Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. This week on the show, Joe Pernice of The Pernice Brothers, Scud Mountain Boys, and Chappaquiddick Skyline—as well as books, records, and other projects under his own name. The Bros are back with Who Will You Believe. Pernice joins us to discuss.
Category: Podcast
Transmissions :: Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music)
This week on Transmissions, guitarist Phil Manzanera, who joins us to discuss his latest project, a memoir called Revolución to Roxy. Writing about his childhood in revolutionary Cuba, his lifelong fascination with music, and his collaborations and run-ins with people like Brian Eno, David Gilmour, Robert Wyatt, and more, Manzera reveals his Zelig-like status as one of art-rock’s most creatively pivotal figures. He joins us to discuss it all.
Transmissions :: Jeff Tweedy of Wilco
2024 marks 20 years of Wilco’s current lineup, and the band is celebrating with another installment of their Solid Sound Festival and a new EP, Hot Sun Cool Shroud. Band leader Jeff Tweedy joins host Jason P. Woodbury this week to discuss the fest and the absurdities of life in a band.
Transmissions :: Julian Lage
Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, our weekly series of illuminating interviews and contextual conversations. This week on the show, guitarist and composer Julian Lage. On his latest album, the Blue Note release Speak To Me, Lage often presents himself as something of a singer/songwriter—minus the singing, that is. Joined by a five-piece band and producer Joe Henry, Lage careens from jittery free jazz to classic West Coast pop, maintaining a careful flow that feels generous but considered, diverse but not haphazard.
Transmissions :: Leyla McCalla
Incoming transmission. On this episode of our weekly podcast, singer/songwriter Leyla McCalla joins us to discuss the new sonic terrain of her latest album, Sun Without The Heat.
Transmissions :: Steve Roach
Synth lifer Steve Roach has maintained a steady workflow for decades, releasing a steady stream of ambient and electronic soundscapes. With the 40th anniversary of Structures From Silence just passed, he joined us to discuss his creative process, learning to go with your own flow, and his lifelong sonic journey.
Transmissions :: Amen Dunes
This week on our podcast, Damon McMahon of Amen Dunes joins Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions to discuss the spiritual vastness of his beat-driven album, Death Jokes. Stacked with samples of artists like Lenny Bruce and J Dilla, it doesn’t reveal itself quickly, but reveals more with each listen.
Transmissions :: Jim Jupp (Belbury Poly & Ghost Box Records)
This week on Transmissions, Jim Jupp, co-founder of Ghost Box Records, which has mined TV soundtracks, vintage electronics, psychedelia, pop, and supernatural folklore for decades, issuing music by Broadcast, Pye Corner Audio, The Advisory Circle, and Jupp’s own band, The Belbury Poly, who released the jazzy, psychedelic concept album The Path last year. This week on Transmissions, Jupp joins us to discuss his storied label, plumbing the nostalgic depths, the evocative spaces of The Twilight Zone, fairy lore, extraterrestrial, and yes, the lure of “hauntology.”
Transmissions :: Shabaka Hutchings
Though he’s known for his fiery, raging performances with groups like Sons of Kemet, The Comet Is Coming, and Shabaka and The Ancestors, Shabaka Hutchings eases into a contemplative zone with his debut solo album, Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace. “What does it mean to have music of spiritual substance? What does it mean to be spiritual? What is spirit?” This week on Transmissions, Shabaka Hutchings joins us to discuss that force, his shift toward the flute, the influence of Outkast, and connecting with his father on a creative level.
Transmissions :: Sean Howe (Live at PRS)
On Saturday, April 20th, Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions returned to the esoteric grounds of the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles for a living taping with guest host Will Sheff (Okkervil River) in conversation author Sean Howe, discussing Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s, book on High Times founder, provocateur, and trickster Thomas King Forçade as part of PRS’ Earth Day celebration Plantstock.
Transmissions :: Moor Mother
On The Great Bailout, Moor Mother transmuting jazz, noise, rock, folk, gospel, classical music—melting down genres in a poetic churn. Moor Mother plays history and time like a science fiction story, bending temporal moments in a psychedelic flurry. This conversation flows in similar way. Join us to jump through timelines, ponder the Mandela Effect, and untangle histories with Moor Mother on Transmissions.
Transmissions :: Pat Thomas
This week on Transmissions, author, producer, archivist, and musician Pat Thomas. In the late ’80s, he helped take the Paisley Underground overground with his label Heyday Records. Later, he helped bring out reissues by artists like Judee Sill, Sandy Bull, PiL, and more. And as if all that wasn’t enough, he’s the author of a number of essential counterculture histories and a musician himself. He joins us today on Transmisions.
Transmissions :: Justin Gage
This week on Transmissions, Aquarium Drunkard founder Justin Gage joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss big changes coming to Aquarium Drunkard: AD is transitioning to a membership-based model subscription model on April 8th. Transmissions has a very smart audience and one that’s tapped in—so we likely don’t need to explain to you how much the online landscape has changed, but this decision wasn’t reached lightly, and this conversation will shine some light on the reasons behind our moves.
Transmissions :: Roger Eno
Incoming transmission from Roger Eno. This week on the show, he joins us for a freewheeling, friendly chat about art, place, and Dune (1984). Eno began his recording life in 1983, when he joined his brother Brian and Daniel Lanois at the latter’s studio in Hamilton, Ontario, to cut one of our favorite albums of all-time, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. Imbued with country and western ambiance, it suggests the vastness of space and man’s ventures into it. Not only that, but it serves as one of the foundational documents of the “ambient country” subgenre that practically forms its own corner of the Aquarium Drunkard sonic universe.
Transmissions :: The Paranoid Style
This week we’re welcoming Elizabeth Nelson of The Paranoid Style to the show for a conversation about music, writing, ZZ Top, and her new album, The Interrogator. Packed with pub rock charm, punk verve, and rootsy, wide-eyed songwriting, the album finds Nelson and her collaborators, including partner Timothy Bracy and Peter Holsapple of The dB’s, cranking the amps in service of sharp, literary rock & roll. Sitting down with host Jason P. Woodbury, Nelson explores her dual roles as a writer and artist, details her unique and optimistic approach to posting on X (formerly Twitter), and generally indulges in music geek back-and-forth.