Transmissions

Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, writer and musician Sam Sodomsky, who records and releases music—a lot of it—under the name The Bird Calls.

His latest slice of literate folk rock and alt-country songcraft is called Take Leave, and it was released on August 28 via Ruination Record Co.

Inspired by songwriters like Dan Bejar of Destroyer, who’s appeared here on Transmissions and Bruce Springsteen, who has not appeared on the podcast—yet—Take Leave rattles with downcast charm. It’s songs are sly and full of knowing. Take opening track “Some Bands” for instance, where Sodomsky sings, with poetic scope: “Some bands break up/Some stay together/Ice sculptures in the front yard/Melting in the sun.”

When he’s not making records, Sodomsky writing about them, primarily at Pitchfork. Here, he discusses his songwriting process, how he keeps hearing new things to love in the work of Springsteen, and where he thinks music journalism is headed.
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Welcome back to Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week, we’ve got something extra special: a behind the scenes look at the forthcoming documentary, Sun Ra: Door of the Cosmos, a sonic cinema odyssey through the life, work and philosophy of the surrealist composer and musician.

In addition to a conversation with director Drew DeNicola, who you may know from the 2012 doc Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me, this episode will present archival material gathered for the film, including interviews and statements from Ra himself, rare recordings of the Sun Ra Arkestra in action, and previous Transmissions guest Camae Ayewa, also known as Moor Mother, reading from Sun Ra’s book of poetry, The Immeasurable Equation.

The documentary has ⁠launched a Kickstarter campaign⁠ to raise finishing funds that will run for the month of September, offering unique array of premiums at all donation levels, including a selection of vinyl recordings from the Modern Harmonic label, and limited edition t-shirt and large format art prints from legendary jazz photographer, Veryl Oakland.

Now, settle in as we explore the Sun Ra's esoteric ideas, hear his singular voice, and explore the Arkestra's vast lore and history. Crack open this door of the cosmos and enter in.
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Since 1998, Jim James has led My Morning Jacket. In the early 2000s, the band's blend of Southern rock, psychedelia, dub, classic songcraft, loner country, and experimental folk put them on the forefront of festival stages.

Last year, MMJ released its 10th studio LP, the Brendan O’Brien-produced Is, and earlier this year, they dropped Peacelands, an anti-ICE collection of acoustic music. And now, James has a new solo album: Wowed Out. It’s his first solo music in eight years, and a killer return to form.

Inspired by the nonstop deluge of information we are all exposed to and the process of attaining a little peace in the midst of it all, many of the songs here first began as cues for a film project that never came to fruition. But when James returned to these snippets, he found them deeply inspiring, which caused fully formed songs to begin pouring out.

Touching on soul, psychedelic pop, folk, and ambient sounds, it’s some of the most spiritual music James has ever recorded, and tellingly, this conversation takes a heady, mystical turn.

In it, we focus on meditation, and the personal—and entirely personalized—ways that we come up with to navigate the world. Anyone who has listened to James’ songs understands the way he taps into the universal via the personal—Wowed Out is an example of him working in his highest capacity.
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Welcome back to Transmissions with Jason P. Woodbury. This week on the show, another talk that spun out of our Big Ears hang out, a conversation with a journeyman musician Fred Thomas.

Even if you don’t know Thomas’ name, you’ve heard him: In the ‘90s, he was responsible for the math rock band Chore; from there, he joined up with Warren Defever’s genre bending indie rock outfit His Name Is Alive, alongside groups like Lovesick and his own band Saturday Looks Good To Me, who melded Detroit R&B and soul to twee indie pop.

Thomas has stayed busy too: in addition to his solo albums and archival projects from Saturday Looks Good to Me—more on that in this talk—he’s a member of Winged Wheel, alongside Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth, who are responsible for one of our favorite albums of 2026, Desert So Green. And you may have seen him as a guest musician with Detroit post-punks Protomartyr ahead of the release of their new album, Hotel Usona, out September 25th on Domino Records. And then there’s Idle Ray, Mighty Clouds, and so many more projects.

In addition to all that, Thomas is also a prolific writer about music, namely for the Allmusic guide. All this makes him an ideal guest for Transmissions—an artist who isn’t hemmed in by any single genre. We spoke with Thomas out at Big Ears in Knoxville—and as was the case with last week’s Dust-to-Digital episode, we reconvened after Big Ears to tape a proper chat. Transmissions editor Andrew Horton joins in as co-host for this one, as he has unique insight into Thomas’ electronic efforts: Horton released one of Thomas’ many projects, All Energy Must Continue Upward, on his great label, Good Glass Records.

From pre-fame adventures with Andrew WK to his work as a music writer, from Ethio-jazz to house music, this conversation runs a wide game. So here it is, presented this week on Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions, produced in collaboration with the Talkhouse Podcast Network.

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Since 1999, Atlanta label Dust-to-Digital has created lavish boxsets, books, and collections of gospel, folk, blues, field recordings, and other sounds sourced from deep global archives.

Led by April and Lance Ledbetter, the label has been responsible for works like Goodbye, Babylon, a landmark 2003 gospel collection which inspired Brian Eno to say, "I love this kind of archaeology of the beginnings of music, in this case soul and rock ‘n’ roll …[it] features hair-raising sermons, the greatest hits of pastors." Other engrossing deep dives include Music of Morocco: Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959; Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History of the World's Music; and the John Fahey collection, Your Past Comes Back to Haunt You (The Fonotone Years 1958-1965), alongside many others.

This week on Transmissions, we present a loose hang with the Ledbetters, a lowkey look into the normal day-to-day of people who have dedicated their lives to the extraordinary effort of archiving sounds of the past.

And now, Dust-to-Digital has launched an app: Dust-to-Digital Radio. Featuring a rotating selection of music released by the label and archival material digitized by the Dust-to-Digital Foundation, the app makes good on the label’s namesake, bringing historical music directly into the digital present. And it’s fun too—in an age of endless choice, it’s a treat to hand your ears over to these expert curators.

In late March, we met the Ledbetters at the Big Ears Musical Festival. A few days after we all settled into our respective homes, we reconvened on Zoom to discuss the label’s mission, navigating the algorithms, and of course, some of the most notable Dust-to-Digital fans, including the aforementioned Eno and Law & Order's Carey Lowell.
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