . .

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show (Halloween Edition)

SIRIUSPosted on

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.

Download: Trick Or Treat Volume 9 -   A Vintage Halloween Mixtape

SIRIUS 316: Count Chocula — Intro ++ Bob McFadden And Dor — The Mummy ++ The Blue Echoes — It’s Witchcraft . . .

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