Transmissions

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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.

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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. Stay in touch.

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New year, new decade. Welcome to the future, it’s 2020 and you’re tuned into Transmissions, Aquarium Drunkard’s monthly podcast, featuring, as always, sounds and ideas that inspire us, the team behind Aquarium Drunkard. Your hosts are founder and editor Justin Gage, and editor Jason P. Woodbury. Our guest this episode, is guitarist and composer Jeff Parker.

Parker is best known for his work with Tortoise, the Chicago Underground Quartet, and Isotope 217, and he’s worked with a wide cast of notable players, including Brian Blade, Bill Callahan, George Lewis, Makaya McCraven, Joshua Abrams, Rob Mazurek, Joey DeFrancesco, and many, many more. In 2016, he released The New Breed, a tribute to his late father, and now, a record for his mother: Suite for Max Brown. Like The New Breed, the new LP blends deep, Dilla-Inspired grooves, clipped R&B samples, and Parker’s beautiful guitar—often languid, occasionally frenzied, but always powerfully soulful. 

The record is yet another winner from Chicago’s International Anthem, which has established itself as one of the key labels in underground jazz, and it’s released in collaboration with the legendary Nonesuch imprint.

Episode playlist: William Tyler-Four Corners + Jeff Parker-Go Away + Jeff Parker-Fusion Swirl + Jeremy Cunningham featuring Jeff Parker-1985 + 「ゴドメス星人」より侵略者のテーマ

Art via D. Norsen

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Welcome to the final 2019 episode of the Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions podcast. On this episode, we sit down with educator, synth pioneer, and all around genuine soul Don Muro. Earlier this year, Flannelgraph Records continued its archival dig into his treasure trove of sounds with a reissue of Anthology, his 1981 LP featuring jazzy funk, synth pop, and progressive fusion rock. Back before synth culture was a thing, Muro and his compatriots adhered to a DIY ethic. I sat down with Don to talk not only about how he got his hands on advanced musical tech, but how he started his own label to distribute his music, and what it’s been like to see a whole new generation embrace it. Then, Josh Neas offers a personal reflection on Dead Man's Pop, the 2010 Replacement boxset that creates a kind of alternate timeline version of the band's 1989 lp Don't Tell a Soul.

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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. On 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.

Whitney’s second new album, Forever Turned Around, is out now on Secretly Canadian records. Like their debut, Light Upon the Lake, it’s a balmy, breezy record. Produced by Brad Cook of Bon Iver and Johnathan Rado of Foxygen, it sees the duo of Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich expanding and deepening their sound. Sitting down for a backstage interview with AD, Kakacek says “more of our own true emotions” made it into the new songs, which were informed by the constant touring that followed the band’s first album. “We knew better what it felt like to play them every night.”

You might recognize Don Slepian’s name from Light in the Attic’s I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America 1950-1990 compilation, where he appeared alongside Laraaji, Joanna Brouk, Iasos, Steven Halpern and other early practitioners of cosmic devotional music. Two of his early ‘80s works have recently been reissued—Sea of Bliss by Numero Group and New Dawn on Morning Trip—and he had plenty to tell guest interviewer Jesse Locke about those heady, early days.

Earlier this month, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released their 17th studio album, Ghosteen. A double album, ambient in nature and featuring two longform spoken word performances, it’s one of Cave’s most tender, centered on the loss of his son, and the idea of “a migrating spirit.” Marty Sartini Garner, longtime Aquarium Drunkard writer and a frequent guest on this podcast, wrote a review of the album for AV Club, praising its “otherworldly and spiritual quality.” He and co-host Jason P. Woodbury got together to discuss.

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Welcome to the September edition of our monthly Transmissions podcast, our series of conversations with musicians and artists about why—and how—their art exists. On this episode, 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.

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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. Up first, Lower Dens’ Jana Hunter. On September 6th, Lower Dens releases its fourth LP The Competition. The conversation reflected on Hunter’s solo beginnings, the formation of Lower Dens and the project’s subsequent sonic evolution over the past ten years. Also discussed were the intervening years between 2015’s Escape From Evil, Hunter’s experience with gender dysphoria, and coming out the other side. And on side B: Rain Phoenix, musician, actress, and host of the LaunchLeft podcast, which returns for its second season soon. Rain founded Aleka’s Attic in the late ‘80s with her late brother River Phoenix, and has recorded as paper cranes and with the “galactic country” band Venus and the Moon. On October 31st—the same day River passed away in 1993—she releases her debut solo album, River.

You’re tuned into the Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions broadcast…welcome back. We’re happy to launch the third season of our out-there conversations about art, culture, and whatever else gets our imaginations going. Glad to have you along for the ride. This month, we bring you the uncut edition of Justin Gage’s conversation with comedian, musician, actor, songwriter, and all-around creator Tim Heidecker. Heidecker put together a playlist of the classic rock that inspired his latest, What The Broken Hearted Do, and walked us through it, noting what turns him on about tracks by Joni Mitchell, Warren Zevon, Judee Sill, Songs: Ohia, and more. Then, Marty Sartini Garner reviews the recent John Coltrane boxset, Coltrane ’58: The Prestige Recordings. Compiling every song Coltrane cut as a bandleader in that pivotal year, and captures him at a crucial stage in his journey, his first true attempt to will his sax into new territory. And to close out, Justin sits down with poet and songwriter Jonathan Rice live at Gold Diggers, to discuss both his haikus—optimized for the social media age—and new album, The Long Game.