From 1971 Japan comes this gleaming gem of classic rock, encompassing a myriad of American styles from rural rock and country to raw garage, blues, experimental, and blazing west coast rock - but contrary to prevailing trends of the time, the lyrics are not sung in English. If this poses a problem for your ears it is a great shame, for Kazemachi Roman (Wind City Romance) is a must-listen record, and #1 on Rolling Stone's list of the become a member or log in.
Since his auspicious, creepy-as-fuck, debut, Wrong Side of Memphis, at the age of 49 in 1998, Johnny Dowd has been exploring the darkest corner's of the evil that men do. Twelve years, and as many albums later, Dowd continues down his chosen path with become a member or log in.
(Diversions, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, catches up with our favorite artists as they wax on subjects other than recording and performing.)
Musically, Brits absorbing American influences and selling it right back to us is nothing new. See: the Rolling Stones, the Animals, Peter Green, Billy Childish etc. Most Americans are either a) too close to the very art that sprang up in their backyards to notice, or b) just don't care. Collectively we, as Americans, remain willfully oblivious. But . . .
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"Glorylight And Christie" is the first single off Cotton Jones upcoming LP, Tall Hours In The Glowstream. While always a commendable tunesmith, under the Cotton Jones moniker Michael Nau has truly grown into his craft. Aesthetically, he's found himself. Nau's brand of dreamy Americana, while firmly rooted in the 21st century, is surrounding by ghosts, fever dreams...past lives. Look for it August 24th via Suicide Squeeze.
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Tape Deck Mountain laid down an Aquarium Drunkard session that I will be spinning on the show Friday. AD readers get a sneak peak download, below. In addition to the Summer vibe running throughout, the group also covers Atlas Sound's "Criminals." In short, this session is what we call a win-win.
Recorded, Mixed, & Mastered at Keith Milgaten's Cabin in Golden Hill. Session begins with . . .
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Imagine Orange kidnapped, blindfolded, tossed in the trunk of a car---doused with gasoline, lit on fire, and set adrift at 80 miles an hour, in backwoods Mississippi, under a new moon. That is, approximately, the sound of Now I Got Worry. In the scheme of the Blues . . .
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While I surely recommended inspecting the whole of the Shangri-La mixtape, I do want to highlight one track in particular: Wayne Jackson's "It Happened In Tennessee." I first caught wind of this track (Wayne's sole vocal performance no less) through one of Oxford American's southern music samplers.
While the trials and tribulations of Sheriff Buford . . .
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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.
Sherman Wilmott, from Shangri-La Projects, is my guest today during the second hour of the show. You can grab the mixtape here.
SIRIUS 145: Jean Michel . . .
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(Autumn Tone is set to release Futurebirds debut full-length, Hampton’s Lullaby, next month. The record is a monster. Below we revisit the EP. Catch it before it's (hint) taken off bandcamp.)
For whatever reason, or maybe a few specific ones, when I think of Futurebirds, I think of the Violent Femmes intro: "The Violent Femmes, they bring all their equipment on . . .
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In terms of recent releases that fall under the rock & roll, the two that have most monopolized my listening habits this Spring are the Black Keys Brothers and Hacienda's, sophomore LP, Big Red & Barbacoa. Coincidentally (or not . . .
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It happened in Tennessee. I met Shangri-La Projects' Sherman Wilmott in the spring of 2008 while renting an apartment in midtown Memphis. I was in the middle of working on a book documenting Memphis and the Delta blues trail. To say that Wilmott provided a wealth of information regarding local color would be an understatement. Those that know Memphis music know Sherman. In addition to founding Shangri-La Records in the early 90s, Wilmott has written books, published Kreature Komforts: the Low-life Guide to Memphis, curated compilations and produced documentaries---all surrounding the Bluff city and her music.
Wilmott is my guest this week during the second hour of the AD show. Be sure to tune in, as riding shotgun is Doug Easley of Memphis's Easley McCain Studios. I guarantee you own more than a couple albums that were cut at his studio.
After the jump: Shangri-La Projects, Memphis - A Mixtape
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Thursday night, June 24th, we're teaming up with out pals at Team Clermont and New West to kickoff Athfest at the 40 Watt. Four bands, two bucks. Futurebirds, Roadside Graves . . .
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Prior to my buying into the heathen bargain that is Los Angeles, ye olde Drunkard grew up in the wooded enclave that is Atlanta, GA. Recently, through the magic of eMusic, bit torrent and the like, I have been revisiting albums by artists that I long sold off, in the mid-late 90s, in an effort to pay off various and sundry bartabs, gambling debts, etc. Not surprisingly I have come to learn that most, if not all, of those old Atlanta bands recordings are . . .
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I've been working on some short story ideas involving the invincibility of youth, or rather, the self-perceived invincibility of youth often held by those under twenty. While most need look no farther than their own past teenage dalliances with (what could have been certain) death, I've been preoccupied with the motif within popular culture---explicitly in film and, of course, music. Curiously, the greatest bulk of these teenage "death songs" came about in the 1950s and 60s. A good number of these tracks have been collected in various themed compilations. The two best, and most comprehensive, being . . .
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Those who have clerked in a record store (which, over the past decade, I can only assume is a dwindling number), can attest to extremely varied amount of divergent music they were turned onto via enthusiastic co-workers. The good, the bad and the ugly. I was twenty when I landed the gig and that's where I got my first real taste of Sonny Rollins, the JBs, Smoke and the Rock*A*Teens. It is also where I learned about the sleaze...the trash rock -- the A-Bones . . .
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