Aquarium Drunkard Book Club :: Chapter 21 Warren Zevon once said “We love to buy books because we believe we’re buying the time to read them.” But even if your towering “too read” pile can’t guarantee immortality, those pages can make life feel even more worth living. We’re back in the stacks with creative guides … Continue reading Aquarium Drunkard Book Club :: Chapter 21

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Videodrome :: In Conversation With Matthew Specktor On Shoot The Moon (Welcome to Videodrome. A recurring column plumbing the depths of vintage and contemporary cinema – from cult, exploitation, trash and grindhouse to sci-fi, horror, noir, documentary and beyond.) Although known as a writer, Matthew Specktor is also an ardent cinephile, possessing an encyclopedic knowledge of … Continue reading Videodrome :: In Conversation With Matthew Specktor On Shoot The Moon
The Drin :: Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom The Drin, from Cincinnati, sheathes unyielding staccato rhythms in the undulating ooze of dub. Stark drum beats push electro-shocked funk/soul vamps into denatured, machine-like fury, while guitars scream and basses rumble and one Dylan McCartney chants blankly about worms and dooms and poisons. Today My … Continue reading The Drin :: Today My Friend You Drunk the Venom
Bandcamping :: Winter 2023
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Bandcamping :: Winter 2023 We’re well into the new year and we’ve got a fresh offering of Bandcamp recommendations that may or may not have escaped your notice in the past few months. Plenty of killer sounds to get you through the dark days of winter, ranging from vintage Motor City jazz to Iranian tanbur … Continue reading Bandcamping :: Winter 2023
Andrew Broder :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview Premiered in 2020 and released in 2021, The Show found visionary author Alan Moore (Illuminations, Jerusalem, Watchmen) teaming up director Mitch Jenkins for a dreamy and magical detective film set to a moody electronic score by Minneapolis-based producer Andrew Broder. This week sees the release of The Show … Continue reading Andrew Broder :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Transmissions :: James Yorkston and Nina Persson Welcome back to the Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions podcast. This week: Nina Persson of The Cardigans and James Yorkston join host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss The Great White Sea Eagle, their low key and homey collection of folk rock. Transmissions ::James Yorkston and Nina Persson Created in collaboration … Continue reading Transmissions :: James Yorkston and Nina Persson
Sole Inspiration :: Life
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Sole Inspiration :: Life A ripping slice of late 60’s psychedelic Texas soul, Sole Inspiration’s “Life” is a Saturday night jam for Sunday morning sorrows. Recently dug up by Numero Group, the track bursts out the gate with a righteous organ that bellows across the holy blood cries of front man & songwriter Juan Gonzalez’s existential … Continue reading Sole Inspiration :: Life
Robert Forster (Go-Betweens) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview Robert Forster spent the late 1970s and 1980s in the Go-Betweens alongside Grant McLennan, in what Robert Christgau called “the greatest songwriting partnership working today.” Then in 1989, after a tour promoting 16 Lovers Lane, Forster stayed behind in Germany while the band returned to Australia. He … Continue reading Robert Forster (Go-Betweens) :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
C.I.A. Débutante :: “The Punch” / “The Garden” A subterranean entity which has been releasing records since 2016 on labels such as Siltbreeze and Ever/Never, Australian-French duo C.I.A. Débutante exist in their own dusted lane where the distinction between no-fi rock and bedroom-synth music blurs into a fun-house-mirrored mirage. What I’ve heard of Nathan Roche … Continue reading C.I.A. Débutante :: “The Punch” / “The Garden”
Chico Lessa :: S/T
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Chico Lessa :: S/T Chico Lessa’s debut record, a post-Tropicalia jazz-funk private press release from 1982, has just been reissued by the Madrid-based label Vampisoul. It retains influences from the popular Brazilian funk of the early 1980s, from the then-somewhat-defunct Clube da Esquina scene (whose conductor Wagner Tiso is a center feature of the record), … Continue reading Chico Lessa :: S/T
Soft Machine :: Live At Jazz Bilzen
