'It Came from Aquarius Records,' a movie about weirdos for weirdos

Plus, news of a new Beyoncé release. [View this email online]( [NPR Music]( June 18, 2022 by [Lars Gotrich]( This week, NPR Music's resident Viking pays tribute to the San Francisco-based record store Aquarius Records — plus, Beyoncé announces her next release. [A still from ''It Came from Aquarius Records']( Courtesy of Kenneth Thomas >/\<>/\<>/\<>/\<>/\< >\/<>\/<>\/<>\/<>\/< NPR Music >/\<>/\<>/\<>/\<>/\< New Arrivals #198 >\/<>\/<>\/<>\/<>\/< June 18, 2022 >/\<>/\<>/\<>/\<>/\< Beloved Readers and Friends: Hey folks! Hope summer is keeping y’all sweaty and glued to good tunes. Two record stores changed my life: Wuxtry Records in Athens, Ga., where I spent hours browsing the stacks and picking the clerks’ brains when I should’ve been studying for class; and Aquarius Records in San Francisco, which I only physically ever visited once, but whose digital life left a permanent, oblong mark on my psyche. [It Came from Aquarius Records]( directed by Kenneth Thomas, recently got its premiere at the San Francisco Documentary Festival, and is currently making its way through other film festivals. (You can watch [a clip about the New Arrivals list]( It starts at the record store’s founding in 1969 and maps the Bay Area’s changing cultural and architectural landscape, including revolutions in gay, drug, disco and punk scenes. There are not one, but two Sex Pistols stories, including one involving a stickup — not by the band, mind you, though they did (allegedly) steal some vinyl. Musicians like the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle, Oxbow’s Eugene Robinson, Grouper’s Liz Harris and Aaron Turner (ISIS, Sumac) are among the talking heads appreciative of Aquarius’ early and enduring support. But we also meet decades-spanning staff, plus some loyal customers, some of whom never actually stepped foot in the store — Terje Øverås, a sensitive tea drinker living in a small rural town in northern Norway, is my personal favorite. “You go in there because you want something very specific and then once you’re there, you discover all these other things that you didn’t know that you needed,” customer Steven Schultz explains. “Then you get even weirder and, at that point, you’re no longer accepted in society, so you have to go back. It’s a good business model.” --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- Ultimately, It Came from Aquarius Records is a story about how communities not only build around record stores but set roots that grow, gnarl and thrive. It’s a space where — both online, but especially in-person — you don’t feel so alien in your alien taste. You’re all beautifully misshapen and misunderstood aliens together! As heartwarming as the film is, however, there is heartbreak, too. We see the slow, dawning realization for Andee Connors and Allan Horrocks, then-owners and overlords, that Aquarius Records was no longer sustainable; it became too much to maintain both a storefront and a digital marketplace with its meticulously hand-coded updates and, most crucially, staff-written recommendations. To lose one or the other couldn't capture the spirit, so Aquarius Records — after several locations over nearly four decades — closed in 2016. Panic always sets in after a beloved record store closes. Heck, the majority of documentaries about record stores from the last two decades — Other Music, All Things Must Pass, I Need That Record, Last Shop Standing — all end the same way for much the same reasons: gentrification, streaming, economic downturn. Consider this a rally to support your local record store on a regular basis — to give them their flowers, as it’s said — but also to pause on the joy passed on. “It’s irrelevant to think: ‘There’s going to be nobody to take care of this,’ ” Chunklet’s Henry Owings says in the film. “The art will always be there. Art will always be there. Just because Aquarius is gone — we should celebrate Aquarius. We should love that Aquarius even existed.” Previously, I wrote about how Aquarius Records [not only challenged my ears but how I share “challenging” music](. Viking’s Choice, [my weekly playlist and newsletter]( has long followed lessons learned from aQ: Remove any pretension, listen to everything, amp up the enthusiasm, headbang in harmony. After I watched the documentary last week, I wanted to pay tribute. So