Bonus episode! Our guest for this Sunday edition of Transmissions is John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats. 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. John’s songs have hailed Satan and cast possums in a theological light. He’s written about myths, tragic heroes, and people trying to unwreck themselves. We were very excited to speak with him about his latest and much more.
Category: Podcast
Transmissions :: Hari Kunzru
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.
Transmissions :: Joe Wong
On his new album Nite Creatures, composer, podcaster, and journeyman Joe Wong stares down existential dread with vivid psych pop lushness and playful sonic abandon. He joins us this week on Transmissions to discuss his work as a television music composer and much more.
Transmissions :: Joe Pera & Skyway Man
Joe Pera of Joe Pera Talks With You and Skyway Man join us on Transmissions to discuss their work together and SM’s new psych-folk opera The World Only Ends When You Die.
Transmissions :: Beverly Glenn-Copeland
The release of the new collection Transmissions: The Music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland continues a wave of new appreciation for the pioneering folk, electronic, and experimental composer’s celestial and enveloping songs. Glenn-Copeland joins us to discuss science fiction, aliens, and picking up broadcasts from the universe.
Transmissions :: Sam Prekop
Incoming transmission from…Sam Prekop. For more than 25 years, he’s released music with the Sea and Cake and on his own. His last few solo albums have found him focusing less on pop song craft and more on analog synthesizers and ambient textures. His latest for Thrill Jockey records is called Comma and on it he blends serene soundscapes with twitching electronic rhythms. Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury reached him in Chicago to talk about hunkering down, synths, and how he and his Sea and Cake bandmates continue their remarkable work together.
Transmissions :: Bill Frisell
Our guest this week is legendary guitarist Bill Frisell. His latest is called Valentine. It’s out now on the Blue Note label, and it finds him in a trio setting, joined by Thomas Morgan on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. It features Malian folk, standards, and originals, and it’s as deft, nuanced, and emotive as you might expect. Bill joined us early on a Saturday morning to discuss the record, his friendship with the late Hal Wilner, his deep listening practices, and telepathy.
Transmissions :: Jerry David DeCicca
Our guest this week is Jerry David DeCicca. Perhaps you know him best from Black Swans, or maybe some of the great albums he’s produced by so called “outsider” songwriters like Ed Askew, Larry Jon Wilson, and Chris Gantry, among others. Since 2014, he’s been putting out great records under his own name. His latest is called The Unlikely Optimist And His Domestic Adventures. Jerry describes it as “an anti-Hallmark ode to positivity.” Who couldn’t use some positivity this year? In advance of its release on October 16th, Aquarium Drunkard correspondent Chad DePasquale joined Jerry to discuss Texas, his pets and social services work, and of course, Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways, which JDD idiosyncratically reviewed for Aquarium Drunkard.
Transmissions :: Swamp Dogg
Our guest week on Transmissions is Jerry Williams Jr., but if you know your musical cult heroes, you probably know him by the name Swamp Dogg. Since the early ’50s, he’s lived as a true record man—writing songs, producing artists, self-releasing music, and putting out major label flops that have gone on to achieve lost classic status. He’s always walked the line between R&B and country, making a joke of the music industry’s intentional segregating of white and black audiences. His latest is called Sorry You Couldn’t Make It, and it pairs him with producer Ryan Olson, Bon Iver, Jenny Lewis, and the late John Prine. Over the many years, Swamp Dogg has embraced auto-tune, twang, and ambient flourishes. He joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss it all.
Transmissions :: Chris Forsyth
Our guest this week is Chris Forsyth, guitarist, bandleader, composer, and DIY lifer. His studio albums evoke the punk psychedelia of Television, balancing ‘70s rock grooves the loose, exploratory feel of the Dead. But as good as his studio LPs are, it might be live recordings that best showcase his sound. His latest is called First Flight. On it, he’s joined by guitarist Dave Harrington, drummer Ryan Jewell, and bassist Spencer Zahn on stage at Nublu in New York City on September 20th, 2019.
Transmissions :: Eric Slick
This week on Transmissions, we’re joined by songwriter and Dr. Dog drummer Eric Slick. His new album of classic pop songcraft is called Wiseacre. Best known for his work with Dr. Dog and Natalie Prass, Wiseacre was inspired by the golden-hued melodies of Harry Nilsson, Haruomi Hosono, and a general ’70s gloss. It’s a deeply personal record, one that explores contentment and domesticity, as well as unpacking no small amount of personal weirdness and trauma.
Transmissions :: Georgia Anne Muldrow is Jyoti
On her new album Mama, You Can Bet Georgia Anne Muldrow leans into her jazziest tendencies, incorporating two remixes of works by Charles Mingus, whose influence is palpable. But as Jyoti, Muldrow is her own creation, and her love of electronic funk, ambient, and hip-hop colors and shades the album. Ahead of what would have been Turiya Alice Coltrane’s birthday on August 27th, Georgia joined Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury via Skype to discuss the new record, the West Coast jazz tradition, and maintaining a long running creative partnership and independent label with her husband, Dudley Perkins.
Transmissions :: Michael Rother
As a member of Neu!, Harmonia, and an early incarnation of Kraftwerk, Michael Rother’s fluid, emotive playing helped define the sound of krautrock, as the music came up out of Germany’s avant-garde underground in the late ’60s and headed for the cosmos in the 1970s. He was kind enough to join us on Transmissions to discuss his new boxset, Solo II, his musical youth in India, and his collaborations with his fellow finding fathers of kosmische musik.
Transmissions :: Colin Dickey’s The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession With The Unexplained
Our guest this week is Colin Dickey, author of The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession With The Unexplained. Bigfoot, UFOs, the Loch Ness Monster, phantom islands like Atlantis and Lemuria…the paranormal haunts our collective imagination. In his new book, Dickey smartly explores the lore woven into these topics, and along the way, he describes the way occult literature, pulp magazines, pop culture, and media myth-making influences and shapes our perception of these damned subjects.
Transmissions :: The Microphones
It’s hard to sum up Phil Elverum’s story, but in a weird way, that’s kind of what he does on his new record, The Microphones in 2020, which features one, 44-minute long song. It’s his first time using the Microphones name since 2003, and to hear him express it, it’s kind of an album about identity. While it’s no less autobiographical than his recent records, it’s a step in a different direction, temporal poetry about transience and the way a person becomes a different person—but somehow, it’s also how they stay the same person. Once again, we’re dabbling in paradox and contradiction. This week on Transmissions, he opens his (virtual) door and invites us in to discuss the new album, personal history, identity, and Weird Al.