Posts

Moon Bros. :: The Wheel

Moon Bros. returns with an absolutely wonderful five-song mini-LP of lightly fried folk rambles. Fred Schneider recorded The Wheel mostly on his own, but he expertly conjures up a laid-back scene of friends sitting around a cozy living room playing together — sweetly groaning pedal steel, chiming 12-string, stoned harmonica, intimate vocals. (It’s not entirely a solo affair: the great Josephine Foster shows up to sing along on one song.) The result is kind of like a heretofore unimagined collab between Robbie Basho and Michael Hurley. Vivid visions of the country, indeed . . .

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Beirut :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

For Zach Condon, the music is a record of the transformative period he spent near the Arctic circle. He explains, “The whole album was supposed to sound like that place. The drums sounding like the outside elements and then the organ in the middle being like the warm fireplace that you get to sit by that keeps you warm through these harsh moments . . .

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Jeremiah Chiu :: In Electric Time

... In Electric Time does not disappoint in the the slightest. It’s a fully improvised modular synth fantasia, filled with beauty and light. Playful and flowing at times, deep and mysterious at others. Chiu has a great sense of rhythm and melody, following the sound where it takes him . . .

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Daniel Villarreal :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

We recently caught up with Daniel Villarreal backstage before his show at Yoshi’s in Oakland. His new album, Lados B, came out last month on International Anthem -- its nine tracks drawn from sessions from his first album, Panama ‘77, a tribute to his homeland. A truly epic trio of Villarreal, guitarist Jeff Parker, and bassist Anna Butterss improvise around compositions originated by Villarreal, mostly live with minimal overdubbing . . .

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PAINT :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Pedrum Siadatian has been on a tear in 2023, creating and releasing two albums that speak to his continued artistic stretching: Zuma 85, which finds Allah-Las, the California rock band he founded with his collaborators in 2008. exploring shambolic and rhythmically dynamic art rock; and Loss For Words, a mostly instrumental jammer by his solo project PAINT. He joins us to discuss kosmische sounds, musical production, and the perils of DIY . . .

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The Malombo Jazz Makers :: Down Lucky’s Way

Recorded in 1969 but unreleased/unknown until now, Down Lucky’s Way is a little hard to describe — minimal modal folk jazz? Maybe! Guitarist Lucky Ranku called it “healing music,” and that might be the most right on. The gentle but propulsive groove, the free-floating melodies, the comradely interplay … it just makes you feel better. Highly highly highly recommended . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PST, Channel 35)

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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Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions :: John Carroll Kirby

Make yourself comfortable, on this all-new episode of Transmissions, we’re focusing on the fantastic tunes crafted by John Caroll Kirby. His music exemplifies the current zone where jazz, fusion, new age, soul, R&B, and electronic composition all mingle. He's worked with artists like Blood Orange, Solange, Frank Ocean, Eddie Chacon, and many more. But it’s his own records, including this year’s Blowout, that demonstrate his compositional chops. The native Angeleno joined us to discuss going far from home to record and much more . . .

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Josh Cole :: Kind Mind

The deep, rich sound of Josh Cole’s double bass can be heard on countless recordings from his Toronto jazz peers. If you’re a fan of this instrumental palette, Kind Mind is a uniformly gorgeous collection of compositions speckled with field recordings, electronics, and passages of improvisation . . .

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Fortunato Durutti Marinetti :: Eight Waves In Search Of An Ocean

It takes a village to raise the music of Fortunato Durutti Marinetti. For his fourth album in three years, Toronto-via-Turin songwriter Daniel Colussi surrounds himself with a murderer’s row of collaborators, including members of Elrichman, Motorists, and Energy Slime. Colussi’s languid voice is always placed at the forefront of his meticulous arrangements, providing the narration for a sound he describes as “poetic jazz rock . . .

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Bill Million (The Feelies) on The Velvet Underground

Cut live at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City in October 2018, The Feelies Some Kinda Love: Performing the Music of the Velvet Underground, is a full-throated homage to one of the indie pioneers' foundational influences. Founding Feelie Bill Million joins us for an all-things-Velvets chat, with digressions into The Beatles, The Willies, future plans, and more . . .

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Allah-Las :: Zuma 85

You can glimpse a stunning sunset through a ruined window on the cover of the Allah-Las’ fifth full-length, Zuma 85, a fitting metaphor for the music’s cracked pastoral beauty, which imbues 1970s psychedelia with sunny So-Cal breeziness.

The LP gets at a very consistent vibe from divergent directions, trying out all sorts of ideas but fitting them into a single, album-spanning narrative. It’s a nice view, but more than that, a reminder of how art can spring from difficulty and transcend it . . .

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Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte

Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a new series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”

Now playing: Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte . . .

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Morton Subotnick :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick has achieved more in his 90 years than could be covered in days of conversation -- from the San Francisco Tape Music Center to the Buchla synthesizer to his groundbreaking electronic albums to his works for theater and dance. He shared an hour of his time and the conversation dove in the deep end, straight away. Still far ahead of his time, Subotnick is currently on his final run of performances - the "As I Live and Breathe Tour . . .

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Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera

Think the first Soft Machine Record. Think the Zombies’s Odyssey and Oracle but with the budget constraints of Black Monk Time. This is an album that deserves to be mentioned alongside those but also stands on its own. It’s psychedelic pop with punk rock energy that’s pushed over the top by Elmer’s ecstatic vocal performances . . .

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