Václav is something of a Renaissance man, a tireless and deeply creative soul whose Zelig-like 20-year career in the arts has included work as a musician, composer, producer, booking agent, festival organizer, and activist. In addition to this, he has worked as driver and tour manager for everyone from the Butthole Surfers to Father John Misty, and with his band Please The Trees, he's opened for…
With _Spontaneous Music Live_ , their new album for International Anthem, SML finally documents that experience in full: two sprawling, unedited performances recorded at Zebulon that capture the band shape-shifting in real time. Ahead of SML’s June 26th and 27th performances at Teragram Ballroom celebrating Aquarium Drunkard’s 21st anniversary, we gathered all five members together to discuss…
April and Lance Ledbetter of Atlanta's Dust-to-Digital join us for a discussion about the label's new radio app, Dust-to-Digital Radio, and the art of sharing archival music in the digital age: "The technology is amazing. I couldn't have imagined it 20 years ago. I mean, maybe Nikola Tesla or some science fiction writers could have, but it’s changing so fast."
The post Dust-to-Digital :: The…
As a member of The Crusaders, drummer Nesbert "Stix" Hooper's life in music is a testament to the power of the groove. With his rhythms at the foundation, the band blended R&B, jazz, rock, funk, and eventually fusion, and his playing would go onto provide crucial samples for beats utilized by artists like J Dilla, Madlib, Three Six Mafia, and many more, making him, according to his label,…
Dave Portner and Brian Weitz are finally getting back to basics. After nearly three decades of pushing the concept of “rock music” to its absolute limit in Animal Collective, the duo better known as Avey Tare and Geologist recently dropped their debut collaborative release, _Croz Boyce_. A breezy, bountiful collection of instrumental jams, the record recalls _Campfire Songs_ -era AnCo while…
27 years after her debut, Kathleen Edwards revisits _Failer_ and early songs she barely recognizes, tracing the strange path back through musician-producers, a covers project born of the algorithm, and relearning how to believe what you sing.
The post “Who the Fuck Is That?” :: Kathleen Edwards Reconsiders Failer first appeared on Aquarium Drunkard.
_I'm People_ represents the beginning of a new era for Hiss Golden Messenger. The new project finds songwriter MC Taylor presenting a set of songs dedicated to, as he puts it in the album's biography, "Truth, lies, magic, faith.” It's a potent combo, and _I'm People_ presents Taylor and his collaborators at his most refined, taking all the things that have made Hiss Golden Messenger recordings…
On Spencer Cullum's latest release, the closing chapter to the _Coin Collection_ series, Spencer’s focus has shifted from curiosity to frustration. In trying to make sense of what’s unfolding before our eyes today, it helps to go back to the past. That’s exactly what Cullum has done with his most recent work.
The post Spencer Cullum :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview first appeared on Aquarium…
Where Westerman's first record neurotically arranged harmonies into refined ambiences and lush production aesthetics reminiscent of Peter Gabriel and Mark Hollis, and the second succumbed to unsettlingly unformatted bittersweetness, like Nick Drake making a party record, in A Jackal's Wedding he tries to put things into motion once again, if only by breaking them apart. First you clinch it, then…
It might take a decade before you’re ready to make a record. Lia Kohl, Whitney Johnson, and Macie Stewart, multi-instrumentalists and stalwarts of the Chicago experimental music scene, have been playing and recording together since the late 2010s, in duos and on each other’s respective solo LPs. But 2026 sees the trio finally release _BODY SOUND_ , their improvised debut, for International…
Near the end of his latest _Indigo Park_ , Bruce Hornsby sings something of a conclusion—or perhaps a belated introduction: "I've been seeking magical thinking/I think I detect a trend/This could be the start of something/Or this could be an end." The lyric isn't cited to suggest the 71-year-old songwriter is going anywhere. If anything, Indigo Park speaks to the hot streak Hornsby's been on…
Andy Beta's new book, _Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane_ , sheds crucial new light on Alice Coltrane's incredible journey. Through deep research and keen insight, Beta uncovers a story that spans decades and continents, painting a portrait of a remarkable musician, composer and spiritual leader. AD recently talked with the author to learn about how it all came…
Originally a founding member of the pioneering all-female trio Dolly Mixture, musician Rachel Love has launched a solo career forty plus years later. Ahead of indie pop purveyors Slumberland repressing her recent solo LPs such as _Lyra_ (a tribute to her late husband/producer Steve Lovell), the musician also plays in new band Railcard with fellow English guitar-pop veterans, a BBC-inspired…
Sam Beam thought he had writer's block as he entered the studio post-pandemic. But it turns out that wasn't the case at all: the sessions produced so much music Beam had to split it into two different albums, 2024's Fiona Apple-featuring _Light Verse_ and his eighth album, _Hen's Teeth_ , released by Sub Pop in late February. "Deciding on which ones go on the record is just an intuitive thing,"…
“I don't want a record to sound like what everyone else is trying to sound like,” Scout Gillett says, and that means keeping her various inspirations close, allowing Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, and The Deftones to share space in her imagination. Gillett joined us virtually on a sunny Wednesday morning from her home in Los Angeles to discuss her new album, _Tough Touch._
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Buck Meek joins Aquarium Drunkard from his LA-based studio Ringo Bingo, to discuss his latest album _The Mirror_ , his relationship with collaboration and solitude in songwriting, giving himself permission to be uninhibited in frankness, a childhood obsession with Garth Brooks’ _Ropin’ The Wind_ and more.
The post Even If It’s Flawed or Crooked :: Catching Up With Buck Meek first appeared on…
The latest Wet Tuna LP is called _Vast_ — and you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a better title for this collection of strange and funky flights. It’s a wide-open, far-flung album, deeply textured and ridiculously detailed, but somehow spacious and inviting. A psychedelic micro-galaxy/macro-dose that teems with life and imagination. Close to a decade in, this is the fourth proper Wet Tuna…
For Bill Frisell, music at its best feels dreamlike. It bends and manipulates time, contracting and expanding. On his latest, _In My Dreams_ the guitarist is joined by longtime collaborators for a spectral set of tunes, including a sterling cover of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's "Isfahan." He joins us to discuss the record, dreams, and Gary Larson's _The Far Side._
The post Bill Frisell…
In more than a half-century of activity, the legendary bassist has played with nearly everyone in jazz, from cult heroes to celebrated titans to forgotten mavericks. but longevity and dedication as a sideman, along with his stint in Miles Davis' fabled Second Great Quintet, tend to obscure his many other major accomplishments. For his Aquarium Drunkard Interview, Carter talked about the…
Songwriter Gabriel Birnbaum’s latest with Wilder Maker, 2025's _The Streets Like Beds Still Warm_ , leans into sophisto-pop shaded indie pop noir, careening from rootsy swagger into bursts of digital space jazz and ambient funk. Birnbaum narrates like a streetwise-type who’s been up way too long, finding warped and engaging hooks around every corner. He joins us to discuss.
The post Wilder Maker…