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Recliner Notes
@reclinernotes.bsky.social
Recliner Notes are written explorations into items that require further investigation: http://reclinernotes.com

Contributor to Aquarium Drunkard and Asheville Stages
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That's it for my series on Stephen Malkmus, truly a singular songwriter, singer, guitar player, bandleader, and interviewee. If you missed any of the posts analyzing one song from each of Malkmus's nine solo albums, the entire series is collected here:

reclinernotes.com/stephen-malk...
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Anna Butterss :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/11/11/a...
November 11, 2025 at 5:09 PM
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anna butterss rules
November 11, 2025 at 3:10 PM
In the run-up to the release of SML's excellent new album How You Been, I interviewed the extraordinary Anna Butterss for @aquariumdrunkard.com, discussing their “foundational” role as a bass player, SML’s creative process, being a bandleader, and much more.

aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/11/11/a...
Anna Butterss :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview - Aquarium Drunkard
What does it mean to be a season ticket holder for the music of bass player Anna Butterss? Reserved, front row seats to diverse and experimental music, whether as a founding member of improvisational ...
aquariumdrunkard.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:28 PM
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All day, the hub-bub around all things related to that boat has been pinging something in my brain and I finally realized it's because the Edmund Fitzgerald weaves about a bit in Station Eleven.

We remember damage.
November 10, 2025 at 9:35 PM
I saw Geese last night. Rock bands are fun!

Review coming in a few days.
November 10, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Check out my review of this mesmerizing listening experience!
November 6, 2025 at 9:56 PM
In these videos l, Cindy Lee sounds like a one-person version of the entire The Velvet Underground & Nico album.
Last night in Chicago, Cindy Lee returned to the stage for the first time since abruptly ending last year's tour. There were new songs on the setlist.

Check out footage of audio of the full performance:
Cindy Lee Makes Live Return With New Songs
We weren’t sure if Cindy Lee would keep going. Pat Flegel’s musical project and drag persona had an off-the-grid underground smash with last year’s double album Diamond Jubilee, then abruptly cut shor...
www.stereogum.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:41 PM
For @aquariumdrunkard.com, I wrote about A Companion For the Spaces Between Dreams, the new collaboration between Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider. It's a unique, remarkable, and intentionally psychedelic musical experience.

aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/11/06/j...
Jamie Lidell & Luke Schneider :: A Companion For the Spaces Between Dreams - Aquarium Drunkard
With A Companion For the Spaces Between Dreams, the first collaboration as a duo from Jamie Lidell and Luke Schneider, the pair embrace the "psychedelic" label. At first consideration, a retro-soul si...
aquariumdrunkard.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Reposted by Recliner Notes
That's it for my series on Stephen Malkmus, truly a singular songwriter, singer, guitar player, bandleader, and interviewee. If you missed any of the posts analyzing one song from each of Malkmus's nine solo albums, the entire series is collected here:

reclinernotes.com/stephen-malk...
November 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
"A better life with bubblegum and driftwood."

What a legend.
Live snippet from Ryan Davis and The Roadhouse Band last nite at Larimer Lounge.
November 5, 2025 at 3:54 PM
That's it for my series on Stephen Malkmus, truly a singular songwriter, singer, guitar player, bandleader, and interviewee. If you missed any of the posts analyzing one song from each of Malkmus's nine solo albums, the entire series is collected here:

reclinernotes.com/stephen-malk...
November 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Remarkable
Dylan's setlist isn't changing this fall, but the arrangements are. "It's All Over Now Baby Blue" was grooving full-band one night in Brussels, then serene near-solo-piano the very next show in Paris.

