Aquarium Drunkard: Sidecar/April 8, 2019
Welcome to Sidecar, Aquarium Drunkard's weekly dispatch of audio esoterica, interviews, mixtapes, and cultural ephemera. As always, we're presented by Gold Diggers boutique hotel, bar, and recording studios in East Hollywood, Calif. Want to support AD? Here's how: Patreon. Pledge, get cool stuff, and support independent media. Let's dig in.
The Unofficial Bowie: The Later Years
In the late 1970s, after getting his financial house in relative order, David Bowie had a firmer grip on his studio recordings than many of his contemporaries. While Bob Dylan’s outtakes and demos would keep trickling out on bootlegs for years, the “unofficial” Bowie releases, 1976-2016, with some exceptions (see below), are greatly confined to concert tapes.
Sure, there are plenty of confirmed studio outtakes—“Pope Brian” (from Lodger), “Blaze” (Blackstar), a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties” (Tin Machine) and a full earlier version of the 1999 album ‘hours…,’ among others. Will there be a Bowie Bootleg Series at some point? A Bowie Anthology? Will his estate turn over his archive to the New York Public Library, as the Lou Reed estate has?
It’s possible the 2020s will be a time of substantial Bowie archival releases. Or in ten years’ time, Aquarium Drunkard could reprint this piece and little will have changed on that front. That said, there are many “unofficial” things to look for, on bootlegs and on YouTube…
Damien Jurado: In the Shape of a Storm
Now at Aquarium Drunkard, listen to In the Shape of a Storm, the new album from Damien Jurado, and read Aquarium Drunkard's own Jason P. Woodbury's essay about the record.
Free to Run (2016)
In the 1970s distance running was still very much considered part of the counter-culture; an activity viewed by the outside world as one comprised of weirdos, eccentrics...oddballs.
Swiss filmmaker Pierre Morath's 2016 film Free To Run documents exactly this, the nascent beginnings of running culture as told by those who were there. At 100 minutes, the film highlights both enthusiasts and transformative figures alike, from Steve Prefontaine and Fred Lebow, to Kathrine Switzer's iconic role in shattering the gender barrier, becoming the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1967.
Radiohead: Jonny, Thom, & a CR-78
Three years after its release, our relationship with Radiohead's 2016 lp, A Moon Shaped Pool, continues to evolve. And that's just the record proper. Further exploration recently led us to a pair of alternate recordings of Pool's "The Numbers" and "Present Tense"; captured on film by Paul Thomas Anderson in the hills of Los Angeles. With an assist from a Roland CR-78 drum machine, the session finds Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke rendering the songs to their core. A first-rate, essential listen for both the fan and novice alike.
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Cue up "T.B. Sheets." If it's been a minute since you've seen Martin Scorcese and Paul Schrader's paramedic epic, do yourself a favor and revisit. A stunning exploration of neurosis and humanity, of empathy and grief, of life and death.
Mdou Moctar: Ilana (The Creator)
Now at AD, Taureg guitarist Mdou Moctar offers up commentary on his new album, Ilana (The Creator), a series of guitar explosions that connect the Tamashek language to Prince, Van Halen, and Hendrix: “It’s important to me to make people dance and [be] happy, and the more energy we can create while playing, the more people dance, the more people dance, the more money the musicians make.”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra: 1C-01 Hanoi
Accompanied by his dad and brother, along with Vietnamese musician Minh Nguyen, IC-01 sheds yet another light on Nielson’s evolving muse. Still psychedelic? Indeed, but here the seven eponymously titled tracks mine a different vein, eschewing Nielson’s preternatural pop instincts for a mercurial amalgam of free jazz, atmospheric space funk, ambient and more.
DMBQ: No Things
Buckle up, kids – this thing takes no prisoners. Hailing from Tokyo, the Dynamite Masters Blues Quartet (DMBQ) do exactly as their name suggests: conjure up some seriously punishing wizard psych, and then blow that shit up. Dig this visually apt piece for “No Things,” culled from the band’s 2018 double lp, Keenly, released via Ty Segall’s God? Records. Their first record in thirteen years, they emerge, as Segall puts it: “Masters of harsh tone and psychotic rhythm.” Takes one to know one.
What We Do In the Shadows
A spin-off of the cult classic 2014 mockumentary, FX's What We Do In the Shadows TV series picks up where the film left off, exploring the violently funny and often banal world of the undead. Last week's episode, in which the bloodsuckers make a run for city council, had us in stitches.
Our weekly two-hour show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35, can be heard every Wednesday at 7pm PST with encore broadcasts on-demand via the SIRIUS/XM app.
SIRIUS 560 (April 3): The Christian Astronauts – Prepare To Fire ++ Air – Ce Matin-Là ++ Stereolab – Brakhage ++ OMNI – Sunset Preacher ++ The Rapture – Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks ++ Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Satan Said Dance ++ Todd Terje – Preben Goes To Acapulco ++ Indian Ocean – School Bell/Treehouse ++ Brigitte Fontaine & Areski – C’est Normal ++ Brian Eno – Third Uncle ++ The Rapture – Modern Romance ++ Brian Eno & David Byrne – Regiment ++ Air – Cherry Blossom Girl > Alone In Kyoto ++ Yves Jarvis – Curtain of Rain ++ Cate Le Bon – Miami ++ Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Hanoi 6 ++ Michael Nau – No Quit ++ Michelle Blades – Ring ++ Düngen – Fredag ++ Düngen – Det Du Tänker Idag Är Du I Morgon ++ Jessica Pratt – Opening Night ++ Brigitte Fontaine – Brigitte ++ Kelly Lee Owens – Bird ++ Bjork – Human Behavior ++ Josef K – The Angle ++ The Art Museums – We Can Handle It ++ The Scene Is Now – Yellow Sarong ++ Lizzy Mercier Descloux – No Golden Throat ++ Royal Family & The Poor – Art On 45 ++ The Fall – Marquis Cha Cha ++ Ty Segall – Music For A Film 1
*You can listen, for free, online with the SIRIUS three day trial — just submit an email address and they will send you a password.
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