Aquarium Drunkard - Sidecar (transmissions) - Podcast

This week on Transmissions, we’re settling in for a tremendous conversation with Jason Stern and Don Fleming of the Lou Reed Archive. A decade on from his passing in 2013, Lou Reed's work remains as vital as ever, thanks in no small part to the efforts of people like Jason and Don. Working together with Laurie Anderson, they’ve helped bring a number of projects into existence, including the New York Public Library’s Caught Between the Twisted Stars exhibit, which runs through March 4th, and last year’s revelatory demos collection Words and Music: May 1965. Next month sees the release of a new book, The Art Of The Straight Line, which assembles Reed’s unpublished musings on tai chi, music, and meditation.  Both Jason and Don are, on their own, fascinating music lifers. In addition to his own bands, like Velvet Monkeys and Gumball, Fleming has worked with Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub, Nancy Sinatra, and many more. His work as an archivist is equally impressive, and it’s found him working with the Alan Lomax, Hu

We’re hanging out with Mac DeMarco this week on Transmissions. For the last decade plus, he’s been a reliable source for laid back DIY music—a post-indie sleaze crooner with a warped sense of humor and charm. His latest album forgoes lyrics in favor of instrumentals. It’s called Five Easy Hot Dogs and it came about as the result of series of recording sessions Mac underwent while on a road trip. Cruising around with a fan full of gear and a head full of ideas, DeMarco let the songs flow and named each composition after the locale where he recorded it. We caught up with Mac to discuss life in LA, quitting smoking, the influence of heavy grade players in his orbit like Thundercat, Domi and JD Beck, covering Metallica, working with Tim Heidecker, Lil Yachty, and much more. Transmissions is produced in partnership with Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patreon supporters. We’ll be back next Wednesday with Don Fleming and Jason Stern of the Lou Reed Archive, who join us for a wide rang

This week on Transmissions, a revelatory talk with Max Turnbull of Badge Époque Ensemble. Last year, BEE released two great projects: the remix album Clouds of Joy: Chance of Reign, a collaboration with producer Lammping and rappers like Boldy James, THE03, and others, and the magisterial Clouds of Joy, which landed on the Aquarium Drunkard Year in Review best of the year list. A stirring blend of jazz, choral music, prog, funk, R&B, and indie rock, it’s a layered and dynamic creation. When we interviewed Turnbull for AD back in 2021, he said, “I like the idea of music as a communicator for philosophic or spiritually inclined ideas.” We knew a proper pod talk was in order and sure enough, this chat doesn't disappoint. We discussed Max’s work with his wife, Meg Remy of U.S. Girls, his lifelong hip-hop influence, and the myriad and mysterious ways music connects to listeners. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forward your f

This week on Transmissions: Nina Persson and James Yorkston join host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss The Great White Sea Eagle, their low key and homey collection of folk rock. Created in collaboration with the Second Hand Orchestra, it’s saturated with soul and kind wit. Calling in from their respective places in Sweden and Scotland, Persson and Yorkston joined us to discuss how the improvisatory album came together, and from there, we explore a bevy of interesting topics, including run-ins with members of Black Sabbath, Nina's interactions with Tom Jones, Yorkston’s ill-fated tour with John Martyn, and much more.  Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forward your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by its Patrons—if you'd like to become one, visit us on Patreon. Next week on the show, Max Turnbull of Badge Époque Ensemble joins us for a far out talk about

We're joined this week by James McNew of Yo La Tengo and Dump. For decades now, he’s been a prolific source of engaged independent rock music—the kind we like here at Aquarium Drunkard. As past work like I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass proves, YLT are masters of a great sardonic album title, and on February 10th, the band continues that tradition with its 16th album, This Stupid World.   When McNew and host Jason P. Woodbury connected, Yo La Tengo had recently finished its annual Hanukkah celebration, which is where we pick up our talk. But from there, the conversation roves into interesting places: McNew’s dalliances with hip-hop, important Dump anniversaries—including the 25th anniversary of his Prince covers album. From Yoko Ono to Sun Ra to the Dave Matthews Band, plenty of surprises pop up in this conversation—just like the YLT discography.  Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite e

