Posts

Lou Reed: The King of New York (In Conversation With Will Hermes)

Right at the start of his phenomenal new biography, Lou Reed: The King of New York, Will Hermes makes a confession: “If you’re looking for some neat totalizing statement or psychological profile to explain Reed, to fix him like a butterfly specimen, you won’t find it here.”

Recently, Aquarium Drunkard hopped on Zoom to chat with Hermes about all things Lou . . .

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Meernaa :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

The calling card of Meernaa is the smoky timbre of Carly Bond’s voice. It’s an instrument of immense warmth and controlled tension, which imprints a sort of charged unpredictability onto her songs. This has never been more true than with the humbly titled, So Far So Good. Bond spoke with us about the joys and terrors of opening a studio, unlearning old ways of thinking, and the powerful themes of love and self-worth on her new record . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, 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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Simply Saucer :: Cyborgs Revisited

In the summers of 1974 and 1975, one of the great Canadian cult rock ‘n’ roll groups left their mark on musical history. Yet despite how far ahead their electronically enhanced songs may have sounded at the time, the scorching recordings captured on Simply Saucer’s Cyborgs Revisited would not be released until 1989, thanks to the tireless efforts of their champion Bruce “The Mole” Mowat. Formed in the humble hometown of Hamilton, Ontario, these sci-fried proto-punks created a sound fusing Hawkwind, The Kinks, Pink Fairies, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, and the omnipresent Velvet Underground . . .

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Transmissions :: Maria Elena Silva

We were introduced to the music of Maria Elena Silva via 2021’s Eros, which featured collaborations with previous Transmissions guests Jeff Parker of Tortoise and was produced by Chris Schlarb. Silva is back with a new one, the recently released Dulce. Here, she’s joined by Schlarb once again, as well as Transmissions alumni Marc Ribot, who brings a raw, questing intensity to her new songs, which swell with rock & roll gusto and a newfound display of bravado . . .

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Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Peco’s Blues (or: Lucky Luke)

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?"

First up: Peco’s Blues (or: Lucky Luke . . .

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Hauschka :: Philanthropy

Volker Bertelmann, known professionally as Hauschka, follows up his 2022 Oscar winning soundtrack to All Quiet on the Western Front with a set of intricate, fractally complicated piano compositions. Hauschka is a master of the prepared piano, the use of sticks, hammers, keys, and other unlikely paraphernalia to alter the sound of the keyboard. What is delightful about Philanthropy, though, is how it combines traditional and unconventional piano sounds, so that lyrical runs and post-modern flurries of notes coincide with bumps, clashes and otherworldly vibrations . . .

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Yo La Tengo :: Idiot’s Delight with Vince Scelsa, WNEW, December 28, 1997

Yo La Tengo are one of our greatest bands — but they're particularly great on the radio. Who else would be able to expertly accompany Daniel Johnston via a telephone call-in? Or take off-the-cuff requests from listeners every year during WFMU's pledge drive? This vintage WNEW broadcast is terrific, too, coming at the end of 1997, when YLT were winning hearts worldwide with I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One . . .

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Edsel Axle :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Variable Happiness was made available to the world in August 2023, courtesy of a previously unknown artist named Edsel Axle. But it doesn’t take much detective work to determine that Edsel Axle is a nom de plume of Rosali Middleman. As Rosali, she has released a number of albums in the singer/songwriter mode, whereas Variable Happiness is a collection of instrumental electric guitar recordings . . .

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Blue Lake :: Sun Arcs

Copenhagen-based Jason Dungan makes fully transportive music as Blue Lake. Sun Arcs is an absolutely perfect folk/ambient/new age/neo-classical hybrid, with the musician blending a 48-string zither, acoustic guitars, a Roland 606 drum machine, clarinet and more into these beauteous and buzzing instrumental compositions. “Bloom” sounds like a dreamy Pentangle / Laraaji collab, while “Fur” finds a happy middle ground between John Fahey and Steve Reich . . .

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Videodrome :: The Hired Hand & Idaho Transfer

Following the success of Easy Rider, Peter Fonda tried his hand at directing with two wildly different films. Both feature a score by the influential musician Bruce Langhorne, and one is a minor masterpiece that attempts to rewrite the rules of the western genre . . .

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The Feelies :: Some Kinda Love: Performing The Music Of The Velvet Underground

The Feelies connection to the Velvet Underground goes long and deep. As gawky teenagers, Glenn Mercer and Bill Millions put VU on the same tier as the Beatles. Their jittery, drone-y, laconically delivered Crazy Rhythms sounded like no one else, except possibly the Velvets. The band covered “What Goes On” on their 1988 album Only Life, and, about the same time, got a chance to play a show with Lou Reed at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City. Reed himself once told Bill Millions that the Feelies were the only band that ever “got” the Velvet Underground . . .

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The Amazing :: Streetfighter

The majestic return of The Amazing. A swift decade has passed since the Swedish group burst onto the scene with the panoramic, coastal folk of sophomore stunner Gentle Stream. Following a gauntlet of stateside touring, the band reclusively hunkered down. For patient loyalists, the coming years saw a quiet, steady run of expansive records building upon atmospheric, heavily layered jams in riveting unison with the haunting ballads . . .

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Anatolian Psych Out: Volume One

As Western rock music dominated the global airwaves of the 1960s, perhaps no region adapted this music into such a rich and swirling stew as did Turkey. Mixing the heavy riffs of Zeppelin and the Stones with traditional Anatolian folk melodies and instrumentation, the Turkish psych rock of the golden era (1960s-80s) surely represents some of the most gloriously untethered interpretations of the classic rock canon . . .

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Dexter + Franz :: Flamingo Heights

Flamingo Heights transcends ambient music and becomes a pastiche of psychedelia, cosmic-country, and French lounge, alternating between what you’d hear drifting on the wind while meditating on a Mojave sunset and what would be piped through the PA speakers of a retro-futuristic vestibule while valeting a rocket ship on some distant planet . . .

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