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by Aquarium Drunkard
Weekly interviews with musicians, artists, authors, and filmmakers presented by Aquarium Drunkard.
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- 6 days ago1h 15m
All One Song :: Matt Valentine on "Berlin"
We’re coming dangerously close to the end of the road for this latest season of Neil Young deep dives. And the end of the road is the topic at hand when it comes to today’s song — “Berlin.” Now, we’ve covered some deep cuts over the course of the past two seasons. But “Berlin” has to be one of the deepest. It was passed over on the recent Archives Vol. III box and you can’t even stream it via Neil’s site; the only official way to experience this moody tune is to watch In Berlin, the concert film that captures the last performance of the semi-chaotic Trans tour of Europe in 1982. With its doomy synths, piercing guitar, tortured vocals and synthetic handclaps, “Berlin” provides a fascinating glimpse of this short-lived band, which featured a grab-bag, rag-tag bunch of players from Neil’s past, all grappling with a new decade and new sounds. In Berlin itself is an amazing document, highlighted by Neil and Nils Lofgren performing bizarro dances and duets on such Vocoder-laced tracks as “Transformer Man” and “Sample and Hold.” You gotta see it to believe it. 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. Released on the venerable Three Lobed label, it’s a wide-open, far-flung album, deeply textured and ridiculously detailed, but somehow spacious and inviting. A psychedelic micro-galaxy/macro-dose that teems with life and imagination. You gotta hear it to believe it. You also gotta hear the recent Wet Tuna Lagniappe Session, which was posted up over on Aquarium Drunkard earlier this spring. One of its many highlights is an inspired medley of “Cortez the Killer” and Sonic Youth’s “Providence” that lasts close to 30 minutes. It’s outrageous.
- 1 weeks ago55 min
All One Song :: Matt Sweeney on "Barstool Blues"
Hello and welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with your host Tyler Wilcox. We’ve covered a lot of Shakey ground so far during seasons one and two, leaping from decade to decade, from era to era, from album to album. It’s easy to do when you’re dealing with a body of work that is so vast, spanning 60 years now. But somehow, we’ve yet to talk about any songs from Zuma. Neil fanatics — like our hero — can be an ornery, contrarian bunch. It would be tough to get them to agree on anything. But I think I’m safe in saying that everyone loves Zuma. If you don’t … well, you’re crazier than Crazy Horse. Here to help us unpack "Barstool Blues," one of the album's high points, is Matt Sweeney. Sweeney is one of those guys who is impossible to sum up. He’s a musician who has been a part of so many great bands, projects and records over the years — Superwolf, Chavez, Guided by Voices, the Hard Quartet, Iggy Pop, Current 93, Cass McCombs, Andrew WK … the list goes on and on. He’s a consummate collaborator, perhaps the only person alive to have played with both Johnny Cash and Endless Boogie…with both the Dixie Chicks and Baby Dee … with both Adele and Six Organs of Admittance. Matt also hosts the excellent Guitar Moves web series, which gets into fascinating discussions with a wide array of guitarists. Definitely dial it up when you get a chance; even if you don’t play, it is always a blast. So pull up a stool and belly up, here's Matt Sweeney on "Barstool Blues."
- 2 weeks ago1h 16m
All One Song :: Zachary Cale on "Ambulance Blues"
As the second season of All One Song rolls on, we’re talking to some of our favorite musicians and writers about their favorite Neil Young songs. And we have got a doozy of a Neil Young song to talk about today — “Ambulance Blues." First appearing as the closing track on Neil’s 1974 masterpiece On the Beach, this is one of the man’s major works, a long, dark dirge that surveys the surreal mid-1970s landscape, from Patty Hearst to Richard Nixon, all accompanied by a brilliantly skeletal musical backdrop from Ben Keith, Rusty Kershaw, Ralph Molina and the mysterious Joe Yankee. It’s a towering tune, haunting and haunted, but also with a glimmer of hope shining through. Here to help us decode the mysteries and metaphors of “Ambulance Blues” today is NYC-based singer-songwriter Zachary Cale. Zach has been making terrific records for more than two decades now, all centered on his expert guitarwork, sweet vocals and piercing lyrics. His latest album, however, doesn’t feature any of the latter element. Love’s Work is a purely instrumental affair, with Cale joined by bassist Shahzad Ismaily, percussionist Jeremy Gustin, pedal steel-ist JR Bohannon and pianist Robert Boston for a collection of gorgeous pieces. But throw a dart anywhere in Zach’s growing discography and you’ll find great sounds, guaranteed. So! Without further ado, here’s Zachary Cale on All One Song …
- 3 weeks ago1h 21m
All One Song :: Jerry David DeCicca on "From Hank To Hendrix"
In case you haven't caught on already, All One Song host Tyler Wilcox loves talking about Neil Young. And he's always fascinated by where these free-form conversations go, whether it's deep dives into lyrical obsessions, personal history, chord progressions, Shakey lore … or some indefinable blend of all of that. This week’s episode is no different! We’re back in the 1990s this time around, taking a look at a song from Harvest Moon — “From Hank To Hendrix.” It’s a song that has been a regular setlist inclusion ever since it first appeared in late 1991. Young usually does it solo acoustic, and it feels like a fairly straightforward statement of intent from Neil, an acknowledgment of his restless nature, his refusal to stay in the same place for too long, the joys and dangers of duality. A simple song, right? Well, probably not. Nothing is ever completely simple when it comes to Shakey. And here to plumb the depths of “From Hank To Hendrix” today is Texas-based singer-songwriter Jerry David DeCicca. Like Neil, Jerry’s songs are often made out of seemingly simple materials, but the more you listen to them, the deeper they become, simplicity transforming into something wonderfully complex. For example, one of his best songs deals with the cosmic pleasure of watermelons. Jerry’s albums are all awesome — if you need an entry point, go ahead and start with the most recent one, Cardiac Country from 2025, which Aquarium Drunkard writer Jennifer Kelly praised for detailing “the sweet transitory pleasures of living here on earth with an awareness of the unknowable beyond.” Jerry doesn’t have a new album coming out this year, but he is also an active producer, with great records by Ed Askew, Chris Gantry, Bob Martin and more under his belt. His latest production effort is the debut album by 83-year-old living legend Frank “The Wild Jalapeño” Rodarte, entitled, naturally, The Return of the Wild Jalapeño. It’s a fantastic listen, featuring tunes written by Jerry, alongside killer covers of songs by Bill Callahan and Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound. It’s soulful, spiritual, strange and an album that could only have been made in Texas. But hey, back to Neil Young. Tune in to hear Jerry David DeCicca on All One Song …
- May 13, 20261h 11m
All One Song :: Matthew Specktor on "T-Bone"
The second season of All One Song rolls. Throughout seasons one and two, we’ve jumped from era to era, from style to style, from album to album. But no one has had the guts yet to tackle one of Neil’s true masterpieces, his most visionary set of lyrics, his most powerful statement. That’s right, friends, we're talking about “T-Bone.” Released in 1981 on Re*ac*tor, “T-Bone” is perhaps the most boneheaded, monomaniacal tune in Neil’s entire discography, a grinding, nine-minute three-chord Crazy Horse jam that features only these words to guide us: “Got mashed potatoes, ain't got no T-bone.” Our guest today is far from boneheaded, however. Matthew Specktor is a novelist, a memoirist, a critic, a screenwriter, an editor and much more. His most recent pieces of nonfiction, Always Crashing the Same Car and The Golden Hour are fascinating blends of autobiography, Hollywood history, cultural criticism and more. Specktor brings bygone years and characters to vivid life, finding emotional resonance and insight in unexpected zones, and delivering biting wit and hard-earned wisdom on every page. These books are also terrifically entertaining—check ‘em out, you will not be disappointed! And hopefully you will not be disappointed as Matthew makes a five-course meal out of “T-Bone.”
