I’ve recently been reintroduced to Telephone Free Landslide Victory, Camper Van Beethoven’s 1985 debut, via a copy of the 2004 reissue. While I never gave Cracker, David Lowery’s second project much of a chance, the Camper Van Beethoven catalog holds up surprisingly well; far better than a lot of their musical peers branded ‘college rock’ [...]
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XM, channel 26 (SIRIUS), and channel 43 (XM), can now be heard twice, every Friday – Noon EST and then an encore broadcast at Midnight EST. Below is this week’s playlist. SIRIUS 98: Jean Michel Bernard – Generique Stephane ++ Yo La Tengo – Periodically Double Or Triple ++ [...]
Beginning last year with Murmur, the R.E.M. catalog is once again getting the redux treatment — up next, Reckoning (more on that next week). Listening the reissue I’ve been digging out my IRS-era vinyl including Lifes Rich Pageant. On it, with Mike Mills on lead vocals, the band covers “Superman” by The Clique, a Texas [...]
(Diversions, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, catches up with our favorite artists as they wax on subjects other than recording and performing.) Subtracting JV’s entry on Bay Area Side Trips, thus far the majority of the artist selections for Diversions have had to do with music. Today is no exception. On July 21st San [...]
Rounding out their third decade as a band, with sixteen full-length records under their belt, Sonic Youth once again find themselves back on an independent label, Matador Records, after nearly two decades under the wing of Geffen/Universal. This is only worth mentioning as trivia as Sonic Youth is not band known for pandering to its [...]
Last week Matador Records treated Yo La Tengo fans to “Periodically Double Or Triple,” the first single off the band’s upcoming September release, Popular Songs. If you’ve been following along the past few months than you’re well aware of our sincere appreciation for YLT’s other project, that of fictional garage rock revivalists Condo Fucks. But [...]
This Friday Aquarium Drunkard presents Jay Reatard at The Echo in Los Angeles with guests Thee Oh Sees and Earthmen & Strangers. On August 18th Reatard has a new album out on the Matador label entitled Watch Me Fall — the follow up to 2006′s Blood Visions. Check out the first single “It Ain’t Gonna [...]
It’s June — we are now almost officially half-way through the year. Thus far – and not surprisingly – Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest is, at present, ranking as my favorite release of 2009. The week of its release (May 26th) the album landed on the Billboard top 10, charting at number 8, with over 33k units [...]
Listening to the Roadside Graves forthcoming LP, My Son’s Home, you might draw associations to dusty, cross-country road trips and grainy, lo-fi photography. Paying homage to nearly every piece of Music Americana—folk, alt.country, rock and more—the record indeed sounds like it could’ve been recorded nearly everywhere at once, despite the band’s New York-via-New Jersey roots. [...]
The past couple of weeks have found me spinning a disc comprised of the following Elton John session (from July 1970) in which the artist lays out, among other tracks, a selection of Nick Drake covers. Yes, you read that correctly. Let’s first address the 800 lb gorilla in the room: on paper the often [...]
