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Prince :: Come

PrincePosted on

“This is the dawning of a new spiritual revolution.” It was 1993. Prince had just announced his eternal rest. Well, metaphorically—though perhaps not entirely. Born from this turmoil was Come, an album that symbolically marked the passing of Prince’s former persona. The cover—stark in black and white—captured the artist poised outside the breathtaking Sagrada Familia Cathedral in Barcelona, casting an undeniably funereal tone that whispered of transformation and finality . . .

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Masayoshi Fujita :: Migratory

Masayoshi FujitaPosted on

Masayoshi Fujita says his music aims to evoke the skies and mountains of his native village of Kami-cho, Hyogo, in Japan. To some extent, they really do: the sedative vibraphones and marimba of Migratory, bundled as they are with a geographical tracklist, allow us to visualize the natural tranquility that is so often associated with a branch of traditional Japanese music . . .

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

SIRIUSPosted on

Tea lights. 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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Unknown Happiness :: A Geographic Records Sampler

Geographic RecordsPosted on

When two members of The Pastels started the Domino imprint Geographic in 2000, the ethos was simple. "The idea was to release beautiful semi-unknown music from around the world and take it as far as we could". Specifically garnering an organic, collaborative spirit between Glasgow and Tokyo, the label reached the influential ears of the likes of John Peel, David Berman and Jarvis Cocker. From avant-pop ensembles and minimalist jazz to sun-soaked guitar soundscapes, here is a sampling of the singular spirit of the mighty Geographic catalogue . . .

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The Necks :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

The AD Interview The NecksPosted on

The Necks have created conditions for themselves as a band that embraces a constant pattern of departure and arrival. In the leadup to the release of Bleed, Aquarium Drunkard interviewed Lloyd Swanton (bass), Tony Buck (drums, percussion), and Chris Abrahams (piano, keyboards) of The Necks by email, comparing and contrasting how they work in the studio as opposed to performing live, the band’s decision-making process while recording, the mountains of live recordings in their archives, and more . . .

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Posted on The AD Interview The Necks

Transmissions :: Jill Fraser

Jill Fraser PodcastPosted on

Synthesist Jill Fraser has lived a remarkable life in music: mentored by Morton Subotnick, she went on work in film and television, with projects like 1974's sci-fi fantasy Zardoz and Paul Schrader's 1979 film Hardcore to her name, in addition to a litany of commercials featuring her inventive sound design. In the '80s, she found herself on the outskirts of LA's thriving punk scene, and now, she's released a new album cum science fictional sacred saga, Earthly Pleasures, on the storied Drag City label. She joins us to discuss . . .

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Jim O’Rourke :: Fast Car (Live In Japan, 9/16/2002)

Jim O'RourkePosted on

Luke Combs this is not. Fourteen years after its initial chart-topping 1988 release, sonic chameleon Jim O’Rourke laid hands on Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” in 2002 while touring Japan. Where the original tracks just under five minutes, O’Rourke’s alchemy transmutes the iconic riff into a thirty-three minute atmospheric drone. In a word, hypnotic . . .

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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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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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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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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