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Soft Machine :: Live At Jazz Bilzen Dig into this priceless footage of Soft Machine performing an early take of Robert Wyatt’s magnum opus, “Moon in June”. Shirtless and haphazardly composed, the clip is a reminder of Wyatt being a tour-de-force behind the kit prior to his tragic accident (that opened the doors to a remarkable solo career). … Continue reading Soft Machine :: Live At Jazz Bilzen
Television :: Tell A Vision
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Television :: Tell A Vision A reluctant farewell to Tom Verlaine, who helped define (and then quickly transcended) the NYC punk scene of the 1970s, inspiring countless groups through the decades. Marquee Moon, Television’s epochal debut LP, changed the rock ‘n’ roll game entirely, wedding dangerously sharp-edged riffs with cosmic solos, Blake-ean reveries with hard-boiled noir. It … Continue reading Television :: Tell A Vision
Old Fire :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview On John Mark Lapham’s second release under the moniker Old Fire Voids, the musician and filmmaker creates a sprawling and meditative odyssey through the darkest corners of the West Texas towns that continues to spark his imagination. A guest-filled journey with vocal and lyrical contributions by Bill Callahan, … Continue reading Old Fire :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Journey To Inner Space With The Groundhogs Built on stones laid down by John Lee Hooker, Tony “T.S.” McPhee’s The Groundhogs were labeled “post-blues” by the rock & roll press of the late ’60s and ’70s. The band was farther out than Cream, and they tapped into an end-of-flower-power darkness like a less disdainful The … Continue reading Journey To Inner Space With The Groundhogs
Transmissions :: James McNew (Yo La Tengo, Dump) This week on Transmissions: James McNew of Yo La Tengo and Dump. For decades now, he’s been a prolific source of engaged independent rock music—the kind we like here at Aquarium Drunkard. As past work like I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your … Continue reading Transmissions :: James McNew (Yo La Tengo, Dump)
Thomas Almqvist :: Nyanser
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Thomas Almqvist :: Nyanser Listening to Thomas Almqvist’s Nyanser, a profound and overwhelming sense of déjà vu sets in, an emotional sense of nostalgia and remembrance. After a moment, it dawned on this listener that the album’s closing number, “Sortie” was mimicking the album’s introductory melody—whereas previously heard starkly, on Almqvist’s resonating guitar strings and cherubic … Continue reading Thomas Almqvist :: Nyanser
King Tuff :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview King Tuff’s Kyle Thomas got his start in old hippie enclave of Brattleboro, Vermont, a left-leaning, art-obsessed small town, where daily life unfolded in the parking lot near the food co-op, at an independent coffee house that hosted open mics, at swimming holes and on forest trails, everywhere … Continue reading King Tuff :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Eddie Chacon :: Step By Step
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Eddie Chacon :: Step By Step We last heard from synth-soul maestro Eddie Chacon last fall, when he was rolling around town spreading the spaced-out gospel in the Sissy Chacon-directed clip for “Holy Hell.” He’s back with “Step By Step,” another low-key groover boasting a captivating, duck-forward video directed by Sissy and Brandon Bloom. “Listen … Continue reading Eddie Chacon :: Step By Step
Vintage Vs. Modern Audio Gear | Insight from Cambridge Audio: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
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Vintage Vs. Modern Audio Gear | Insight from Cambridge Audio: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview Have you been keeping up with our Mailbag series? Last month a reader submitted a question in regard to our stance on hi-fi. Digging in a little deeper, we caught up with our friend Matt Reilly, of the UK based Cambridge … Continue reading Vintage Vs. Modern Audio Gear | Insight from Cambridge Audio: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Videodrome :: Lady In A Cage (1964)
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Videodrome :: Lady In A Cage (1964) (Welcome to Videodrome. A recurring column plumbing the depths of vintage and contemporary cinema – from cult, exploitation, trash and grindhouse to sci-fi, horror, noir, documentary and beyond.) Lady In A Cage (1964) belongs to a collection of low-budget, black-and-white films released during the early sixties that sought to … Continue reading Videodrome :: Lady In A Cage (1964)
