And we’re back. Welcome to another installment of Transmissions. For this episode, we’re bringing you one from the Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard’s archives: a live conversation with Ben Kramer and our founder Justin Gage, discussing 15 years of Aquarium Drunkard. Though RFAD is on pause, keep your eyes open for the eventual return of the Tonight Zone, Kramer’s late night call-in show. For now, tune in and drift as Kramer and Gage discuss the evolution and vision behind Aquarium Drunkard.
Category: Podcast
Transmissions :: A Conversation With Luke Schneider
Our guest this week on Transmissions is pedal steel player Luke Schneider. Best known as a sideman for Margo Price, he’s back with a New Age album, Altar of Harmony, released by the venerable Third Man Records. Schneider takes the pedal steel for a cosmic ride on his new album, conjuring up uncanny sounds that seem to bend the ear—and the heart.
Transmissions :: A Conversation With Steve Gunn
We’re joined by Steve Gunn for this episode of the Transmissions podcast—completing our round of talks with the participants of the Gunn/Lattimore/Tyler canceled tour. But there’s much more to hear here than another pandemic rap. Topics of conversation include the new Livin’ In Between EP, which pairs Gunn’s last Lagniappe Session with a brand-new cover of Neil Young’s “Motion Pictures,” Steve’s hardcore youth, immersion in the experimental Philadelphia scene, and his longstanding creative partnership with drummer John Trucinski.
Transmissions :: A Conversation With Buck Curran
On this episode, your Transmissions co-host Jason P. Woodbury caught up with guitarist and songwriter Buck Curran. Formerly one half of the psychedelic duo Arborea, Buck is currently situated in Bergamo, Italy, in one of the areas hit hardest by COVID-19. Though he’s quarantining with his family, he decided now was the right time to release his third solo album, No Love is Sorrow.
Transmissions :: UFOria (1985)—An Appreciation
A digital screening of UFOria, the 1985 science fiction comedy starring Cindy Williams, Fred Ward, and Harry Dean Stanton. At once sweet, earnest, silly, and wry, Jason P. Woodbury and Chad DePasquale suggest it’s perfect quarantine viewing. Tune in.
Transmissions :: A Conversation With Jesse Jarnow
For this episode of Transmissions, we’re joined by author, WFMU DJ, and historian of all things “heady,” Jesse Jarnow. With society in a state of monumental flux, it felt like the perfect time to ring Jesse up to discuss the radical possibilities of the current moment, science fiction, various dystopian and utopian happenings and jam culture’s ahead of the curve embrace of live streaming tech.
Transmissions :: A Conversation With Mary Lattimore
The music of Mary Lattimore is at once intimate and cosmic—her unfolding and widening harp epics connect outer expanses to inner realms. No matter the context, Lattimore’s musical voice resounds as a calming and clear one. Which is why, as the pandemic blues really kick in, Transmissions hosts Justin Gage and Jason P. Woodbury rang her up to discuss adjusting creative practices, dealing with daily anxieties, and narrow down which Succession character is least despicable.
Transmissions :: A Conversation With Patterson Hood
And we’re back with a check in with songwriter, bandleader, and longtime Aquarium Drunkard supporter Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers. Earlier this year, the Truckers released their 12th lp, The Unraveling, a righteously pissed off record about gun violence, white supremacy, and the possibility of reincarnation. We rang up Hood to talk about quarantining in Portland, Oregon, the ins and outs of modern America, the new Bob Dylan song, and his early, formative experience seeing the great John Martyn.
Transmissions: A Conversation With William Tyler
For the last decade, William Tyler’s widescreen guitar epics have told wordless stories, about forgotten histories, American myths, backroads, and mystic visions. On this episode of Transmissions he discusses traveling to Nashville as the pandemic spread and the art he’s been enjoying while hunkered down.
Transmissions :: Strange Days—A Conversation
Social distance dispatching. Some background, to start. In recent weeks, we’ve been assembling elements—interviews, readings, scripts, segments—for the next season of the Transmissions podcast. But the onset of global pandemic has caused us to consider: What feels important right now? Would discussing it help? To that end, we’re taking the Transmissions podcast weekly for now, and featuring check-ins between AD founder Justin Gage and editor Jason P. Woodbury. We have a lot of plans for the podcast in the coming weeks, from guest interviews to audio collages, but expect it to be loose. Stay in, wash your hands, reach out to those who need you. Remember you need them too.
Transmissions :: Jeff Parker on Suite for Max Brown
As an integral member of Tortoise and an in-demand session player, guitarist Jeff Parker has become one of the most prominent names in the modern jazz vanguard. His new album Suite for Max Brown blends tasteful classicism with electronic and beat-indebted flourishes. Parker joins us to explore the album’s varied palette and spiritual core.
Transmissions Podcast :: Don Muro/The Replacements, Dead Man’s Pop
On this episode, we sit down with educator, synth pioneer, and all around genuine soul Don Muro. Then, Josh Neas offers a personal reflection on Dead Man’s Pop, the 2019 Replacement boxset that creates a kind of alternate timeline version of the band’s 1989 lp Don’t Tell a Soul.
Transmissions Podcast :: Whitney/Don Slepian/Nick Cave’s Ghosteen: A Discussion
Boys and girls, All Hallows’ Eve is here, and you’re tuned into the October edition of the Transmissions podcast. The veil is thin and we’re back with another round of discussions and digressions. In this episode, Chicago’s Whitney discusses Forever Turned Around, the group’s sophomore lp. Then, New Age pioneer Don Slepian takes us back to the early ’80s. And to close out, a long ramble about Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ haunted instant classic, Ghosteen.
Transmissions Podcast :: Devendra Banhart/Kristin Hersh/Bill Orcutt
Equinox edition. Welcome to the September episode of our monthly Transmissions Podcast, our series of conversations with musicians and artists about why—and how—their art exists. This time out, Aquarium Drunkard founder Justin Gage sits down at AD HQ with Devendra Banhart to spin selections and discuss his new album, Ma. Then, Jason P. Woodbury joins Throwing Muses founder, solo artist, and writer Kristin Hersh backstage to discuss future sounds from Throwing Muses and Don’t Suck, Don’t Die, her book about her friend, the departed Vic Chesnutt. And to close out, Jason rings up Bill Orcutt, whose latest release, the sparse electric guitar noir, Odds Against Tomorrow, sees release October 11th.
Transmissions Podcast :: Lower Dens/Rain Phoenix
Welcome to a late summer edition of the Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions podcast. On this episode, we’ve got two talks taped at AD HQ in Los Angeles.