This is Grubbs’ first solo LP since 2017, though he has, in between, made records with a Ryley Walker, Taku Unami, Jan St. Werner and the Wingdale Community Singers. This one, too, is a collaborative effort, though Grubbs remains at its intellectual center, pushing the boundaries with precision, rigor and surgical cleanliness, but pushing them all the same.
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Gastr del Sol :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Back in April, we had the great pleasure of speaking with Jim O’Rourke and David Grubbs, two of our longtime musical heroes. Our conversation coincided with the release of Gastr del Sol’s new archival compilation, We Have Dozens of Titles, available now from Drag City Records. Over 25 years after disbanding the project in 1998, Grubbs and O’Rourke have assembled a beautifully flowing collection of previously unreleased recordings, bookended by excerpts from the duo’s performance at the Festival International Musique Actuelle Victoriaville.
Aquarium Drunkard :: 2025 Midyear Review
The clock never stops, but sometimes music manages the impossible: slowing time for a moment. It’s in those vibrational encounters with music that we find peace and we find ourselves. In the spirit of sharing the stuff that moved us, we’re back with our midyear review. As always, the list is unranked and unruly; there’s more than enough here to guide you into those rare encounters with deep time.
Sandro Perri :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Sandro Perri is a patient excavator of musical possibilities. For the last three decades, the Toronto based musician has put out meticulously crafted toy adventures marked by hypnotic loops and heartfelt deliveries, in songs that feel refreshingly un-derivative and that carve a distinctive space in the landscape of contemporary experimental pop. What unifies the cerebral techno of Polmo Polpo, the imaginative funk of Impossible Spaces, or the seemingly infinite mosaics of the more recent records, though, is the piecemeal lacing of cell fragments by the game of restraint and discovery of his artistic research.
Eli Winter :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Appearing here at Aquarium Drunkard in 2022 for a Lagniappe Session, Chicago guitarist Eli Winter described one of his cover selections as “Arabian Nightingale” as “arresting, cool, and strange.” The three words come to mind regarding his latest LP, A Trick of the Light. Another full-band outing following his self-titled 20202 LP, the recording drifts even deeper into jazz rock territory, pairing Winter’s snarling electric guitar lines with drifting pedal steel and sax. Aquarium Drunkard caught up with Winter to discuss the record’s genesis and what inspired him to spoof Hot Ones in a music video.
Mood Stabilizers: The Post-Rock Era, 1993-2002 (A Mixtape)
We’ve had post-rock on the brain lately. New music from genre pioneers Tortoise and the prospect of a North American tour by Stereolab this fall, not to mention recent archival releases by the likes of Aerial M, Gastr del Sol and Seefeel have many of us revisiting the sound’s 1990s salad days. For those wanting more, we’ve compiled a mixtape of some three hours of the genre’s knottiest groove logistics. For the uninitiated, here’s a crash course in what the end of the twentieth century sounded like.
Aquarium Drunkard :: 2024 Year in Review
Can any year-end list be definitive? With so much music being released every single day—from marquee names to DIY home recorders to all points in between—it’s impossible to truly keep up with it all. But the idea with our lists has never been to say “here’s everything worth paying attention to.” Rather, this is our humble attempt at casting a wide net and reeling in as much of the good shit as possible.
Wendy Eisenberg :: Viewfinder
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.
Aquarium Drunkard :: 2024 Mid-Year Review
Time flies. As we’re halfway through 2024, enter our first-ever midyear review to accompany our annual favorites list. As always, our list is unranked and unruly—not “complete” but featuring more than enough to get you started. Let it blurb …
Subtle Vibrations: Assorted Beach Boys Cover Oddities
Signifying a momentum shift in the influence of Brian Wilson, the nineties to early aughts saw a handful of curious, if not downright mysterious Beach Boys/Brian Wilson tribute compilations. With eclectic, avant-garde artists and names like Smiles, Vibes & Harmony, these comps began to emerge intermittently. Spurred by interest in the legendary abandoned Smile project reaching a fever pitch, these hidden relics provide fascinating insights frozen in time. All these decades later, artists of all varieties continue to look at that specific era’s creative burst and beyond for endless inspiration. To quote the promotional description for the Japanese compilation Smiling Pets: “Sure, there’s a little schlock, but not that much”.
The Lagniappe Sessions :: Eli Winter
For his debut Lagniappe Session, Eli Winter applies his solo guitar to a set of songs by Don Cherry and Ed Blackwell, Maria BC, Judee Sill, and Karen Dalton.
Bandcamping :: Winter 2022
Bandcamp Fridays may be a thing of the past (or maybe not!), but hey, throw a couple extra bucks on top of any asking price and voila — any day is Bandcamp Friday. With things still fairly uncertain for touring musicians in 2022, it can make a difference. As always, we’ve got a whole bunch of recommendations for you. Fill up your cart.
Bandcamping :: Summer 2021
A good thing: in celebration of Juneteenth this year, Bandcamp is donating 100 percent of their fee share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund on Friday, June 18. So, you’ll get some new music, support artists, and help a great cause. A win-win-win. In need of a few recommendations? Here are a few recent releases that are worth your time and money…
Bandcamping :: Autumn 2020
If you’re anything like us, your hard drives are stuffed to the proverbial gills with the spoils of past Bandcamp Fridays, during which Bandcamp waives its usual fees, offering a much-needed infusion of cash to artists and labels. Clear some more digital space. The next Bandcamp Friday is Nov. 6 — and we’ve got a few recent/recommended items to grab below.
The Aquarium Drunkard Guide To Drag City Records: Volume One
Chicago’s venerable Drag City turns 30 years young in 2019. In perhaps typical fashion, the label doesn’t seem to be doing much in the way of commemoration — no star-studded festival, no limited edition boxed set, no self-congratulatory excess. Instead, Drag City is doing what it’s always done: releasing great records.
But those past glories deserve a little celebration, don’t they? That’s why the Aquarium Drunkard team has put together this eclectic guide to Drag City’s immense catalog: 30 masterpieces for 30 years.