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Culture & Art
Hobbies
Quartet : Live at Gold Diggers (2024) : Aquarium Drunkard
I first caught wind of Robert Walter around 1998 at a late night show at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans during jazz fest. Now fast forward 26 years. Two months ago Walter joined forces with Dave Harrington, Spencer Zahn and Kosta Galanopoulos for a heady Tuesday night of free improv space jazz/funk at Gold Diggers in East Hollywood, Los Angeles. Spread over the course of two sets, shit got real as the audience played witness to something new, something primal. Thankfully there was a taper in the house.
The Things : Coloured Heaven : Aquarium Drunkard
Prior to this fortieth anniversary reissue, you likely never saw The Things or 1984 debut record Coloured Heaven included on canonical Paisley Underground lists. Wearing its influences on its sleeve, the album is emblematic of their Los Angeles roots from Love to their Paisley peers in Rain Parade. Similar to Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, it's a relic of woozy, melodic neo-psychedelia that stands out across any era or movement.
Sam Blasucci : Real Life Thing : Aquarium Drunkard
Teaser: When he's not singing high harmonies and playing sun-baked folk as one half of the excellent SoCal duo Mapache, Sam Blasucci moonlights on his solo records as a polished purveyor of AM gold. Picking up where last summer's brilliant Off My Stars left off, Blasucci's new album Real Life Thing mines a vein of early 70s soft rock to craft a perfect collection of sophisticated bubblegum.
Kristen Roos : Universal Synthesizer Interface, Volumes I, II, III : Aquarium Drunkard
In 2019, Vancouver composer and sound designer Kristen Roos acquired a floppy disc of pioneering computer musician Laurie Spiegel's 1986 algorithmic composition program Music Mouse for a few bucks on eBay. The purchase sent him tumbling down a rabbit hole of vintage music software interfaces. Over the three volumes of Universal Synthesizer Interface, Roos has captured the fruits of his research and experimentation. Composed of pulses and patches, primitive drum machines and bass squelches, Universal Synthesizer Interface emerges as one of the most slyly delightful, engaging and weirdly beautiful musical projects going.
Bridget St. John : Paris, 1970 : Aquarium Drunkard
Via French television, check out this terrific 13 minutes of Bridget St. John performing three songs solo in Paris, the songwriter’s crystalline guitar and singular vocals captured perfectly. Do we talk about St. John enough? Sure, she’s had plenty of boosters over the years (John Peel was a huge fan), but in our mind she deserves to be mentioned alongside Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, John Martyn and others as one of the great English songwriters of the late 60s/early 70s. I’m also going to put her up there among the very best heads of hair of the 1970s — a competitive area, to be sure.
Videodrome : Out Of The Blue (1980) : Aquarium Drunkard
Out of the Blue (1980) marks Dennis Hopper's return to the director's chair after a decade of exile, transforming what was intended to be a light-hearted coming-of-age drama into a domestic tragedy about wayward youth during the apex of the punk scene.
Transmissions : Phosphorescent : Aquarium Drunkard
We’ve reached the end of the road for this season—season 9 concludes with this episode, a conversation with Matthew Houck, the leader of the avant-country band Phosphorescent. In April, Phosphorescent released Revelator, the band’s ninth album. It’s their debut for Verve Records, after a string of well-received albums on Dead Oceans. Joined by collaborators like Jim White of the Dirty Three—who you heard earlier this season—Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs, and his wife and songwriting partner Jo Schornikow, it finds Houck examining—what else?—the end of the world.
David Pajo : Scream With Me : Aquarium Drunkard
In 2004, in a break between a string of Aerial M albums and the first Slint reunion tour, David Pajo found himself at loose ends, sleeping on friends’ couches and wondering what to do next. In Brooklyn during this period and, for once, luxuriating in the rare pleasures of an empty apartment, he struck on the idea of Misfits covers. He’d been a fan since early adolescence...
Bert Jansch & Finn Kalvik : Norwegian Television (May 7, 1973) : Aquarium Drunkard
It's officially Bert Jansch season. Recorded live in the spring of 1973 for Norwegian television, the following twenty-eight minute session finds the Scottish troubadour in the company of Norwegian folkie Finn Kalvik. The set kicks off with the pair collaborating on Jansch's own "Running From Home" (via his 1965 s/t LP) before sliding into an alternating guitar pull between the two musicians. Koselig!
Terry Stamp : Blue Redondo : Aquarium Drunkard
At some point during the recent hype cycle surrounding the Hard Quartet’s debut LP, Matt Sweeney popped up on our feed singing the praises of Terry Stamp’s Blue Redondo. Stamp, formerly of the English hard rock group Third World War, recorded Blue Redondo after he relocated to El Segundo, CA, in the late 1970s. Each of its 12 tracks are rough gems, hard-bitten but sweetly rendered loner folk bolstered by Stamp’s blues-soaked guitar and vocals, not to mention the occasionally eccentric production touch.
Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard : November 2024 : Aquarium Drunkard
Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month, Wilcox leads things off with a selection of dusted late November vibes; DePasquale follows it up with an hour of psychedelic blues, gospel, and soul. Sunday, 4-6pm PT.
Smoke Bellow : Structurally Sound : Aquarium Drunkard
“I come crashing down like sunsets gleam,” Meredith McHugh sings in the opening minutes of Structurally Sound, the fourth and final album from Smoke Bellow. The Baltimore via Australia duo of McHugh and Christian Best do, in fact, break up in spectacular, brilliant fashion here – joining forces one last time on guitars, synths, percussion, bass, and vocals for an ecstatic record of funky angular post-punk, damaged motorik-infused disco, and minimalist art-rock.
Smokey Robinson : Just My Soul Responding : Aquarium Drunkard
Barely a year removed from his final performance with The Miracles, Smokey Robinson delivered Smokey, his first album stepping out on his own. Driving solo, Robinson pushed his sound sonically and topically. The politically and morally charged, “Just My Soul Responding” is the pinnacle of that push.
Bob Holmes (SUSS, numün, Ambient Country) : The Aquarium Drunkard Interview : Aquarium Drunkard
One of the ambient country scene’s biggest proponents for almost a decade now has been Bob Holmes, whose work with SUSS, numün and the Ambient Country podcast — among many other efforts — have spread the gospel far and wide. Holmes’ latest project is Across The Horizon, a collaboration with Northern Spy Records that brings onboard various like-minded artists drawn “from the wide landscape of instrumental music” (including Luke Schneider, Marisa Anderson, William Tyler and more) to curate a series of digital releases that will culminate next year in a double LP compilation of stellar sonic explorations.
Jeff Parker on ETA : The Aquarium Drunkard Interview : Aquarium Drunkard
"With the ETA band, there were all these other experiences dealing with music that people were composing. So, when we would improvise, all of that other stuff was informed in what we were doing." Visionary guitarist Jeff Parker joins us to discuss The Way Out of Easy, recorded live at his residency at ETA.
Bridget St John : Curl Your Toes : Aquarium Drunkard
How many songs can you think of where the songwriter has a philosophical interaction with a burrowing mole? If the answer is none, then now it is one. This is one of the many charms to be relished in Bridget St John's rousing “Curl Your Toes." After studying in France for a time in the late '60s, St John found herself floating around in the English folk atmosphere with many scene-makers of the time. She soon met musical champion and promotional extraordinaire John Peel and went on to release her fully acoustic debut album, Ask Me No Questions–on which this song is found–through his Dandelion label in 1969.
Transmissions : Pat Irwin (Suss, B-52s) : Aquarium Drunkard
Welcome to the penultimate episode of our ninth season, featuring Pat Irwin of Suss. You may remember him from last year’s Suss talk, with his bandmates Jonathan Gregg and Bob Holmes, but he’s back for a solo talk this time, which allowed us to dig into his wild life in music, from his time in the the late ‘70s New York No Wave scene with The Raybeats and 8-Eyed Spy, to his work with Southern freak icons The B-52s, and his long career crafting music for TV and animation, including shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and Bored to Death.
Gray/Smith : Heels in the Aisle : Aquarium Drunkard
More supremely groovy sounds from Gray/Smith, the drums/guitar duo made up of L. Gray (guitar and vocals) and Rob Smith, who you know from their time in the underground trenches with No-Neck Blues Band, Pigeons and many more. At first, Heels in the Aisle comes across deeply laid-back, the songs coalescing out of nothing, drifting together effortlessly. But that might be an illusion!
Allen Lowe and the Constant Sorry Orchestra: Louis Armstrong’s America, Vols. 1 and 2 : Aquarium Drunkard
In a massive four-CD set, Allen Lowe and his adventurous ensemble conjure an alternate past while exploring real history. Their tribute to Louis Armstrong, the country he grew up in and the worlds he created employs a wealth of traditions and styles, from Dixieland to fusion. A sprawling, eccentric mix of contradictions, confluences and celebrations, it rewrites the past and charts a weird vision for the future.
Ava Mendoza : The Circular Train : Aquarium Drunkard
You might have spotted Ava Mendoza on Bill Orcutt’s Four Guitars tour earlier this year, a meeting of four exceptional players of diverse backgrounds: Wendy Eisenberg from jazz and art song experiment, Shane Parrish from the finger-picked blues-drone world, the unclassifiable Orcutt, and Mendoza, a bold expander of the electric blues rock universe. She’s played with everyone—William Parker, Nels Cline, Matana Roberts, and Fred Frith among others—and led free-jazz, noise-rock, blues-encrusted Unnatural Ways through two albums, blending McLaughlin and Son House-ish textures. The Circular Train expands on this syncretic vision, building towering edifices of guitar tone and setting them to flames.
Dolphins, Aliens, & Drugs : Brian Blomerth on The Life of Consciousness Pioneer John C. Lilly : Aquarium Drunkard
With Lilly Wave, cartoonish Brian Blomerth creates a vivid and oracular comix biography about the life and far out ideas of John C. Lilly. Though far from a typical biography (to start, all the human characters in the story are anthropomorphized in Blomerth's signature style), it nonetheless creates context in which to experience Lilly's most psychedelic notions. From the deep sea to outer space, this one is a journey. Dive in!
