Aquarium Drunkard

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe :: Manifestations in the Shadow of an Uncertain Land

Jason Woodbury — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe's later-career move into the realm of soundtracks and film scores is pretty logical. Over two decades since he began recording (under the name Lichens), Lowe has made sound that hints at imagery and traces wordless stories. But to say he makes cinematic music would be to sell Lowe short. After all, making music for movies is in some senses pretty simple; there is a set of well-defined moves and cues that signify actions and plot points. I bet the challenge is more in deciphering studio notes than writing the actual scores.

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Virginia Astley :: From Gardens Where We Feel Secure

Justin Gage — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Summer beckons. Released in July 1983, Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure comes on like a hazy memory preserved on quarter-inch tape. Press play and listen as swallows bank overhead, church bells ring in the distance, and the whole countryside exhales at half-speed.

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Leah Senior :: Pt. Roadknight

Justin Gage — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

For roughly a decade and over five albums, Leah Senior has been making airy, breathy, lightly syncopated folk music. Her songs are delicate but not slight, built on pristine runs of acoustic guitar and cooing, trilling vocals. In this fifth album, however, the Australian singer hints at a broader, more communal palette of sounds.

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

Justin Gage — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Waking up convinced you remember a place you've never actually been. 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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Takako Minekawa :: Roomic Cube

Justin Gage — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 13:00:00 +0000

On Roomic Cube, musician Takako Minekawa has a deliberate tunnel vision in the counterbalance of the cheerfully buoyant and accompanying comedown. Prior to later collaborations with artists like Jim O'Rourke and guitarist Dustin Wong, Minekawa shared the retrofuturistic "Shibuya-kei" spotlight with like-minded nineties contemporaries like Cornelius and Kahimi Karie. Moving in a cosmic headspace that balances subtle melodicism and electroacoustics with downright playful lyrical repetition, the album's accomplished sound collage is as much a reflection of the canonical microgenre as any other.

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All One Song :: Matt Valentine on “Berlin”

Jason Woodbury — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Here to talk about “Berlin” with us today is someone we've been fans of for a long time now—the mighty ⁠Matt Valentine⁠. MV has been making beautiful noise for over three decades now, from ⁠Tower Recordings⁠ to ⁠MV & EE⁠ (with his partner Erika Elder) to various solo excursions and collabs. For the past decade, Matt’s primary focus has been Wet Tuna, which also features Erika and bassist Jim Bliss. The latest 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.

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The Hobknobs :: Helmets Off

Justin Gage — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:00:00 +0000

The Hobknobs make fragile, minimal songs with a surreal, philosophical bent. “Dictionary” sounds like the pencil sketch of a Velvet Underground song, the guitars trebly and luminous, a slackly shaken tambourine the only percussion. The words, however, belie the track’s sonic simplicity, exploring the difficult semiotics of signifier and signified in short, plain words ...

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Aquarium Drunkard Book Club :: Chapter 38

Justin Gage — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Welcome back to the stacks. It’s Aquarium Drunkard’s Book Club, our irregular gathering of recent (or not so recent) recommended reading. In this month’s stack: William Eggleston’s uncanny visions of everyday America; Brian Cullman’s improbable encounters with Nick Drake, Miles Davis, and countless others; the shifting landscapes of Los Angeles through Gavin Lambert and Bret Easton Ellis; and Art Pepper’s Straight Life, one of the most candid memoirs in jazz literature.

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Videodrome :: All The Real Girls (2003)

Justin Gage — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:30:00 +0000

In All The Real Girls, first love collides with dead-end roads, textile mills, and the uneasy realization that growing up may not be enough to escape where you came from. Eric Hehr on David Gordon Green's bittersweet masterpiece.

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Victor Vieira-Branco’s Bark Culture :: The Giant Is Awkward

Justin Gage — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 13:00:00 +0000

A new voice enters the conversation. Enthralling, mysterious, and beautifully disorienting, The Giant is Awkward finds Bark Culture widening its range and sharpening its identity as pianist Sam Yulsman opens new possibilities within the group's sound. It's a significant step forward for a band already operating from a position of uncommon chemistry.

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Boards of Canada :: Inferno

Justin Gage — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 23:26:22 +0000

In our particulate-dense media environment, a decade-plus silence takes on the weight of a gesture in its own right—an invitation to focus, to stay awhile. Structurally, Inferno is less interested in the tension-release of deep raving than in the discursive backroads of a philosophical sci-fi novel.

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Box of Stars :: Walnut Street

Jason Woodbury — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 17:26:04 +0000

Box of Stars sport a mournful air on Walnut Street, their country-folk tinged songs nodding at life's disappointments with gentle resignation. Through spare, rustic arrangements and the ghostly vocal interplay of Macaulay Lerman and Katy Helmann, the band traces relationships, passing years, and ordinary joys that have slipped out of reach.

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Simon Joyner :: Tough Love

Justin Gage — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

On Tough Love, Simon Joyner returns to the unimaginable heartache that shaped 2024’s Coyote Butterfly, though these songs feel less starkly autobiographical and more willing to inhabit other lives and imagined voices. The grief still looms large, especially in the towering title track, but elsewhere Joyner moves through carefully observed vignettes with patience, detail, and a cruel kind of beauty. It’s shattering work, but beautifully presented, with arrangements and performances that never lose sight of the songs beneath the pain.

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Anika :: S/T (2010)

Justin Gage — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:22:00 +0000

Sixteen years on, Anika still feels loosely assembled, held together by bass, space, and the chemistry between Annika Henderson, Geoff Barrow, and the wider Beak> orbit. Recorded quickly and largely live, it arrived already weathered: post-punk stripped to its framework, with vocals seemingly recorded in an adjoining room.

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Bedouine :: Neon Summer Skin

Justin Gage — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Described by the musician as her “first album written with a purpose,” Neon Summer Skin moves with quiet confidence through memory, longing, and emotional residue. Reflections on childhood music lessons and formative instruments drift through arrangements that feel expansive without losing intimacy. Rich orchestration and plainspoken storytelling make this a deeply felt return following Bird Songs of a Killjoy.

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