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 1980s. Lonnie and Matt join us ahead of the March 21st release of Holley’s new album, Tonky. Crafted with Irish producer Jacknife Lee (R.E.M., U2, The Killers) and featuring guests like Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, harpist Mary Lattimore, rappers Billy Woods and Open Mike Eagle, spoken word from Saul Williams, and others, Tonky rattles with blues
Category: Podcast
Transmissions :: Lucy Sante
The great writer Lucy Sante joins us on Transmissions to talk about her latest book, I Heard Her Call My Name: A Memoir of Transition, Bob Dylan, fashion, the early days of music journalism, The Velvet Underground and more: “I didn’t meet anybody who listened to The Velvets, until I got to college in ‘72. But it felt then there was a secret society of us all over the globe. It’s like that Eno quote about ‘everybody who heard the first album went out and started their own band.’ Well, everybody who heard the second album, I don’t know. I guess we all turned into other kinds of weirdos.” Plus, Scott Bunn of Recliner Notes joins us in the intro to discuss Sante’s singular way with words.
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 Streets to Field Day, Lillywhite speaks about it all, the influence of dub, his production approach, and more.
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. Recorded in analog at Linear Labs, the Jazz is Dead series does more than pair younger players with established elders; it showcases the powerful link that connects musicians across decades.
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. He returns to Transmissions to unpack and discuss his new country album, The Purple Bird, uploading souls to the Metaverse, guns, and why he’d work with Phil Spector.
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 you heard earlier this season—Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs, and his wife and songwriting partner Jo Schornikow, it finds Houck examining—what else?—the end of the world.
Transmissions :: Pat Irwin (Suss, B-52s)
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 freak icons The B-52s, and his long career crafting music for TV and animation, including shows like Rocko’s Modern Life and Bored to Death.
Transmissions :: Real Estate
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, refined sound—deeply rooted in acoustic ‘90s rock textures and dappled with pedal steel. It’s a record about growing up, and accepting all that comes with accumulated time spent here on earth.
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. This week on Transmissions, they open up about their collaborative process in two individual interviews.
Transmissions :: Mitch Horowitz (2024)
This week on the show, one of our favorite return guests, Mitch Horowitz. A scholar 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 his own. It’s called Extraordinary Evidence | ESP Is Real, a “limited series on the history, struggles, and proofs of parapsychology and the science of studying the supernatural.” How do UFOs and ESP connect? He joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss.
Transmissions :: Frosty and Hermanos Gutiérrez
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 Hermanos Gutiérrez just us to discuss their latest album of spacey guitar instrumentals, Sonido Cosmico.
Transmissions :: Jill Fraser
Synthesist Jill Fraser has 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 sound design. In the ’80s, she found herself on the outskirts of LA’s thriving punk scene, and now, she’s released a new album cum science fictional sacred saga, Earthly Pleasures, on the storied Drag City label. She joins us to discuss.
Transmissions :: Matt Sweeney
Is Matt Sweeney the only guy to play on both a Current 93 and Dixie Chicks record? We suspect so. This week on Transmissions, he joins us to discuss the Monkees-like nature of his band, The Hard Quartet, with Stephen Malkmus of Pavement, Jim White of The Dirty Three, and Emmett Kelly of The Cairo Gang. He joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss.
Transmissions :: Jake Xerxes Fussell
As the son of folklorist, photographer, and artist Fred C. Fussell, Jake Xerxes Fussell spent time on the road with his father, documenting the sound and feel of blues singers, indigenous fiddlers, and performers whose songbooks reached back generations. He joins us to discuss musical deep time and his latest When I’m Called.
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.” Boyd joins us to discuss the book and his work with Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, and much more.