DUNGEN // ALBERTO BALSALM [LAGNIAPPE SESSIONS V1 12″ COMP, 2016]

Lagniappe Sessions :: Sean Thompson's Weird Ears, Spencer Cullum's Coin Collection, Emergency Group, Hollow Hand + Aoife Nessa Frances

Aquarium Drunkard! What a nice website — and I'd be saying that even if I weren't a regular contributor over there, swear to god. For example, the Lagniappe Sessions! Extremely cool cover versions played by extremely cool artists all for the extremely cool price of $0.00. This summer there have been some great ones, so let's get caught up.

Straight outta Nashville, Sean Thompson's Weird Ears give us some country-fried (emphasis on the fried) sounds, including an inspired Tennessee Three-style remake of Lucinda Williams' classic "Lost It." Pedal steel maestro Spencer Cullum's Lagniappe features some of the same Weird Ears crew, putting imaginative spins on Slapp Happy, Soft Machine and Mariangela Celeste.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn's Can-tastic Emergency Group takes things into the outer reaches of interstellar space with what I believe is the Lagniappe Sessions' very first Prokofiev interpretation. It works! And finally, Hollow Hand and Aoife Nessa Frances join forces for two wonderful covers: the Robert Wyatt / Elvis Costello masterpiece "Shipbuilding" and a magnificently hazy rendition of Yo La Tengo's "Always Something." What a gift!

Listening to all of these makes me think that it might be time for a third volume of Lagniappe Sessions on wax ... check out the previous editions here and here. (And hey, I wrote the liner notes for that second volume.)

that secret that we know

Long time crossing bridge of sighs

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Orions Belte Shares Trippy and Driving "Silhouettes"

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Orions Belte Shares Trippy and Driving "Silhouettes" @belteorions @terrorbirdmedia @jansenrecords

Norwegian instrumental tropical funk/pop outfit Orions Belte —Øyind Blomstrøm (guitar), Chris Holm (bass) and Kim Åge Furuhaug (drums) — features members who have spent the bulk of their lives and professional careers as touring musicians. Naturally, they’ve been on the road — a lot. When Blomstrøm’s and Holm’s paths crossed for what seemed like the umpteenth time, they bonded over a mutual…

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tonight i'm on wlur from 8pm until midnight with the last 'regular' no love for ned of the year. hopefully next week will be a holiday show and we'll wrap up december with a 'best of 2003' show. if you're doing something fabulous with your friday night then you can always stream last week's show on mixcloud whenever you'd like!

no love for ned on wlur – december 8th, 2023 from 8-10pm

artist // track // album // label leyna noel // cling peaches // the honest voluptuary // (self-released) feeling figures // across the line // migration magic // perennial / k sundae painters // hollow way // sundae painters // leather jacket the lewers // postcards for terrorists // 518a // lulu's sonic disc club heavy meddo featuring garrett t. capps // she's about a mover // she's about a mover 7" // ebb people mover // not // not digital single // little lunch the belair lip bombs // i think i like you // songs to do your laundry to ep // (self-released) virvon varvon // voices // voices cassette // girlsville erik nervous // innanet // immaturity // feel it dick move // i am enough // wet // 1:12 horn // all my breathing // horn cassette // melted ice cream palberta // trick ya // bye bye berta // wharf cat elkhorn featuring eva sheppard and katie degentesh // star power // lagniappe sessions // (self-released) monocot // aunt marsh // leave to cool // astral editions bonnie 'prince' billy // keeping secrets will destroy you // keeping secrets will destroy you digital single // drag city icy demons // manny's // fight back! // cloud byard lancaster // it's not up to us // it's not up to us // superior viaduct tani tabbal quartet // reach forward // intentional // mahakala music the southern university jazz ensemble // music came // goes to africa with love // now again sam gendel and marcella cytrynowicz // ij // audiobook // psychic hotline akai solo // black flash // verticality/singularity // break all mike featuring liv.e and venna // u think maybe? // burning desire // 10k teleclere // steal your love // affection/defection // tidal waves j.j. fad // supersonic // supersonic // ruthless beyoncé // my house // my house digital single // parkwood entertainment holland // futaki horns // green text // teenbeat nnamdï // wouldn't it be nice // fader and friends volume one compilation // fader pop filter // indulged in myself // cono // bobo integral non la // homes // homes digital single // mint lightheaded // patti girl // good good great! cassette // slumberland sullen eyes // getting there // hardwood floors and a hand to hold // sunday soft covers // the real housewives of porpoise spit // soft serve // little lunch

hello besties. album order is very intentional when it comes to the mountain goats, so the question is not what your favorite album opener is, but rather: which of these songs is the best at being an album opener?

i'd love to hear your reasoning in the tags, and if your favorite isn't the same as what you voted for, i'd love to hear what that is too!

i will be tagging all my polls 'tmg polls' and the rest in this series of polls can be found here. let me know in the replies or tags if you'd like to be tagged in future polls/posts!

