Transmissions

Hello again! Welcome back to All One Song, a Neil Young podcast presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Last summer, we spent a couple months talking to some of our favorite musicians, writers, and artists about their favorite Neil Young songs … and it was so much fun that we’re doing it all over again with a bunch more great guests.

Put on your Rust-o-Vision glasses, Neil freaks … we’re going deep into the Shakey-verse one more time. 

Our guest today selected what is the newest Neil Young song—as of this recording—that has made it out into the world: “Big Crime.” This angry, brutal and unsparing attack on ICE, Trump and the MAGAsphere was debuted last summer on the US leg of Neil’s tour with the Chrome Hearts. And he’s played it at every one of his shows since. “Big Crime” pulls no punches.

Last year, the long-running trio Yo La Tengo kicked off their epic eight-night Hanukkah run at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City with a blistering version of “Big Crime,” likely becoming the first band to cover it. So of course, we’re honored to have Yo La Tengo guitarist and vocalist Ira Kaplan on All One Song today to talk about this new Neil song. 

Yo La Tengo — do they need an introduction? In our opinion, they are simply the best American rock band of the last four decades. Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley and James McNew have built up a consistently wonderful body of work. Like Neil, it’s a career filled with twists and turns, side quests and sideways moves. But it’s all purely Yo La Tengo, whether they’re breaking your heart with hushed ballads or stretching out on feedback-fueled jams. Their latest album, 2023’s This Stupid World, is yet another masterpiece. And of course, they have a long history with Neil Young … the b-side of their second single was a sweet cover of “For The Turnstiles.”

Transmissions is back with a special episode: Tyler Wilcox in conversation with underground music lifers Thurston Moore and Kramer.

On May 1, the duo release their new album together, They Came Like Swallows - Seven Requiems for the Children of Gaza, out on Ethan Miller’s Silver Current Records, and ahead of their appearance this week at Big Ears Music Festival in Knoxville, Wilcox caught up with them to discuss the new collaboration, their storied history together, and that time the Butthole Surfers freaked out Alex Chilton.

Speaking of Big Ears, Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions will be there too, with our Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions morning show livestream. Broadcasting March 27, 28, and 29 from Old City Java and Wild Love Bakery 9-11 AM EST, we'll be discussing highlights from the previous evening, acts we plan on catching that day, as well as drop-ins from special guests. We hope you will tune in via Instagram and YouTube in collaboration between Aquarium Drunkard, Big Ears, and Talkhouse.

This week’s conversation with Cochemea Gastelum brings our season to a close. The saxophonist and bandleader joins us to discuss his beautiful LP Ancestros Futuros, out now on Daptone Records. Mining his Indigenous roots, soul jazz, and funk, it's a fantastic album, and it completes a trilogy that began with 2019’s All My Relations, continued with 2021’s Baca Sewa, and now concludes. 

Cochemea’s resume is lengthy. He worked extensively with the late soul singer Sharon Jones as part of her Dap Kings ensemble and has played with the Budos Band, Antibalas, Robert Walter’s 20th Congress, Archie Shepp, Public Enemy, the Roots, David Byrne, and more. Genre-hopping comes naturally to the San Diego-raised saxophonist, but the cultural conversation that occurs on these records is especially unique, and it was a pleasure to have him join us to discuss it. 

Transmissions is created in partnership with the Talkhouse Podcast Network. We’re brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Aquarium Drunkard⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, an independent music media crew headed by Justin Gage. Over at Aquarium Drunkard, you’ll gain access to 20 years of music writing, playlist, essays, mixtapes, radio special, podcasts, videos and more.

The '90s were a strange time. From Gregorian chants to swing bands, you never knew what would make it onto the radio. But some of the strangest groups to improbably infiltrate the mainstream came from the post-Grateful Dead jam band scene. Our guest today is Mike Ayers, author of ⁠Sharing in the Groove: The Untold Story of the '90s Jam Band Explosion and the Scene that Followed. ⁠

The book, an oral history, is really a blast. It covers all the big players of the era: Phish, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, Widespread Panic, Dave Matthews Band, but Ayers takes it to the next level by expanding the definition of "jam band" to include Medeski, Martin and Wood, Greyboy and the acid jazz scene, New Orleans funk band Galactic, and John Zorn and the Knitting Factory downtown NYC scene, and much more. This episode, guest host (and Transmissions audio editor) Andrew Horton, Jason P. Woodbury, and Ayers sit down to hash out the era in which even Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo embraced their jammiest free improv tendencies. What are the limits of the whole "jam band" thing really? Come along with us as we dig into Sharing in the Groove.

Transmissions is created in partnership with the Talkhouse Podcast Network. We’re brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Aquarium Drunkard⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, an independent music media crew headed by Justin Gage. Over at Aquarium Drunkard, you’ll gain access to 20 years of music writing, playlist, essays, mixtapes, radio special, podcasts, videos and more.

Welcome back to Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, a return guest: Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate and solo fame. He last joined the show part of a trio: in 2018, we taped with him, Howe Gelb of Giant Sand, and Robyn Hitchcock live at the KXCI studio at Hotel Congress in Tucson Arizona. That talk also made it into the Transmissions feed again in 2020. 

This time, Steve is with us to discuss the 40th anniversary reissue of The Dream Syndicate’s second album, 1984’s Medicine Show, which has been reissued in expanded form by Fire Records. Produced by Blue Öyster Cult and Clash associate Sandy Pearlman, the album found the Syndicate jumping from the smaller Slash indie label to A&M. But it also found Wynn shifting his songwriting approach into darker territory, embracing a kind of pulp fiction, hardboiled crime aesthetic that paired well with the group’s rangy, intense sound, which had been amplified and solidified during the tours that followed the band’s debut,  1982’s The Days of Wine and Roses. 

Wynn is a tremendous conversationalist, and this convo opened us up to plenty of fascinating terrain, from record store lore to interactions with bands like R.E.M. and U2, as well as lots of behind the scenes info on Medicine Show.

Transmissions is created in partnership with the Talkhouse Podcast Network. We’re brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Aquarium Drunkard⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, an independent music media crew headed by Justin Gage. Over at Aquarium Drunkard, you’ll gain access to 20 years of music writing, playlist, essays, mixtapes, radio special, podcasts, videos and more.