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Transmissions

Aquarium Drunkard

Weekly interviews with musicians, artists, authors, and filmmakers presented by Aquarium Drunkard.

music music commentary

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72:20

Transmissions :: Jon Wurster

Transmissions ·

2021/08/25

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.

57:08

Transmissions :: Nathan Salsburg

Transmissions ·

2021/08/18

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

55:47

Transmissions :: Rickie Lee Jones

Transmissions ·

2021/08/11

“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

70:58

Transmissions :: John Leckie

Transmissions ·

2021/08/04

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.

61:44

Transmissions :: Melvin Gibbs

Transmissions ·

2021/07/28

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

62:22

Transmissions :: Anika

Transmissions ·

2021/07/21

This week on Transmissions: Anika. Best known for her work with Geoff Barrow and Mexico City's Exploded View, she returns with Change, an album of subtle electronic pop, driving bass lines, and lyrics that veer from quixotic to inspiring. Anika joined us for a discussion about her time as a journalist, the shifting state of reality, and crafting an album amidst a global pandemic.

67:22

Transmissions :: Rodrigo Amarante

Transmissions ·

2021/07/14

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

65:10

Transmissions :: Rose City Band

Transmissions ·

2021/07/08

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

73:52

Transmissions :: Tom Scharpling

Transmissions ·

2021/07/07

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

66:58

Transmissions :: Carlos Niño

Transmissions ·

2021/06/29

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.

66:28

Transmissions :: Six Organs of Admittance

Transmissions ·

2021/06/23

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

62:16

Transmissions :: Jeffrey Silverstein

Transmissions ·

2021/06/18

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

71:54

Transmissions :: John Grant

Transmissions ·

2021/06/16

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.

66:26

Transmissions :: Colleen

Transmissions ·

2021/06/09

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

70:48

Transmissions :: Jim Jarmusch

Transmissions ·

2021/06/02

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

64:51

Sarah Louise :: Transmissions

Transmissions ·

2021/05/26

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

67:24

Transmissions :: Wadada Leo Smith

Transmissions ·

2021/05/19

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

64:27

Transmissions :: Richard Thompson

Transmissions ·

2021/05/12

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

57:52

Transmissions :: J Mascis

Transmissions ·

2021/05/05

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

50:56

Transmissions :: Joanna Brouk

Transmissions ·

2021/04/28

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

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