Aquarium Drunkard

DIY Festivals, Coast to Coast :: Ghost Canyon, Fly Around Fest & Open Melody

Justin Gage — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Beyond the festival-industrial complex, a different ecosystem is quietly thriving. We check in with the organizers behind three fiercely independent gatherings—Ghost Canyon, Fly Around Fest and Open Melody—to talk curation, community, risk, and why the best music festivals still feel like beautifully assembled mixtapes rather than content farms.

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Michael Brook :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

Jason Woodbury — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Ambient guitar pioneer Michael Brook joins us to discuss his 1992 classic Cobalt Blue, which has recently been re-issued by label 4AD with new art and a dynamic remastering job. Brook joins us in the midst of preparing to present the Cobalt Blue material live for the first time in years to discuss the record, his time on the road with John Cale, and the durability of floppy disc technology.

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Horse Lords :: Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!

Justin Gage — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Horse Lords return with what may well be their strangest and prettiest album yet. Here the Baltimore-Berlin quartet adds Protestant hymn-singing, swamp boogie, early computer music and even robot funk to their signature brand of phase-shifting krautrock groove. It is an alluring, compelling mix that plays with themes of religious devotion and utopian longing. Fifteen years into their career, Horse Lords are still making some of the most radical, captivating music of our time.

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)

Justin Gage — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Broadcasting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays. Trees. Gardens. Fireplaces. Corridors. Birds overhead. Sun-faded. Handmade.

34.1090° N, 118.2334° W

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Transmissions :: Bruce Hornsby

Jason Woodbury — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Bruce Hornsby is on the mic—and at the piano—for this special episode of the Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions podcast, joining us to discuss his latest album, Indigo Park, basketball chants, his work with The Grateful Dead and the Dead’s legacy, his taste in literary fiction, and much more.

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Aaron MF Olson :: Songs Album II

Justin Gage — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Starkly naming a record Songs Album II is only an appropriate detour for a musician and composer like Aaron MF Olson. Sharing a sensibility with fellow "song" records by the likes of Jim O'Rourke or Van Dyke Parks, Olson's conscious definition of such is a moving panorama: lavish, engaging and downright clever at the same time. With its flowering avant-pop arrangements, twisting ballads and warmly inviting hooks move effortlessly alongside pastoral landscapes where exotica meets Americana.

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Alden Hellmuth :: Tether

Justin Gage — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 12:00:00 +0000

The second album from Alden Hellmuth doesn't deal in aura, vibe or chill. Instead, the evocatively named NYC alto saxophonist brings in a remorseless funk drummer and two bassists, delivering a burly, sharp-cornered album of aggressive, punk-informed jazz that still makes room for melody and introspection. You could call it Blitzkrieg Bebop, if you wanted. Just don't call it ambient.

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You Make The Choice :: On 30 years of Dusk at Cubist Castle

Justin Gage — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

What remains of the worlds that made records like this possible? On the 30th anniversary of Dusk at Cubist Castle, we gathered voices from the Aquarium Drunkard orbit to reflect on the Olivia Tremor Control's singular masterpiece—and the disappearing ecology of regional music culture that surrounded it.

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Jacob Ungerleider :: Congratulations

Justin Gage — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Jacob Ungerleider's solo debut, Congratulations, finds unexpected lift in melancholy. Richly arranged yet remarkably unforced, these finely crafted pop songs seem to end every phrase on an updraft.

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Panda Bear & Sonic Boom :: A ? of WHEN

Justin Gage — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 13:30:00 +0000

Following the timeless Reset, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom return with A ? of WHEN, another playful act of musical curiosity. Steel drums, pedal steel, and harp loops from Mary Lattimore drift through an ever-shifting collage of samples and melodies, revealing themselves like sonic subtext. Optimistic without being naïve, it's a record that meets experimentation with open ears and a sense of wonder.

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Joe Gibbs & The Professionals :: African Dub All-Mighty: Chapter 3

Justin Gage — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Released in the year of clashing sevens (1977), African Dub All-Mighty: Chapter Three captures Joe Gibbs and Errol Thompson—The Mighty Two—in their finest hour, mixing up a surreal and hypnotic set that still stands tall as a pillar of '70s dub. Working from updated Treasure Isle and Studio One riddims, Thompson transforms each track into its own sonic chamber of mystery, where thunder, synths, cuckoo clocks, telephones, and doorbells point toward the future of dub while remaining deeply rooted in its past.

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)

Justin Gage — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Coffee cooling beside the speakers. Broadcasting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.

34.1090° N, 118.2334° W

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Yesternow: Editor’s Note Volume Eight

Justin Gage — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 17:30:13 +0000

Long nights. Windows open. The Tour de France on mute. World Cup madness. Summer crate. Records that only make sense once the mercury climbs above eighty. It's July in LA.

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The Tomeka Reid Quartet :: Dance! Skip! Hop!

Justin Gage — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

The Tomeka Reid Quartet has been together for twelve years. And it shows. Released earlier this year via the Richmond, Virginia based Out Of Your Head Records, Dance! Skip! Hop! finds Reid, Mary Halvorson, Jason Roebke, and Tomas Fujiwara moving through five compositions where written form and improvisation become nearly indistinguishable.

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Transmissions :: Lenny Kaye

Jason Woodbury — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 11:00:00 +0000

Lenny Kaye’s creative output is kaleidoscopic: he’s a founding member of the Patti Smith Group, bringing his slashing guitar style to classic records like Horses; he curated the legendary rock & roll compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era; he’s produced records for artists like Jessi Colter, Allen Ginsberg, and Suzanne Vega; and he’s written a number of books. Today, he joins us to discuss his first solo album, Goin’ Local, his first proper solo album, out July 17 on Yep Roc Records.

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