The songwriting team of Terri Moeller Pearson and Paul Austin, the former a longtime drummer of The Walkabouts and a solo artist going by the name Terri Tarantula, the latter a founding member of the Willard Grant Conspiracy and guitarist for The Walkabouts during the Travels In the Dustland period. Between 2002 and 2013 the band - lead vocalist Moeller Pearson and guitarist Austin, augmented by a rotating cast of supporting musicians (with multi-instrumentalist Jon Hyde being one of the constants) - released six albums, appeared on numerous compilations, and toured worldwide.

The group's output is neatly summed up in a best-of release that was consumately designed by Paul Austin and the songs curated by Chris Eckman, Songs 2002-2012.

In 2023 the Transmissionary Six released Often Sometimes Rarely Never, their first new album in nearly a decade, joined by their friends Carolyn Wennblom (Girl Singer), Michael 'Mike Bass' Wells, Chris Eckman, Deni Bonet (R.E.M., Robyn Hitchcock, Richard Thompson), Chris Cacavas (Dream Syndicate, Green on Red), and Matthew Emerson Brown (Hannah Ramone, Trespassers William).