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Anna Butterss :: Mighty Vertebrate

Anna ButterssPosted on

It's tempting to describe what bassist Anna Butterss and their Los Angeles colleagues are up to as "redefining jazz," but that assumes jazz had a solid definition in the first place. In the 21st century, jazz continues to elude classification, with a resurgence of interest in old, previously overlooked and underappreciated material and the appearance of a new cadre of adventurous, genre-fluid players. But Mighty Vertebrate is a different beast. Neither improvised nor manipulated, begun as through-composed songs but later expanded upon and spun out, it's groove-heavy, lyrical and spacious, with an energy that feels . . .

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Posted on Anna Butterss

Hataałii :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Hataalii The AD InterviewPosted on

There's a sign on the cover of Hataałii's Waiting for a Sign, bearing the words "authentic real deal." It's the kind of billboard familiar to anyone who's driven through the large swaths of Native-held land in the American Southwest. Signs hocking goods, promising hearty meals, beckoning you off the road and into some cafe, trading post, or casino. But that's only scratching the surface. He joins us for a conversation to dig deeper . . .

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Posted on Hataalii The AD Interview

Wendy Eisenberg :: Viewfinder

Wendy EisenbergPosted on

Wendy Eisenberg contains multitudes. You would be hard pressed to find formal commonalities between the deconstructed bedroom folk of Time Machine (2017), the tender improvisations of Auto (2020), or the banjo freakouts of Bent Ring (2021). Sure, there is that same brightness of the vocals; the felicitousness of the cadences; the centrality of the strings. Yet all of this seems to serve new functions every time, and every time to impose a turn in their way of composing that was previously impossible to predict as a listener . . .

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Posted on Wendy Eisenberg

Trummors :: 5

TrummorsPosted on

Come for the close harmonies and burnt pedal steel, stay for the heartfelt, casually poetic lyrics and finely observed character portraits. Lerner and Cunningham aren’t reinventing the wheel here; instead, they’re finding interesting and personal ways to take a tried-and-true landscape and explore its every river, canyon and summit. The results are quietly spectacular . . .

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Posted on Trummors

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Caravan 222

Caravan 222 Lagniappe SessionsPosted on

"...I'm your toy, I'm your old boy." Country-fried Los Angeles outfit Caravan 222 continue to put the honk in the tonk. For their Lagniappe Session, the septet works up stalwart '70s British pub-rockers Brinsley Schwarz's "Country Girl," Danny O'Keefe's 1972 chestnut "I'm Sober Now," and a faithful rendition of Gram's "Hot Burrito #1 . . .

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Posted on Caravan 222 Lagniappe Sessions

Howe Gelb :: Coherence is Accidental (A Conversation)

Giant Sand Howe Gelb The AD InterviewPosted on

Poet philosopher Howe Gelb is a natural storyteller. And it turns out the Tucson-based songwriter doesn't even need his signature voice—husky and low, a rumbling, phantasmagoric presence fronting his genre-crossing band Giant Sand for more than 40 years—to get his tall tales across. On his latest, Weathering Some Piano, Gelb's voice does make a few brief but welcome appearances, but the focus is on his piano playing—solitary, unadorned, self-recorded at his home in Tucson "during random moments of weathering . . .

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Posted on Giant Sand Howe Gelb The AD Interview

Akiko Yano :: To Ki Me Ki

AKIKO YANOPosted on

Paris-based archival label We Want Sounds has become a house favorite, and their ongoing series of Akiko Yano reissues is one particularly sweet fruit to be pulled from that tree. Their sixth and most recent entry in the series came last year when they gave her third studio album, 1978’s To Ki Me Ki, its first ever release outside Japan . . .

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Posted on AKIKO YANO

Dark Canyon :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Dark Canyon The AD InterviewPosted on

Long Days, Pleasant Nights is the sophomore album from Dark Canyon, the nom de plume of Chicago-based multi-instrumentalist/producer/engineer Mike Novak. We sat down with Novak to discuss writing and recording the album, becoming a new father, Stephen King's The Dark Tower book series, and much more . . .

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Posted on Dark Canyon The AD Interview

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

SIRIUSPosted on

Portico pacifico. 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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Posted on SIRIUS

You Should Pay Rent In My Mind: Guy Picciotto | The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Fugazi Guy Picciotto The AD InterviewPosted on

In 1995 Fugazi released Red Medicine which to us here at AD was a radical shift in the band’s recorded trajectory. The arrangements grew more complex, the studio-as-instrument ethos becoming fully realized with more extreme textures. From lo-fi abstractions to widescreen feedback, to moments of tender beauty, the overall feel of the album felt more personal, even down to the packaging itself. To these ears it stands as a fulcrum which opened vistas in which the next records would further expand upon. Digging in, llyas Ahmed recently sat down with band member Guy Picciotto for a . . .

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Posted on Fugazi Guy Picciotto The AD Interview

The Weather Station :: Neon Signs

The Weather StationPosted on

Call it "brain fog," call it "attention economy burnout," call it the dregs of late capitalism: however you label it, Tamara Lindeman has been feeling it. With "Neon Signs," the sleek and driving new first single from her forthcoming album 2025 album Humanhood, she gives names and shapes to the sense of dread so many of us feel permeating our daily existence: "I’ve gotten used to feeling like I’m crazy—or just lazy . . .

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Posted on The Weather Station

Transmissions :: Matt Sweeney

Matt Sweeney PodcastPosted on

Is Matt Sweeney the only guy to play on both a Current 93 and Dixie Chicks record? We suspect so. This week on Transmissions, he joins us to discuss the Monkees-like nature of his band, The Hard Quartet, with Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, Jim White of The Dirty Three, and Emmett Kelly of The Cairo Gang. He joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss . . .

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Posted on Matt Sweeney Podcast

The Hard Quartet :: S/T

The Hard QuartetPosted on

The playing is great. The lyrics are knotty and evocative. The songs are distinct and individuated. But more than all that, what makes this self-titled effort so stirring is the joy that these four guys take in being and playing together. In short, this is no haphazard conjunction of people you’ve vaguely heard of. It is a meeting of giants who know and like and understand each other . . .

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Posted on The Hard Quartet

Alan Sparhawk :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Alan Sparhawk Low The AD InterviewPosted on

Speaking from his dining room table in Duluth, Alan Sparhawk graciously explores the various paths that steered his first ever solo album under his own name, White Roses, My God. From the liberatory power of vocal processing to what he's been listening to lately, the talk is a revelation . . .

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Posted on Alan Sparhawk Low The AD Interview

Les Rallizes Dénudés :: 屋根裏 YaneUra Oct. ’80

Les Rallizes DenudesPosted on

In the two years since Les Rallizes Dénudés began their campaign to officially release the recordings that have been stashed away in their sizeable archives, Takashi Mizutani’s famously enigmatic underground band has seen its stature rise slightly above ground, with write-ups in major outlets like The New York Times, NPR, Pitchfork, The Wire, and The Quietus. For a group that remained unsigned to any label and released very little material over the course of their three-decade existence, the Rallizes are remarkably well-documented: photos and recordings exist from their earliest days as student activist . . .

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Posted on Les Rallizes Denudes