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Sevens :: 2 Live Crew – Banned In The USA

2 Live Crew SevensPosted on

(Sevens, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, pays tribute to the art of the individual song.)

The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the Bill of Rights' most debated and sacrosanct amendments. In defining freedom of speech, controversy arises when the speech involved is of questionable taste: i.e. hate speech, "obscenity," pornography. Despite repeated attacks by those who feel that particular acts of speech are detrimental to society, the courts and the people have largely stood by the idea of a broad interpretation of the amendment. As Edward Norton (portraying Larry Flynt's lawyer, Alan Isaacman) argues in front of a jury in The People vs. Larry Flynt, using the slippery-slope argument, "if we start throwing up walls against what some of us think is obscene, we may very well wake up one morning and realize that walls have been thrown up in all kinds of places that we never expected." Slippery slopes can be dangerous rhetorical ground when it comes to restricting one's rights (see Rick Santorum's infamous gay marriage-to-"man on dog" quote), but when it comes to trying to preserve freedoms, it stands much more firm.

This type of case is what the members of the Miami rap outfit 2 Live Crew faced over the sales of their 1989 platinum album As Nasty As They Wanna Be. If you've ever heard an unedited 2 Live Crew song, then you probably know why it ran afoul of those with less prurient interests. The album's lyrics can charitably be described as intensely sexual and highly objectifying toward women. When Broward County sheriff Nick Navarro warned local record stores that they could be prosecuted for selling obscenity if they sold the album, the band filed suit against the sheriff. But a U.S. Circuit Court judge classified the album as obscenity and made it illegal to sell. Two days later, a store clerk was arrested for selling a copy to an undercover police officer and not long after that, members of the group were arrested for performing songs from the album live at an adults-only concert.

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Posted on 2 Live Crew Sevens

Independence Day :: Springsteen Style (10 Tracks)

Bruce SpringsteenPosted on

It's getting hot. The 4th of July is almost here, and while I'll be taking in a White Sox game on the South Side with my dad, I figured it best to leave you all with a few deep cuts from America’s poet, Bruce Springsteen. Sure sure, everyone knows “Born in the U.S.A.,” “Born to Run,” “Born Dancing in the Dark,” “Born on Thunder Road,” “Born on the Streets of Philadelphia,” and “The River,” but here are ten lesser-known tracks to get you through the long weekend, arranged in barbecue order from Lighting Up the Grill to Sleeping on the Couch with the Meat Sweats.

To quote the Boss himself, “it’s Independence Day.”

“It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City” (via Hammersmith Odeon ‘75)

Though it originally appears on Springsteen’s debut, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ, it took the E Street Band a couple of years to learn how to play it the way it was meant to be played: this version is as loud, terrifying, and redemptive as the lyrics themselves. And, at half the length of Born to Run’s “Jungleland,” it’s Springsteen as skin-kneed playwright in his most economical. The lyrics are over and done with in the first three minutes, but the story doesn’t end until Bruce and Little Steven Van Zandt trade wailing leads over a chugging E Street train.

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Posted on Bruce Springsteen

Catching Up With Jody Stephens: The AD Interview

Big Star Jody Stephens The AD InterviewPosted on

If nothing went right for Big Star during their formative years in the early-mid ‘70s (bad distribution, zero management, internal creative strife), in terms of their legacy, it’s all come out golden in the end. As evidenced in the moving, sad and celebratory documentary Nothing Can Hurt Me (VOD / limited release July 3rd), the band has touched many diverse lives, personally and professionally. The passion project of Danielle McCarthy and co-directors Drew Denicola and Olivia Mori, Nothing Can Hurt Me traces the history of one of the first bands that mattered, even if no one outside of critics heard them at the time. Lone surviving member Jody Stephens (drums) is fondly enjoying his red carpet moment, and it couldn’t be happening to a nicer guy.
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Aquarium Drunkard: What’s your reaction to Nothing Can Hurt Me? Is it emotionally draining, or like revisiting old friends?

Jody Stephens: It is like visiting old friends. There are certainly really sad moments, because Carole Manning is there and she’s passed away. Jim Dickinson’s no longer here. Alex {Chilton} and Andy {Hummel} are gone. That’s really the tragedy of Big Star, that Chris {Bell}, Alex and Andy are gone. Alex and Andy went fairly close together. Outside of that, it’s nothing but a great story for me. It’s cool that all these people cared and participated. Danielle McCarthy had the idea and the passion to pursue it. Everyone involved did a great job with it. It took a long time. It was six years in the making, so you have to have that passion. It’s cool that people care.

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Posted on Big Star Jody Stephens The AD Interview

Motions :: Beatle Drums / Fondettes :: The Beatles Are In Town

The MotionsPosted on

The cult of personality that was/is The Beatles. Fan or not, there is no denying they changed everything, musically and beyond. Right place, right time, they acted as (initially anyways) enthusiastic agents of change. And then reluctantly. While there (obviously) is no shortage of on-the-nose Beatles inspired music out there, I've long been fascinated by the songs about the band. And there are many -- the good, the bad, and in many cases, the truly bizarre. Here are a few favorites: The Motions' surf ode to Ringo, "Beatle Drums", The Fondettes' mash note, "The Beatles . . .

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Posted on The Motions

Bomboclat! Island Soak 4 :: Jamaican Vintage (A Mixtape)

Bomboclat! Reggae/DubPosted on

Once again, just in time for your holiday fade out — Bomboclat! Island Soak 4 :: Jamaican Vintage. 21 selections. Predominantly rocksteady...tipping the scales with a heavy dose of instrumentals.

