Aquarium Drunkard Podcasting

Today on Transmissions, we’re joined by Saskatchewan-born songwriter Andy Shauf to discuss getting sober, God, and how these big topics relate to his latest album of introspective folk pop, Norm. Fans of his ‘70s-styled songcraft will still find lots to love here, but as we discuss, the production is deeply rooted in modern experimentation and the anything goes sonic possibilities of digital recording:
“I like the way that records transport you. It doesn’t mean you have to listen to a record and be transported to the past; you can use new technologies to transport you to somewhere else…if not the future, a present that exists somewhere else.”
Transmissions is produced in partnership with Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patreon supporters.
We’ll be back next Wednesday with a new episode featuring Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone of The Zombies.

To quote album art master and AD visual guru D. Norsen: “Dorothy Moskowitz might not be a household name but was a musician on two of the headiest albums I know: 1967's Vocal And Instrumental Ragas From South India on Folkways and 1968's United States of America on CBS.”
Moskowitz is our guest this week on Transmissions. She joins us to discuss not only the pioneering psychedelia she made in the past with collaborators like Joe Byrd and Country Joe, but also her brand new album, coming out soon from Tompkins Square. It’s called Under the Endless Sky, and it’s credited to Dorothy Moskowitz & The United States of Alchemy. Working with Italian electronic composer Francesco Paolo Paladino and composer and writer Luca Chino Ferrari, it represents a new vision from the 83 year old artist, at once apocalyptic, vivid, and transcendent.
Transmissions is produced in partnership with Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patreon supporters.
We’ll be back next Wednesday with singer songwriter Andy Shauf.

This week on the show, a conversation with Philip Selway. You might know him best as the drummer of Radiohead, but he’s moved deeper and deeper in the last 13 years. His latest is called Strange Dance, and it’s out now on Bella Union. It’s a sweeping and textural listen, envisioned by its creator as something like a "Carole King record meets Daphne Oram."
We caught up with Phil to dig in. Along the way, we discuss his songwriting approach, explore why he decided to not play drums on this new outing, the side project arrangements enjoyed by Radiohead, the band’s relationship to peers like Portishead, Wilco, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, the 20th anniversary of Hail to the Thief, and much more.
Transmissions is produced in partnership with Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patreon supporters.
We’ll be back next Wednesday with a mind blowing conversation with Dorothy Moskowitz, who was a member of the pioneering psych combo The United States of America. She’s returned with a new album, and group, The United States of Alchemy, and it’s an apocalyptic, vivid listen. Subscribe to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions so you don’t miss it. This transmission is concluded.

This week on Transmissions, we’re settling in for a tremendous conversation with Jason Stern and Don Fleming of the Lou Reed Archive. A decade on from his passing in 2013, Lou Reed's work remains as vital as ever, thanks in no small part to the efforts of people like Jason and Don. Working together with Laurie Anderson, they’ve helped bring a number of projects into existence, including the New York Public Library’s Caught Between the Twisted Stars exhibit, which runs through March 4th, and last year’s revelatory demos collection Words and Music: May 1965. Next month sees the release of a new book, The Art Of The Straight Line, which assembles Reed’s unpublished musings on tai chi, music, and meditation.
Both Jason and Don are, on their own, fascinating music lifers. In addition to his own bands, like Velvet Monkeys and Gumball, Fleming has worked with Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub, Nancy Sinatra, and many more. His work as an archivist is equally impressive, and it’s found him working with the Alan Lomax, Hunter S. Thompson, and Ken Kesey estates. Meanwhile, Jason worked directly with Laurie Anderson and Lou in his final years.
This talk covers fascinating aspects of Lou Reed’s life, offers insight into his art, addresses controversies, and much more.
Transmissions is produced in partnership with Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patreon supporters. We’ll be back next Wednesday with Philip Selway of Radiohead. Subscribe to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions so you don’t miss it. This transmission is concluded.

We’re hanging out with Mac DeMarco this week on Transmissions. For the last decade plus, he’s been a reliable source for laid back DIY music—a post-indie sleaze crooner with a warped sense of humor and charm. His latest album forgoes lyrics in favor of instrumentals. It’s called Five Easy Hot Dogs and it came about as the result of series of recording sessions Mac underwent while on a road trip. Cruising around with a fan full of gear and a head full of ideas, DeMarco let the songs flow and named each composition after the locale where he recorded it.
We caught up with Mac to discuss life in LA, quitting smoking, the influence of heavy grade players in his orbit like Thundercat, Domi and JD Beck, covering Metallica, working with Tim Heidecker, Lil Yachty, and much more.
Transmissions is produced in partnership with Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patreon supporters. We’ll be back next Wednesday with Don Fleming and Jason Stern of the Lou Reed Archive, who join us for a wide ranging conversation. Subscribe to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions wherever you get podcasts so you don’t miss it. This transmission is concluded.

This week on Transmissions, a revelatory talk with Max Turnbull of Badge Époque Ensemble. Last year, BEE released two great projects: the remix album Clouds of Joy: Chance of Reign, a collaboration with producer Lammping and rappers like Boldy James, THE03, and others, and the magisterial Clouds of Joy, which landed on the Aquarium Drunkard Year in Review best of the year list. A stirring blend of jazz, choral music, prog, funk, R&B, and indie rock, it’s a layered and dynamic creation.
When we interviewed Turnbull for AD back in 2021, he said, “I like the idea of music as a communicator for philosophic or spiritually inclined ideas.” We knew a proper pod talk was in order and sure enough, this chat doesn't disappoint. We discussed Max’s work with his wife, Meg Remy of U.S. Girls, his lifelong hip-hop influence, and the myriad and mysterious ways music connects to listeners.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forward your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patrons—if you'd like to become one, visit us on Patreon. We’ll be back next Wednesday with a very special guest, Mac Demarco, joins us to discuss hitting the road, quitting smoking, jazz, and more.

This week on Transmissions: Nina Persson and James Yorkston join host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss The Great White Sea Eagle, their low key and homey collection of folk rock.
Created in collaboration with the Second Hand Orchestra, it’s saturated with soul and kind wit. Calling in from their respective places in Sweden and Scotland, Persson and Yorkston joined us to discuss how the improvisatory album came together, and from there, we explore a bevy of interesting topics, including run-ins with members of Black Sabbath, Nina's interactions with Tom Jones, Yorkston’s ill-fated tour with John Martyn, and much more.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forward your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patrons—if you'd like to become one, visit us on Patreon. Next week on the show, Max Turnbull of Badge Époque Ensemble joins us for a far out talk about music, creativity, and consciousness.

We're joined this week by James McNew of Yo La Tengo and Dump. For decades now, he’s been a prolific source of engaged independent rock music—the kind we like here at Aquarium Drunkard. As past work like I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass proves, YLT are masters of a great sardonic album title, and on February 10th, the band continues that tradition with its 16th album, This Stupid World.
When McNew and host Jason P. Woodbury connected, Yo La Tengo had recently finished its annual Hanukkah celebration, which is where we pick up our talk. But from there, the conversation roves into interesting places: McNew’s dalliances with hip-hop, important Dump anniversaries—including the 25th anniversary of his Prince covers album. From Yoko Ono to Sun Ra to the Dave Matthews Band, plenty of surprises pop up in this conversation—just like the YLT discography.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patrons—if you'd like to become one, visit us on Patreon. Next week on the show: James Yorkston and Nina Persson of The Cardigans discuss their new album, The Great White Sea Eagle.

Our 2023 season is officially underway. This week on the show, Chad Clark of Beauty Pill. He and his bandmate Erin Nelson joined AD in March last year, and on January 20th, Ernest Jenning Record Co. releases Blue Period, a double LP compilation featuring music Clark recorded for the legendary punk label Dischord Records between 2003-2005—including the full-length LP The Unsustainable Lifestyle, the You Are Right To Be Afraid EP, and a whole slew of outtakes, demos, and rarities.
When this music was originally released, fans accustomed to Clark’s pioneering punk band Smart Went Crazy, early Beauty Pill, or Clark’s work with Fugazi and The Dismemberment Plan, wasn’t sure what to make of its art-pop ambitions, detours into jazz, and complex lyricism. Clark and Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury get into all that, and along the way, they touch on his recurring health issues, race, mortality, what it feels like when critics dismiss your work, and much more.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patrons—if you'd like to become one, visit us on Patreon. Next week on the show: James McNew of Dump and Yo La Tengo.

Welcome to the final episode of Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions’ 2022 season. We saved a great one for the finale: Kid Congo Powers. Born Brian Tristan in La Puente, California, he eventually adopted the stage name which appears on the cover of Some New Kind of Kick, a new memoir that documents his time in The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and The Gun Club, with whom he’s credited for “excessive feedback, guitar and slide guitar, whirling whirlies, maracas and ancient mutterings.”
And that’s not all it covers. Kid’s story is a layered one. The book, written with Chris Campion, gets into all of it, including frank examinations of queer identity, struggles with addiction, and his connection to the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce—who’s dream visit inspired his 2020 Pink Monkey Birds Latin psych epic “He Walked In.”
At once hilarious, tender, and possessing an almost dreamlike spiritual quality, it’s a great read. And it arrives alongside two new records: Summer Forever and Ever, the second album by Wolfmanhattan Project, his trio with Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs and Gories and Bob Bert, formerly of Sonic Youth, and Kid Congo Powers and The Near Death Experience Live in St. Kilda, a live concert taped in Australia. Both will be out physically in 2023—but you can listen to them digitally now. Or rather, after you finish this conversation between host Jason P. Woodbury and Kid, fellow Arizonans.
Thanks so much for listening to Transmissions. Our 2022 season closes with this episode. We’ll be back in early 2023, keep your eyes on Aquarium Drunkard for more info and check out the Patreon for bonus content we’ll be sharing over the next couple months. This season of Transmissions is concluded.

