Aquarium Drunkard - TRANSMISSIONS Aquarium Drunkard

Today on the show, we’re joined by Allyson McCabe, author of the new book: Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters. McCabe is a writer, broadcaster and producer, whose work has appeared in the New York Times, BBC Culture, Wired and on NPR. 
Writing about the book for an installment of Aquarium Drunkard Book Club, JJ Toth of Wooden Wand states, “Though McCabe’s impassioned defense of O’Connor in the wake of her many controversies is both heartfelt and persuasive, Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters is no hagiography: O’Connor’s noble desire—some might say compulsion—to express herself authentically could be messy, and the author reckons with O’Connor’s own gaffes and errors in judgment…” 
Few artists have created a body of work as intense, as spiritually volatile, and as personal as O’Connor. In the book’s prologue, McCabe writes : “Insofar as O’Connor’s talents are inseparable from her struggles and triumphs, so are mine and yours.” That's the spirit that fuels this conversation: one of personal honesty and a believe that truth and beauty are ideas to be prized.
Support Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Next week on Transmissions? Next week on the show, ambient country pioneers Suss.

We're pleased to welcome Alex Pappademas and artist Joan LeMay on today's episode. Together, they have created a tremendous and deeply entertaining new book about one of Aquarium Drunkard's favorite bands: Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors From The Songs of Steely Dan. 
The Danaissance is in full swing, and in Quantum Criminals, Pappademas writes that Steely Dan is the most 2020s of ‘70s bands. But what makes the book so great is its sidewise angle into the situation—this is no boring history or staid rock bio. With LeMay’s vivid illustrations leading the way, the duo welcomes us into the world of Becker and Fagen through their strange characters: Dr Wu, Napoleon, Peg, The Expanding Man. Like the band’s songs, it’s funny, wonky, and given over to wonderful digressions and detours. Ready your scotch whisky and fine Columbian, here’s Alex and Joan on Steely Dan.
Support Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Next week on Transmissions? Another University of Texas press author, Allyson McCabe, joins us to discuss Why Sinead O’Connor Matters.

Our guest this week is mystic poet, writer, publisher, and performance artist Janaka Stucky, who’s been hailed as “extraordinary" and "riveting” by no less an occult authority than Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. We were first introduced to Stucky through his work with Third Man Books, the literary division of Jack White’s Third Man empire, which released his 2015 collection The Truth is We Are Perfect and 2019’s epic poem, Ascend, Ascend.
Rooted in horrific imagery and Kabbalistic prose and written over the course of twenty days as its author came in and out of trance states, Ascend Ascend is beautiful and horrifying—a meditation on decay and transcendence. Now, Stucky is presenting a musical version of the text. Recorded at the All Pilgrims Church in Seattle as part of a 7-city tour in 2019, the album finds Stucky joined by cellist Lori Goldston, known for her work with Nirvana, Earth, and Cat Power.
This week on Transmissions, he connects with host Jason P. Woodbury to discuss the poem, his musical journey, and touch on the ineffable and dread-soaked nature of reality.
Support Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Next week on Transmissions? Alex Pappademas and Joan LeMay join us to discuss their new book, Quantum Criminals: Ramblers, Wild Gamblers, and Other Sole Survivors from the Songs of Steely Dan. 
This episode of Transmissions is brought to you by Dad Grass. Go to Dadgrass.com/Transmissions to try it out.

Today on Transmissions: Vashti Bunyan. Though her 1970 Joy Boyd-produced Just Another Diamond Day album was barely heard upon original release, its rediscovery by key members of the burgeoning freak folk scene in the mid-2000s helped make it a cult classic, a tender work of imagination and melody.
Recently, Bunyan published her first book, Wayward: Just Another Life. It charts her youth in the orbit of the Rolling Stones, her musical and mental struggles, and details the horse-drawn cart journey across the countryside where the songs of Just Another Diamond Day came into shape. It is a vivid and touching read, sly, understated and emotionally expansive. Its quiet melancholy and endearing jokes feel a piece with her musical work. She joined us to discuss the book, that journey, and what it felt like to have her work rediscovered—and why she hates being called a “folk” singer. 
This episode of Transmissions is brought to you by Dad Grass. Go to Dadgrass.com/Transmissions to try it out.

This week on Transmissions, Jesse Sheppard and Drew Gardner, the psychedelic folk duo Elkhorn. Their new album, On the Universe In All Directions, finds Jesse once again at his familiar 12-string acoustic guitar, but instead of Drew joining with his trademark Telecaster, he’s moved over to vibraphone and drums for this outing.
Have no fear: the familiar Elkhorn magic is here in spades, but in brand new ways. The songs were born out of collaboration with New York consciousness group Psychedelic Sangha, and as JJ Toth puts it in his excellent liner notes, the sounds traverse “the valleys between fried cosmic psychedelia and American Primitive… splitting the difference between Popol Vuh’s devotional drift and the outer reaches of deep-cut classic rock while constantly keeping one foot in the river of the Ever-Weird America; call it Six Degrees of Uncle Dave Macon.” 
From Buddhism to Fahey, from time slips to Aquarium Drunkard itself, this conversation unfolds and wanders, we hope you enjoy it.
Support Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Next week on Transmissions? The incredible Vashti Bunyan, who joins us to discuss her vivid and deep book Wayward.

This week on Transmissions, we’re joined by writer and musician Jana Horn. Her new album The Window is the Dream is out now on No Quarter Records. Writing about it, Andy French at Raven Sings The Blues calls it a “delicate exfoliation of dream and reality.” When she’s not penning oracular folk rock songs, Horn teaches fiction at the University of Virginia and writes short fiction. 
The Window is the Dream is a gem. It follows Optimism, which contains a song called “Jordan." Sometimes a song suggests something mysterious, something ineffable—nearly impossible to put into words, and that’s the case with “Jordan.”
The song, as you’ll hear, is something of a mystery even to its author, a term Horn isn’t especially keen to apply to herself in the case of that song. If the notion of music or art working like a doorway into radical mystery appeals to you, you’ll find a lot of power and beauty in this chat, which centers on what we don’t know, what we don’t hear, and sometimes, what we don’t attempt to say. 
Support Aquarium Drunkard on Patreon. Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network.
Next week on Transmissions? Psychedelic folk duo Elkhorn join us for a head spinning conversation about underground music, spirituality, collaboration and much more. I hope you will join us. Until then, this Transmission is concluded.