Our 2023 season is officially underway. This week on the show, Chad Clark of Beauty Pill. He and his bandmate Erin Nelson joined AD in March last year, and on January 20th, Ernest Jenning Record Co. releases Blue Period, a double LP compilation featuring music Clark recorded for the legendary punk label Dischord Records between 2003-2005—including the full-length LP The Unsustainable Lifestyle, the You Are Right To Be Afraid EP, and a whole slew of outtakes, demos, and rarities. When this music was originally released, fans accustomed to Clark’s pioneering punk band Smart Went Crazy, early Beauty Pill, or Clark’s work with Fugazi and The Dismemberment Plan, wasn’t sure what to make of its art-pop ambitions, detours into jazz, and complex lyricism. Clark and Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury get into all that, and along the way, they touch on his recurring health issues, race, mortality, what it feels like when critics dismiss your work, and much more. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the s

Welcome to the final episode of Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions’ 2022 season. We saved a great one for the finale: Kid Congo Powers. Born Brian Tristan in La Puente, California, he eventually adopted the stage name which appears on the cover of Some New Kind of Kick, a new memoir that documents his time in The Cramps, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and The Gun Club, with whom he’s credited for “excessive feedback, guitar and slide guitar, whirling whirlies, maracas and ancient mutterings.” And that’s not all it covers. Kid’s story is a layered one. The book, written with Chris Campion, gets into all of it, including frank examinations of queer identity, struggles with addiction, and his connection to the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce—who’s dream visit inspired his 2020 Pink Monkey Birds Latin psych epic “He Walked In.”  At once hilarious, tender, and possessing an almost dreamlike spiritual quality, it’s a great read. And it arrives alongside two new records: Summer Forever and Ever, the second album by Wolfmanhattan

Writing about the Bedhead career retrospective 1992-1998 for Pitchfork, writer Mark Richardson put it nicely: “Bedhead had no time for or interest in anything extraneous to the music…And this is what it sounded like—serious, intense, smart, beautiful, occasionally frightening...” Today on the show, we are joined by the Kadane Brothers, who founded Bedhead in 1991 in Dallas, Texas. Matt Kadane calls in from his place in New York, where he teaches history, and Bubba Kadane from Texas, where he composes music for film and television.  One of the defining bands of the “slowcore” movement, Bedhead had three guitars but was sparse, melding post-punk to humming Velvets-inspired intensity. Following the end of Bedhead, they formed another pioneering indie rock band, The New Year, and they’ve dabbled in side projects all along the way, including Overseas, with David Bazan of Pedro the Lion and Will Johnson of Centro-matic, and Bubba’s ambient project Sigh of Relief. On this episode of Transmissions, we dig into Bedhea

On Slow Fawn, Sam Cohen, a producer, songwriter, and musician known for his work with Apollo Sunshine, Yellowbirds, Kevin Morby, Danger Mouse and Karen O, creates a glowing, meditative space. Inspired by Terry Riley's A Rainbow in Curved Air and drawing from long jam sessions with his collaborators, it reflects Sam's desire to "create a world without friction, where you could float and feel joy." Combining dashes of jazz, synthesized new age, pop, and minimalist grace and it’s a record we've returned to many times over the last few months. Cohen joins host Jason P. Woodbury from his studio in upstate New York to discuss music's power to connect us to each other, his motivation for creating music, and opening up his own studio. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Matt and Bubba Kadane of Bedhead and The New Ye

This week on the show, Joe Rainey. Hailing from Minnesota, he’s a powwow singer of the Red Lake Ojibwe tribe. He’s known for collaborations with Bon Iver, Chance the Rapper and Alan Sparhawk of Low, and in May he released his debut solo album, Niineta on Justin Vernon’s 38do3d label. Created in conjunction with producer Andrew Broder, it pairs his vocals with samples culled from his vast collection of powwow tapes, thundering percussion, and dense, thickly layered electronic soundscapes. With its double-meaning titles like “No Chants” and “Easy on the Cide” nodding toward Rainey’s understated sense of humor, Niineta takes on a collage-like quality that bends time. He joined us from to discuss his days traveling the powwow circuit, how the collaboration with Broder came to be, and his teenage interest in rap.  Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Pod

This week on our weekly interview podcast, a wide-ranging interview with Clem Burke of Blondie. He joins us to discuss the band’s early years, interactions with luminaries like Robert Fripp and Giorgio Moroder, the fashion forward cultural shift, disco, and Numero Group’s monumental box set collection: Blondie: Against The Odds 1974-1982. A game conversationalist, Burke brings a quick wit and sharp intellect to this chat, which traces the group's evolution, early days, and his work as a case study documenting the physical condition of drummers. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Joe Rainey.

This week on the show, Danalogue (Dan Leavers), Betamax (Max Hallett) and Shabaka Hutchings, known collectively as the improvisational crew The Comet is Coming. You might know Dan and Max from Soccer96, and Hutchings from his many projects, including Shabaka and the Ancestors and Sons of Kemet. Their new album is called Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam. Recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, it’s a blur of electronic music, funk ferocity, and free jazz squall. As that title likely suggests, this conversation goes all over the map, digging into concepts like apocalyptic imagination, the dynamics of improv, and artificial intelligence.  Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Clem Burke of Blondie.

Welcome to another episode of Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, we're so glad to have you here. Today on the show, Ken Shipley of Numero Group. October has arrived, but the storied Chicago label was still in the midst of its September ‘90s month celebration of reissues from Codeine, Karate, Current, and Unwound when we taped this conversation. Since then, the label has announced a truly bonkers 20th anniversary celebration for 2023, which will see Unwound, Codeine, The Hated, Karate, Ida, Chisel, Everyone Asked About You, Ui (featuring Transmissions guest Sasha Frere-Jones), Rex and Tsunami for the Feb. 18-19 event, which will be held at Los Angeles’ Palace Theater. In this conversation, Shipley and host Jason P. Woodbury discuss how the label has evolved, aesthetics, the new Blondie boxset, Shipley’s midwest emo roots and pre-Numero days at Rykodisc and Tree Records, whether or not Numero will ever release a nu-metal reissue and lots more.  Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please co

With his debut book My Life in the Sunshine: Searching For My Father and Discovering My Family, Nabil Ayers walks a tightrope, balancing personal and familial history with stories about a life spent playing music, working in record stores, and falling in love with music. On this episode of Transmissions, Ayers discusses it all with host Jason P. Woodbury: wild record store tales, formative live music experiences, his work with 4AD, The Control Group, and Beggars Group, and his complicated relationship with his father Roy Ayers. Through out the talk, you'll also hear selections from Valley of Search, the 1975 free jazz album by his uncle Alan Braufman, which Ayers founded the label of the same name to reissue. An open, emotive, and riveting chat, we're thrilled to share this one with our listeners. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network

Welcome to another episode of Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. This week on the show, Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson and guitarist Yonatan Gat join us to discuss their collaborative work as Medicine Singers, which pairs the powwow drum and the voices of the Eastern Medicine Singers with Yonatan’s electrified guitar and contributions from experimental composer Joe Rainey, Ikue Mori of DNA, Thor Harris of Swans, previous Transmissions guest Laraaji, and the late jamie branch. Tapped into a kind of frenzied energy, the album is an overpowering force, and it features a transcendent cover of Link Wray’s immortal “Rumble.” Ahead of a performance September 24 at Pioneer Works with guests Lee Ranaldo, Laraaji, and Thor Harris, Jamieson and Gat join us to discuss their collaboration. A quick word: sorry about some of the audio in this one; there was an issue with a connection, but the conversation is more than worth it.  Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating

Today on Transmissions, representatives of the Cosmic Network Gloria de Oliveira and Dean Hurley join us to discuss their new album of dream pop bliss and New Ages swoon, Oceans of Time, out this week from Sacred Bones Records.  Dean is best known for his work with David Lynch, with whom he’s collaborated on sound design, music, and more since 2006’s Inland Empire. Gloria is a German-Brazilian songwriter and singer. Without ever meeting in person, they fashioned Oceans of Time. Part Cocteau Twins, part Pure Moods, and also entirely its own thing, it’s a fantastic recording. In this interview, they join host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss their haunting cover of Jeff Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser’s “All Flowers in Time,” the myriad ways Lynch influenced the project, and the ever elusive nature of time and existence. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse

We're sitting down with Chicago sisters Eibur, Charlene, and Chanté Stepney, who join us to discuss the work of their father, the late Charles Stepney. As a producer and arranger, Stepney was at the helm for incredible '60s and '70s work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Rotary Connection, The Dells, Muddy Waters, Minnie Riperton, Ramsey Lewis, Terry Callier, and many more before his passing in 1976. But on Step on Step, a mind-blowing new collection from International Anthem, a new vision of Stepney emerges: that of a home recording genius. Propelled by a drum machine and warm synths, the music here was recorded alone on a 4-track in his Southside Chicago basement, it retains the sophistication of his studio efforts but presents his sound in a raw, utterly unvarnished manner. As the Summer of Stepney rolls on, the Stepney Sisters join host Jason P. Woodbury to unpack who Stepney was, his relationship with his wife and partner Rubie, his love of science fiction, and his status as one of hip-hop’s most sampled composer

Our return guest today on Transmissions: Chris Forsyth. The Philadelphia-based guitarist and bandleader is back with a new album, Evolution Here We Come. On it his backed up by an all-star cast including Tom Malach (Garcia Peoples), Douglas McCombs (Tortoise), and Ryan Jewell (Ryley Walker), with guest appearances by Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Steve Wynn and Linda Pitmon of The Dream Syndicate, and more. Produced by Dave Harrington, the album leans into electronic textures, conjuring into the existence a zone where ZZ Top goes kosmische musik or Popol Vuh dons skinny ties. Forsyth joins host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the interplay between man and machine, power pop, improv ethics, and more. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Charlene, Chante, and Eibur Stepney, who join us to discuss the work

Today on an all-new episode of our weekly interview podcast: Steve Marion, better known by his recording name Delicate Steve. As a sideman, Steve’s joined up with folks like Paul Simon, MacDeMarco, Tame Impala, The Black Keys and Yeasayer, but all along he’s made his own instrumental guitar recordings. His latest album is out on Anti Records, and it’s called After Hours, and it blends viby rhythms with cyber rock riffs, always placing an emphasis on emotionally compelling melodies. For this talk, we dug into his cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah," his work with previous Transmissions guest Shahzad Ismaily, his complicated artistic relationship with Kanye West, and his work on Amen Dunes’ Freedom.  Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the show: Chris Forsyth joins us to discuss Evolution Here We Come.

Built on loops culled from doo wop, psychedelic pop, and early rock & roll records, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom's new album Reset is an exuberant and oracular listen. Mining resonance in the past—including musical themes that recall their past work, both solo and in Animal Collective and Spaceman 3—the duo create the kind of ecstatic music that renders time elastic. In this all-new episode of our weekly interview podcast Transmissions, Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Peter Kember (Sonic Boom) sit down with host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss their collaborative partnership, the influence of far out futurist Buckminster Fuller, memory and musical optimism. We connected with these frequent collaborators from their respective places in Portugal following after a long night of celebration. Thanks for checking out Transmissions. If you dig the show, please consider leaving a five star rating or a review—or just forwarding your favorite episodes to a friend. We’re a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Next week on the