Writing about the Bedhead career retrospective 1992-1998 for Pitchfork, writer Mark Richardson put it nicely: “Bedhead had no time for or interest in anything extraneous to the music…And this is what it sounded like—serious, intense, smart, beautiful, occasionally frightening...” Today on the show, we are joined by the Kadane Brothers, who founded Bedhead in 1991 in Dallas, Texas. Matt Kadane calls in from his place in New York, where he teaches history, and Bubba Kadane from Texas, where he composes music for film and television.
One of the defining bands of the “slowcore” movement, Bedhead had three guitars but was sparse, melding post-punk to humming Velvets-inspired intensity. Following the end of Bedhead, they formed another pioneering indie rock band, The New Year, and they’ve dabbled in side projects all along the way, including Overseas, with David Bazan of Pedro the Lion and Will Johnson of Centro-matic, and Bubba’s ambient project Sigh of Relief. On this episode of Transmissions, we dig into Bedhead’s history and idiosyncratic approach, exploring how they worked “remotely” and by telephone long before remote work was standard, the space carved out by Bedhead’s unique sound, their cover of Cher’s “Believe,” and much more.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Kid Congo Powers.

On Slow Fawn, Sam Cohen, a producer, songwriter, and musician known for his work with Apollo Sunshine, Yellowbirds, Kevin Morby, Danger Mouse and Karen O, creates a glowing, meditative space. Inspired by Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air and drawing from long jam sessions with his collaborators, it reflects Sam's desire to "create a world without friction, where you could float and feel joy." Combining dashes of jazz, synthesized new age, pop, and minimalist grace and it’s a record we've returned to many times over the last few months. Cohen joins host Jason P. Woodbury from his studio in upstate New York to discuss music's power to connect us to each other, his motivation for creating music, and opening up his own studio.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Matt and Bubba Kadane of Bedhead and The New Year.

This week on the show, Joe Rainey. Hailing from Minnesota, he’s a powwow singer of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe. He’s known for collaborations with Bon Iver, Chance the Rapper and Alan Sparhawk of Low, and in May he released his debut solo album, Niineta on Justin Vernon’s 38do3d label. Created in conjunction with producer Andrew Broder, it pairs his vocals with samples culled from his vast collection of powwow tapes, thundering percussion, and dense, thickly layered electronic soundscapes.
With its double-meaning titles like “No Chants” and “Easy on the Cide” nodding toward Rainey’s understated sense of humor, Niineta takes on a collage-like quality that bends time. He joined us from to discuss his days traveling the powwow circuit, how the collaboration with Broder came to be, and his teenage interest in rap.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Sam Cohen.

This week on our weekly interview podcast, a wide-ranging interview with Clem Burke of Blondie. He joins us to discuss the band’s early years, interactions with luminaries like Robert Fripp and Giorgio Moroder, the fashion forward cultural shift, disco, and Numero Group’s monumental box set collection: Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982. A game conversationalist, Burke brings a quick wit and sharp intellect to this chat, which traces the group's evolution, early days, and his work as a case study documenting the physical condition of drummers.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Joe Rainey.

This week on the show, Danalogue (Dan Leavers), Betamax (Max Hallett) and Shabaka Hutchings, known collectively as the improvisational crew The Comet is Coming. You might know Dan and Max from Soccer96, and Hutchings from his many projects, including Shabaka and the Ancestors and Sons of Kemet. Their new album is called Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam. Recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, it’s a blur of electronic music, funk ferocity, and free jazz squall. As that title likely suggests, this conversation goes all over the map, digging into concepts like apocalyptic imagination, the dynamics of improv, and artificial intelligence.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Clem Burke of Blondie.

Welcome to another episode of Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, we're so glad to have you here. Today on the show, Ken Shipley of Numero Group. October has arrived, but the storied Chicago label was still in the midst of its September ‘90s month celebration of reissues from Codeine, Karate, Current, and Unwound when we taped this conversation. Since then, the label has announced a truly bonkers 20th anniversary celebration for 2023, which will see Unwound, Codeine, The Hated, Karate, Ida, Chisel, Everyone Asked About You, Ui (featuring Transmissions guest Sasha Frere-Jones), Rex and Tsunami for the Feb. 18-19 event, which will be held at Los Angeles’ Palace Theater. In this conversation, Shipley and host Jason P. Woodbury discuss how the label has evolved, aesthetics, the new Blondie boxset, Shipley’s midwest emo roots and pre-Numero days at Rykodisc and Tree Records, whether or not Numero will ever release a nu-metal reissue and lots more.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: The Comet is Coming

With his debut book My Life in the Sunshine: Searching For My Father and Discovering My Family, Nabil Ayers walks a tightrope, balancing personal and familial history with stories about a life spent playing music, working in record stores, and falling in love with music. On this episode of Transmissions, Ayers discusses it all with host Jason P. Woodbury: wild record store tales, formative live music experiences, his work with 4AD, The Control Group, and Beggars Group, and his complicated relationship with his father Roy Ayers. Through out the talk, you'll also hear selections from Valley of Search, the 1975 free jazz album by his uncle Alan Braufman, which Ayers founded the label of the same name to reissue. An open, emotive, and riveting chat, we're thrilled to share this one with our listeners.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Ken Shipley of Numero Group.

Welcome to another episode of Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. This week on the show, Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson and guitarist Yonatan Gat join us to discuss their collaborative work as Medicine Singers, which pairs the powwow drum and the voices of the Eastern Medicine Singers with Yonatan’s electrified guitar and contributions from experimental composer Joe Rainey, Ikue Mori of DNA, Thor Harris of Swans, previous Transmissions guest Laraaji, and the late jamie branch. Tapped into a kind of frenzied energy, the album is an overpowering force, and it features a transcendent cover of Link Wray’s immortal “Rumble.” Ahead of a performance September 24 at Pioneer Works with guests Lee Ranaldo, Laraaji, and Thor Harris, Jamieson and Gat join us to discuss their collaboration. A quick word: sorry about some of the audio in this one; there was an issue with a connection, but the conversation is more than worth it.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Medicine Singers.

Today on Transmissions, representatives of the Cosmic Network Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley join us to discuss their new album of dream pop bliss and New Ages swoon, Oceans of Time, out this week from Sacred Bones Records.
Dean is best known for his work with David Lynch, with whom he’s collaborated on sound design, music, and more since 2006’s Inland Empire. Gloria is a German-Brazilian songwriter and singer. Without ever meeting in person, they fashioned Oceans of Time. Part Cocteau Twins, part Pure Moods, and also entirely its own thing, it’s a fantastic recording. In this interview, they join host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss their haunting cover of Jeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser’s “All Flowers in Time,” the myriad ways Lynch influenced the project, and the ever elusive nature of time and existence.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Medicine Singers.

We're sitting down with Chicago sisters Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté Stepney, who join us to discuss the work of their father, the late Charles Stepney. As a producer and arranger, Stepney was at the helm for incredible '60s and '70s work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Rotary Connection, The Dells, Muddy Waters, Minnie Riperton, Ramsey Lewis, Terry Callier, and many more before his passing in 1976. But on Step on Step, a mind-blowing new collection from International Anthem, a new vision of Stepney emerges: that of a home recording genius.
Propelled by a drum machine and warm synths, the music here was recorded alone on a 4-track in his Southside Chicago basement, it retains the sophistication of his studio efforts but presents his sound in a raw, utterly unvarnished manner. As the Summer of Stepney rolls on, the Stepney Sisters join host Jason P. Woodbury to unpack who Stepney was, his relationship with his wife and partner Rubie, his love of science fiction, and his status as one of hip-hop’s most sampled composers.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network and you can find us on Patreon. Next week on the show: Gloria de Oliveira and David Lynch sound designer Dean Hurley join us to discuss their new age/cosmic synth album Oceans of Time.

Our return guest today on Transmissions: Chris Forsyth. The Philadelphia-based guitarist and bandleader is back with a new album, Evolution Here We Come. On it his backed up by an all-star cast including Tom Malach (Garcia Peoples), Douglas McCombs (Tortoise), and Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker), with guest appearances by Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon of The Dream Syndicate, and more. Produced by Dave Harrington, the album leans into electronic textures, conjuring into the existence a zone where ZZ Top goes kosmische musik or Popol Vuh dons skinny ties. Forsyth joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the interplay between man and machine, power pop, improv ethics, and more.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Charlene, Chante, and Eibur Stepney, who join us to discuss the work of their father, the late Charles Stepney, as featured on International Anthem's fantastic new release, Step on Step.

Today on an all-new episode of our weekly interview podcast: Steve Marion, better known by his recording name Delicate Steve. As a sideman, Steve’s joined up with folks like Paul Simon, MacDeMarco, Tame Impala, The Black Keys and Yeasayer, but all along he’s made his own instrumental guitar recordings. His latest album is out on Anti Records, and it’s called After Hours, and it blends viby rhythms with cyber rock riffs, always placing an emphasis on emotionally compelling melodies. For this talk, we dug into his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah," his work with previous Transmissions guest Shahzad Ismaily, his complicated artistic relationship with Kanye West, and his work on Amen Dunes’ Freedom.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Chris Forsyth joins us to discuss Evolution Here We Come.

Built on loops culled from doo wop, psychedelic pop, and early rock & roll records, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom's new album Reset is an exuberant and oracular listen. Mining resonance in the past—including musical themes that recall their past work, both solo and in Animal Collective and Spaceman 3—the duo create the kind of ecstatic music that renders time elastic. In this all-new episode of our weekly interview podcast Transmissions, Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) sit down with host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss their collaborative partnership, the influence of far out futurist Buckminster Fuller, memory and musical optimism. We connected with these frequent collaborators from their respective places in Portugal following after a long night of celebration.
Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: plugging in with guitarist Delicate Steve.

If you’re a fan of jittery guitar-driven indie rock, you’re probably most familiar with our guest today, Glenn Mercer from his work with The Feelies. While this episode of Transmissions doesn't skimp on Feelies discussion, Mercer also discusses the diversity of his catalog, including work The Trypes, whose 40th anniversary edition of Music for Neighbors was released earlier this year, and his solo canon. Along the way: the Velvet Underground, The Dead, Peter Buck of R.E.M., his tribute works to David Bowie, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, and Marc Bolan, plus even more.
If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review. We appreciate you helping us connect with new listeners however you do so. You can listen to and subscribe to Transmissions via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and of course, the trusty RSS feed. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Panda Bear and Sonic Boom discuss their new album Reset.

