Episodios

  • Transmissions :: Chris Cohen
    Jul 17 2024
    Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. This week on the program, we are pleased to welcome guest host Zara Hedderman and singer/songwriter Chris Cohen to the show to a generous, expansive, and genuine conversation. Cohen’s new record is called Paint a Room. His fourth solo album—perhaps you know his work with Deerhoof, The Curtains, Cryptacize, Ariel Pink, Cass Mccombs, and Weyes Blood and more—it finds Cohen pairing with musical heavyweights like Jeff Parker and Josh Johnson, laying a sheen of ‘70s breeziness over top of Cohen’s remarkable compositions. In this wide-ranging chat, they discuss the new album, years spent working in record stores, Transcendental Meditation, The Grateful Dead, and much more. It’s an open and tender conversation, full of funny moments and deep insight. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you’ll find nearly 20 years of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. Head to Aquarium Drunkard and subscribe, where you can also read an abridged and edited transcript of this conversation. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard
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    1 h y 40 m
  • Transmissions :: Mark Lightcap (Acetone/Dick Slessig Combo)
    Jul 10 2024
    This week, we welcome one of our favorite musicians to the show: Mark Lightcap of Acetone and the Dick Slessig Combo. Back in 2017, author Sam Sweet released a great book about Acetone called Hadley Lee Lightcap, accompanied by a stellar Light in the Attic anthology compilation,1992-2001. Writing about it, Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury said: Though Acetone were label-mates with the Verve at Virgin subsidiary Vernon Yard, recorded for Neil Young’s Vapor Records, and attracted high-profile fans like J. Spaceman and Hope Sandoval, nothing about 1992-2001 indicates a band bound for the spotlight. The trio’s music, a heady mix of surf, country, exotica, hillbilly spirituals, and slow-motion indie rock, pulled from thrift store LPs and adhered to its own logic. Hadley, Lightcap, and Lee listened to music deeply, searching for elements beneath the surface. The band uncovered psychedelic qualities in unlikely places, turning up lysergic textures in mood music, Tiki kitsch, and Charlie Rich records. Coupled with the foundational influences of the Velvet Underground, Brian Eno, Steve Reich, and Al Green, this strange blend takes time to reveal itself. Acetone’s music requires patience. Lee’s voice seems to float out of the speakers, his bass locked into meandering grooves with Hadley’s meditative drums and Lightcap’s tremolo and reverb-drenched guitar. Like its contemporaries, Low, Souled American, and Mercury Rev, Acetone created music that deconstructed and protracted rock & roll templates. We’ve kept on the Lightcap beat ever since. Back in the early days of the pandemic, we covered his other band, the Dick Slessig Combo, and their mystic, mantric 40+ minute version of Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman." Last year, New West Records reissued Acetone’s discography, featuring illuminating liner notes by J. Spaceman of Spiritualized/Spaceman 3 and Drew Daniel of Matmos/The Soft Pink Truth. The occasion prompted a great conversation with Mark that we published in written form last year. This week on the show, he joins us for a loose talk from his backyard in LA. From “beautiful music” to his run-ins with Oasis, this conversation takes plenty of fascinating turns. There’s plenty to read about Acetone and Dick Slessig over at Aquarium Drunkard. Subscribe today for access to all the good stuff, as well as nearly 20 years of music journalism, essays, interviews, sessions, video and radio shows and more. Head over and peruse our site, where you’ll find nearly 20 years of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. With your support, here’s to another decade. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard
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    1 h y 10 m
  • Transmissions :: The Dirty Three
    Jul 3 2024
    There are heavy hitters, and then there's The Dirty Three. A trio comprising violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner, and drummer Jim White, these Australian independent rock legends recently returned with their first album in 12 year, the aptly titled Love Changes Everything. Though they are perhaps best known for their work with artists like Nick Cave (Warren is a foundational Bad Seeds member and works with Cave in a variety of other contexts), Cat Power, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Bill Callahan, and Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett, a very particular magic happens when they gather together. It's on full display on the new record, which does everything you hope a D3 record will: it rocks, it drifts, and it ventures boldly toward the unknown. That magic comes down to...well, as you'll learn in this episode, it's very tricky to pin down where magic—or love for that matter—comes from, and it only grows more elusive the more you try to name it. This week on Transmissions, The Dirty Three explore their history, reflect on the life and work of Steve Albini, and recall their days opening for The Beastie Boys. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you’ll find nearly 20 years of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. With your support, here’s to another decade. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard
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    1 h y 10 m
  • Transmissions :: Joe Pernice
    Jun 26 2024