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Posted on Bomboclat! Reggae/Dub

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

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.

SIRIUS 299: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ Catfish Haven - Set In Stone ++  The Pretty Things - She's A Lover ++ The Peoples Temple - Nevermore ++ Hacienda - Apples ++ The Non Travellin' Band - Two Hands Full Of Fingers ++ Floating Action - Don't Stop Loving Me Now ++ The Men - Oh Yoko ++ The Rock*A*Teens . . .

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Posted on SIRIUS

The Accents w/ Sandi Rouse :: Better Watch Out Boy (1964)

The Accents w/ Sandi RousePosted on

In 1964, Sandi Rouse, Gabe Lapano and the rest of the Accents entered Gold Star Studio in Los Angeles at the request of a local label, Commerce Records. Unsupervised and lacking any considerable recording experience, the young rulers of the San Diego music scene set out to cut their first single. The result was “Better Watch Out Boy,” an enchanting number that soon became a slow dance standard in Southern California. Draped in reverb, young Sandi’s vocals float along a steady rhythm and Lapano’s suave Wurlitzer like balloons into the rafters of a high school gymnasium. The track . . .

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Posted on The Accents w/ Sandi Rouse

Mavis Staples :: One True Vine

Mavis StaplesPosted on

In her sixty-plus years as a gospel and soul singer, Mavis Staples has rarely been lacking in buoyant confidence. She has the physical muster to stretch her voice from exasperated whisper to jubilant shout in the span of a single bar, but her songs rise on the effervescence of the little counter-sung grunts that she tosses in on the way (“ah-HUH!”); her body of work is, almost without exception, in a constant state of exaltation, completely focused on God, on others, and on positive social change with a singularity of vision and loosely worn sincerity that . . .

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Posted on Mavis Staples

Rose Windows :: The Sun Dogs I: Spirit Modules

Rose WindowsPosted on

Seattle  psychedelic folk-rockers Rose Windows' debut, The Sun Dogs, is out today via Sub Pop. Those looking to satisfy a nocturnal jones for "Planet Caravan" leaning Sabbath and heavy Eastern miasma need apply. Fronted by vocalist Rabia Shaheen Qazi, whose Sandy Denny like vocals haunt the record, I'm immediately reminded of another northwest psych export from a few years back --  Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter's last album, the excellent become a member or log in.

Posted on Rose Windows

Rowland S. Howard And Lydia Lunch :: Some Velvet Morning

Lee Hazlewood Lydia Lunch Rowland S. HowardPosted on

Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra's "Some Velvet Morning". The coupling of a psychedelic country-rock pioneer and a struggling pop princess of the '60s. A risky, experimental and dubious piece of work that did, in fact, reach number 26 on the Billboard pop charts in 1968. It has since been covered just short of 20 times from 1968-2010, including this No Wave version, performed by Rowland S. Howard and Lydia Lunch. Released by 4AD in 1982, the duo’s experimental and off-kilter take opened up new avenues of interpretation, adding a bit of humor to . . .

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Posted on Lee Hazlewood Lydia Lunch Rowland S. Howard

Aquarium Drunkard Presents :: Derek’s Daily 45 – A Mixtape

Derek's Daily 45 MixtapesPosted on

Soul, freakbeat, garage, r&b, rock & roll...all are the focus of Bay area crate digger, dj and musician Derek See, the man behind the long-running ode to the 45 RPM record, Derek's Daily 45. See joined me last Friday on the SIRIUS XMU show. We turned his two hour set of vintage, rare, sixties soul into the below mixtape. All cuts sourced from his personal collection of 45s.
Download/tracklisting after the jump...

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Posted on Derek's Daily 45 Mixtapes

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

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.

SIRIUS 298: Jean Michel Bernard — Générique Stephane ++ Doris & Kelley - You Don't Have To Worry ++ The Ambassadors - Music (Makes You Want To Dance) ++ The Emotions - I Can't Stand No More Heart Aches ++ The Webs - Give In ++ Lillian Dupree - Hide And Seek ++ Peppermint Harris - Wait Until It Happens To You . . .

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Posted on SIRIUS

Date Palms :: The Dusted Sessions

Date PalmsPosted on

Cosmic American Ambient? Something like that. Shimmering like an asphalt mirage in the middle of the Mojave, Date Palms' The Dusted Sessions is a woozy beauty, a fever dream consisting of hypnotic violin, droning tanpuras, soft Fender Rhodes, distant feedback and rock solid bass lines. Over seven extended tracks, the band cooks up some seriously slo-mo desert raga that's as lovely as it is ominous. There's plenty of the avant-Appalachia that Henry Flynt pioneered back in the day, as well as . . .

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Posted on Date Palms

T. Hardy Morris: Own Worst Enemy (Places In Peril Series)

T. Hardy MorrisPosted on

Inspired by The Georgia Trust For Historic Preservation's annual  Places In Peril list, T. Hardy Morris and filmmaker Jason Thrasher traveled to historic sites in Georgia threatened by demolition and neglect. Ten live performances were captured at each location -- one for each track from Morris's forthcoming debut solo album, Audition Tapes. The below video was taken at The Ritz Theatre, located on the courthouse square in Thomaston, GA.

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Posted on T. Hardy Morris