Here's the same stanza from each to compare:
November 5, 2025 at 3:25 AM
"Old friend of mine / Don't be denied"
November 5, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Recliner Notes
"Xian Man" - the last post in Recliner Notes' Stephen Malkmus Series - looks at the con man talk of the song's wannabe guru narrator as well as the "afro-desert riff" by Matt Sweeney that serves as the track's musical through-line.

reclinernotes.com/2025/11/02/s...
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Xian Man”
From the perspective of hindsight, March 6, 2020 turned out to be a bad time for Stephen Malkmus to release an album. Within weeks of the record’s release date, Malkmus’s beloved NBA suspended thei…
reclinernotes.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Recliner Notes
"all five members dug into the tapes here, frequently stunning each other with the bits of sound they could twist into new shapes. In three years, SML has become a dazzling studio jazz band that’s never actually been in a studio, using live recordings as the raw material for radical postproduction."
How Does SML Make Experimental Jazz Albums? Very Unconventionally.
www.nytimes.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Reposted by Recliner Notes
great piece about my favorite post-pavement malkmus song, the part about christian/xian i didn't know
"Xian Man" - the last post in Recliner Notes' Stephen Malkmus Series - looks at the con man talk of the song's wannabe guru narrator as well as the "afro-desert riff" by Matt Sweeney that serves as the track's musical through-line.

reclinernotes.com/2025/11/02/s...
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Xian Man”
From the perspective of hindsight, March 6, 2020 turned out to be a bad time for Stephen Malkmus to release an album. Within weeks of the record’s release date, Malkmus’s beloved NBA suspended thei…
reclinernotes.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:21 PM
"Xian Man" - the last post in Recliner Notes' Stephen Malkmus Series - looks at the con man talk of the song's wannabe guru narrator as well as the "afro-desert riff" by Matt Sweeney that serves as the track's musical through-line.

reclinernotes.com/2025/11/02/s...
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Xian Man”
From the perspective of hindsight, March 6, 2020 turned out to be a bad time for Stephen Malkmus to release an album. Within weeks of the record’s release date, Malkmus’s beloved NBA suspended thei…
reclinernotes.com
November 3, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Recliner Notes
He was laid to rest in a damp paper towel
November 3, 2025 at 1:13 AM
I hate that they interview the managers while the game is going on. LET THEM DO THEIR JOB
November 2, 2025 at 1:26 AM
Reposted by Recliner Notes
my recording of Setting (Nathan Bowles, Jaime Fennelly, and Joe Westerlund) at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee a year ago is now on the Milwaukee Taper blog, freely available for downloading in both lossless FLAC and high quality mp3 file formats: www.milwaukeetaper.com/2025/10/sett...
Setting at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee on November 2, 2024
Setting is a trio composed of Nathan Bowles (Pelt, Black Twig Pickers) on banjo, keyboards, and percussion, Jaime Fenneley (Mind Over Mirr...
www.milwaukeetaper.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:06 AM
"Hashish. Interesting, interesting word. Arabic. It’s the source of the word assassin.”

David Ferrie in Don DeLillo' Libra
October 31, 2025 at 1:41 AM
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Orcutt Shelley Miller played a session at Seattle's KEXP and there be video! Here's a short excerpt, check out the full thing on their youtube
October 30, 2025 at 5:41 PM
We really should be revolting against customer service sludge. All of this from @99pi.org is enraging:

99percentinvisible.org/episode/644-...
Your Call Is Important to Us - 99% Invisible
San Francisco! Come to a screening of Drop Dead City followed by a conversation with Roman on Monday, Nov 3. Info and tickets. We have all been there. You’ve got a problem with your car or your intern...
99percentinvisible.org
October 29, 2025 at 9:02 PM
For @aquariumdrunkard.com's celebration of the spooky season, I wrote about C Joynes & Mike Gangloff's song “Witch Marks," which takes its title from the etchings in wood beams of old houses that are supposed to provide security against evil spirits.
All Hallows’ Aquarium Drunkard II

aquariumdrunkard.com/2025/10/29/a...

Check your candy bars for razor blades, kids, it’s Halloween. Monster mash dub, spectral free jazz, pagan folk, creature-feature punk, and cult TV soundtrack grooves they are spewing up for the spooky season.
October 29, 2025 at 5:22 PM
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“𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘸𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘴...[𝘪𝘵’𝘴] 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥. 𝘖𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴, 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘫𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴.”

Emmylou Harris is on @aquariumdrunkard.com Transmissions today. Listen wherever you get podcasts via @talkhouse.bsky.social.
October 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM