Out of all the bands that released shoegaze-influenced material in 2010 Tamaryn’s The Waves can stand tall alongside influential peers like Slowdive and Mazzy Star. All three of these acts are anchored by mesmerizing, swampy vocals that not only float they add light to those reverberated sonic worlds. However, Tamaryn’s emotional resonance is something different. [...]
Michael Chapman, apart from being a prolific English songwriter whose revered work spans four decades, is probably the best guitar smith you have never heard. While his skills are best evidenced on this album’s predecessor, Rainmaker, the original songwriting and tight production, seemingly informed by all music that came before it, steal the show here. [...]
Welcome to the latest installment of an ongoing mixtape series in which I highlight some of my favorite voices online and beyond. This week we touch down in Portland, OR with Ghost Capital. Helmed by Nick Barbery, the blog served as one of my favorite online discoveries during the second half of 2010. With an [...]
File under: Zambia’s 70s “Zamrock.” Now-Again Records’ ongoing African reissue series continued earlier this Fall with their licensing of Witch’s Introduction. If you have been following the series thus far, know that there is absolutely no dip in quality with this latest entry. Guaranteed to shake those newly acquired winter blues. MP3: Witch :: Introduction [...]
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 175: Jean Michel Bernard – Generique Stephane ++ Witch – Introduction ++ John Lennon – New York City ++ Lou Reed – She’s [...]
New track from one of my favorites, solo or otherwise, Kurt Vile. “Jesus Fever” is culled from Smoke Ring For My Halo, due out March 8th via Matador. H/T GvsB. MP3: Kurt Vile :: Jesus Fever —————— ____________________________________________________________________________________
The slice of early seventies Turkish psych that is Ersen’s “Gonese Don Cicegim” has once again found itself sliding in and out of recent DJ sets. Culled from one of my favorite compilations of the last decade—Academy Records masterfully curated Obsession—Ersen works the primal, shreds, half-whispers and then some. MP3: Ersen :: Gonese Don Cicegim [...]
Belated re-up from 2008 for a friend. A long traded compilation, Shit, Shower & Shave, recorded in 1989, is the sound of the band while on tour with Tom Petty who, later, infamously, ripped off Westerberg’s “rebel without a clue” line from the Mats “I’ll Be You.” When asked about Petty’s nicking of the lyric, [...]
My friend Jeremy lives in Harlem; I live 3,000 miles away. As such we do not see one another all that often; and when we do it’s mostly centered around when his band, Roadside Graves, is out West touring or I’m in New York City. But somehow, when we do get together, the conversation, after [...]
(Diversions, a recurring feature on Aquarium Drunkard, catches up with our favorite artists as they wax on subjects other than recording and performing.) As noted in my end of the year ‘form letter,’ John Grant’s solo debut, the dark horse that is Queen of Denmark, made quite the impression in the latter half of 2010. [...]