    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. Since the early 2000s, Transmissions host Jason P. Woodbury have placed Joe on their personal Mount Rushmore of criminally underrated singer-songwriters. There have always been genres associated with Pernice's work—chamber pop, y’allternative, retro pop, power pop, indie—but it all comes back to those songs: literate, catchy, sly, funny, and often heartbreaking. We published a talk with Pernice last year on the occasion of The Pernice Brothers’ 1998 album Overcome By Happiness receiving deluxe reissue treatment from New West Records. But with a brand new Pernice Brothers album, Who Will You Believe, still fresh in record stores, we figured it would be a blast to have him on to talk for the podcast. And we were right—chatting with Joe was a total blast, and you’re going to enjoy this wide ranging talk about everything from David Berman to the internet to mortality. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you’ll find nearly 20 years of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. With your support, here’s to another decade. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard
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    1 h y 7 m
  • Transmissions :: Phil Manzanera (Roxy Music)
    Jun 19 2024
    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. On albums like Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets (celebrating 50 years in 2024) and Quiet Sun's Mainstream, Manzanera's guitars sound otherworldly and overheated; his further work proves as fascinating and it was a real pleasure to have him with us this week on Transmissions. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you’ll find nearly 20 years of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. With your support, here’s to another decade. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard
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    1 h y 7 m
  • Transmissions :: Jeff Tweedy of Wilco
    Jun 12 2024
    Near the start of his recently released book World Within a Song, Jeff Tweedy admits there’s probably some parallel timeline where this one is his first, not third, book. It is, after all, dedicated to a subject he’s “thought about the most by far: other people’s songs.” Through a series of comical stories and humble reflections, the Wilco leader puts together a playlist with the book. It’s a wide ranging one at that, covering the spectral, alt-country slow-core combo Souled American to gospel purity of The Staples Singers to the abrasive rapture of Suicide. Songs, Tweedy insists, teach us how to be human, how, to quote Tweedy ”universally vast the experience of listening to almost anything with intent and openness can be. And most importantly, how songs absorb and enhance our own experiences and store our memories.” Tweedy has penned plenty of songs that fit that bill for me personally, and that’s why I’m so glad to welcome him to this week’s installment of Transmissions. This year, Wilco celebrated a milestone: 20 years of the band’s current lineup: founding members Tweedy and bassist John Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, keyboard player Mikael Jorgensen, and drummer Glenn Kotche. They aren’t commemorating with a rest. They’re staging another installment of their Solid Sound Festival, June 28-30th at MASS MoCA In North Adams, MA. And they’ve got a new EP on the way too, Hot Sun Cool Shroud, out June 28 via their dBpm label, which they’ll debut at the festival. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you’ll find nearly 20 years of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. With your support, here’s to another decade. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard
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    55 m
  • Transmissions :: Julian Lage
    Jun 5 2024
    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. A child prodigy in his youth, Lage has commanded attention for decades for his guitar prowess—he performed at the GRAMMYs at the tender age of 12—and he’s accompanied a truly staggering roster of artists over the years, including John Zorn, Nels Cline, Bill Frisell, Yoko Ono, Gary Burton, and more. But 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. This week on Transmissions, he discusses connecting to his musical center, cutting himself some slack, and how Henry helped him know when songs were "done enough." Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. Next week on Transmissions? Jeff Tweedy of Wilco joins us for a wide ranging conversation about Solid Sound, his books, and his Jim O’Rourke side project Loose Fur. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard
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    1 h y 8 m
  • Transmissions :: Leyla McCalla
    May 29 2024
    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. Though her earlier work with groups like the Carolina Chocolate Drops and on her own was often classified as Americana, this album finds her shifting into a blurrier, more dynamic zone, where Afrobeat, Tropicalismo, post-rock, and sleek funk all share space. Inspired by Afrofuturistic ecological writings, the natural world, and her own experiences, it’s a record that showcases an artist stepping into a new position, that of an interpreter of alternate sonic histories, an art-pop imagineer casting brand new shapes. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. For heads, by heads. Aquarium Drunkard is powered by our members. Keep the servers humming and help us continue doing it by subscribing to our online music magazine. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard Join us next week for a conversation with guitarist Julian Lage.
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    1 h y 2 m