The latest from JJ Toth of Wooden Wand and One Eleven Heavy, Dunza opens up new sound worlds, mutated drone funk, Popol Vuh-style devotional psych, and time-bending zoner rock. Check out the video for "Disowned" for a taste, conceived and edited by collaborator Jason Meagher of Black Dirt Studio . . .
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Drifting in under the radar of psych collectors and enthusiasts alike are The Smubbs. They may have the worst band name in the history of modern music, but those willing to overlook this will revel in psychedelic folk that goes toe to toe with most of their freaked out peers . . .
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Omertà is comprised of five musicians from a handful of projects that line the interior of France’s experimental underground, notably La Société Étrange, releasing limited edition pressings on labels like Standard In-Fi, Desastre, and La Novià. Each of the members, and their associated groups, possess krautrock's stealthy octave climbing and open feel, dub's intimate incorporation of analog electronics and generally hazy air, and a bit of post-punk's willingness to try anything out . . .
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For better or worse, there is something within us that won’t give up. For better, that is what Matt O’Keefe does with his music. We recently caught up with O'Keefe in his front yard to discuss three songs that will be released off his debut solo record, Warm Infinity . . .
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A deeply pleasing sensation arises when terrific cover art not only fully delivers on the music, but also bears a distinct resemblance to it. Ryo Kawasaki’s 1976 jazz-funk album Juice is one such record. Bright and refreshing like a piece of citrus, peel the skin back and you’ll find an electric fantasyland of traversing wires and circuits. Over the course of its seven tracks, the visually sci-fi-tinged world of Juice feels at once perfectly of its time, yet remains delightfully vital in 2022 . . .
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Guitarist Pat Metheny recently described music as a “carrot”, “I am still figuring out what the stick is,” he concluded to Ross Simonini in The Believer. That idea of constant investigation permeates Metheny’s nearly 50 year music career as well as his first s/t LP with his Pat Metheny Group . . .
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Depending on your entry point, Andy Paley’s body of work might be familiar via a number of unique gateways. Recording with Phil Spector and the Wrecking Crew. Producing the Shangri-Las. Writing with the Ramones. Sharing the stage with Patti Smith. And, of course, Brian Wilson’s proclamation of Paley being “the greatest musical genius I’ve ever come across”. Now residing in Vermont, Paley connected with us to discuss his long trajectory traveling all avenues of music, as well as current projects still rooted in the Spector-inspired tradition of the sixties “girl group” and French yé-y . . .
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Originally released in 1975, El Gusano's Fantasia del Barrio was given a second life in 2010 via the Austin, TX based Heavy Light Records. It too soon found itself out of print. Described as the missing link between Texas psychedelia and the chicano soul and funk of the late 1960s and early 70s, the record's ten instrumental tracks pivot between zeitgeisty rock and humid groove . . .
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Via satellite, transmuting 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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São Paulo’s Tim Bernardes swept us off our feet earlier this month with his new album, Mil Coisas Invisíveis. Across fifteen tracks sung in beautiful, tender Portuguese, he mines love, loss, and change with equal splendor bringing his diaristic existentialism to vibrant sonic life. For his inaugural Lagniappe Session, Bernardes keeps the flame aglow, tackling one from fellow countryman Gilberto Gil's 1971 self-titled album, the Dirty Projectors' knotty, Tropicália-tinged art rock, and one of The Beatles’ most spiritually mystic moments . . .
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As leader of The Hold Steady and a solo artist, Craig Finn specializes in unlikely redemption stories. His latest is called A Legacy of Rentals. Like his best work, it traces the lines of down and out characters, imbuing them with humanity and inner drama. He joins Jason P. Woodbury to discuss it, his new podcast, and much more on this week's episode of Transmissions . . .
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A simmering rendition of Gilberto Gil’s “Duplo Sentido". The first of only four sides recorded by Brazil’s Tetê Da Bahia, between 1974-75, finds the chanteuse throwing the drifting, folky hue of Gil's original out the window of a speeding car before heading into a dimly lit tunnel of dream logic and psychic dislocation . . .
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However one chooses to interpret the thematic message, part of Tetsuo’s lasting endurance is that it can be enjoyed on a purely visceral level. If you tear away all of the percolating themes, Tetsuo is a pure emulation of the sci-fi and horror content Tsukamoto grew up watching and reading. It’s a love letter to the kaiju films of Toho Studios as well as a continuum of Japanese horror; ironically dubbed “the most metal film ever made . . .
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Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our monthly gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. This month: the proto T-Rex lit of Marc Bolan, a regional love letter to the art of the concert poster, a deep dive into Dilla’s unique time feel, mid-80s Charles Portis, James Calvin Wilsey's lonesome noir guitar, and a look into the rise of Warner Bros. Records . . .
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Absolute homegrown ephemera gold courtesy of a 1972 Germany documentary which finds Neil Young in a honey slide haze on his fabled Broken Arrow Ranch, work-shopping “Out on the Weekend” (endearingly amused by his own lyrics), and hanging with Elliot Roberts, the fellas, the dogs, and the cows . . .
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