Today saw the first taste of new Fleet Foxes since 2008. The track “Helplessness Blues” was released this morning as an mp3 via the group’s label, Sub Pop. Look for an LP of the same out May 3rd with a supporting tour down the coast with a gig at the Hollywood Palladium May 7th. MP3: [...]
The United States of America album is the product of Joseph Byrd, former FLUXUS member, artist and UCLA instructor who managed to combine experimental art and early synthesizer technology with psychedelic rock. Employing percussion instruments, electric violin and acoustic strings, electric bass, various keyboards, homemade oscillators and ring modulators (with Dorothy Moskowitz’s confident soprano) this [...]
Album artwork: Does it indeed affect our listening experience, and if so, how? Scratch the Surface, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, takes a look at particularly interesting and/or exceptional cover art choices. ____________________________________________________________________________________ “To get to Utica Quarry you take Interstate 65 north out of Louisville, over the Ohio River into Indiana…In the fall [...]
My first impression of Vancouver’s Alex Zhung Hai, who records under the name Dirty Beaches, was that of a cross between Richard Hawley and Leonard Cohen if, say, collaborating with Angelo Badalamenti. An impression that still stands. Zung Hai’s upcoming LP, Badlands, is a surreal meld of 50s crooner cool coupled with blurry washes of [...]
(Sevens, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, pays tribute to the art of the individual song.) There’s a moment in Sleater-Kinney’s “Modern Girl” where the music and lyrics begin to meld in ways rarely seen in popular music. But it relies on a lyrical thread that builds from the song’s opening. The song’s melodic, sing-songy [...]
Our weekly two hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 26 (SIRIUS), and channel 43 (XM), can now be heard twice, every Friday – Noon EST with an encore broadcast at Midnight EST. SIRIUS 178: Jean Michel Bernard – Generique Stephane ++ Las Robertas – Street Feelings ++ La Sera – Devils Hearts Grow Cold ++ Frankie [...]
As noted in our year-end wrap up, Numero Group consistently earns points for hipping a wider audience to artists and sounds they didn’t yet know they were missing. And when it comes to reissue labels you really cannot ask for more. Latest case in point: Willie Wright’s Telling The Truth. From Wright’s label bio we [...]
Lee Fields, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. All three of these names are grouped into what is collectively known in 2011 as the retro-soul movement. Not that this style of music ever really went away, but on a commercial level it did find itself largely supplanted in the early 80s by slick production and a [...]
In terms of sheer personality the above performance has it in spades (and then some). I happened upon this vintage clip a couple of days ago and have since shared it with just about every Dr. John freak I could think of. This, his pairing with Etta James on “I’d Rather Go Blind,” is beyond [...]
Charlie Louvin died today at the age of 83 from complications of pancreatic cancer. One of the true legends of the golden age of country music, along with his late brother Ira, Charlie Louvin continued to record well after his brother’s death. The influence of his body of work, both with his brother as the [...]
