Posts

Bleached :: Think of You

Sounding like a long lost, sun-kissed, Misfits single, L.A.'s Clavin sisters, formerly of Mika Miko, have a new project dubbed Bleached with 7" on the horizon via Art Fag Records out next month. The A-side, "Think of You," below.

MP3: Bleached :: Think of You
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Boston Spaceships: Let It Beard / Andenu: Cowboy Zoo Theme

The dig...parsing through the archives, the muck. I suppose it's what separates the men from the boys when it comes to the Robert Pollard canon.   Pollard, who on average releases several albums of material per year (going back to the early Guided By Voices days) is set to drop Let It Beard on August 2nd---a double LP with his latest band, Boston Spaceships. He definitely has my attention with this one; check out . . .

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Girls Names :: I Lose

While college radio may have lost some ground over the past 15 years, I discovered the following while passing through Atlanta last week listening to WRAS 88.5. Via Slumberland Records comes Belfast's Girls Names, an infectious fuzzy take on dirty shoegaze with pop pull. "I Lose," culled from the group's new LP

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Mike Watt :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Punk rock changed Mike Watt’s life, and then he kept changing. Along with guitarist D. Boon and drummer George Hurley, Watt was a member of the Minutemen, one of the earliest signees to Greg Ginn’s SST Records, the legendary hardcore label that served as breeding grounds not only for Minutemen and Ginn’s Black Flag, but Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, and Hüsker Dü, whose 1984 double-LP Zen Arcade served as the inspiration for Minutemen’s magnum opus, the sprawling forty-five track monster of f/punk poetry that is Double Nickels On The Dime. The melodic muscle of Watt’s bass holds together Hurley’s barreling, fumbling drums while D. Boon lays down serious jazz-scratch guitar leads and spits lyrics dense in politics, philosophy, and enough poetic word-gaming to belie Minutemen’s devotion to their humble San Pedro, CA, origins. Less than two years after the album’s release, Boon was killed in a car accident in the Arizona desert. Minutemen disbanded immediately.

It’s hard to exaggerate the impact of D. Boon’s life and death on Mike Watt. When Boon comes up in our interview, as he frequently does, Watt’s voice–boisterous, and tempered with a slight drawl, courtesy of his native Virginia–becomes nearly still, cowed. There’s some adage about time healing all wounds; but then, Watt’s never been one for adages.

Or, maybe healing isn’t the proper word. Because healing implies a finality, and finality a moving-beyond. What time’s allowed Mike Watt to do is to honor his wound, and to honor his friend. After Minutemen ended, he and Hurley and guitarist Ed Crawford went on to form fIREHOSE. Along with former Black Flag bassist (and Watt’s ex-wife) Kira Roessler, he formed dos, a two-bass combo, who are preparing to release their fourth record in the coming months. Watt’s solo debut, 1995’s Ball-Hog or Tugboat, featured guests as varied as SST mates J Mascis and The Meat Puppets’ Kirkwood brothers, to P-Funk’s Bernie Worrell and the Beastie Boys, to a pre-Wilco Nels Cline. In 1997, Watt would release his first punk opera, Contemplating the Engine Room, which was in part a lyrical exploration of the formation of Minutemen. After an infection in his perineum brought him to the edge of death, he released 2004’s The Secondman’s Middle Stand, a kind-of organ-heavy thanatopsis. Shortly thereafter, he would join the reunited Stooges, thumping with Iggy and the band on tour and on 2007’s The Weirdness. By his own account, he’s got enough work in the can to release three or four records per year. And all of it is dedicated to D. Boon.

Hyphenated-man, Watt’s third opera and first release on his own clenchedwrench label, finds him returning to the short, spiky songs of his early group.   Unlike with his two previous solo releases, there is no metanarrative; the thirty songs, titles all un-capitalized, all connected by hyphens, make up a portrait of Watt at middle age. The songs are named for characters in the paintings of Hieronymous Bosch, the Dutch master known for his terrifying, hyper-detailed portraits of the underworld. Hyphenated-man is Watt reflected back through Bosch’s imagery, an honest mask.

In 2005, on the twentieth anniversary of D. Boon’s death, writer David Rees reflected on the guitarist’s legacy for The Huffington Post. After calling Double Nickels the greatest rock album of all time, Rees turns his attentions to Watt, and to the years the bassist had then spent on the road, jamming econo in his white van, playing the thudstaff for college kids and grey punks. “That Mike Watt,” Rees imagines, “perseveres in part to honor his brilliant friend’s brief life and the possibilities bequeathed to future musicians, artists, activists, punks, and outsiders–is one of the greatest American success stories of all time.”

And they started out as three corndogs from Pedro.

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Les Blanks On L.A.’s Silver Screen Moments

Los Angeles's Les Blanks released In Country, their second full-length, earlier this year. Continuing in the vein of their debut the record is another solid slice of rock & roll that eschews trends opting for the classic. In May Blanks' vocalist/keys-man Josh Caldwell ran down some of his favorite L.A. film moments over at the Echo Park Patch. Too good not to share here...

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show

Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can now be heard twice, every Friday - Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

SIRIUS 199: Jean Michel Bernard - Generique Stephane ++ Simon & The Piemen - Cut It Out ++ Canarios - Trying So Hard ++ The Arrows - Blue's Theme ++ Screaming Lord Sutch - Flashing Lights ++ Bob Vidone And The Rhythm Rockers - Weird ++ The Kinks - All Day And All Of The Night ++ The Pebbles - We Love The Beatles ++ The Mantles . . .

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S.E. Rogie :: Please Go Easy With Me/Do Me Justice

Something to cool off with: Sierra Leone's S.E. Rogie, highlife and palm wine guitarist, as featured on our Mondo Boys Tidal Wave mixtape last summer (still fresh). Weird Summer three on the horizon...

MP3: S.E. Rogie :: Please Go Easy With Me
MP3:

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Whiskeytown :: Kiss & Make Up (Those Weren’t The Days Version)

While visiting family last week in North Carolina I ran across an old CD-R I'd left there 8 or so years ago, a Whiskeytown bootleg of late 90s studio demos entitled Those Weren't The Days. At 19 tracks much of the set is comprised of material that would later find a home on Whiskeytown deluxe reissues (Faithless Street/Strangers Almanac) and Adams' solo work (see: "My Heart Is Broken"). The below track, "Kiss & . . .

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show

Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can now be heard twice, every Friday - Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

SIRIUS 198: Jean Michel Bernard - Generique Stephane ++ Ham1 - Ghost Loop ++ Oregon Bike Trails - High School Lover ++ Dirty Gold - California Sunrise ++ Eddie The Wheel - Nearsayerfive ++ Gardens & Villa - Black Hills   ++ Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Thought Ballune ++ White Denim - I'd have It Just The Way We Were ++ Twin Sister - Bad Street ++ Monster Rally - Surf Erie ++ Hotel Mexico - Dear Les Friends ++ The Rosebuds - Woods ++ The Rosebuds - Change My Life (Spoon cover) ++ White Denim :: Drug . . .

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The Rosebuds :: The AD Interview

The Rosebuds just released their fifth studio album, Loud Planes Fly Low; their most inventive, inspired, and honest record to date. Following their fourth release, 2008’s Life Like, the relationship that inspired the group in the first place came to an end and the couple chose divorce in order to save themselves and their music. Leaving North Carolina's sweethearts at a crossroads, Ivan Howard and Kelly Crisp, chose to look at this as a chance for a new beginning---a chance to push reset. The songs on Loud Planes Fly Low allow the listener to peer into the most intimate of conversations and the catharsis that had to take place if the band was going to give themselves an honest chance at moving forward. AD recently caught up with Ivan and Kelly to discuss the process in making the album, and the second chance they have at making the "first" Rosebuds record.

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The Rosebuds :: Loud Planes Fly Low

For a band just hitting the end of its first decade the Rosebuds' catalogue has been a fascinating one. From the boisterous indie-pop of their debut to the dark and dancey Night of the Furies, the band has taken some interesting chances with variations on their own sound that make the arrival of new albums a continuously welcome occasion. But following 2008's become a member or log in.

White Denim :: The Aquarium Drunkard Session

This Friday, during the first hour of the Aquarium Drunkard show, I'm airing the session White Denim laid down for us at Red Rockets Glare Studios prior to their show that night in Echo Park. For those of you sans satellite radio, you can download/play the tracks below. And if you haven't picked up become a member or log in.

Michel Polnareff :: Polnareff’s (1971)

When you think about eccentric French singers, Serge Gainsbourg is probably the first guy who comes to mind for most of us. But another gent who equaled Serge in weirdness, propensity for attention grabbing stunts and talent was Michel Polnareff. And while there isn’t a Polnareff tribute show planned for the Hollywood Bowl this summer like Serge (though Polnareff is alive and well living in L.A.), his music is well worth checking . . .

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Centro-matic :: The AD Interview

In 2008 Centro-matic, along with their alter-ego South San Gabriel, released the sprawling double LP, Dual Hawks. In the Fall of last year the band released the Eyas EP along with a note stating it would "serve as an apt farewell to that phase of our bands, leading us down a new path." The culmination of that path is the new Centro-matic record, Candidate Waltz---the most kinetic batch of music the band has released in years. With the album dropping June 21st, I caught up with songwriter/vocalist Will Johnson last week to discuss the band's new direction, the future of South San Gabriel, his thoughts on touring the house show circuit and Woody Guthrie.   (photo/Stevan Alcala)

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Aquarium Drunkard: Last year upon the release of the the Centro-matic/SSG split EP, Eyas, the band alluded a change was on the horizon. I'm curious what prompted this.

Will Johnson: Those songs from Eyas ushered out the whole Dual Hawks phase of our bands in a way we liked.   When we released that EP, we were already pretty far along with Candidate Waltz.   We were already living in a pretty different phase of our voyage.

AD: Right, Candidate Waltz feels like the first major stylistic move in some time…the energy even feels different. What took the band in this direction?

Will Johnson: I wrote most of the songs on bass guitar.   That changed some things from the outset with respect to choice of vocal melody, cadence, and the relationships amongst the rhythm instruments.   It peeled things back and made me think about the writing in a different, less comfortable, or maybe just less habitual way.   We also knew from the beginning that we wanted a specific economy in the tracking.   We didn't want the songs drenched with overdubs, and we wanted to try some different things with our drum sounds.   We focused more on elements of tension instead of release.   We're aware that we're not reinventing the wheel here, but it created some new parameters and terrain for us.   We need new parameters and terrain, since we've been together now for seventy-one years.

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SIRIUS/XMU :: Aquarium Drunkard Show

Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can now be heard twice, every Friday - Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.

SIRIUS 197: Jean Michel Bernard - Generique Stephane ++ Howard Nishioka - Carnivourous Dogaramus ++ Michael Kiwanuka - Tell Me A Tale ++ Big Sambo & The House Wreckers - The Rains Came ++ Bill Withers - Better Off Dead ++ Amanaz - Khala My Friend ++ Wendell Stuart & The Downbeaters - Hey Jude ++ Santa Nguessan :: Manny Nia ++ Os Mutantes - A Minha Menina ++ Henri . . .

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