17 September 2026

DREW GARDNER – Rabbit Ears (2026, LP, Eiderdown Records/Feeding Tube Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Eiderdown Records/Feeding Tube Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl (comes with wild dimensional portal artwork by Aubrey Nehring), 300 copies

Release Date: 7 Aug 2026

Some records don’t really begin when the needle hits the groove. They seem to have been drifting somewhere in the background long before you became aware of them, patiently waiting for the right moment to surface. “Rabbit Ears” has that peculiar quality. Drew Gardner’s fifth solo outing feels like a document of a musical space where psychedelic guitar, free-form jazz and the deeper currents of American underground music have been quietly feeding into one another for decades. Yet nothing here sounds fossilized or overly conscious of its ancestry. The past is present, but more like a ghostly imprint than a blueprint.

A founding guitarist of Elkhorn and an essential presence in Jeffrey Alexander’s Heavy Lidders, Gardner has developed an instinct for letting sound expand rather than simply move forward. This time he is joined by bassist Andy Cush, drummer Ryan Jewell, and guitarist Tom Malach, forming a quartet whose chemistry is loose enough to breathe and restless enough to keep the music permanently in motion. Across four instrumental pieces, guitars stretch, bend, and spiral into the unknown, while bass and drums establish an earthy pulse that can suddenly feel both grounded and completely weightless.

The journey begins with the title track, “Rabbit Ears”, an eight-minute-plus rhythmic excursion built around an unmistakably improvisational mood. This is a proper long-form electric guitar jam, loose and exploratory, with the whole band gradually finding its own pulse while the guitar dominates the scenery. It is difficult not to think of those late ’60s West Coast psychedelic jam bands, and yes, Jerry Garcia and The Grateful Dead immediately come to mind, especially in the way the music seems to grow organically rather than follow a predetermined route. “Holmdel Horn Antenna” takes the improvisational spirit even further, opening with a trippy atmosphere that briefly flirts with Middle Eastern colours before unfolding into something resembling a liberated psychedelic raga. Once again the electric guitar takes the lead, guiding the piece through an open-ended sonic landscape where everything seems to smell and taste of late ’60s psychedelic jam culture. At the same time, there is a particularly strong connection here with the high standards of Jeffrey Alexander’s Heavy Lidders, that same ability to let the music breathe, wander and develop without ever losing its internal sense of direction.

Side B opens with “Garden Eels”, the album’s longest piece and another extended instrumental jam, initially settling into a mid-tempo rhythmic groove with a surprisingly strong ’80s–’90s Grateful Dead feel. The track slowly becomes more psych-complicated as it progresses, adding layers of movement and subtle twists towards the end. Yet, Gardner never completely abandons the relaxed, flowing character established at the beginning. Finally, “Conch Shell” emerges from a trippy, almost abstract electric haze before gradually transforming itself into an electric rock ballad. There is a sentimental quality here, gently flirting with psychedelia rather than diving headfirst into it, and as the guitars begin to sound increasingly dreamy and spacious, the whole piece settles into a wonderfully relaxing jam. It is perhaps the most immediately approachable moment on the record, but still carries that same instinct for improvisation and sonic exploration that runs through “Rabbit Ears” from beginning to end.

In conclusion, “Rabbit Ears” is no museum piece; it is an album that asks for no fixed destination, only an open mind and a little time to get lost. Drew Gardner and his companions dig deep into the psychedelic jam tradition, yet keep the music loose, spontaneous, and very much alive. Improvisation becomes composition and composition dissolves back into improvisation. Four instrumental journeys, steeped in history but never chained to it — exactly the kind of record that feels even better when the needle is left to wander… TimeLord Michalis