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Bruce Hornsby :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Near the end of his latest Indigo Park, Bruce Hornsby sings something of a conclusion—or perhaps a belated introduction: "I've been seeking magical thinking/I think I detect a trend/This could be the start of something/Or this could be an end." The lyric isn't cited to suggest the 71-year-old songwriter is going anywhere. If anything, Indigo Park speaks to the hot streak Hornsby's been on since 2019's Absolute Zero. Aquarium Drunkard caught up with him to discuss the album, basketball chants, his work with The Grateful Dead, literary fiction, and much . . .

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All One Song :: Brigid Mae Power on “Albuquerque”

Neil Young's "Albuquerque." A Ditch Era classic, it was recorded with the Santa Monica Flyers in 1973 and released on 1975's Tonight's the Night. Like the Southwestern town its named for, "Albuquerque" is stark, beautiful, and lonesome—leaving in its wake melancholy and a craving for fried eggs and country ham. Joining us to discuss the various landscapes of "Albuquerque" is Brigid Mae Power. Since her debut a little over a decade ago, the Galway-based singer songwriter has built up a visionary and cosmic discography. Tune in as we explore the contours of yet another number . . .

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Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane | In Conversation with Andy Beta

Andy Beta's new book, Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane, sheds crucial new light on Alice Coltrane's incredible journey. Through deep research and keen insight, Beta uncovers a story that spans decades and continents, painting a portrait of a remarkable musician, composer and spiritual leader. AD recently talked with the author to learn about how it all came together . . .

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Medeski Martin & Wood :: Tonic & The Dropper

When looking back on cultural events that happened in the year 2000, it’s easy to make sweeping statements about the beginning of the 21st century and the rise of the new millennium. For the instrumental jazz/jam/groove band Medeski Martin & Wood, this connection to a significant change in the Gregorian calendar is unnecessary because the band’s recorded output in that year alone is momentous enough in relation to their own career discography . . .

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Fabiano Do Nascimento & E Ruscha V :: Aquáticos

Brazilian guitarist Fabiano Do Nascimento and Los Angeles producer Eddie Ruscha (aka E Ruscha V and Secret Circuit) team up for the gorgeously ambient and adventurous Aquáticos, released earlier this year on the ever-reliable Music From Memory label. Pairing Nascimento’s 7 and 10-string nylon guitars with Ruscha’s modular synths, drum machines, and vintage keyboards, the duo create meditative, electro-acoustic sounds with an alchemical fluidity . . .

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The Smoke :: S/T (1968)

In addition to his role in elusive cult outfit The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, musician and young prodigy Michael Lloyd ricocheted from studio to studio in late sixties Los Angeles. Amidst production efforts with legendary LA scenester Kim Fowley, Lloyd's 1968's one-off studio project The Smoke is the most rewarding relic. With all of the glowing touchstones of the era's hazy California psych-pop, the record combines fragmented orchestral pieces with highlights like "Cowboys and Indians", an original response to "Heroes and Villains" by the Beach Boys. While other classics of the genre were . . .

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Making the Scene :: Catching up with Programme 4’s Rachel Lichtman

Alongside her work directing music videos and documentaries, Rachel Lichtman expertly crafts and currates media that feels beamed in from an alternate reality. Don’t mistake them as simple sendups or exercises in damaging nostalgia. As Lichtman describes: “It’s not just about an aesthetic. It’s really [about] truly being able to trek out into a better world. A world that we were promised . . .

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Colleen :: Libres antes del final

We often say that electronic music has a pulse, but on the standout title track, that pulse seems less like a metaphor and more like an actual heartbeat, thumping with effort but fully capable of maintaining itself over long periods. The title, by the way, translates as “free at the end,” and indeed, there is a payoff to this gleaming processional, which explodes with sensation from the halfway point on . . .

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Rachel Love :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Originally a founding member of the pioneering all-female trio Dolly Mixture, musician Rachel Love has launched a solo career forty plus years later. Ahead of indie pop purveyors Slumberland repressing her recent solo LPs such as Lyra (a tribute to her late husband/producer Steve Lovell), the musician also plays in new band Railcard with fellow English guitar-pop veterans, a BBC-inspired instrumental project with Martin Newell of Cleaners from Venus and more. Love joins us from her home in Brighton to discuss her career and prolific late career surge . . .

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

Chronesthesia. Via satellite, transmuting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.

SIRIUS 884: Intro ++ Fela Kuti – Unknown Soldier ++ Antonio Carlos & Jocafi – Kabaluere ++ Ify Jerry Crusade – Everybody Likes Something Good ++ El Gusano – Work Your Hand To The Bone ++ The Hygrades – Rough Rider ++ The Meters – Cardova ++ Cochemea – Mitote ++ Ry Cooder & Manuel Galbán – Drume Negrita ++ Denis Mpunga & Paul K. – Criola ++ Roland P. Young – Ballo-Balla ++ Denis Mpunga & Paul K. – Funyaka ++ Benny Yurco – Flor Amarilla ++ Serge Gainsbourg – Des Laids Des Laids ++ Noah House Of Dread – Murder ++ Gal Costa – Relance ++ Alfonso Lovo – La Gigatona ++ Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffaloes – Animals ++ Juan Wauters – Candombe Instrumental ++ Sessa – Grandeza ++ Adanowsky – Me Siento Solo ++ Tom Zé – Mã ++ Whitefield Brothers – Weiya (Serengeti Beat) ++ J.B. De Carvalho E Seu Terreiro – Fun À Umbanda ++ Cymande – Zion I ++ Luiz Bonfá – Jacaranda ++ Lijadu Sisters – Life’s Gone Down Low ++ Wild Fire – The Dealer ++ Alice Coltrane – Los Caballos ++ Tony Allen & Jimi Tenor – Cella’s Walk ++ Sessa – I’m Controlled by Your Love (Aquarium Drunkard Session) ++ Sessa – Samba Jambo (Aquarium Drunkard Session) ++ Sessa – Yanvalloux (Aquarium Drunkard Session)

All One Song :: Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo) on “Big Crime”

Welcome to All One Song season two. We kick off this exploration of the Shakey-verse with Ira Kaplan of Yo La Tengo. The indie trio has a long history with Neil—the b-side of their second single was a sweet cover of “For The Turnstiles.” But Kaplan doesn't want to talk about an old classic, but rather the most recent Neil song, as of the time of this taping at least. Strap in for "Big Crime . . .

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Brion Gysin :: Dreamachine (1984/1992)

Dreamachine gathers Brion Gysin's cult recordings in a blend of ambient, spoken word, avant-garde, minimalism, and afrobeat, mimicking the art device by translating its effects into an audio experience. Produced by French artist Ramuntcho Matta in the late '80s and early '90s, the 32-minute track summons Gysin's artistic ethos to a haunting perfection, building on an enveloping trance-like cadence to achieve an effect that evokes the alpha wave state induced by the original invention . . .

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John Andrews & The Yawns :: STREETSWEEPER

On his fifth solo record with backing collective the Yawns, the ever-talented John Andrews channels a number of personal and regional anecdotal experiences within the mellow dazzle of STREETSWEEPER. From hockey to a part time gig working for the NYC Parks Department, the imagery of the record jumps off the screen like one of the artist's painterly animated works. With a bevy of talent including Luke Temple, Star Moles and the Cut Worms rhythm section, it's a bright and optimistic accomplishment with a signature, natural DIY spirit . . .

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Videodrome :: Rolling Thunder (1977)

Rolling Thunder (1977) is perhaps the most salient example of “revengeamatic” films: a grindhouse-style subgenre of revenge films characterized by a protagonist’s methodical quest for payback against those who wronged them. These films are defined by a clear path of cause and effect: an act of brutality sets the process in motion, the protagonist activates the cycle of vengeance, and the plot advances inexorably toward a climactic act of redemption. Films such as Rolling Thunder distill these elements to their most essential function, automating the story into a lean, mean, genre machine . . .

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Luka Kuplowsky :: The Grass Grows, Antonych Grows

In his book The Life of Plants, philosopher Emanuele Coccia writes that plants are a kind of cosmic point of tension that binds us all, because they are the sculptors of our very breath. In his new record The Grass Grows, Antonych Grows, Luka Kuplowsky embodies a similar idea to adapt works by Ukrainian poet-mystic Bohdan Ihor Antonych—often written from the perspective of a bug or a flower—into heterogeneous indie jazz soundscapes that can mirror, in their latent sentimentalism, our current climate catastrophe . . .

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