The Cure : Songs of A Lost World : Aquarium Drunkard
Robert Smith never aimed to create the definitive soundtrack for our current dystopian moment, but he may have done it anyway. The argument against? He wrote some of these songs more than a decade ago and has been playing them off and on at shows for nearly as long. But despite the temporal disjunction, if you’re looking for some way through early November 2024, bleak, magisterial Songs of a Lost World makes an ideal companion. It is wise, spiritually charged and not at all bent on insisting that “we’ll get through this” or “things will get better.”
Limbo District : Carnival : Aquarium Drunkard
Limbo District made its own rules. The Athens, Georgia post-punk outfit spliced hammering Afro-centric rhythms to Weimar cabaret decadence in theatrical performances that pushed late 1970s gender norms to the breaking point. They were out and gay before almost anyone, creative in a variety of artistic disciplines and an inspiration to a whole generation of wild, weird Athenians: Michael Stipe of R.E.M., Keith Strickland of the B-52s and members of Pylon.
Anthony Moore : Home Of The Demo : Aquarium Drunkard
Home of the Demo comes from a quiet period in Anthony Moore’s eventful musical life. The avant-garde keyboardist and composer’s art-pop-cabaret project Slapp Happy had run aground, after moving from Berlin to London and collaborating with Henry Cow for two albums. Virgin Records released his first solo album Out (1976) but passed on the subsequent ones, Flying Doesn’t Help (1979) and World Service (1981), both issued on independents.
Transmissions : Real Estate : Aquarium Drunkard
This week, a talk taped earlier this summer with Martin Courtney of Real Estate. Real Estate has been releasing great albums since the late 2000s. This year, they released their sixth LP, called Daniel. Produced in Nashville by Daniel Tashian, who produced Kacy Musgraves’ breakthrough Golden Hour, it’s a mellow, refined sound—deeply rooted in acoustic ‘90s rock textures and dappled with pedal steel. It’s a record about growing up, and accepting all that comes with accumulated time spent here on earth.
Aquarium Drunkard Book Club : Chapter 31 : Aquarium Drunkard
Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our monthly gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: a guide to Krautrock, Lucy Sante’s sermons for Bob Dylan, plot twist poetry, and tomes devotes to Alan Vega of Suicide and The MC5.
Rogê : Curyman II : Aquarium Drunkard
Rogê is steeped in bossa nova tradition, building lush, rhythmically restless compositions that are light as air but resonant with feeling. Here in his second U.S. released solo album, the Brazilian native now living in LA, pays tribute to the genre’s masters, covering João Donato’s "A Rã," “A Força,” from his collaborative album with Seu Jorge and “Lendo Do Abaeté” a song made famous by Dorival Caymmi, while also taking the form in new directions with original material.
Mount Eerie : Night Palace : Aquarium Drunkard
Phil Elverum emerges from unimaginable loss in Night Palace, returning from relentless (and understandable) exploration of his own wrenching experiences to consider again the largeness of the natural world, the purpose of art and human transience. This larger scope extends not just through the lyrics, but into the sound of this double album, which throws off the limitations of poetic, minimalist, lyric-focused indie folk and dallies with rock, drone, free improv, country and black metal.
Bondo : Harmonica : Aquarium Drunkard
LA based post-rock quartet Bondo returns with their sophomore LP, Harmonica. Recorded live to tape by engineer and producer JooJoo Ashworth, Harmonica conveys an organic sensibility that only a live band can communicate. There is a tightness, a musical understanding through technique and dynamics with an added dimension of nuance - some improv, and the happy accidents that can only come from four people playing together live.
Barry Archie Johnson : Fortune's Mirror : Aquarium Drunkard
Though he's been playing for years, Fortune's Mirror, released by the esteemed VDSQ imprint, is Barry Johnson's proper instrumental debut, and has the distinction of possibly being the most "California" sounding solo guitar record to come out since Will Ackerman's first few albums for Windham Hill.
Tomin : A Willed And Conscious Balance : Aquarium Drunkard
As the electric keys of the "Untitled Dirge" minisuite kicks off A Willed and Conscious Balance, it's evident that Tomin Perea-Chamblee's shapeshifting palette expands upon his own woodwind arrangements, transmuting an orchestral symmetry with the record's ensemble. It's a record with an ever-evolving framework, conveying the essence of canonical free jazz entities with a set of signifiers that sounds ambivalently modern.
Lee Baggett : Waves For A Begull : Aquarium Drunkard
Existing in a dusty space between shambolic whimsy and rock solid songwriting, the experience of a Baggett record is one in which the stalwart musician crafts his own classic rock fantasy. Like an afternoon drive through a seaside beach town, Waves of a Begull delivers the washed out guitar rompers you need this year.
Transmissions : Rosali and David Nance : Aquarium Drunkard
This week on the show, a double-header. First, Rosali Middleman, and then, her bandmate, collaborator, and the leader of Mowed Sound, David Nance. Together, they both play on Rosali’s fantastic 2024 album, Bite Down. This week on Transmissions, they open up about their collaborative process in two individual interviews.