We’ve been captivated by the striking music featured on Cheri Knight’s American Rituals lately—one of our favorite songs from it opens this episode, the mantric “Prime Numbers.” Recorded in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, Knight’s experimental compositions recall the minimalism of John Cage or Meredith Monk, but are shot through with a post-punk streak, all delivered with meditative, repetitive vocal abstractions that evoke her interest in Buddhism and meditation.
Hailing from Western Massachusetts, where she grew up a “farm girl,” which she remains to this day, Knight’s travels eventually took her away from Olympia. She joined up with an alt-country band, Blood Oranges, and after that embarked on a solo career. Cheri is a rare person who connects equally to Pauline Oliveros and Steve Earle, who we discuss in this episode.
Thank you for listening to Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review. We appreciate you helping us connect with new listeners however you do so. You can listen to and subscribe to Transmissions via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and of course, the trusty RSS feed. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Glenn Mercer of New Jersey indie rock legends The Feelies.

Our guest this week on the show is Mitch Horowitz. Perhaps you’ve heard the occult scholar and author on Coast to Coast AM or The Duncan Trussell Family Hour or perhaps you’ve heard him right here on Transmissions. With the occasion of his new book, Daydream Believer: Unlocking the Ultimate Power of your Mind, out this week, as well as the forthcoming essay collection, Uncertain Places: Essays on Occult and Outsider Experiences out on October 18, we invited Mitch back to the show for another fascinating and wind ranging conversation about mind causation, ESP, the paranormal, and music.
Daydream Believer—yes, it’s named for the Monkees song—focuses not only on the subject of research into psi, or extrasensory perception, but also examines some of the pitfalls that Aquarian or New Age thinkers sometimes stumble into. Meanwhile, in Uncertain Places, Horowitz offers thoughtful and entertaining essays about UFOs, bigfoot, gnosticism, the historical roots of the Illuminati conspiracy theory, and many other fascinating topics, as well as an uncut version of his David Lynch interview. Horowitz joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss all that and more.
Thank you for listening to Transmissions. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Check out Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon to support the show.
Rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word if you dig Transmissions. Next week on the show: minimalist Cheri Knight joins us to discuss American Rituals.

Welcome to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Our guest today on the show Glenn Jones, who joins us to discuss his new album Vade Mecum, out now on Thrill Jockey Records, as well as touch on and illuminate the complicated legacy of John Fahey. Both solo and as a member of Cul-de-Sac, Jones has been a force of creative energy in the world of solo acoustic guitar, guitar soli, or American Primitive music, a term we discuss in this chat. Before we get into the talk, we want to acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Steve Lowenthal, for his great book on Fahey, Dance of Death: The Life of John Fahey, American Guitarist. Though we mostly focus on Jones’ own work—and the new album is a fantastic example of what makes him such an enduring presence in the avant-guitar field—we do at one point shift into discussion of the complicated relationship Fahey had with race. Steve's book serves as a great resource. We also want to thank Glenn for the candidness and honesty he brought to our talk.
I want to thank you for listening to Transmissions. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Check out Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon to support the show.

Crossover time. Today on the show, Canadian podcaster, broadcaster, music journalist, and music lifer Vish Khanna. He’s the host of the long running and inspirational Kreative Kontrol, a podcast dedicated to creativity. Here’s what Bonnie “Prince” Billy said about talking with him: “…it’s rewarding, relaxing, fulfilling to engage with Vish, as the exchanges have always been just rife with that rarest rarity: communication.” Alongside Will Oldham, Vish has hosted members of Pavement, Sonic Youth, Warren Ellis of The Bad Seeds, Jeff Tweedy, Ian MacKaye, and many other major alt rock figures.
For this episode of Transmissions, Khanna and host Jason P. Woodbury embark on a revealing conversation about niche music podcasting and creative process.
Rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word if you dig Transmissions, which is part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Wanna go further? Check out Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon. Next week on the show: guitarist Glenn Jones on his new album Vade Mecum and John Fahey. Transmission concluded.

On Joan Shelley's fantastic new album The Spur, the singer/songwriter reaches out from a place of solitude, seeking connection. Rooted in Britfolk aesthetics, it's an album that feels intimate but spacious too, all finger picked acoustic guitars, Richard Thompson inspired electrics, and sparse percussion. Alongside her collaborators, who include producer James Elkington, Bill Callahan, with whom she sings a duet, and Shelley's husband, archivist and guitarist Nathan Salsburg, she explores deeply human territory with an almost supernatural calm in her voice.

We’ve interviewed Joan for Aquarium Drunkard a few times, but this is her first appearance on Transmissions. She spoke with host Jason P. Woodbury from Kentucky, and this talk offers a respite from the intensity of the news cycle.

Rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word if you dig Transmissions, and if you want to take things further, we’re on Patreon. We are a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: podcaster and music lifer Vish Khanna of the Kreative Kontrol podcast.

As leader of The Hold Steady and a solo artist, Craig Finn specializes in unlikely redemption stories. His latest is called A Legacy of Rentals. Like his best work, it traces the lines of down and out characters, imbuing them with humanity and inner drama.
Finn is one of the most empathetic indie rock writers out there, and to that end, he’s also launched a new podcast called That's How I Remember It, dedicated to exploring the connection between memory and creativity with guests like Fred Armisen, Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers, and Brian Koppelman of Billions. On his week's episode of Transmissions, Finn joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss memory, Judee Sill, his mood in New York during the "rock is back" era, and much more.
If you want to support Transmissions, check out Aquarium Drunkard’s Patreon page. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.

This week on Transmissions, a post-punk roundtable with Mark Stewart of The Pop Group, Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire, Eric Random (The Buzzcocks, Nico). On Mark’s latest album, VS, they team up for “Cast No Shadow,” which was made in response to the Simon Reynolds book Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978–1984, and Nikolaos Katranis, Russell Craig Richardson, and Academy-award winner Leon Gast’s forthcoming documentary of the same name.
How did post-punk hit their respective places? What role did regionalism play in the music’s development? These three join us for a freewheeling hour of discussion and deconstruction—talking about the VU, German cosmic music, black magic, and more.
If you want to support Transmissions, check out Aquarium Drunkard's Patreon page. We're a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show, Craig Finn of the Hold Steady joins us to discuss his new record, A Legacy of Rentals, and his new podcast, That’s How I Remember It. This Transmission is concluded.

Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, with your host Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, we're joined by Andrew Khedoori and Mark Gowing of Longform Editions.
Home to extended experimental works by previous Transmissions guests like William Tyler, Carlos Nino, and Angel Bat Dawid—plus, many more avant composers and music makers—it’s tempting to think of Longform Editions as a “record label,” but Andrew and Mark consider it an online gallery for musical works. Every two months, they upload four new entries. On June 15th, the same day this podcast is released, they offer up a new batch, featuring Sam Prekop of Sea and Cake, Foodman, Megan Alice Clune, and Nailah Hunter.
Mark and Andrew have a long history in the music industry and are lifelong record collectors. They joined us to discuss the way Longform works, how they crafted it as a sustainable project for both artists who contribute and themselves, the process of deep listening, and much more.
Thanks for listening to Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions. You can support this podcast by checking out our Patreon page. Help support independent media. And of course, rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word if you dig Transmissions, which is part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.

This week on the show, we're joined by Chicago indie trio Horsegirl—Penelope Lowenstein, Nora Cheng and Gigi Reece. Their new album, Versions of Modern Performance, out now on Matador Records, echoes classic indie rock—think Sonic Youth (after all, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley guest star on one song), Dinosaur Jr, The Clean, and The Breeders. But what really makes it such a compelling listen is the interplay between these three young people.
Horsegirl does everything as a group, from answering emails to taking meetings, so naturally all three members join host Jason P. Woodbury to dig in, discussing high school, how the pandemic solidified their band, working at Electrical Audio with producer John Agnello, and trading off on a Bass VI instead of a standard four-string.
We hope you enjoy this episode. If you do, please consider leaving us a rating and or review. It helps new folks find the show. Transmissions airs wherever you get podcasts each Wednesday. If you'd like to support the show, please consider a pledge to Aquarium Drunkard's Patreon. Transmissions is part of the Talkhouse podcast network.

This week on Transmissions: producer, television music maker, radio host, and overall interesting guy Ben Vaughn. His new album is called The World of Ben Vaughn. It was released physically on vinyl back on Record Store Day and digitally earlier this month. Rooted in gentle strums,much of its sweetly traditional songcraft was recorded out in Vaughn’s Relay Shack studio in the Mojave Desert, and it echoes the most rustic of selections he plays on his great radio show The Many Moods of Ben Vaughn.
Ben’s produced albums by Arthur Alexander, Nancy Sinatra, Charlie Feathers, and more—as well as collaborating with Alex Chilton and Alan Vega. For this episode, we spoke about the new album, his work as a Hollywood television music maker, producing Ween’s irreverent cult classic 12 Golden Country Greats and much more.
Thanks for listening to the show. If you enjoyed this program, please consider leaving a rating or review. Transmissions is part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.

Today on Transmissions, London-based jazz and beat artist Ben Marc. He’s known for his work with Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke and with Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead and Shabaka Hutchings of Sons of Kemet. His new album is called Glass Effect and it blends classical, electronic music, and deeply felt spiritual jazz. He joined us to discuss his work with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Astake, working with Jonny Greenwood and his bandmate Tom Skinner’s work in Radiohead side project The Smile.
You can support this podcast by checking out our Patreon page.
Transmissions is written and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Our audio is edited by Andrew Horton. Our show is executive produced by Justin Gage, Aquarium Drunkard founder. AD Transmissions is part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word if you dig the show.

Today we're joined by Jeff Cloud of Velvet Blue Music, known for his work with Pony Express, Joy Electric, and California dream pop band Starflyer 59.
Cloud founded Velvet Blue in 1996, and the label has been home to pivotal releases by people like Richard Swift, with whom Cloud played in Pony Express and Starflyer 59, the Broadway Hush, an early project headed by Michael Nau and Whitney McGraw of Cotton Jones, Fine China, and many more. Totally blue collar in spirit and independent, the label continues to release new music from groups like the synth pop outfit Golf Slang, as well as Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric and Jason Martin's Starflyer 59 gem, Vanity.
We're happy to have him on Transmissions to discuss it all—meeting the Martin brothers, Velvet Blue, David Lynch, and much more.
You can support this podcast by checking out our Patreon page.
Transmissions is written and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Our audio is edited by Andrew Horton. Our show is executive produced by Justin Gage, Aquarium Drunkard founder. AD Transmissions is part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word if you dig the show.