Bobbie Lovesong :: On The Wind
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Bobbie Lovesong :: On The Wind After catching our attention when it first appeared on Bandcamp back in 2021, Bobbie Lovesong’s debut gets a welcome rerelease on vinyl via Woodsist. A work of both solitude and harmony, On The Wind is an “hallucinatory sonic love letter” to Taos, New Mexico, where Lovesong (aka Madelyn Strutz) … Continue reading Bobbie Lovesong :: On The Wind
Transmissions :: Beauty Pill
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Transmissions :: Beauty Pill Our 2023 season is officially underway. This week on the show, Chad Clark of Beauty Pill. He and his bandmate Erin Nelson joined AD in March last year, and on January 20th, Ernest Jenning Record Co. releases Blue Period, a double LP compilation featuring music Clark recorded for the legendary punk … Continue reading Transmissions :: Beauty Pill
The Tropicals :: Urubamba
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The Tropicals :: Urubamba Originally released in 1972, The Tropicals’ Urubamba was, until recently, a deeply rare collection of the experimental library sounds of Italian composers Giancarlo Barigozzi aka Ginazzi & Oscar Rocchi aka Chiarosi. An album delighting in all manners of jazz, funk, fusion, easy-listening, and Afro-beat, it saw its first ever reissue last month in celebration of … Continue reading The Tropicals :: Urubamba
Jon Brion :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview Though it spent years stuck on the shelf of Atlantic Records subsidiary Lava Records in the late ’90s and early 2000s, 2022 finally saw the proper release of Jon Brion’s debut solo album Meaningless. For years, the only way one could hear its hyper-literate power pop was to … Continue reading Jon Brion :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
No Neck Blues Band :: (More) Letters From The Earth In this current era of hyper-accessibility and media oversaturation that the No Neck Blues Band (NNCK) ever existed at all feels like a waking dream. The group appeared in the early 90s from the shadows of lower Manhattan at a time the underground was retreating … Continue reading No Neck Blues Band :: (More) Letters From The Earth
Colin Wilkie & Shirley Hart :: Wild Goose Against the backdrop of bucolic sixties folk album artwork (see: man standing against pastoral backdrop, close-up portrait, artist walking down a path, maybe there’s a stone wall), Tilman Machalski’s melting psychedelic geese in flight over a triptych of rainbows has every ingredient of ‘please examine this record … Continue reading Colin Wilkie & Shirley Hart :: Wild Goose
Neil Young :: Even More Honey Slides
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Neil Young :: Even More Honey Slides Will the well ever run dry when it comes Neil Young live jams and rarities? God, I hope not. In recent years, Young has begun sporadically posting a selection of complete live gigs on his Archives site, spanning the from the late 1960s to the late 2010s. It’s … Continue reading Neil Young :: Even More Honey Slides
James Waudby :: On The Ballast Miles
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James Waudby :: On The Ballast Miles James Waudby has a very light touch. He plays a fluid, nimble guitar, shading dancing flourishes with subtle melancholy and punctuating blossoming flurries of notes with sudden piercing blues bends. If it all sounds a bit complicated, never fear. He makes it sound as natural as sky and … Continue reading James Waudby :: On The Ballast Miles
Meg Baird :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview The word “furling” connotes curling up around the center; it’s the exact opposite of the wild, adventurous “unfurling” which flings itself out into the world. Yet for Meg Baird, the word, which she chose for to title her latest album, carries elements of exploration, too. A sail can … Continue reading Meg Baird :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview
Horse Lords :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview Comradely Objects is every bit as mathematical as it is melodic, and as already covered artfully here at AD by Brent Sirota, it is arguably the crowing achievement of the Horse Lords cannon. Fresh on the heels of their latest release, we caught up with guitarist Owen Gardner … Continue reading Horse Lords :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview