Transmissions :: Phosphorescent

We’ve reached the end of the road for this season—season 9 concludes with this episode, a conversation with Matthew Houck, the leader of the avant-country band Phosphorescent. In April, Phosphorescent released Revelator, the band’s ninth album. It’s their debut for Verve Records, after a string of well-received albums on Dead Oceans. Joined by collaborators like Jim White of the Dirty Three—who you heard earlier this season—Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs, and his wife and songwriting partner Jo Schornikow, it finds Houck examining—what else?—the end of the world. 

If one theme has run through the last few seasons of this show, it’s that of “apocalypse," or revelation. The veil, no matter how hard we try and keep it pinned down, keeps slipping away. Revelator finds Houck facing uncertain future, but also, leveling up. In its mournful ballads and genuinely hilarious odes to bathroom graffiti, you hear the voice of a songwriter probing the void:

“And we've ridden beyond where we could safely touch down

And we're out in the void, past where we could've had turned around

I tried my feet on the floor, tried to beat on the door

But it didn't even make a sound

Got my heart open wide

But the city been shut down” 

But Revelator is no dour screed; it is in fact filled with hope and good humor. In this episode, he joins us to extoll the glory of “unnecessary” art, his work on Paul Schrader's new film Oh, Canada; and the multiple apocalypses afoot.

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Transmissions will return in 2025. Take care of yourself, take care of those around you, and keep on wondering. We’ll be back—be well in the meantime. This season of Transmissions is concluded.