Welcome back to Transmissions. Today on the show we’re joined by Sarah Martin of Glasgow's Belle and Sebastian. The legendary Scottish indie band has a new album out now on Matador, A Bit Of Previous. Offering sunshine pop, disco-inflected groovers, and plenty of jangle, it's a record that finds Belle and Sebastian sounding very much refreshed.
Martin joined the band just after it started, linking up with songwriter Stuart Murdoch right before the recording of the landmark album If You're Feeling Sinister. She joined host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the new record, the band’s history, that infamous scene in High Fidelity, the Belle and Sebastian cruise and much more.
You can support this podcast by checking out our Patreon page.
Transmissions is written and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Our audio is edited by Andrew Horton. Our show is executive produced by Justin Gage, Aquarium Drunkard founder. AD Transmissions is part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word if you dig the show.

"It's funny, I was working up to it for so long...it's been my dream." This week on an all-new episode of our weekly Transmissions podcast, return guest Kurt Vile joins us from his basement studio Overnight KV to discuss his great new album (watch my moves). Loose, sprawling, and filled with spacey but intimate jams that couple drum machines, smoke-curled guitars, and off the cuff vocals, the record feels like being invited into Vile's head to sit down and hang out a spell.
Since emerging from the Philadelphia freak underground in the mid-2000s, Vile has established himself as a quixotic singer/songwriter. Like his former bandmates in War on Drugs, Vile draws from rock & roll traditions, but turns them sidewise, imbuing his songs with a sidewise humor and charm. (watch my moves) is his first for Verve Records.
This conversation with host Jason P. Woodbury is also like being invited into KV's head, as he shares thoughts on the new record, unpacks what he learned during the pandemic, reflects on working with producer Rob Schnapf, digs into his favorite Bruce Springsteen deep cuts, and offers musings on Neil Young, Kesha, and Sun Ra.
Thanks for listening to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. We're part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe to Transmissions on your favorite platform and tell your friends to listen to the show. We'll be back next Wednesday with another new episode.

Liz Lamere and Jared Artuad join us this week on Aquarium Drunkard's weekly talk show podcast Transmissions to discuss the life, work, and creative philosophies of the late Alan Vega. As one-half of Suicide, alongside his partner Martin Rev, Vega blazed a trail of provocative, synth-driven art rock that was often too punk for the punks. From there, his solo career found him making forays into pop music with producer Ric Ocasek, painting, and constantly creating, rarely working on any terms other than his own. For this program, his widow and creative partner Lamere and collaborator Artaud join host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the Vega Vault, a vast trove of unreleased material that's yielded posthumous releases like It and Mutator on the Sacred Bones label, Surrender, a new career spanning Suicide comp, and Liz Lamere's Keep It Alive, out May 20 on In the Red Records.

Writer, musician, and prolific TikToker Sasha Frere-Jones joins us on Transmissions, Aquarium Drunkard's weekly talk show podcast to discuss music criticism, listening habits, and self forgiveness. As a player, he's known for his work with the fantastic post-rock band Ui, whose funky rhythms dipped into dub and electronica, the avant-rock band Body Meπa, where he plays alongside Greg Fox, Grey McMurray, and previous Transmissions guest Melvin Gibbs, and the ambient project Calvanist. As a writer, he's penned essays and criticism for The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, Village Voice, and dozens of other outlets. Most recently, he's focused on the S/FJ Substack newsletter, where he shares music he's interested in and other cultural ephemera. Today on the show he joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss recovery, navigating online life, and music. A note for audiophiles: just like online life, there's a lot of extra clicks and noise in this one, but we believe the talk is more than worth sharing. Enjoy.

Today on Transmissions, guest Owen Ashworth of Advance Base/Casiotone For the Painfully Alone and Orindal Records joins host Jason P. Woodbury for a conversation covering life as an indie artist/label head, the merits of "gloss era" Bruce Springsteen, the influence of David Bazan of Pedro the Lion and Joe Pera, CCR, working primarily as a solo artist, and diving into the heartland country music of KT Oslin and Nancy Griffith. Also covered? The importance of cool uncles and raiding your parents' record collections. Ashworth is a DIY lifer and a true head, and this conversation is as openhearted as you might expect.

Today on an all-new episode of Transmissions, Aquarium Drunkard's weekly interview podcast, we're joined by artist and creator Meredith Graves. She’s best known for her work with the punk band Perfect Pussy, her label Honor Press, and as the director of music at Kickstarter, where she’s also the Head Witch in Charge, responsible for the Magic and Divination section of the crowdfunding site. Graves joined host Jason P. Woodbury to speak about magic and arcana, about the “purgative ritual” that is Perfect Pussy’s 2014 album Say Yes to Love, the work of previous Transmissions guest Mitch Horowitz, her time at MTV News and the incredible artists that allowed her to interact with, Lana Del Rey, Wilco, and so much more.

Roll up/that's an invitation...Today on the show, we're joined by a return guest, Ryan Walsh of Hallelujah the Hills. He’s appeared here on the show previously to discuss his great Van Morrison book, Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968 and now he joins host Jason P. Woodbury for a conversation about Van Morrison, the paranormal, and mystic corners of The Beatles' universe. On April 1st, you're going to want to head over to ESPeatles.com, to discover a truly freaky Beatles project, related to the obscure occultist HX Newhaven. To learn more, press play...

Right from the top of LABYRINTHITIS, the 13th album from our guest today, new wave art rock master Dan Bejar of Destroyer, you get an example of what makes him such a compelling artist. “It’s in Your Heart Now” starts, and then its real beat stutters in, interrupting a briefly established groove. But rather than feeling like an intrusion, this feels like blooming, and from there the song builds in layers of Cure-esque guitar and cascading synthesizers, with Bejar doing his signature vocal and lyrical darting a top the neon landscape. Today on Transmissions, he joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the perils of making the new record, This Night, the virtues of being a dilettante, nu-metal, Van Morrison, New Order, and much more.

Our guests this week are Chad Clark and Erin Nelson of DC post-punk band Beauty Pill. Clark emerged from the DC/Dischord punk scene with his band Smart Went Crazy, and he worked on records by Fugazi, Dismemberment Plan, Lungfish, Q & Not U, and many more. He formed Beauty Pill in the early 2000s and it's proved a musically restless unit ever since. He's allowed the band to shift and morph in public and in 2012 the group was commissioned to craft the album Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are live in public. Most recently, the band has released some great EPs, including Instant Night and Please Advise. For this episode of Transmissions, host Jason P. Woodbury spoke with Clark and Nelson about the oblique lyrical references in these works—get ready for our most Matt Damon-centric episode yet—as well as dig into the influence of Miles Davis, William Eggleston, and collaborations with the Taffety Punk Theatre Company.

Though Sonic Youth ended a decade ago, the band's archives have continued to surprise. The latest from the SY vault is In/Out/In (Three Lobed Recordings), a collection of instrumentals recorded during the band's final era, including some with Jim O'Rourke and contributions from The Eternal bassist Mark Ibold. Ahead of the album's release, Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth join host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss The Simpsons, the band's Geffen years, stolen (and recovered) guitars, the science fiction of William Gibson and Philip K. Dick, and much more on this episode of Transmissions, Aquarium Drunkard's weekly podcast.

"Anything that knocks ya out, hits you harder than you planned," sings Matthew E. White on "Genuine Hesitation," which opens K Bay, the third solo album from the Spacebomb founder. And it's a knockout of a record, to be sure. A spirited producer and collaborator known for his efforts with Natalie Prass, Mountain Goats, Flo Morrissey, Sharon Van Etten and many more, the album finds him situating his traditional song craft in a future funk and avant-pop setting. On today's episode of Aquarium Drunkard's Transmissions podcast, he joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the album, as well as his duo recording with former guest Lonnie Holley, Broken Mirror: A Selfie Reflection, which serves as a mutated musical twin to K Bay. Along the way, he touches on his communal approach, Miles Davis, his youth in the Philippines, and the transcendent qualities of The Flamingo's "I Only Have Eyes For You."

This week on the show, we’re joined by Ade Blackburn of Clinic. The Liverpool-based duo of Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley released a great record last year called Fantasy Island, full of skittering drum machines, cavernous sounds, and fuzzed out melodies, and this week sees the 20th anniversary of their sophomore album, Walking With Thee. The band’s trademark strangeness draws the listener in, and our talk with Blackburn focuses a lot on the allure of leaving room for mystery in music.
We also get into his countercultural inspirations, the blending of rock & roll and the avant-garde, discuss the dub-influenced side Clinic offshoot Higher Authorities, and chat about collaborating with Roky Erickson and John Cale. We had a great time speaking with him and think you’re going to enjoy this one. If you do, please consider doing us a favor: leave a rating and a review for the show, recommend it to your friends, and help us spread the word.

This week on the show, we're joined by world renowned whistler Molly Lewis. Last year, she released a great EP called The Forgotten Edge via Jagjaguwar. With its exotica and spaghetti western motifs, the EP is a supremely playful and lovely listen. And Lewis is a charming conversationalist too. We got into her roots in competitive whistling, being in the studio with Dr. Dre, working with John C. Reilly and whistling for the late, great Harry Dean Stanton.

"Transmissions is a lovely name; I think that's a very crucial name for this age." So says mystic musician Laraaji, our guest this week on the show. Sitting down with host Jason P. Woodbury, His Orangeness (AKA Edward Larry Gordon) discusses his new collaboration with NOUS and Arji OceAnanda, Circle of Celebration, plus his upbringing in the Baptist church, initial entry into meditation, the spiritual qualities of laughter, and much more. Introduced to the world by Brian Eno, who heard him playing electric zither and subsequently produced Ambient 3: Day of Radiance, Laraaji has created music constantly since, teaming up fellow artists like Carlos Niño, Bill Laswell, Blues Control, Shahzad Ismaily, and many more. "Metaphysical thought [has] influenced my music in that it prepared me for having an inner hearing experience, a paranormal hearing experience," he says. Join us today on Transmissions to explore his sound visions even deeper.

Today on Transmissions: Cate Le Bon, who, for the last decade plus, has made some of our favorite modern records, as well as producing great work for other artists, like Deerhunter and John Grant, who joined us last year on the podcast to talk about their collaboration The Boy From Michigan. Her new album is called Pompeii, an art pop gem out this week on Mexican Summer records. "I think the underlying theme of the record is we will forever be connected to everything," she says, joining host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the album's genesis, the religious quality of the album's art, wood working, and much more.

Welcome back to our weekly podcast Transmissions. Today on the show, occult scholar Mitch Horowitz. He’s the author of a staggering number of metaphysical books and the tremendous historical project, Occult America, a deeply researched book that examines how America’s alternative spiritualities and esoteric scenes—from freemasonry to Spiritualism and beyond—have influenced the country’s politics, social movements, and general character. Traveling along the ins and outs of the Psychic Highway, Horowitz brings an even-handed and intellectually honest approach to topics concerning mysticism, parapsychology, New Thought, and the study of unidentified aerial phenomena or UFOs. Horowitz can currently be seen in Ronni Thomas’ The Kybalion, an adaptation of the 1908 occult manuscript which explores the seven principles of Hermetics, and his forthcoming book, Daydream Believer, is now available for pre-order. For this talk, Horowitz opens up about his musical roots, Bad Brains, his vast t-shirt collection, musical telepathy, and much more. You can find Mitch Horowitz on Medium, Twitter, Instagram and at his website.

Welcome to a bonus edition of Transmissions with David Bazan of Pedro The Lion joining host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the release of the band's surprise album Havasu. Like 2019's Phoenix, the record focuses on Bazan's youth in Arizona. In this loose conversation, Bazan describes how he approached writing about his early teenage years, the enduring artistic influence of Fugazi, his initial relationship with Christian rock, and the work of Tom Petty.

Our guest today is Haley Fohr, better known as Circuit des Yeux and Jackie Lynn. Her latest is called iO, and it’s a stunning work of art rock bravado. In our 2021 Year in Review contributor Tyler Wilcox wrote: “On the new Circuit des Yeux album, Haley Fohr has pulled off quite a magic trick. She’s crafted her most accessible (occasionally even poppy) effort yet without sacrificing one iota of her strange, fearless musical vision. Fohr’s inimitable vocals here are bolstered at various times by ornate orchestral arrangements, minimal post-rock, and idiosyncratic electronics. ‘There’s an avalanche inside of me,’ she sings at one point. Prepare to be buried in it.” No one sounds like Fohr—she possesses a four octave voice—and few artists are pushing as intensely as she is these days. She joined us to discuss the evolution of Jackie Lynn, her label buying her a star, and of course, stunt work.

This week on Transmissions, the final episode of the season: Steve Berlin. Steve plays saxophone in Los Lobos, whose new album is called, Native Sons. It features Los Angeles-centric covers by the likes of WAR, The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, and Thee Midniters. But Steve’s a fascinating figure on his own. He came up in the punk scenes of LA, playing with The Blasters and the Flesh Eaters, but since then he’s gone on to work with everyone from Rickie Lee Jones to The Replacements, The Go-Gos to R.E.M. and many more. Transmissions will return in January 2022, until then, follow Aquarium Drunkard for more and dig into the archives.

This week on Transmissions, our weekly series of strange conversations: Roberto Carlos Lange of Helado Negro. His new album of electronic bliss pop, psychedelic ambient, and soulful love songs is called Far In. Lange joined host Jason P. Woodbury for a talk about Marfa, his journey through the world of independent music, expansive views of consciousness, and the early days of his musical practice—as well as much more.

This week on Transmissions, our weekly series of strange conversations: Scott Hirsch. Perhaps you know his name from the credits of albums by William Tyler or Alice Gerrard. Or perhaps you're into his solo records: the nocturnally grooving Windless Day is the latest. He's a long time collaborator of M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger, and their relationship stretches back to the post-hardcore band Ex-Ignota. Hirsch joins host Jason Woodbury from his Ojai studio Echo Magic. On this episode, we discuss JJ Cale, the spiritual topography of California, and his punk rock immersion into the broader world of independent rock.

This week on the Transmissions, Jeffrey Alexander of The Heavy Lidders and Dire Wolves. For decades now, he's been a fixture in the psychedelic mutant underground. He's got a great new self-titled record out now on Arrowhawk with his song-oriented project the Heavy Lidders, a vast catalog with Dire Wolves, and a forthcoming split cassette with Rhyton. Alexander joined us for a conversation about science fiction and fantasy, the Dead, improv, and his life in independent music. And as a bonus, we're presenting a live performance over at Aquarium Drunkard, featuring Drew Gardner and Jesse Sheppard of Elkland and drummer Scott Verrastro.

Hey, welcome back to Transmissions, we're so glad to have you here tuning in. Today on the show, I’m joined by two lifers of independent rock, Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang. Their latest is a tremendous album called A Sky Record. Reviewing the record for Aquarium Drunkard, Tyler Wilcox called it “one of Damon & Naomi’s most purely gorgeous sounding records—and considering the glories of what’s come before, that’s a real accomplishment.” It features the guitar work of Michio Kurihara of Ghost and White Heaven, and he adds washes of sound and melodies to the duo’s deeply felt folk rock. Our talk covers a lot of ground—touching on the duo’s days in Galaxie 500, Naomi’s interest in boxing, Damon’s ever fascinating and insightful takes on the state of the industry, and much more.

This week on Transmissions: the magnificent Neko Case. She’s recently launched Entering the Lung, a newsletter of nature writing. We don't need to tell you that Neko Case is a great writer—her work with the New Pornographers, Case/Lang/Veirs and her solo albums demonstrate that evidently—but it is deeply nice to be able to appreciate her on prose terms via the newsletter. She joined us this week to discuss the mores of the Victorian age, listening to Jane's Addiction, and getting into punk rock. Benefitting her sense of humor, we let this talk roam where she willed.

Today on Transmissions, author, artist, guitarist, and creator Alan Licht. He's the author of Common Tones: Selected Interviews with Artists and Musicians 1995-2020. It features some incredible talks with ANOHNI, Tony Conrad, Greg Tate, Yo La Tengo, Kelly Reichardt, Lou Reed, and many more. Licht seemingly never rests—in addition to this fantastic book, he’s part of the new Threshing Floor album—which pairs him with Nate Young and John Olson of Wolf Eyes, Rebecca Odes, and Gretchen Gonzales—produced by El Studio 444 and Transmissions guest Warren Defever. Licht is an artist/writer/and curator, and we touch on all of that in this revelatory talk.

Today on the show, returning Transmissions guest Nick Lowe. 20 years ago, he released The Convincer, which many folks argue is his best album. It's reissued by Yep Roc Records this week. Following his rough and rowdy start at Stiff, his work producing Elvis Costello in the '70s & '80s, and a stint as a genuine pop star following the massive hit “Cruel to Be Kind,” Lowe found himself interested in reinventing the way he made records. The Convincer is part of a long line of albums that embrace subtle pop, R&B, and country tones, with Lowe’s gentle voice leaning into the crooner side of things. Originally released on September 11, 2001, The Convincer helped to establish Lowe’s reputation as a songwriter’s songwriter.

Welcome to Transmissions. Today on the show: Chris Swanson, co-founder of Secretly Group. This year marks 25 years of two of the flagship labels in the group, Secretly Canadian and Jagjaguwar, and to celebrate they’ve got tons going on—including SC25 Editions, which features titles by Damien Jurado, Anohni, Richard Swift, and more, as well as Merch, with net proceeds benefiting Bloomington’s New Hope For Families. Also of note: Jagjaguwar’s Join the Ritual, a Dungeons and Dragons-inspired release featuring Angel Olsen, Bruce Hornsby, Cut Worms, Jamila Woods, and many more. As a young person exploring record stores, Secretly and Jagjaguwar served as hallmarks of quality—it was a great time getting to settle in with Swanson to discuss the labels’ roots, artists like Anohni, Richard Swift, Jason Molina, Bon Iver, and more.

Thanks for joining us on Transmissions. Our guest this week is Bela Koe-Krompecher, who’s written a terrific book called Love, Death, & Photosynthesis, about his time in the ‘80s rock & roll underground of Columbus, Ohio, and the tumultuous lives—and far too early deaths—of his friends Jerry Wick of the punk band Gaunt and Jenny Mae Leffel, a talented but tortured singer songwriter. Deeply felt and alternately moving and hilarious (as well as moments that encompass both zones), it's a great read, and Bela proved as charming, open, and human as readers might expect in this special conversation about music, its place in our lives, friends lost, and memories held.

This week on Transmissions, Jon Wurster, the drummer of Mountain Goats, Bob Mould Band, and Superchunk and one-half of Scharpling and Wurster, the long running radio comedy duo as featured on The Best Show. In his wide-ranging talk with Jason Woodbury, he discusses growing up in Philadelphia during the birth of punk and alternative rock, working with Replacements producer Jim Dickinson in the mid-'80s, his experiences at Sun Records, getting the call to join Superchunk, and much more.

As a curator at the Alan Lomax Archive, Nathan Salsburg is no stranger to reaching deep into the past to bring forth music that speaks to us in the present moment. As a guitarist and songwriter, he's primarily focused on instrumental sounds, but on his new album, Psalms, he offers forth new folk arrangements of Hebrew psalms, singing himself and gathering together other vocalists, like Joan Shelley and Will Oldham, and contributors like James Elkington and Spencer Tweedy, to animate and explore these scriptures. This week on Transmissions, Salsburg joins host Jason Woodbury from his place in rural Kentucky to discuss the album, conceptions of the divine, life as a new parent, and much more.