this week’s newsletter is patterned after Aquarius Records’ New Arrivals list, which hit the inbox roughly twice a month and contained an essential guide to dark drone, cult-y doom, South American psych, weirdo hip-hop, Ethiopian jazz, bizarre black metal, buzzy noise and all sorts of unexpected sounds — from shortwave radio transmissions to slowed-down birdsong. Thousands of reviews were written and published by the store’s staff with the giddily grim excitement of a Sunn O))) member frolicking in a freshly laundered robe. Here’s my attempt to write in the New Arrivals newsletter voice and format, though not necessarily at its absurd length, with some new releases that feel aQ-worthy. It’s hyperbolic yet informative, and packed full of keywords that wink: “This album freaking rules.” ----* ----* Records Of The Week: ----* VARIOUS ARTISTS [Music from Saharan WhatsApp]( (Sahel Sounds) 12” It’s been 11 years since the Music from Saharan Cellphones comp, the first Sahel Sounds release to make us wonder what exactly was going on in West Africa and how we can hear more of it! Sahel Sounds has documented that scene since, but Music from Saharan WhatsApp picks up the thread and upgrades the technology somewhat. These are quarantine-recorded performances by traditional wedding bands (the incredible Etran de L'Aïr), Nigerién techno (Hama), Tuareg guitarists like Amaria Hamadaler (of Les Filles de Illighadad), in-the-red desert rock (Alkibar Jr.) and new-to-us shredders (Bounaly). The performances are hypnotic, plus the gritty recording quality adds another otherworldly dimension to everything. NANCE, DAVID [Pulverized and Slightly Peaced]( (Petty Bunco) 12” David Nance is sorta like Ty Segall in that the dude always has a new band or a new album or some new gear that’s gonna change the game; it’s hard to keep up, but we seriously don’t mind. Turns out this hammer jammer’s been sittin’ on the back burner and, frankly, we’d like to know why. Pulverized and Slightly Peaced (not to be confused with Peaced and Slightly Pulverized, released in 2018 on Trouble in Mind) sounds like a Crazy Horse jam sesh recorded à la The Velvet Underground’s Legendary Guitar Amp Tapes — noisy, raw and fried. That’s not to say Nance got’s any less dance in his pants: “Ham Sandwich” is a tight, two-minute ripper; “Prophet’s Profit” could give Endless Boogie a run for its money; “100 Blues” mines the hang-dog triumph of Magnolia Electric Co. But it’s all about “Amethyst,” a side-long jam bent on psychedelic fuzz and acoustic burn-out worthy of Jeweled Antler hypnosis. DESICCATION [Cold Dead Earth]( (Transylvanian) cassette There’s doom and then there’s dooooooom, but maybe there’s also doOoOom? Desiccation makes blackened doom metal that is sulfurous in its savage riffage and gaping maw of gullet howls, but also eerily beautiful. It’s a starry night painted in thick brush strokes, but there’s also a creepy dude hanging out in the corner, just waiting to do something nefarious. Some songs gracefully lumber like Neurosis, others ferociously lunge like Ludicra and there are moments when The Gault-style gothic melodrama takes hold. Real strong debut from Nevada City and Sacramento homies in Aequorea, Pastoral, Occlith and Feral Season. ----* ----* More to Read, Watch, and Hear: ----* - This Juneteenth, pianist Lara Downes is reflecting on [how freedom has always been hard fought and hard won](. She put together a playlist that "insists on the promise of freedom, however long in coming," accompanied by images by renowned photographer Eli Reed, who has spent over 20 years documenting the African American experience. - [Beyoncé announced a new album this week](. Renaissance will be out July 29; no further details about the new album have been released. - This week, our Black Music Month series at the Tiny Desk continued with [a performance by rapper Larry June](. - Meghan Stabile, a promoter, presenter and producer [whose impassioned advocacy helped spark a resurgence of mainstream interest in jazz]( died on Sunday, June 12 at age 39. "We get so stuck on categories and labels that you completely miss the point of really beautiful, authentic forms of art," Stabille told Jazz Night in America in 2015. --------------------------------------------------------------- Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. 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