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.
Category: Podcast
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.
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 incredible new album under the Amelia Courthouse name, broken things. Blending Protestant solemnity with dream pop bliss with extended, meditative ambient music and skeletal folk, she’s created a work of gentle and imperfect holiness.
Transmissions :: Six Organs of Admittance (2024)
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 his prodigious standards. For this return visit to Transmissions, Chasny discusses his trio of 2024 releases, working with ambient dub master Shackleton and noise experimenter Twig Harper, his experiences playing with David Tibet’s apocalyptic avant-garde collective Current 93, and cultivating online community through the Six Organs Patreon. Plus: Mark Neeley on Pure Animation for Now People, a collaboration with Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo.
Transmissions :: Rich Ruth
Welcome back to Transmissions, our weekly conversational offering. On today’s show? Nashville’s own Rich Ruth, who joins us to discuss his jazz rock opus for Third Man Records, Water Still Flows
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 knowingly at the title of his 1995 album Gold, a record routinely cited as one of the best shoegaze albums of all-time.
Transmissions :: Yasmin Williams
This week on Transmissions, return guest Yasmin Williams. On October 4th, she releases Acadia via Nonesuch Records. It’s her long awaited follow up to 2021’s Urban Driftwood, and like that record, it’s beautiful—a showcase for a one-of-a-kind artist. Williams first came back on the show way back in the lockdown days, but life has changed greatly for her since then. She discusses some of those changes, and opens up about her desire to create with Acadia something of a refuge from the chaos of the world. Ahead of its release, she joins Jason P. Woodbury for a rousing conversation.
Transmissions :: La Lom
Sometimes, background music moves to the foreground. That’s the case with today’s guests, guitarist Zac Sokolow, bassist Jake Faulkner, and drummer Nicholas Baker. Together, they form La Lom—short for the Los Angeles League of Musicians. In 2019, they were hired to bring suitably vibey music to the lobby of the historic Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Now, they’ve got a new album coming out on Verve. They join us to discuss.
Transmissions :: The Lemon Twigs
The Lemon Twigs on Todd Rundgren, Sean Lennon, Jonathan Rado of Foxygen and their latest album, A Dream Is All We Know.
Transmissions :: Daniel Bachman
This week on a far-ranging episode of Transmissions: guitarist, folklorist, and all-around-top-notch thinker Daniel Bachman. A songwriter and composer from Fredericksburg, Virginia, Bachman first began releasing records under the name Sacred Harp, before adopting his own name for a series of finger-picked classics. In the years since, Bachman’s music has grown more and more experimental, and also, it’s become more directly informed by climate change. He joins us to discuss.
Transmissions :: Chris Cohen
In this wide-ranging chat, guest host Zara Hedderman and Chris Cohen discuss Paint a Room, working record stores, Transcendental Meditation, the Grateful Dead, and much more. It’s an open and tender conversation, full of funny moments and deep insight.