Shrunken Elvis - Barley’s, Knoxville, Tennessee, March 27, 2026

Shrunken Elvis - Barley’s, Knoxville, Tennessee, March 27, 2026Over on Aquarium Drunkard this week, I’m extolling the virtues of Inner Principles, the latest effort from Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears. I’ve been a fan of Sean’s stretching back to the Promised Land Sound days, and it has been extremely fun to follow his every twist and turn. The entirely instrumental Inner Principles goes in a bunch of new directions, from Abercrombie-esque slow burners to Tortoise-y jams to acoustic meditations. It’s awesome. Also awesome — Shrunken Elvis, the Nashville trio featuring Sean, Rich Ruth and Spencer Cullum. I was lucky enough to catch a rare-ish Shrunken show at Big Ears a couple months back. And I’m lucky enough to revisit it via Richard “Milwaukee Taper” Hayes’ excellent recording. Thank you, Richard! Here, Thompson, Ruth and Cullum take the tunes from last year’s self-titled debut and stretch them into glorious kosmische workouts that sound like if B.J. Cole joined Tangerine Dream to…