We need a myth. So insists Will Sheff on the track of the same name, and he’s right. We need a myth, a narrative, something upon which to plot the flags planted in each new territory of our understanding. Some way to compare ‘this’ to ‘that.’ A way of understanding the world, even when the world seems to frustrate our understanding. “We Need a Myth,” one of many high points on become a member or log in.
Megafaun's Phil Cook has had another run in with nature. During the recording of his 2009 eponymous debut he battled a violent thunderstorm. This time around, "Mother Nature" has locked him in a room and asked him for more. With guitar, banjo, and dobro in hand, Phil Cook and His Feat offer up Hungry Mother Blues.
But before the first note is heard there's the matter of the collage style cover art . . .
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Aquarium Drunkard favorite Richard Buckner is one of America’s greatest living singer-songwriters, but he’s been awfully quiet for a while now. We recently caught up with Buckner, prior to his show, in the parking lot of The EARL in Atlanta. Buckner gave us the skinny on his silence and the lowdown on the his new record, Our Blood, due out August 2nd on Merge Records.
AD: It’s . . .
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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 192: Jean Michel Bernard - Generique Stephane ++ The Shaky Hands - Why And How Come ++ Ganglians - Jungle ++ The Bicycles - B-B-Bicycles ++ Monster Rally - Honeymoon ++ The Oh Sees - Tidal Wave ++ The Fresh & Onlys - Grey-Eyed Girl ++ Crystal Stilts - Precarious Stair ++ Lower Dens - A Dog's Dick ++ Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Thought Ballune ++ Eddie . . .
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When Fleet Foxes EP and, quickly thereafter, self-titled long-player were released in 2008, it was easy to presume that maybe that was it–that their debut would be the highest note they’d hit. Folk harmonizers have been an anchor of popular music as we know it for decades, but recent history hasn’t had a great place for them. Folk has a difficult time reaching beyond its niche audience, and Fleet Foxes reside in a subset of even that. So, it was through an otherworldly masterstroke that . . .
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The Sea and Cake has been at it for 20 years. In that time they've managed to create an arsenal of fantastic and progressive jazz-pop records. What's interesting is that their body of work actually resembles very little compared to what we experience as day-to-day music fans. You don’t hear new acts name-checking The Sea and Cake as an influence. Probably because it requires a great deal of physical skill, knowledge of instruments and the ability to connect with like-minded musicians who have . . .
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It's been awhile. Following a prolonged absence from the studio, singer-songwriter Richard Buckner returns August 2nd with Our Blood, his first LP since 2006's Meadow. First taste off the album, "Traitor," below. Welcome back.
MP3: Richard Buckner :: Traitor
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In case you missed it, we're fully committed to Destroyer's latest long-player, Kaputt. More often than not, fresh material from artists I closely follow ends up playing a dual role. Besides the obvious interest in the new record, song, etc, it---and this is just as important---often revitalizes interest in their earlier work. The . . .
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Atlanta's Black Lips just dropped the first mp3 from their upcoming Mark Ronson produced LP, Arabia Mountain, out June 7th on Vice. The band's take on the Louvre, on drugs, below.
MP3: Black Lips :: Modern Art
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Norman Blake is a well-known name to people who love their power pop. As a founding member of Teenage Fanclub, he's spent more than the 20 years creating a body of work as catchy as it is gorgeous. Recently, Blake teamed up with former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci frontman Euros Childs to create a project under the name Jonny. Their self-titled debut was released on Merge Records earlier this month and captures two unique songwriters having a great time melding their crafts together. AD spoke with Norman Blake by phone recently about the speed of recording Jonny, the influences in its songs, how Merge Records came on board and why a little humor in music is never a bad thing.
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Aquarium Drunkard: I'm a huge fan of Teenage Fanclub. I've only gotten a chance to see you guys once here in North Carolina in 2005 on your tour for Man-Made.
Norman Blake: Thank you. Obviously we're coming back again with Jonny which is on Merge Records again. That's the record myself and Euros [Childs] made together, pretty much sitting around the kitchen table. It started off as the idea that we could produce a 7" single and take some copies each and take them to shows and sell them and give them away. And that blossomed into an album. The group Jonny kind of happened by accident.
AD: I heard the record only took ten days to record in the studio. Was that writing time also, or was the record written before you went in to record?