“Music shapes us and fundamentally changes us. Once we have listened we do not stop. We do not ever recover from music. We will return again and again to the radio, the record store, the bedroom where girls listen to records all day.” That’s a quote from Rickie Lee Jones’ new book, Last Chance Texaco. She joins us today on Transmissions from New Orleans to discuss the book and her experiences in California and Arizona in the ‘70s, when she became a huge star. From her youthful and rebellious days in Phoenix to scoring a massive hit with "Chuck E.'s In Love," Jones joins us to discuss it all and more.

A sprawling talk with record maker John Leckie. As a tape operator at Abbey Road, he oversaw the All Things Must Pass and Plastic Ono Band sessions and rolled tape on Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, Kevin Ayers, Fela Kuti, and more. Soon he began producing records, and he's gone on to work with Radiohead on The Bends, plus Dr. John, Spiritualized, My Morning Jacket, and many more. He joins host Jason Woodbury this week on Transmissions to discuss his extensive history and much more.

A sit down with bassist and composer Melvin Gibbs. Emerging from the fertile New York art scene of the early '80s where he played with Defunkt, Gibbs has brought grace and heaviness to work with Arto Lindsey, John Zorn, Caetano Veloso, Bill Frisell, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Sonny Sharrock, and dozens more jazz luminaries, in rock bands like Rollins Band and Harriet Tubman, and on records by dead prez and David Byrne. His latest project is an EP, 4 + 1 equals 5 for May 25. which reflects on the murder of George Floyd and the spirit of the protests that arose in its wake. He also teams with visionary drummer Greg Fox and guitarists Sahsa-Frere Jones and Grey McMurray in Body Meπa, which recently released The Work Is Slow, a mind-melter of rock abstraction. Gibbs joined host Jason P. Woodbury for a wide-ranging discussion this week on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions.

Today on the show, Brazilian singer/songwriter Rodrigo Amarante joins us to discuss his new album, Drama. A lush and enveloping listen, it blends gentle pop with cinematic flourishes. Reflecting on the confines of masculinity, his artistic relationships with Noah Georgeson, Devendra Banhart, Little Joy, Los Hermanos, and much more, this conversation presents Amarante in a reflective, riffy, and casual mode. "Art is supposed to pull the rug, do something to you," Amarante says. Join us for a little creative rug pulling, this week on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions.

It’s a bonus episode for you as we head into the weekend. Today on the show we're joined by Ripley Johnson of Moon Duo, Wooden Shjips, and most recently, Rose City Band. Reviewing the latter’s excellent Earth Trip, an album of rural psychedelia, Aquarium Drunkard’s Tyler Wilcox praised Johnson’s zoned out guitar work, noting that his guitar “solos are always on point, often drifting into Garcia-like zones without ever slipping into pointless idolatry. He’s developed into a guitarist who rarely takes a wrong step, minimal, moody, and lovely.” Johnson joined us for a conversation about coming up in the punk and counter culture scene, his multiple bands, the influence of the Dead, and “the ultimate rock & roll statement” of ? and the Mysterians' “96 Tears.”

Today on the program: Tom Scharpling of The Best Show and Double Threat. He’s written a deeply funny and moving new book called It Never Ends, available now wherever you get books. It documents his early days writing and producing a DIY fanzine, working his way into TV writing with Monk, and establishing a lifelong friendship and comedy partnership with drummer Jon Wurster. It’s also a candid look at his struggles with mental health, and while some moments are harrowing, it’s ultimately an inspirational read—an underdog story from a guy who’s especially good at giving voice to the underdog. And again, very funny. Scharpling joined us to discuss the book, his incredible sound collages, Lou Reed, CSNY, Brian Eno, King Crimson, and more.

This week on Transmissions, a heady conversation with Carlos Niño about spontaneous composition, the influence of hip-hop culture, his radio roots, and his latest, More Energy Fields, Current. "...Frequently, I would say I'm doing some version of supercomputing, where I'm completely free in the moment and I'm also bookmarking sections I know I want to get back to." From his days at dublab to his partnerships with artists like Laraaji and Iasos and much more, we're glad to have Niño on.

This week on the show, Ben Chasny of Six Organs of Admittance. His new album is called The Veiled Sea, out this week via Three Lobed Records. Six Organs records can often sound very different from each other—think quiet acoustic sketches or long, blown out psych epics—but this one is a whole new thing entirely, with wild glam inspired solos over wild riffs—plus there’s a Faust cover. Chasny stopped by to discuss the new album, his work with Comets on Fire, his trio with Sir Richard Bishop and Chris Corsano, Rangda, the dubious “freak folk” term and much more.

Welcome to a special bonus episode of Transmissions. Our guest this episode is musician and writer Jeffrey Silverstein. His new EP of gently cosmic guitar music is called Torii Gates, and he's the head the wonderful It’s So Easy (When You Know What You’re Doing), a tribute to the late cult folk musician Ted Lucas, featuring AD favorites like John Andrews & the Yawns, Julianna Barwick and William Tyler, Barry Walker Jr., Amelia Courthouse, and more. He’s also a teacher and a runner, and we get into it all on this special bonus episode of Transmissions. Please rate and review the podcast. Share it on your social media pages, share it via whatever platform you have. We count on word of mouth, so if you like the program, help us out. If you want to take your support a little deeper, check us out on Patreon.

Our guest this week on the show is singer/songwriter John Grant. You might know him from his work with Midlake, the Czars, Sinéad O'Connor or Hercules and Love Affair. His new album is called Boy From Michigan. It's produced by Cate Le Bon and fascinating, Blade Runner synths pulsing underneath incredible melodies and vocal performances. Grant joined Jason P. Woodbury for a freewheeling and candid talk, this week on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions.

Our guest this week is Cécile Schott, who records under the name Colleen. Since the early 2000s, she's generated soulful electronic and ambient music, utilizing vintage synths, drum machines, music boxes, and acoustic instruments. Her latest is called The Tunnel and the Clearing. It was recorded in Barcelona during the lockdown and followed a long period of illness and heartbreak for Schott. The resulting album is indeed melancholy, but also hopeful and staggeringly beautiful. She joined us from her home studio for a discussion about her discography, the circumstances that led to the new album, the influence of dub and reggae, and how the studio process influences her bold and original work.

Music is never incidental in a movie made by our guest this week: director, collage artist, and music maker Jim Jarmusch. Music is part of his films’ DNA, a through line running through his characters’ black comedy gags and existential wanderings. There’s no stylistic template—everything from crazed blues to ambient drones have soundtracked Jarmusch’s films—but the director ties songs together with an unmatched patience and style. The soundtrack to one of those motion pictures—2014’s vampire yarn Only Lovers Left Alive—was recently reissued by Sacred Bones. It features Jim’s band, SQÜRL, his frequent collaborator lutenist Jozef Van Wissem, and guest appearances by Madeline Follin of Cults, Zola Jesus, and Yasmine Hamdan. Jim joined us from his place in upstate New York to discuss the pastoralism that defines his creative practice these days, his early days, collaborators like John Lurie and Steve Buscemi, and of course music—Neil Young, Tom Waits, Iggy, Wu-Tang Clan, and beyond.

Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Sarah Louise joins us this week on the show to discuss her new album, Earth Bow. Though Louise is known for her 12-string folks fantasias, her work is wide ranging, evoking the soundscapes of Robert Fripp and the interlocked rhythms of electronic pop. Reviewing the album for AD, Josh Moss writes that while "Louise is an incredibly gifted guitar player...Earth Bow de-centers the guitar, rendering it an integral part of a lush musical environment, as detailed and sensory as a blooming forest looks from within." Louise joined us for a return visit to Transmissions to discuss being off the grid, the perils of social media, and her spiritual and creative practice.

Welcome back. Our guest this week on the show is Wadada Leo Smith, trumpeter, music theorist, and composer. Over his many years, he’s pioneered his own musical notation system, helped popularize and contextualize Miles Davis’s electric period, and has played with a wide set of collaborators including Bill Frisell, Pauline Oliveros, John Zorn, Vijay Iyer, Anthony Braxton, and many more. In December, he’s turning 80, and TUM Records is celebrating with a year-long slate of releases. Up first, on May 21st, Sacred Ceremonies, a three volume set, featuring Wadada in a duo setting with Milford Graves, a duo setting with Bill Laswell, and a trio with the both of them. He joined us to discuss his long career, Miles Davis, sacred wanderings, Civil Rights, and much more.

We hope you enjoy this one. If you enjoy Transmissions, please rate, review, subscribe, and spread the word. If you want to take your support a step further, Aquarium Drunkard is on Patreon.

It’s an honor to have a legend of creative music with us—so let’s get into it. You’re listening to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Here’s my conversation with Wadada Leo Smith.

Our guest this week is guitarist and songwriter Richard Thompson. One of the founding fathers of British folk rock, he's the author of a new book, Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice (1967-1975). It chronicles the early days of his band, Fairport Convention, the launch of his solo career, run-ins with Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, a lost jam session with Led Zeppelin, and his collaborations with Linda Thompson, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, John Martyn. He joins Jason P. Woodbury to discuss it all and more this week on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions.

Our guest on the show this week is J Mascis. Along with Lou Barlow and drummer Murph, he formed Dinosaur Jr in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1984. After their original run, which ended acrimoniously in 1989, Mascis continued on with Dinosaur Jr, the Fog, and plenty of other wiggy and interesting side projects. But in 2005, the original Dino Jr. lineup returned with a genuine comeback classic, Beyond. Since then, they’ve reliably put out a great album every couple of years. Plenty of bands come back in some diminished form, but not these guys. Their latest is Sweep It Into Space, produced by previous Transmissions guest Kurt Vile and Mascis. It’s full of incredible riffs and trademark melodic resignation. It was great to have J on to discuss it, along with his solo albums, early SST days, playing with heroes like Ron Asheton of the Stooges, and more. Listen for a special appearance by J’s dog, Candy.

This week on Transmissions, we're digging into the Aquarium Drunkard vault for a 2016 conversation with the late New Age pioneer, composer, author and creator Joanna Brouk. An edited and condensed version of this conversation was published in 2016, but we are happy to present it here in its uncut form. Brouk passed away April 28th, 2017. Her remarkable recordings can be heard on Numero Group’s Hearing Music, a double lp set assembled by producer Douglas Mcgowan, who's known for his work on Light in the Attic’s New Age compilation I Am the Center, which also features Brouk. An alum of Mills College—which recently announced it will no longer be accepting new pupils—she joined us to discuss her time at the legendary synthesizer school, her roots in sound poetry, KPFA radio program, and much more.

As we've noted here before, Durham-based songwriter al Riggs keeps very busy. Their new album is called I Got a Big Electric Fan to Keep Me Cool While I Sleep. Though they bounce around genre-wise, this LP is rooted in country rock traditions and it features contributions from cosmic pedal steel guitarist Chuck Johnson, Patrick Haggerty of Lavender Country, and others. Riggs joined us for a discursive chat, exploring their relationship with country music and, of course, Robert Altman's failed cult film Popeye. Remember to rate and review Transmissions, send to folks who might find it interesting, and check us out on Patreon to support our cultural reportage, podcasts, radio programs, and more.

This week on the show, Chicago’s Angel Bat Dawid. A composer, clarinetist, poet, and vocalist, she’s one of the shining stars of the International Anthem label, where she’s issued some incredible records like Live, with her band Tha Brotherhood, as well as the Oracle and the Transition East single. She also plays with other groups, like Damon Locks Black Monument Ensemble—she’s featured prominently on their incredible new album, NOW, which blends free jazz and hypnotic R&B. Angel joined us to discuss record collecting, the influence of Sun Ra, her history with music and religion, her creative practice, race, and much more. We like to have fun on this podcast, but Angel took things to another level with this playful and deep reaching talk, and I’m very thankful for her doing so. Transmissions is brought to you by our Patreon supporters. If you want to get some cool stuff—our new print journal is well under way, plus bonus audio, radio shows, and much more—head over and check it out. If you want to support the show, remember you can rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts and please do click that share button.

Pino Palladino and Blake Mills are two of the most dynamic studio wizards in music and they join us this week on Transmissions to discuss Notes With Attachments, their Impulse! Records-released collaborative long-player. Backed by a set of LA studio heavyweights like saxophonist Sam Gendel, drummer Chris Dave, organist Larry Golding, and others. Known for their individual collaborations with artists like Bob Dylan, D'Angelo, The Who, Fiona Apple, and Brittany Howard, these two go completely unexpected places as they unite for a set of jazzy instruments that blur the lines between J. Dilla flips, Cuban shuffles, and West African lock grooves. They joined host Jason P. Woodbury for a discussion about keeping track of ideas, the genesis of their collaboration, and the value of knowing how to shake out of creative ruts. Transmissions airs wherever you get podcasts every Wednesday, check back weekly for new episodes and visit our Patreon to support and access bonus podcast content.

This week on the show, we're joined by poet and music journalist Noah C. Lekas and Ethan Miller of Howlin' Rain and Comets on Fire. They've got a new collaboration featured on Sounds From the Shadow Factory, a 10" record from Blind Owl: a rock & roll adaptation of "Saturday Night Sage," the poem from Lekas' recent book of the same name. The two joined us for a discussion about spoken word, their paths in psychedelia, blue collar mysticism, and the current state of the counterculture. Heading deep underground, this week on Transmissions.

Our guest this week on Transmissions is Martin Courtney of Real Estate. On March 26th, the long-running New Jersey group releases its new EP, Half a Human, which embraces the jammier side of the band and continues the stylistic explorations of 2020's The Main Thing. We discussed record stores, adjusting to life without live music, Twin Peaks, and Courtney's 2015 solo album Many Moons—and its forthcoming follow up. We hope you enjoy this conversation. If you do, consider sharing it with a friend. And if you need more, you can check out the archive, which feature dozens of talks with artists, writers, and other creators. You can hear Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions wherever podcasts are found, and it’s always available for direct download here, and you can subscribe via our RSS feed. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, check out our Patreon page, and email us your thoughts about the show.

Description: Our guest this week on the show is Shahzad Ismaily, whose recorded with, well, he’s recorded with a lot of people, from Moses Sumney and Sam Amidon to Beth Orton, Martha Wainwright, Yoko Ono, Bonnie Prince Billy, Jolie Holland, and many, many more. With his buddies Ches Smith and Marc Ribot, he’s a member of the punk jazz outfit Ceramic Dog, and last year he released Visitations with Leo Abrahams on his own label, Figureight Records. We hope you enjoy this conversation. If you do, consider sharing it with a friend. And if you need more, you can check out the archives, which feature dozens of talks with artists, writers, and other creators. You can hear Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions wherever podcasts are found, and it’s always available for direct download here, and you can subscribe via our RSS feed. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, check out our Patreon page, and email us your thoughts about the show.

This week on Transmissions: Detroit’s own Warren Defever of Third Man Records and the experimental pop group His Name is Alive. Since the mid-80s, HNIA has released over a hundred records, EPs, and projects on labels like 4AD, Rykodisc, Time STEREO, and Unsung Hunger. Recently Warren has been exploring way back in the archives, sharing some of the work that caught the ear of Ivo-Watts Russell, who eventually signed His Name Is Alive in the ‘90s. A new boxset collects it all, A Silver Thread: Home Recordings (1979-1990). He’s been tinkering and reworking a lot of that material too, and as always there’s no loyalty to genre or anything like that, on releases like Ghost Tape EXP and Return Versions. Warren’s a music lifer, a classic record person. He does archival audio work with Third Man Records in Detroit and sometimes he’ll put something out there for the internet to pass around like treasure, like “Every Thin Lizzy Guitar Solo 1971-1983,” a CD-R where he edited all that shredding together into a transcendent mega mix. We talked about that—and a lot more—for this particularly loose episode of Transmissions.

Our guest this week is Amanda Petrusich, author of It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, the the Search for the Next American Music, and Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78 rpm Records. She's also a critic at the New Yorker. She joined us from her place in upstate New York to discuss balancing comfort listening and new sounds, Bob Dylan’s Christian era, Harry Smith, musical mysticism, and much more.

Legendary music writer Peter Guralnick joins us this week on Transmissions. He's been writing about the blues, rock & roll, soul, and R&B since the late 1960s. His latest book is called Looking To Get Lost: Adventures in Music & Writing. It is a book about the creativity that fueled artists like Johnny Cash, Robert Johnson, Ray Charles, Dick Curless, and Howlin' Wolf, who Guralnick says viewed his music as an expression "not just of personal freedom but of personal difference." He joins us for an open discussion about the early days of music journalism, artistry, and the curiosity that fuels his work.

Northern California mysticism with Fletcher Tucker. His latest album of ritualistic folk music is called Unlit Trail. Like the previous, Cold Spring, it's a record that settles deep into the sacred nature of existence. It's an lp designed to welcome the listener "into a liminal state, beyond ordinary awareness," and into the unknown. Tucker joined us to discuss Star Trek, animism, family and the deep history of his instruments and home in Big Sur, California.

Hope you're enjoying the new season of Aquarium Drunkard's Transmissions. Here's a good one from the archives, a favorite of Timothy Showalter of Strand of Oaks a roundtable talk with three lifers: Howe Gelb, Robyn Hitchcock, and Steve Wynn. The three share similar paths through scenes and the industry, their paths are shared but divergent, and there’s a spiritual unity at work even in their differences. With his band Giant Sand, Howe Gelb pens strange, dusty songs about love and the desert. Both solo and with his Paisley Underground pioneering band the Dream Syndicate, Wynn composes driving minimalist rock sagas (a recent 11-disc boxset documents much of his range) . And after emerging from the UK punk scene with the Soft Boys, Robyn Hitchcock has embarked on a career full of wry and funny songs that skewer pop conventions. We spoke in August of 2018 when they performed at HOCO Fest in Tucson, Arizona, a place where they all share considerable history. This interview was recorded at the KXCI studio at the historic Hotel Congress. Please enjoy this one from the vault.

On her second lp, the newly released Urban Driftwood, Virginia-based guitarist Yasmin Williams creates expansive acoustic music. Playing guitar, kalimba, percussion, and kora, she pulls from disparate musical strands—including the smooth jazz she heard growing up—into music that feels spiritually connected to New Age music, Windham Hill guitar, and the work of contemporaries like Daniel Bachman (who calls her "a guitarist for a new century"), William Tyler, and Marisa Anderson, both whom she's recently collaborated. She joined us for a conversation about being a Black artist in a primarily white genre, how she taught herself guitar, and how she processes the "American Primitive" genre tag.

Tamara Lindeman joins us this week on Transmissions for a conversation about Ignorance, her lush and sweeping new album as The Weather Station. Lindeman is the kind of songwriter who dares to write about big topics, like identity and global climate change, but the new album finds her exploring those concepts over deeply rhythmic jazz and pop-influenced compositions. It's out Friday, February 5 on Fat Possum Records. Lindeman joined us from her home in Ontario, to discuss the pandemic, the information overload of daily life, and how she's come to embrace the performative side of artistic practice.

This week we're happy to welcome Margo Price to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions for a talk about the music industry, her creative partnership with husband Jeremy Ivey, her online radio show, forays into the cannabis business, and her latest rock and seventies pop inspired lp, That's How Rumors Get Started. Bold and strident, it's a record that finds her blurring genres, like many of her country heroes, people like John Prine, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson. Plus, she fills us in on some of the details about an as of yet unreleased collaboration with the queen of outlaw country, Jessi Colter. We hope you enjoy this conversation. If you do, consider sharing it with a friend. And if you need more, you can check out the archives, which feature dozens of talks with artists like Nels Cline, Beverly Glenn-Copeland, Swamp Dogg, and many more. You can hear Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions wherever podcasts are found, and it’s always available for direct download here. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, check out our Patreon page, and email us your thoughts about the show.

It’s 2021 and Aquarium Drunkard’s Transmissions podcast is back. Every Wednesday, your host Jason P. Woodbury sits down with a fascinating guest for a rolling conversation about art, process, and inspiration. To kick off our new season, we’re joined by Nels Cline. Known for his many varied solo projects, work in Wilco, and a long history of collaboration with artists like Yoko Ono, John Zorn, Wadada Leo Smith, Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and many more. His latest work, out now via the legendary Blue Note label, is called Share the Wealth. Backed up by the Nels Cline Singers—punk jazz saxophonist Skerik, keyboardist Brian Marsell, bassist Trevor Dunn, drummer Scott Amendola and Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista—it features the heavier side of Cline’s playing, but also his signature fluidity and extended jams.
Cline joined us to explore the new record, discuss what being off the road has been like, and talk about his early days: falling in love with collaboration alongside his twin brother Alex, working in record stores, and how his life changed when he joined Wilco.

