Transmissions

Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, we welcome Nashville-based music journalist, critic and author Erin Osmon, to discuss her tremendous book, Won't Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America, which chronicles how heartland rock, typified by artists like Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, and more, brought a populist, Americana-inspired sound to the airwaves of the radio and MTV.

Along the way, Osmon shines a light on lesser heralded artists in the heartland canon, including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, and Tracy Chapman, explores the impact of the shift from vinyl and tape to compact discs, the ubiquity of synthesizer technology, and the progressive undercurrent that propels this music.

Osmon’s writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times, and she’s the author of a 33 ⅓ book on John Prine and Jason Molina: Riding with the Ghost. With Won’t Back Down, she traces the origins of heartland rock and its influence on artists like The War on Drugs and The Hold Steady, and best of all, offers deep insight into the complex characters of its most notable figures. Especially intriguing is the Indiana-born Osmon’s focus on fellow Hoosier John “Cougar” Mellencamp, who emerges as one of the most fascinating characters, a hothead with a leftist heart and punk rock verve.

This year marks the 250th birthday of America, and this conversation was taped just a few days before the 4th of July. We haven't been feeling all that patriotic—maybe it has something to do with the fascists governing our country and their endless commitment to foreign wars and environmental destruction—but Osmon’s book reminds us that this country has at its core something more noble, some promise that has not been stamped out just yet. As the Boss once sang: “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact/But maybe everything that dies someday comes back.”
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Occasionally, a song breaks forth from the void and strikes you like a bolt of lightning. That’s how we felt first hearing “Rockcurry,” from the late dub pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry and electronic duo Mouse on Mars’ Spatial, No Problem, released earlier this summer on June 5th via Domino Recording Co.

The song feels a little like plugging a fork into an electrical socket, à la Twin Peaks: The Return. Shock. Boom. A whole new world.

This week on Transmissions we're joined by Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, Mouse on Mars, calling in from Germany to discuss creating Spatial, No Problem with Lee. The two have been friends since they were kids. In 1993, they formed Mouse on Mars, drawing from electronic traditions, live instrumentation, breakbeats, and a propensity for collaboration with other artists, including Mark E. Smith of The Fall, members of the National, and Stereolab—who, hey now, provide our show’s theme song: “Flashes in the Afternoon."

Though Lee is best remembered for his foundational contributions to reggae and dub music, his collab with Mouse on Mars is not a reggae record per se. Sure, that’s one element in the stew, but it simmers alongside ingredients suggesting jazz, krautrock, ambient music, and even some blues. Originally recorded back in 2019, Spatial, No Problem showcases just how dynamic Lee was as a creative force in the years before his passing in 2021.

The LP demonstrates how The Upsetter could do any sound. From the Neu! ready strut of “Rockcurry” to the Eastern-tinged jazz of “Spatialee” to looping ecstatica of “Hallo Shiva,” the album blends generations and approaches, equal parts live instrumentation and chopped loops. It’s a fitting final statement from a shamanistic artist who vibrated with trickster energy right up to the end.

This week on Transmissions, Jan and Andi share memories of working on the album, with detours into discussion of some of their other collaborations, with artists like Mark E. Smith and another Transmissions favorite, Swamp Dogg.
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Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury.

Near the end of his latest LP Indigo Park, our guest this week, Bruce Hornsby, sings something of a conclusion. Or perhaps, a belated introduction:

"I've been seeking magical thinking/I think I detect a trend/This could be the start of something/Or this could be an end."

The lyric isn't cited to suggest the 71-year-old songwriter is going anywhere. If anything, Indigo Park speaks to the hot streak Hornsby's been on since 2019's Absolute Zero. With that album, he began mining his vast bank of musical cues created for various projects with his longtime collaborator Spike Lee, crafting them into full songs. To his surprise, these late period albums caught the attention of fans of adventurous music, his reputation bolstered by artists like Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Haim, and others citing Hornsby as an elder statesman.

Recorded with co-producers Tony Berg and Will Maclellan at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles and The Large Cloth-Eared Collider in Williamsburg, Virginia, Indigo Park demonstrates just how unexpectedly Hornsby operates.

From the chiming folk rock of the title track to the Bonnie Raitt-assisted art pop of "Ecstatic" to "Might As Well Be Me, Florinda," a woozy duet with the late Bob Weir aided by the sparking guitar of Blake Mills and Pino Palladino's liquid metal bass, the album showcases Hornsby's vast—ahem—range. At once funny, poignant, and audacious, it's a gem, one of my favorite records of 2026.

Earlier this year, Aquarium Drunkard caught up with him to discuss the album, basketball chants, his work with The Grateful Dead and the Dead’s legacy, his taste in literary fiction, and much more. We published a condensed and edited version of this interview in print on Aquarium Drunkard back in April, but now, we’re pleased to present the full chat in the podcast feed—complete with an exclusive piano performance that sonically illustrates Hornsby’s Protestant hymn-soaked youth in Christian Science congregation.
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Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. There are certain artists who straddle the line between music and prose, between songwriting and music writing. Think of Ira Kaplan from Yo La Tengo, who spent his early years as a rock journalist, or the doomed Peter Laughner, or even Lester Bangs, who cranked out a couple of raucous singles on Ork Records in addition to his pioneering criticism.

Then there are the patron saints of this dual discipline: Patti Smith and today’s guest, her longtime collaborator Lenny Kaye. Kaye’s creative output is kaleidoscopic: he’s a founding member of the Patti Smith Group, bringing his slashing guitar style to classic records like Horses; he curated the legendary rock & roll compilation Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era; he’s produced records for artists like Jessi Colter, Allen Ginsberg, and Suzanne Vega; and he’s written a number of books, including one about Waylon Jennings, Waylon: An Autobiography, and Lightning Striking: Ten Transformative Moments in Rock and Roll – An Insider's Exploration of the Crossroads That Shaped Music.

Lenny is with us today to discuss Goin’ Local, his first proper solo album, out July 17 on Yep Roc Records. Cut with his longtime bandmate Tony Shanahan and featuring Lenny’s longtime creative partner Patti Smith, Goin’ Local brings a little country & western, a little garage rock, a little folk, and lots of psychedelic energy to the table.

Kaye joined us to discuss the new record, his roots in science fiction fandom, getting mystical with Jessi Colter, the queen of outlaw country, and the time your humble host asked Lenny if he could sample one of his songs. Lightning is striking—it’s time for Lenny Kaye on Transmissions.
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Annahstasia is one of the most exciting singers and songwriters in the modern folk space.

Originally courted by major labels in her youth, she found herself drifting away from the bedroom pop and R&B genres where music business execs thought she belonged. Drawn to folkier material, she emerged in the 2020s with a sound that blends the soul jazz of Terry Callier with Nick Drake’s hushed chamber folk, her magnificent voice way out front in the mix, sometimes recalling the fullness of singers like Odetta or the jazzy sway of Hejira-era Joni Mitchell. 

In March of this year, she released a live album, Live at Glasshaus, recorded at the Brooklyn studio and performance space. Drawing her full discography, Annahstasia and her band re-imagine the material and present in a fresh and intimate way in front of a limited audience of only 100 attendees. 

On this week’s show, Annahstasia joins us to discuss the spaciousness and quietude required to get into a creative zone, the influence of Terry Callier, blazing her own trail as a self-described “Black girl playing her guitar.” We also get into her earliest memories of listening to her parents CDs, the most frequently cited book on Transmissions, Hazrat Inayat Khan's The Mysticism of Sound and Music, and how creating from the heart puts you in touch with the divine.
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