NB: We had some songs written ahead - maybe five or six. The initial idea was Euros was going to come to my class in Glasgow and we were going to record there with a computer and a drum machine and just acoustic guitars and a little keyboard. But I was speaking with Paul Savage who runs Chemikal Underground [record label] studio, Chem 19, and he just happened to say they had some downtime that coincided with the week Euros would be in town. So I spoke with Euros and then we had this idea "well, maybe we can get a drummer and a bass player to come in and record the songs that way." So sure enough, we called a couple of friends and they came in and basically recorded the backing tracks in two days. It was all completed in about ten and that's recording and mixing.
It did happen by accident. It started as a much smaller thing; it wasn't even really a band initially. We only realized it would be a band a few days before we started making the record. It was all pretty much spontaneous. We had written maybe five or six songs already and then we had another half-dozen ideas. We had to finish those pretty quickly. I know when we're making a Teenage Fanclub record, I'll agonize over the songs. It may not sound that way. [laughs] But I do agonize over them for a long time when I'm trying to complete them, you know? So with this, we didn't have to. In a way, there was no expectation for this at all. We were just going to release a single and that was it and then we'd move on.
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Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 26 (SIRIUS), and channel 43 (XM), can now be heard twice, every Friday - Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST.
SIRIUS 191: Jean Michel Bernard - Generique Stephane ++ Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay ++ Eddie The Wheel - Nearsayerfive ++ Gardens & Villa - Black Hills ++ No Age - Teen Creeps ++ Deerhunter - Desire Lines ++ Lower Dens - A Dog's Dick ++ Luna - Sideshow By The Seashore ++ Crystal Stilts - Precarious Stair ++ Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Thought . . .
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Scour music blogs and magazines from over the past three to four years and you'll find numerous assessments that clump Crystal Stilts into groups of low-fi indie acts employing mountains of reverb and choppy guitars. Obviously, it fits. These bands offer listeners an endearing, nostalgic throwback sound paying homage to the heyday of important indie rock flagship labels like K, Sarah
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In their twenty-plus year career, Athens, GA’s Five Eight has amassed quite an impressive share of critical adoration and a loyal (and vocal) fan base. Despite a short stint opening for REM and a proclamation by none other than USA Today that they were “the greatest live band in the world,” widespread success has been elusive.
The band hopes to change that with its newest release, become a member or log in.
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(Diversions, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, catches up with our favorite artists as they wax on subjects other than recording and performing.)
This week we catch up with the Black Swans Jerry DeCicca as he reflects on his working relationship with the late/great Larry Jon Wilson. Jerry has an interesting vantage point as he produced Larry Jon Wilson's final album; the self-titled LP released in 2008 via Drag City Records. Unknowingly already a fan of his production work, I became aware of the Black Swans through their spirited rendition of Larry Jon's "The Man I Wish for You" from the 2010 split 7” with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Sing Larry Jon Wilson. The Black Swans new album, Don’t Blame the Stars, is being released next month on Misra Records. DeCicca's words on Larry Jon Wilson, below.
Larry Jon Wilson quoted Plato, Charles Baudelaire, and Mickey Newbury within the first ten minutes we met. Told me he hustled pool with Fats Domino in his teens, rode schooners and freight trains. His voice the sound of Georgia. That last part I knew from Heartworn Highways and 4 records from the 1970s on Monument. The rest---him being a ham and full of shit---I didn't know.
Three years later, Jeb Loy Nichols, Jake Housh and I helped him make a new record. His first in almost 30 years. A label in the UK was giving us money to give him. Recorded in a high rise condominium overlooking Alabama's Gulf Shores, it took 10 days.
He enjoyed our company and attention. People tried twisting his arm into recorded song before. Somehow we broke him with talks of music, history, books, guitars. Ate and drank together. Gave him cash. He trusted us and told us so.
His old records: chunky and funky, sentimental and sweet, a couple years too late from classic sounds, the production a hair too modern. If cut earlier, good people in the world would mouth his name alongside Kristofferson and Tony Joe White. But LJW never wrote a "Sunday Morning Coming Down" or a "Rainy Night in Georgia." His songs are tough to sing, more detailed in how they're personal.
When LJW talked about making a new record, his mind raced with names and instruments: french horn, Reggie Young, cello, Mac Gayden. He had been making it in his mind for decades. But I knew it would be bare bones, no clutter, Live at the Old Quarter minus the drunks and cue sticks. We lied to him a lot to make the record we wanted to hear.
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