i love you taboo vi: the homecoming i love you songs for petronius i love you the hound chronicles i love you chile de arbol i love you transmissions to horace i love you hot garden stomp i love you taking the dative i love you philyra i love you beautiful rat sunset i love you yam the king of crops i love you zopilote machine i love you why you all so thief? i love you orange raja, blood royal i love you songs for peter hughes i love you sweden i love you songs about fire i love you nine black poppies i love you nothing for juice i love you tropical depression i love you full force galesburg i love you new asian cinema i love you isopanisad radio hour i love you the coroners gambit i love you on juhu beach i love you jam eater blues i love you all hail west texas i love you devil in the shortwave i love you tallahassee i love you bedside recordings volume 1.2 i love you we shall all be healed i love you the sunset tree i love you come, come, to the sunset tree i love you dilaudid i love you babylon springs i love you get lonely i love you heretic pride i love you satanic messiah i love you black pear tree i love you moon colony bloodbath i love you the life of the world to come i love you the life of the world in flux i love you all eternals deck i love you all survivors pack i love you transcendental youth i love you beat the champ i love you blood capsules b/w dub capsules i love you goths i love you selected goths in ambient i love you marsh witch visions i love you hex of infinite binding i love you aquarium drunkards lagniappe session i love you from the lake trials i love you in league with dragons i love you welcome to passaic i love you sentries in the ambush i love you songs for pierre chuvin i love you getting into knives i love you jordan lake sessions volumes 1&2  i love you dark in here i love you jordan lake sessions volumes 3&4 i love you bleed out

Wet Tuna/DUNZA — In the Running 3 (I Heart Noise)

A pair of acid folk mainstays pay each other homage in this brief but somehow also expansive excursion into spun out psychedelia. Wet Tuna is, of course, the latest iteration of Matt Valentine’s home-grown trippery, an uneasy intoxication of drone, folk, funk and electronics. DUNZA is James Jackson Toth’s pandemic outlet, conceived in about 2019 as a distraction during uncertain times. To this you can add the input of one Gabe Walsh, who records as Earthly Forms and Solilans; his short, Afro-percussion pocked “Trailer,” which picks up bits of both covers, kicks off the album in a dreamy slow-jammed shimmer.

Still, intriguing as Walsh’s entry is, it’s probably not what you’re here for. The main attraction here the cover-trading, which highlights points of agreement—and divergence—between two out folk innovators. Wet Tuna goes first, with “Wand Arise,” a cut Valentine first tackled for the Lagniappe Super Session project celebrating Toth’s birthday in 2022 (we reviewed it here.) It’s a relatively early Wooden Wand cut, still well within Toth’s oddball freak folk period, and it meshes well with Wet Tuna’s echo sheathed, slow-moving, trance-state aesthetic. If you didn’t know it was a cover, you wouldn’t necessarily guess it. It haunts its space rather than inhabiting it, sketching funk and rock ideas in transitory bursts of electric keys and electric guitars, but letting them slouch off into the margins.

DUNZA takes on “Sweet Chump Change,” a slyly propulsive groove of epic length that you might have heard at a Wet Tuna live gig if you go to such things. Toth, who has evolved into a more song-structured, lyrically focused writer over time (check out his James and the Giants S-T from last year, one of my favorites), here reaches for wordless gnosis. The cut is anchored by its serpentine beat, which sidles up to the twos and fours and then pops them hard. Lucid, silvery keyboards reinforce the afro-funk aura, though the picture slips in and out of focus. Toth and a woman (maybe Leah?) murmurs the title phrase repeatedly, and that’s pretty much all you get for lyrics. It’s a shifting, elusive alternative reality, not too different from the original but very different from what Toth has been up to lately.

The three cuts share a good deal, and indeed, in a longer recording, the cohesiveness might shade into tedium. However, with three tracks (or really two plus a mash up), the format works, as both artists find much common ground in their respective bodies of work.

Jennifer Kelly

The Lagniappe Sessions :: Elkhorn

With the remarkable On The Whole Universe In All Directions, Elkhorn continues its constant state of growth and mutation. Built on a solid foundation of drums, vibraphone, and booming 12-string guitar, it charts a path from American primitive folk-isms toward galactic, psychedelic cosmic vistas. The duo’s first Lagniappe Session offered a grab bag of interpretations of songs by the Dead, Sonic Youth, and Robbie Basho, but this one devotes itself fully to just one, epic-length composition: a cover of David Crosby’s “Guinnevere,” as played by Miles Davis.

Lovely piece of music! Kit Sebastian - Şinanay (Sezen Aksu cover for Lagniappe Session)

Prairiewolf - Lagniappe Session

We checked out an I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One-era Yo La Tengo tape yesterday ... today, we've got Prairiewolf covering an ICHTHBAO classic. Jeremy, Stefan and I made our Lagniappe Session debut over on Aquarium Drunkard this week with our take on YLT's luminous/lovely "Green Arrow" alongside an extended/extremely heady rendition of the unclassifiable Eddie Harris/Melvin Jackson jam "Silver Cycles." Huzzah for gratis grooves! Thank you to AD for asking us to be a part of the Lagniappe legacy. An honor and a privilege.

What else!? Prairiewolf is playing a show THIS FRIDAY down in Denver at Enigma Bazaar. It's a stacked bill, featuring the mighty Moon Bros. and The International Disassociation of Aaron Dooley. You don't want to miss it. Afterwards, Aaron is taking his crew out on the road for an honest-to-goodness tour, going all over the place. Check out the dates and go see him!

More???! How about Of Ambience and Americana, a killer Centripetal Force collection that just showed up this week, offering up some very sweet "ambient Americana" zones. Prairiewolf's "Lunar Deluxe" makes an appearance — and I'd be lying if I didn't swell up with pride seeing our name listed amongst so many greats: Nashville Ambient Ensemble, Eve Maret, Joseph Allred and more. Go get it!

ONE MORE THING. Golden Brown's Wide Ranging Rider is out NOW on Inner Islands — and I implore you to grab your copy. The more I listen, the more I'm convinced that it's Stefan's best work yet, stripping things back considerably, but still finding an expansive, magical vibe. A raspberry cloud to float away on ...

of Montreal - Lagniappe Sessions Vol. 1

why so unforgiving?

Oh God save the people

bloodbank mountain goats lagniappe session save me