Our guest this week is Patrick McDermott of North Americans. His latest is called Roped In and its blissed out guitar-scapes find him teaming up with cosmic pedal steel master Barry Walker Jr, William Tyler, and Mary Lattimore. He reached us from his place in Los Angeles to discuss pleasant zones, video games, and some particularly good lunches. A quick note: this is the final episode of our season. We're going to take a break but don't you sweat it, we'll be back early in 2021 with more strange conversations for our strange times. Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Transmissions art by D. Norsen and Heavy Hymns. Justin Gage, head honcho and executive producer.

This week, we're joined by returning guest Chris Schlarb of Psychic Temple and Big Ego, his studio in Long Beach. His latest is called Houses of the Holy, a four-sided double-album, featuring a different band on each side: Cherry Glazerr with garage pop, the Chicago Underground Trio with their jazz inflection, psych warriors the Dream Syndicate, and rapper and producer Xololanxinxo. Schlarb took some time out of his holiday season to speak with us about the creative ethos driving his work. Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Transmissions art by D. Norsen and Heavy Hymns. Justin Gage, head honcho and executive producer.

This week on Transmissions, we welcome back a return guest: desert scribe and radio personality Ken Layne. He’s the editor of Desert Oracle, a pocket-sized field guide to the American Southwest and the host of Desert Oracle Radio, a weekly late-night broadcast out of Joshua Tree. With synthesist RedBlueBlackSilver in tow, Layne offers up tales of the paranormal, the odd, and the arcane. Layne illuminates these damned and or transcendent topics with good humor and dusty charm.
This week, he releases a new book which collects and expands stories from the program and the magazine, Desert Oracle Volume 1: Strange and True Tales From the American Southwest. He joins us for a far-reaching conversation about the new book, the allure of the weird, the late ’80s underground music scenes of Southern California, the early days of digital publishing, conspiracy theory and literature, the disenchantment of modern life, and of course, venturing into the spiritual wilderness represented by the desert.
Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Transmissions art by D. Norsen. Justin Gage, head honcho and executive producer. Show notes and more at Aquarium Drunkard.

This week on Transmissions, we're joined by sound healer, reiki practitioner, and avant-garde composer Devi Mambouka, better known as Masma Dream World. Her latest LP is called Play At Night, out on Northern Spy Records. It’s a blend of subterranean bass, spooky backwards masked poetry, and shifting, nocturnal soundscapes designed to entrance, inviting you to examine your “preconceived relationship with darkness, guiding you to step into it—to play in it.” Mambouka took some time out of a weekend last month to speak with us about her global backstory, discuss how DJing influenced her alchemical approach, and play around with the concept of darkness. We hope you enjoy this one. If you do, share it with a friend. Let them know they can listen wherever they get podcasts. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, check out our Patreon page, send an email letting us know what you like about the show. Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Art by D. Norsen and Heavy Hymns. Justin Gage, executive producer, seer, and captain.

You’re tuned into Transmissions, where each week Aquarium Drunkard presents a strange conversation for these strange times. Today on the show we’re joined by Elisa Ambrogio of Magik Makers. The Markers’ new album 2020 is out now on Drag City. It’s a gloriously smeared burst of noise, raw riffs, and damaged country and folk songs. Ambrogio joined us to discuss the importance of good quarantine companion, living out west, and getting into music—really inhabiting it—before you are even sure what you are doing. We hope you enjoy this one. If you do, share it with a friend. Let them know they can listen wherever they get podcasts. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, or check out our Patreon page, where you can help us keep the lights on. Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Art by D. Norsen. Justin Gage, head honcho and executive producer.

Incoming transmission from...Yves Jarvis. The singer/songwriter/producer's latest is called Sundry Rock Song Stock, and it's a blur of soft-focus pop and shimmering melodic mirages. He joined us from the Tree Museum in Ontario to discuss his interest in progressive rock, creative approach, the disparate influence of Joni Mitchell, Bill Bruford, and Kanye. Plus, a check in with Vic Berger IV and Doug Lussenhop of Tim Heidecker's Office Hours regarding their upcoming noise-show-slash-audio-visual experience, Drop Concert: The Motion Picture, featuring a baffling sonic collage of clips, loops, and found sound drops combined with Heidecker's improvised keyboard and animation by Ben Levin. We hope you enjoy this one. If you do, share it with a friend. Let them know they can listen wherever they get podcasts. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, or check out our Patreon page, where you can help us keep the lights on. Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Art by D. Norsen and Heavy Hymns. Justin Gage, sage, guide, and executive producer.

Transmissions…strange talks for these strange days. This week on the show, we’re joined by ambient hero William Basinski and his collaborator and engineer Preston Wendel. They’ve got two wildly divergent projects out this year. In July, they released To Feel Embraced a collection of saxophone-laden lounge and electronica under the name Sparkle Division. And on November 13th, they release William Basinski’s Lamentations, which assembles more than 40 years of archival tape loops and studies from his archives. The dual albums encompass the ecstatic highs and dread-soaked lows of this strange year. We spoke with the duo in September, when it was still warm out enough to take a dip in the pool about doom scrolling, iPhone recordings, cutting loose, and much more.
Thanks for tuning in. We hope you enjoy this one. If you do, share it with a friend. Let them know they can listen wherever they get podcasts. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, or check out our Patreon page, where you can help us keep the lights on. Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Art by D. Norsen and Heavy Hymns. Justin Gage, head honcho and executive producer.

Bonus episode! We put out episodes every Wednesday and we have already done so this week—a great chat with novelist and podcaster Hari Kunzru—but since this week being the week it has been, we’re in an energetic mood. So here we are. Our guest for this extra episode is John Darnielle. Since 1991, he’s released music under the Mountain Goats banner, in addition to writing a couple of great books, including Wolf in White Van and Universal Harvester.
He’s got two albums out this year—first, a lo-fi boombox recorded tape, Songs for Pierre Chuvin, and now, Getting Into Knives, recorded with the full Mountain Goats band and producer Matt Ross-Sprang at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, the same place people like Booker T. Jones, Alex Chilton, the Cramps, Three-6-Mafia, Roy Orbison and many more have cut albums. His songs have hailed Satan and cast possums in a theological light. He’s written about myths, tragic heroes, and people trying to unwreck themselves. Getting Into Knives is yet another winner from Darnielle. We were very excited to speak with him about it (and talk about his incredible AD Lagniappe Session). Hope you enjoy this one. If you do, share it with a friend. Let them know they can listen wherever they get podcasts. If you want to take your support a step further, you can leave us a review, or check out our Patreon page, where you can help us keep the lights on. Transmissions is hosted and produced by Jason P. Woodbury. Andrew Horton edits our audio. Jonathan Mark-Walls produces content for our social media and video outlets. Art by D. Norsen and Heavy Hymns. Justin Gage, head honcho and executive producer. We’ll be back this week too, Wednesday, with another Transmission. Until then, take it easy.
Further reading: John Darnielle :: The Aquarium Drunkard Interview

This week on Transmissions, Hari Kunzru in conversation with host Jason P. Woodbury. Kunzru is a novelist and writer; his latest is called Red Pill. It’s about a writer who receives a fellowship in Germany, where he finds himself sucked into a spiral of reactionary thinking. His other 2020 project is a podcast called Into the Zone, from Puskin Industries. It’s a podcast about, well, to put it in reductive terms, the opposite of reactive thinking. Examining the liminal space between borders—visiting Stonehenge, remarking on the early days of the internet, examining what divides country from the blues, and even what constitutes life—and what constitutes death—Kunzru blurs binaries and swims in the waters of the undefined and fascinating.

Incoming transmission from Joe Wong. He's an incredibly busy guy: he hosts the Trap Set, a weekly interview podcast he’s helmed since 2015, where he sits down with artists like Mix Master Mike, Sharon Van Etten, Jim Keltner, Georgia Hubley of Yo La Tengo, among many others. He also makes music for film in TV—you’ve probably heard his work on Master of None, Russian Doll, Awkwafina is Nora From Queens, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and Midnight Gospel. Joe has long played music with artists like Mary Timony of Helium and Marnie Stern, but recently, he released his debut solo long player, Nite Creatures. Produced by Timony, who also plays on it, it finds him joined by members of Flaming Lips, War on Drugs, and that dog. for a set of deeply cinematic psychedelic pop, which brings to mind the mystical lushness of Scott Walker, the Zombies, and Pink Floyd. One of the albums best songs “Dreams Wash Away” was featured in Duncan Trussel’s Midnight Gospel finale on Netflix—one of the most affecting things you’ll see all year, and like that episode, Nite Creatures grapples with mortality and existential dread, but remains vivid, colorful, and beautiful.

Incoming transmission from...Joe Pera and James Wallace, who’s better known as Skyway Man. The two worked together on season two of Joe’s TV show, Joe Pera Talks With You on Adult Swim. Describing “what happens” on the show doesn’t really do it justice. Nothing too out of the ordinary occurs—characters go on hikes, they stay up late watching videos on the internet, they deal with the passing of loved ones. But it’s how the show unfolds—gently, unhurriedly—that makes it such remarkable viewing. It’s a very funny show that takes its time, offering up space and comfort to the viewer while also skewering its characters lovingly.

On The World Only Ends When You Die, Skyway Man also puts his characters through the ringer. It’s a psych-folk opera of spaced out country and sci-fi gospel and blues, laced with mythology and nods to George Van Tassel, legendary Ufologist. It’s due out this week on Mama Bird Recording Co, and while it certainly grapples with some heavy existential issues, it’s also a lot of fun to listen to. They joined us to discuss their work together, the paranormal, and mortality. If you enjoy our show, please spread the word. Leave a rating or a review, and tell your friends about the show. If you want to take your support a step further, checking out Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon.