Transmissions
Weekly interviews with musicians, artists, authors, and filmmakers presented by Aquarium Drunkard.
Episodes
Transmissions :: Fred Thomas
Welcome back to Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, another talk that spun out of our Big Ears hang out, a conversation with a journeyman musician Fred Thomas.
Even if you don’t know Thomas’ name, you’ve heard him: In the ‘90s, he was responsible for the math rock band Chore; from there, he joined up with Warren Defever’s genre bending indie rock outfit His Name Is Alive
Transmissions :: Dust-to-Digital
Since 1999, Atlanta label Dust-to-Digital has created lavish boxsets, books, and collections of gospel, folk, blues, field recordings, and other sounds sourced from deep global archives.
Led by April and Lance Ledbetter, the label has been responsible for works like Goodbye, Babylon, a landmark 2003 gospel collection which inspired Brian Eno to say, "I love this kind of archaeology of the beginn
Transmissions :: Awake, My Soul
Describing the sound of Sacred Harp singing can be difficult. Arcane, otherworldly, and overwhelming, it’s a unique a cappella form of shape note Christian hymn singing that was born in England in the 18th century, but took root in the American south. It’s not something you listen to so much something as experience.
This week on Transmissions, host Jason P. Woodbury speaks with Matt Hinton.
Transmissions :: Erin Osmon
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, we welcome Nashville-based music journalist, critic and author Erin Osmon, to discuss her tremendous book, Won't Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America, which chronicles how heartland rock, typified by artists like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and more, brought a
Transmissions :: Mouse on Mars on Lee "Scratch" Perry
Occasionally, a song breaks forth from the void and strikes you like a bolt of lightning. That’s how we felt first hearing “Rockcurry,” from the late dub pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry and electronic duo Mouse on Mars’ Spatial, No Problem, released earlier this summer on June 5th via Domino Recording Co.
The song feels a little like plugging a fork into an electrical socket, à la Twin Peaks: The Re
Transmissions :: Bruce Hornsby
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury.
Near the end of his latest LP Indigo Park, our guest this week, Bruce Hornsby, sings something of a conclusion. Or perhaps, a belated introduction:
"I've been seeking magical thinking/I think I detect a trend/This could be the start of something/Or this could be an end."
The lyric isn't cited to suggest the 71-year-old so
Transmissions :: Lenny Kaye
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. There are certain artists who straddle the line between music and prose, between songwriting and music writing. Think of Ira Kaplan from Yo La Tengo, who spent his early years as a rock journalist, or the doomed Peter Laughner, or even Lester Bangs, who cranked out a couple of raucous singles on Ork Records in addition to his
Transmissions :: Annahstasia
Annahstasia is one of the most exciting singers and songwriters in the modern folk space.
Originally courted by major labels in her youth, she found herself drifting away from the bedroom pop and R&B genres where music business execs thought she belonged. Drawn to folkier material, she emerged in the 2020s with a sound that blends the soul jazz of Terry Callier with Nick Drake’s hushed chamber fo
Transmissions :: Don Was
Hello and welcome to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury, presented by the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
We're kicking off our new season with a fantastic guest: Don Was.
Was' CV is stunning. In addition to his genre-bending work with Was (Not Was), Don has collaborated with some of the most respected artists in music history: Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones, The B-
All One Song :: Lee Ranaldo on "Down By the River"
Tyler Wilcox has spent season two of All One Song conversing about Neil Young with musicians, writers, and artists. And now, we’ve reached the end of the road for this Neil journey, with a very special guest: Lee Ranaldo, dropping in to discuss “Down By The River.” Lee is a founding member of Sonic Youth. Along with Thurston Moore, Lee redefined how we hear the electric guitar in a rock setting. S
All One Song :: Matt Valentine on "Berlin"
We’re coming dangerously close to the end of the road for this latest season of Neil Young deep dives. And the end of the road is the topic at hand when it comes to today’s song — “Berlin.” Now, we’ve covered some deep cuts over the course of the past two seasons. But “Berlin” has to be one of the deepest. It was passed over on the recent Archives Vol. III box and you can’t even stream it via Neil
All One Song :: Matt Sweeney on "Barstool Blues"
Hello and welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with your host Tyler Wilcox.
We’ve covered a lot of Shakey ground so far during seasons one and two, leaping from decade to decade, from era to era, from album to album. It’s easy to do when you’re dealing with a body of work that is so vast, spanning 60 years now. But somehow, we’ve yet to
All One Song :: Zachary Cale on "Ambulance Blues"
As the second season of All One Song rolls on, we’re talking to some of our favorite musicians and writers about their favorite Neil Young songs. And we have got a doozy of a Neil Young song to talk about today — “Ambulance Blues."
First appearing as the closing track on Neil’s 1974 masterpiece On the Beach, this is one of the man’s major works, a long, dark dirge that surveys the surreal mid-197
All One Song :: Jerry David DeCicca on "From Hank To Hendrix"
In case you haven't caught on already, All One Song host Tyler Wilcox loves talking about Neil Young. And he's always fascinated by where these free-form conversations go, whether it's deep dives into lyrical obsessions, personal history, chord progressions, Shakey lore … or some indefinable blend of all of that.
This week’s episode is no different! We’re back in the 1990s this time around, taki
All One Song :: Matthew Specktor on "T-Bone"
The second season of All One Song rolls. Throughout seasons one and two, we’ve jumped from era to era, from style to style, from album to album. But no one has had the guts yet to tackle one of Neil’s true masterpieces, his most visionary set of lyrics, his most powerful statement. That’s right, friends, we're talking about “T-Bone.”
Released in 1981 on Re*ac*tor, “T-Bone” is perhaps the most bo
All One Song :: Simon Joyner on "After The Gold Rush"
Hello and welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with your host Tyler Wilcox, a longtime Aquarium Drunkard contributor and Neil Young fanatic. And I’m guiding you through a second season of talking with some of our favorite musicians, writers and artists about their favorite Neil Young song.
Pretty much every one of our guests complain abo
All One Song :: Micah Nelson on "Change Your Mind"
Hello and welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast with your host, Tyler Wilcox. Though he's never spoken with Neil himself, over at Aquarium Drunkard you can check out Wilcox's interviews with several of Neil’s associates: Guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro; bassist Billy Talbot; and multi-instrumentalist Nils Lofgren.
Chatting with these musicians, who have spent a good portion of the
All Song Song :: Scott Bunn on "Boom Boom Boom"
Welcome back to All One Song. We're spending the spring of 2026 talking to some great musicians, writers and artists about their one favorite Neil Young song. But even if the concept is simple, one thing is for sure: these conversations go all over the place, kind of like a long Old Black solo on “Like Hurricane.” And that’s how it should be, right?
Now, host Tyler Wilcox has been contributing t
All One Song :: James Jackson Toth on "Thrasher"
Hello and welcome back to season two of All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with your host Tyler Wilcox, a longtime Aquarium Drunkard contributor and Neil Young fanatic. We’re spending some time this spring traveling deep into the Shakey-verse, talking with some great artists about their favorite Neil Young songs.
On a recent episode, Brigid Mae Power a
All One Song :: Brigid Mae Power on "Albuquerque"
Neil Young's "Albuquerque." A Ditch Era classic, it was recorded with the Santa Monica Flyers in 1973 and released on 1975's Tonight's the Night. Like the Southwestern town its named for, "Albuquerque" is stark, beautiful, and lonesome—leaving in its wake melancholy and a craving for fried eggs and country ham. Joining us to discuss the various landscapes of "Albuquerque" is Brigid Mae Power. Sinc
All One Song :: Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo) on "Big Crime"
Hello again! Welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Last summer, we spent a couple months talking to some of our favorite musicians, writers, and artists about their favorite Neil Young songs … and it was so much fun that we’re doing it all over again with a bunch more great guests.
Put on your Rust-o-Vision glasses, Neil freaks … we’re g
Transmissions at Big Ears: Thurston Moore & Kramer
Transmissions is back with a special episode: Tyler Wilcox in conversation with underground music lifers Thurston Moore and Kramer.
On May 1, the duo release their new album together, They Came Like Swallows - Seven Requiems for the Children of Gaza, out on Ethan Miller’s Silver Current Records, and ahead of their appearance this week at Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, Wilcox caught up wi
Transmissions :: Cochemea
This week’s conversation with Cochemea Gastelum brings our season to a close. The saxophonist and bandleader joins us to discuss his beautiful LP Ancestros Futuros, out now on Daptone Records. Mining his Indigenous roots, soul jazz, and funk, it's a fantastic album, and it completes a trilogy that began with 2019’s All My Relations, continued with 2021’s Baca Sewa, and now concludes.
Cochemea’s
Transmissions :: Mike Ayers (The Untold Story of '90s Jam Bands)
The '90s were a strange time. From Gregorian chants to swing bands, you never knew what would make it onto the radio. But some of the strangest groups to improbably infiltrate the mainstream came from the post-Grateful Dead jam band scene. Our guest today is Mike Ayers, author of Sharing in the Groove: The Untold Story of the '90s Jam Band Explosion and the Scene that Followed.
The book, an or
Transmissions :: Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate)
Welcome back to Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, a return guest: Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate and solo fame. He last joined the show part of a trio: in 2018, we taped with him, Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, and Robyn Hitchcock live at the KXCI studio at Hotel Congress in Tucson Arizona. That talk also made it into the Transmissions feed again in 2020.
This time, Steve
Transmissions :: Steve Von Till
Welcome back to Transmissions. This week: Steve Von Till, of sludge legends Neurosis, the tribal ambient spin-off Tribes of Neurot, solo albums under this own name, and the psych folk project Harvestman. He runs the independent label, Neurot Recordings. And as if all that isn’t enough, he’s also a poet, and an educator—when he’s not playing music, he’s bringing knowledge to the next generation, wo
Transmissions :: Kate Pierson (The B-52s)
This week on Transmissions, Kate Pierson, vocalist and keyboardist of The B-52s. Writing about the legendary Atlanta band, AD founder Justin Gage says, “The B-52’s 1979 debut album ushered in a practically fully formed sound/band. No one else was doing this…whatever ‘this’ was.” Indeed, The B-52s created a one-of-a-kind sound, blending punk, funk, and art-pop, and while they broke into the mainstr
Transmissions :: Gary Lachman
This week, we present a conversation with writer, rock & roller, and esoteric scholar Gary Lachman, author of a new memoir, Touched By the Presence: From Blondie’s Bowery and Rock and Roll to Magic and the Occult.
In it, Lachman charts his journey from a young New Jersey misfit immersed in comic books and paperback fiction to his days playing bass in Blondie as the band rose to stardom from the
Transmissions :: DM Hotep (Sun Ra Arkestra)
Though he departed this earthly realm in 1993, Afrofuturist and free jazz icon Sun Ra’s cosmic tones continue to echo through the spaceways. A composer, poet, and some might even say a prophet, Ra seemed to understand that his work would outlive him, staging: “In some far off place, many light years in space, I’ll wait for you. Where human feet have never trod, where human eyes have never seen. I
Transmissions :: Emmylou Harris
Welcome back to Transmissions, a weekly interview podcast created and curated by Los Angeles online music magazine Aquarium Drunkard. This week on the show, host Jason P. Woodbury speaks with a living legend, and one of our all-time favorite vocalists and songsmiths: Emmylou Harris.
On November 7th, New West Records will re-release an expanded edition of her 1998 live album Spyboy, back in print
Transmissions :: Pam Grossman
Welcome back to Transmissions, a weekly podcast series from Aquarium Drunkard. This week on the show: Pam Grossman, host of The Witch Wave podcast and author of a new book, Magic Maker: The Enchanted Path to Creativity. This show, at its core, is about the relationship between magic and art. What do we mean by magic? Let’s turn to Grossman's book for a helpful take. She writes that magic is quote,
Preview: Fela Kuti: Fear No Man
Subscribe to Fela Kuti: Fear No Man.
In a world that’s on fire, what is the role of art? What can music actually…do?
Can a song save a life? Change a law? Topple a president? Get you killed?
In Fela Kuti: Fear No Man, Jad Abumrad—creator of Radiolab, More Perfect, and Dolly Parton’s America—tells the story of one of the great political awakenings in music: how a classically trained 'colonial
Transmissions :: The Cosmic Tones Research Trio
This week on the show, the Portland-based group of Roman Norfleet, Harlan Silverman, and Kennedy Verrett, aka The Cosmic Tones Research Trio.
“Cosmic” is a term that has, thanks to critics and writers, become a little overused. Practically every indie rock band or country-based singer/songwriter with an effects pedal employs “cosmic” touches these days.
But in the case of the Trio? Well, it’s
Transmissions :: The Autumn Defense
This week on Transmissions, we’re toasting harvest season with John Stirratt and Pat Sansone of The Autumn Defense, who release their first album in a decade this week. It’s called Here and Nowhere, out October 10 on Yep Roc Records.
You might know John and Pat from their work in Wilco; Stirratt is a founding member, and Sansone joined in 2004. But the duo’s work in the Autumn Defense stretches a
Transmissions :: Dan Wriggins (Friendship)
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. This week on the show, Dan Wriggins of the Philly band Friendship. Earlier this year, the band released its fifth album, Caveman Wakes Up. Fans of the roots-informed indie rock of Wednesday and MJ Lenderman—frequent collaborators with Friendship—will find plenty of busted and bruised glory in these songs, which fall on the shaggy end of the alt-coun
Transmissions :: Joan Shelley (2025)
Welcome to Transmissions. This week, singer/songwriter Joan Shelley. Her haunted folk songs and crystal clear voice have long made her a favorite of the Aquarium Drunkard crew. Writing about her last one, 2022’s The Spur, Tyler Wilcox wrote: "At this point in her career, we would probably settle for a ‘pretty good’ album from Joan Shelley…But no, The Spur continues an unbroken streak of masterpie
Transmissions :: Jens Lekman
This week on the show, Jason P. Woodbury speaks with Swedish songwriter Jens Lekman. Woodbury has been listening to Jens for just about 20 years—introduced by the 2005 compilation, Oh You're So Silent Jens. Though the comp features songs ingeniously constructed using samples, it was Lekman’s voice that made Woodbury such a fan. Not just his deep, sonorous croon; we mean "voice" in the writing sens
Transmissions :: Marissa Nadler
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Our guest this week is Marissa Nadler. Last month, she released her 10th album, New Radiations, via Sacred Bones Records.
Like much of her work, New Radiations exudes—like how we didn’t say “radiates” there?—a spooky, haunted feel. Following 2021’s full rock band outing The Path of the Clouds, the self-produced new album finds Nadler focusing on s
Transmissions :: Bret McKenzie (Flight of the Conchords)
Welcome to the kick off of Transmissions' new season with your host, Jason P. Woodbury, after a wonderful summer mini-series from Tyler Wilcox, All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast.
We first encountered this week’s guest, New Zealand songwriter, actor, and composer Bret McKenzie, as one half of the indie pop/comedy duo Flight of the Conchords in the mid-2000s. But did you know that before that, he
All One Song :: Jason P. Woodbury on "When Your Lonely Heart Breaks"
Welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. We’ve spent the summer talking with some great musicians and writers about the strange and wonderful Neil Young universe. And we’ve had a good time. But all good things must come to an end!
After today’s episode, we are handing the keys back to Jason P. Woodbury, the host of Transmissions and editor
All One Song :: Ethan Miller on "Music Arcade"
Welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. All summer long, we’re talking to some of our favorite musicians and writers about their favorite Neil Young song. Or at least one of their favorite Neil Young songs.
This week, our All One Song guest is Ethan Miller. Ethan has been a longtime fixture in the underground, first coming to my attention b
All One Song :: Jesse Jarnow on "Sedan Delivery"
This week’s All One Song guest is the definition of a multi-hyphenate — your friend and ours, Jesse Jarnow. Jesse is an incredible writer, having penned such essential books as Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock, Heads: A Biography of Psychedelic America, Wasn’t That a Time: The Weavers, the Blacklist, and the Battle for the American Soul, and the forthcoming epic, The Invisib
All One Song :: Rosali on "I Don't Want To Talk About It"
Welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions.
This week is going to be slightly different. This week, we’re talking about a song that was not written by Neil Young. Nevertheless, it’s a song that is very much a part of the Shakey multiverse: Danny Whitten’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It,” which appeared on Crazy Horse’s debut LP in 1970. Danny W
All One Song :: Ilyas Ahmed on "Arc"
Welcome back to All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast. We’re spending the summer talking to some great musicians and writers about their one favorite Neil Young song. Or at least one of their favorite songs. Last week, our guest was Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth — and of course, the conversation went deep into Steve’s memories of Sonic Youth’s tour with Neil and Crazy Horse in 1991, when both bands we
All One Song :: Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth) on "Vampire Blues"
Welcome back to All One Song, A Neil Young Podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard. We’re spending the summer talking to a few of our favorite artists and writers about their favorite Neil Young song. This week, we’ve got someone very special: Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth.
Steve spent about 25 years behind the drum kit for Sonic Youth as the band radically redefined and reimagined rock and roll
All One Song :: Meg Baird and Charlie Saufley on "Interstate"
Welcome back to All One Song, A Neil Young Podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard. We’re spending the summer talking to a few of our favorite artists and writers about their favorite Neil Young song.
This week, you’re getting two fantastic guests for the price of one: Meg Baird and Charlie Saufley. Meg first came to my attention thanks to her work with the innovative Philadelphia psych-folk coll
All One Song :: Jeff Parker on "The Needle and the Damage Done"
Welcome back to All One Song, A Neil Young Podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. We're spending the summer talking to a few of our favorite artists and writers about their favorite Neil Young song.
Our guest this week is Jeff Parker, best known as the guitarist for the long-running Chicago post-rock group Tortoise. Jeff has been on a serious hot streak of late. He’s released awe
Transmissions :: Bureau of Lost Culture
We hope you enjoyed the first episodes of Tyler Wilcox’s All One Song series, but we're back with, well, something different: it’s a bonus Transmissions conversation between Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury and musician, writer, and podcaster Stephen Coates, host of the Bureau of Lost Culture.
This episode also appears today in the Bureau of Lost Culture feed and I can’t recommend checking th
All One Song :: Chris Forsyth on "Lookout Joe"
Welcome back to All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast, presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. You may have noticed our awesome theme music. No, you’re not hearing some unreleased Neil Young and Crazy Horse rehearsal. You’re hearing Coca Leaves and Pearls, the Philadelphia-based Neil tribute band fronted by guitarist Chris Forsyth and featuring John Murray (guitar), Jordan Burgis (bass), and Jo
All One Song :: Steve Gunn on "Will To Love"
Welcome to the very first episode of All One Song: A Neil Young podcast, presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Join liner notes author, musician, and Shakey historian Tyler Wilcox and an array of great musicians and writers discussing their favorite Neil Young song, diving deep into Shakey lore and getting personal about this amazing body of work. It’s a series for Neil heads by Neil heads
All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast (Trailer)
All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast is coming this summer from the people who bring you Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. In this deep dive audio experience, liner notes author, musician, and Shakey historian Tyler Wilcox (Pitchfork, Uncut, host of Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb on dublab) invites musicians/artists/writers to discuss…one single song by Neil Young. Join g
Transmissions :: Justin Gage (2025)
We close out the 10th season of Transmissions with a special look under the hood with Justin Gage, who founded Aquarium Drunkard 20 years ago in 2005. Initially envisioned as just a place to share cultural recommendations with friends, Aquarium Drunkard blew up as the blog rush began. Suddenly, Gage found himself running a respected media outlet. 20 years later, he joins host Jason P. Woodbury to
Transmissions :: Damien Jurado
This week on the show, something different: an extra-sized Transmission that’s been locked in the vault for years, a two-hour talk with singer/songwriter Damien Jurado.
Way back in 2022, host Jason P. Woodbury sat down with Jurado in the recording studio at Gold-Diggers in Los Angeles for a career spanning conversation, exploring the stories behind his oracular visions, his history, and his coll
Transmissions :: Deerfhoof
On the cover of Deerhoof’s new album, Noble and Godlike in Ruin, is an image of the band’s lineup—Satomi Matsuzaki, Ed Rodriguez, John Dieterich, and Greg Saunier—collaged together into one strange visage. Given that the album’s title is drawn directly from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this cobbled together assemblage makes sense, but it also doubles as a handy metaphor for Deerhoof’s identity as
Transmissions :: Dean Wareham
Do you ever connect with an old friend and find that, despite however many years it's been, you pick up right where you left off, as if no time has passed at all? That’s sort of what happened between today’s guest, Dean Wareham and producer Kramer in the making of Dean’s new album, That’s the Price of Loving Me. You know Dean from his work with Luna and Dean and Britta, his duo with his wife Britt
Transmissions :: Yuka Honda
This week on the show, the great Yuka Honda. She’s a New York musician. In the 1990s, she emerged from the fertile New York music underground with Cibo Matto alongside groups like the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, and Luscious Jackson. She’s collaborated with an extensive roster of musicians, including John Zorn,David Byrne, Yoko Ono, Sean Ono Lennon, and her husband, guitarist Nels Cline.
Earli
Transmissions :: William Tyler (2025)
This week, a return appearance from William Tyler. As a guitarist and sideman, William has worked with the Silver Jews, Lambchop, and other forward leaning acts, balancing a deep understanding of tradition with experimental energy. His own records have found him drifting from Takoma School style finger picking to a zone that hovers in-between krautrock and country; in recent years, he’s expanded e
Transmissions :: Jeff Bridges
That's right, we've got The Dude hisself: Jeff Bridges. This week on Transmissions, he joins us to discuss his new archival record, Slow Magic, 1977-1978. Listening to the record sounds like eavesdropping on the coolest Hollywood party you’ve never been invited to: Bridges and co. sound like they are blowing off steam more than making a proper record, their wild music sound, as Bridges’ frequent m
Transmissions :: Joe Pera (2025)
This week on Transmissions, a return guest, the great comedian, writer, actor, and podcaster Joe Pera. Joe first appeared here on Transmissions in 2020 alongside his friend and collaborator James Wallace aka Skyway Man, and we've wanted to have him back ever since. This talk is a blast, covering everything from the beauty of Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport to representations of Catholicism in science
Transmissions :: Mekons
Welcome back to Transmissions and we’re going to start this week’s show with a reading from Jennifer Kelly’s review of the new Mekons album, Horror.
“Things are very bad, but then again, they always have been. That’s Horror’s argument in a nutshell, the 26th album from the legendary Mekons, a Leeds-born gaggle of instigators of punk rock anarchists that has been doing business for half a century
Transmissions :: The Weather Station (2025)
Call it “brain fog,” call it “attention economy burnout,” call it the dregs of late capitalism: however you label it, Tamara Lindeman has been feeling it. With “Neon Signs,” our favorite song from her 2025 album as The Weather Station, Humanhood—out now on Fat Possum Records—she gives names and shapes to the sense of dread so many of us feel permeating our daily existence.
“I’ve gotten used to f
Transmissions :: Lonnie Holley
Welcome back to Transmissions, your weekly conversational series from Aquarium Drunkard in partnership with the Talkhouse Podcast Network. This week on the show, a long awaited return visit from Lonnie Holley. The Atlanta artist joins us alongside his manager, Matt Arnett, son of William Arnett, the Southern art curator and collector who brought Holley to the attention of the art world in the 1980
Transmissions :: Lucy Sante
This week on Transmissions, we welcome the phenomenal writer Lucy Sante to the show to discuss her latest book, I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition. Poetic, slyly funny, and exceptionally moving, the book joins her other classics, Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York and Maybe the People Would Be the Times, as a piece of art that straddles the line between memoir, arts criticism
Transmissions :: Steve Lillywhite
Welcome back to Transmissions with Jason Woodbury. This week, Steve Lillywhite, a producer who's had as pivotal a role in shaping your host's musical taste as anyone. In this conversation, Lillywhite opens up about working with artists like Dave Matthews Band, U2, Phish, XTC, The La's, Marshall Crenshaw, The Killers, and more. From The Joshua Tree to Billy Breathes, from Before These Crowded Stree
Transmissions :: Jazz Is Dead (Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Adrian Younge)
This week on Transmissions: Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad, the duo behind the label and concert series Jazz Is Dead.
Founded in 2017, Jazz Is Dead began releasing new work by jazz artists frequently sampled in rap and hip-hop in 2020, including releases from legendary players like Roy Ayers, Azymuth, Gary Bartz, Lonnie Liston Smith, Tony Allen, and more. On January 31st, the duo released
Transmissions :: Bonnie "Prince" Billy
Welcome back to Transmissions from Aquarium Drunkard. We're kicking off our 10th season with host Jason Woodbury in conversation with Will Oldham, the man behind Bonnie “Prince” Billy, who appeared on the very first Transmissions interview back in 2016. This episode flips a gentle and honest bird to The Big Online Machine:
"Some people I think are fully integrated and are just ready to, if not off
Transmissions :: Phosphorescent
We’ve reached the end of the road for this season—season 9 concludes with this episode, a conversation with Matthew Houck, the leader of the avant-country band Phosphorescent. In April, Phosphorescent released Revelator, the band’s ninth album. It’s their debut for Verve Records, after a string of well-received albums on Dead Oceans. Joined by collaborators like Jim White of the Dirty Three—who yo
Transmissions :: Pat Irwin (Suss, The B52s)
Welcome to the penultimate episode of our ninth season, featuring Pat Irwin of Suss. You may remember him from last year’s Suss talk, with his bandmates Jonathan Gregg and Bob Holmes, but he’s back for a solo talk this time, which allowed us to dig into his wild life in music, from his time in the the late ‘70s New York No Wave scene with The Raybeats and 8-Eyed Spy, to his work with Southern frea
Transmissions :: Real Estate
Welcome back to Transmissions, we’re so glad to have you tuned into this show. This week, a talk taped earlier this summer with Martin Courtney of Real Estate.
Real Estate has been releasing great albums since the late 2000s. This year, they released their sixth LP, called Daniel. Produced in Nashville by Daniel Tashian, who produced Kacy Musgraves’ breakthrough Golden Hour, it’s a mellow, refin
Transmissions :: Rosali and David Nance
This week on the show, a double-header. First, Rosali Middleman, and then, her bandmate, collaborator, and the leader of Mowed Sound, David Nance. Together, they both play on Rosali’s fantastic 2024 album, Bite Down. Reviewing it for Aquarium Drunkard, Brent Sirota writes, “A great summer album needs hooks and choruses, big barroom rave-ups and bleary confessions of both love and doubt. Bite Down,
Transmissions :: Mitch Horowitz (2024)
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. This week on the show, one of our favorite return guests: Mitch Horowitz. As scholar and historian of the occult, he's established himself as one of the most literate voices in the New Age field.
On previous episodes, Horowitz has discussed his books, like Uncertain Places and Daydream Believer—but he’s finally taking the plunge with a podcast of
Transmissions :: Frosty and Hermanos Gutiérrez
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, this week on the show, we're joined by three guests—though, not all at once.
In the first half of the show: Mark “Frosty” McNeill of dublab and the LA Phil to discuss a new compilation he helped produce, Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archives 1971-1996; in the second-half of the show, Estevan and Alejandro Gutierrez, better known as Herm
Transmissions :: Jill Fraser
Welcome back to Transmissions—far out conversations for far out times. This week, we're joined by synthesist Jill Fraser. She's lived a remarkable life in music: mentored by Morton Subotnick, she went on work in film and television, with projects like 1974's sci-fi fantasy Zardoz and Paul Schrader's 1979 film Hardcore to her name, in addition to a litany of commercials featuring her inventive soun
Transmissions :: Matt Sweeney
This week on the show, we're pleased to present a conversation with Matt Sweeney. He’s lived a truly dazzling life in music. After coming up playing with the great band Chavez, he contributed to masterworks of indie rock—including records by Cat Power and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, with whom he crafted the monumental 2005 classic Superwolf, a classic in the Aquarium Drunkard canon. He's also worked a
Transmissions :: Jake Xerxes Fussell
If you’ve been listening to Transmissions for a while, you've noticed how often host Jason P. Woodbury brings up “time” when talking about music. And while he's certainly apt to talk about music in spiritual or "out there" terms, songs are in some ways literal time machines: they can take you back to your own past or in the case of traditional music, preserve some essential “nowness” of the human
Transmissions :: Joe Boyd
This week on Transmissions, we're sitting down with a genuine legend: Joe Boyd, author of And The Roots of Rhythm Remain: A Journey Through Global Music, out September 24 from ZE Books. On the front cover of the book Brian Eno—a venerated saint in the Aquarium Drunkard canon—declares: “I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one.”
Joe Boyd’
Transmissions :: Amelia Courthouse
This week on Transmissions, the return of Leah Toth, aka Amelia Courthouse. She was last here on the podcast in its earlier, more feral incarnation—and by feral we mean "updated with elss regularity"—but back in 2018 she reviewed Shinya Fukumori Trio’s incredible ECM release For 2 Akis. We've wanted to have Leah back on ever since, and this now we've got a great excuse to do so: the release of her
Transmissions :: Six Organs of Admittance (2024)
From early mystic folk inclinations to more fried and psychedelic work, Ben Chasny's Six Organs of Admittance project has never settled into an easy, definable zone. But 2024 sees the Six Organs sonic universe expanding kaleidoscopically, even by Chasny's prodigious standards.
First was Time Is Glass, an album that documented his return to Humboldt County; then Jinxed By Being, a collaboration wi
Transmissions :: Rich Ruth
Welcome back to Transmissions, our weekly conversational offering. On today's show? Nashville’s own Rich Ruth.
Opening his review of Ruth’s latest, the Third Man Records LP Water Still Flows, Aquarium Drunkard’s Brent Sirota states: “We don’t even have a name for what has been going on in instrumental music lately. There’s plainly some kind of new fusion afoot…[but] it doesn’t really sound like
Transmissions :: Starflyer 59
This week, we have an exceedingly rare interview with Jason Martin, of California dream pop band Starflyer 59. Fermented in the nascent Riverside dream pop underground alongside his brother Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric in the early '90s, Martin's band SF59 released its debut album, Silver, 30 years ago in 1994 on the fledgling Tooth & Nail label. His latest, Lust for Gold, finds him winking knowi
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