- May 6, 20261h 12m
All One Song :: Simon Joyner on "After The Gold Rush"
Hello and welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with your host Tyler Wilcox, a longtime Aquarium Drunkard contributor and Neil Young fanatic. And I’m guiding you through a second season of talking with some of our favorite musicians, writers and artists about their favorite Neil Young song. Pretty much every one of our guests complain about one thing: having to pick just one Neil Young song. His is a catalog of such consistency and strength that it can feel virtually impossible to have just one favorite. So as a disclaimer, all of our guests could’ve chosen maybe a dozen other songs. Or more. We just cruelly forced them to whittle it down to one. But we wonder: what is Neil Young’s favorite Neil Young song? Maybe it’s just the newest song he’s written. But if you look at songs that Neil’s performed most over the years…well, maybe that’s a clue of some kind. “After the Gold Rush” is certainly up there in terms of live outings; the crucial Neil head website sugarmtn.org tells us that, as of today, he’s played it 698 times since its debut in the fall of 1970. He’s rarely left “Gold Rush” out of setlists for very long over the decades — it’s definitely a fan favorite. But hey, maybe Neil just really likes it too. And why shouldn’t he? The title track to After the Gold Rush is a total classic. And it has so much packed into a relatively compact space. In just three compact verses, it takes the listener on an incredible trip: past, present, future. It’s an ecology song, a dream song, a myth song, a burnout song, a time-travel song, a sci-fi song, an apocalypse song. And no matter how many times we hear it, “After the Gold Rush” still seems to contain untold mysteries within. Today, our guest is Simon Joyner, who chose "After the Gold Rush" to discuss. The Omaha-based singer-songwriter has a career stretching back to the early 1990s; you might call him a songwriter’s songwriter—at least he’s got a ton of peer admiration. But even if he remains somewhat under the radar, trust me that if you pick up any one of Simon’s many albums, you’ll be rewarded with heartbreaking melodies, cut-to-the-quick lyrics and imaginative arrangements. Simon has a new one coming out—his 19th studio album — on May 22. It’s called Tough Love, and it’s full of everything that makes Joyner one of our best voices. But before that, don’t miss Simon’s very own beautiful cover of “After the Gold Rush,” which we’ll play for you at the end of our conversation. It’s part of a newly recorded Lagniappe Session from Simon and friends — and guess what? It’s all Neil Young songs.
- Apr 29, 20261h 13m
All One Song :: Micah Nelson on "Change Your Mind"
Hello and welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast with your host, Tyler Wilcox. Though he's never spoken with Neil himself, over at Aquarium Drunkard you can check out Wilcox's interviews with several of Neil’s associates: Guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro; bassist Billy Talbot; and multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren. Chatting with these musicians, who have spent a good portion of their lives onstage or in the studio with Neil, offers a look behind the curtain into Shakey’s creative process. And now, add Micah Nelson to that esteemed list. Since 2014, Nelson has served as one of Neil’s closest collaborators, playing guitar first in the Promise of the Real, then in Crazy Horse, and now in the Chrome Hearts. He’s toured all over the globe with Young, delivering epic, deep-cut heavy sets. During that time, he’s appeared on such records as The Monsanto Years, Earth, The Visitor, Fuckin’ Up and last year’s Talkin to the Trees. And oh yeah, he also happens to be Willie Nelson’s kid. Micah’s work with Neil stretches beyond music; as we get into in our conversation, he was the creative force behind the recent Trans animated film, which brought Young’s misunderstood 1982 LP to life. Micah also makes music on his own under the Particle Kid moniker, and he’s currently working on a new, artists-first streaming and social media platform called The Flow. For his All One Song appearance, Micah selected “Change Your Mind.” This 14-plus-minute tune from 1994’s Sleeps With Angels is a rich text, and one that Micah feels a strong personal connection, as you’ll hear this week on All One Song.
- Apr 22, 202658 min
All Song Song :: Scott Bunn on "Boom Boom Boom"
Welcome back to All One Song. We're spending the spring of 2026 talking to some great musicians, writers and artists about their one favorite Neil Young song. But even if the concept is simple, one thing is for sure: these conversations go all over the place, kind of like a long Old Black solo on “Like Hurricane.” And that’s how it should be, right? Now, host Tyler Wilcox has been contributing to Aquarium Drunkard for well over a decade now, serving as the site’s resident Neil Young aficionado. But he's got competition! Scott Bunn is one of AD’s excellent writers, and his Shakey knowledge is extensive. Over on his Recliner Notes blog, Scott has written a bunch of perceptive and insightful essays that dig into the undiscovered corners of Neil’s catalog. Go over to ReclinerNotes.com. For his All One Song appearance, Scott picked a truly deep cut: “Boom Boom Boom.” This is a song that you might know better … though not much better…as “She’s A Healer,” which closed out Neil’s 2002 LP Are You Passionate?, recorded with Booker T and the MG’s. But “Boom Boom Boom” is the original Crazy Horse version of the song, which was cut in the year 2000. It collected dust (or rust?) in the vaults for more than two decades, but eventually showed up as a highlight of Toast, the legendary lost Neil and Crazy Horse album that was finally released in 2022. It’s all a little confusing … and hopefully our conversation doesn’t muddy the waters even further. But “Boom Boom Boom” is a good reminder that there are so many different and diverse eras of Neil’s career; some may be more fruitful and enjoyable than others, but the journey itself is the point. As we look back over 60-plus years of output, it’s a blast to put the pieces of the puzzle together, to see what weird pictures emerge.
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