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Talkhouse

Grant Pavol is a prolific 19 year old singer-songwriter and Philadelphia native. Coming from an artistic family, Grant was constantly surrounded by music and taught himself guitar during his early teen years. Pavol started to cut his teeth in the Philly music scene around the age of 15. He attended DIY shows around the city, one of his first being a basement show which happened to be singer-songwriter Shamir first show in Philadelphia. Soon after, the two began to develop a friendship as they frequently saw each other at shows.
Currently in college, Pavol began writing confessional acoustic pop songs in his bedroom. Equal parts Elliott Smith and Nick Drake, Grant’s hushed vocals and lyrical melodies carry the sincerity of his sound. After sending Shamir demos via Facebook in the summer of 2018, the duo quickly tracked all five songs for Pavol’s debut EP Okay, the release being one of the first releases for Shamir&#8217;s label Accidental Popstar Records.
(Photo Credit: Mooj Zadie)

Grant Pavol

Music

Hear First: Grant Pavol’s Okay

Field Medic is the LA-based folk singer-songwriter Kevin Patrick Sullivan. He&#8217;ll be touring spring 2026 in support of his latest album, surrender instead, out now.
(Photo Credit: Julian Larkin)

Field Medic

Hear First: Field Medic’s fade into the dawn

Reese McHenry is a Chapel Hill-based singer/songwriter known for her work in the Dirty Little Heaters, Spider Bags, and The Second Wife. In 2009, she was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation, an irregular or quivering heartbeat; that same year, with a loss of speech, a lethargic and often useless left side, and the failure of her memory, she found out she had suffered at least one major stroke and likely several smaller ones in the intervening months. 
In 2012, after doctors installed a pacemaker to regulate her heartbeat, McHenry began to slowly find her way back to the rock &amp; roll path from which she was forced to stray; by 2017, after nearly a decade of trying, McHenry released the first album under her own name, Bad Girl, which has become her most celebrated to date. 
Still armed with hundreds of songs from her years spent on the couch, McHenry started to furiously book shows, making up for years lost to her debilitating illness. Soon, she found herself in North Carolina’s famed Fidelitorium studio alongside beloved producer/engineer Missy Thangs. Backed by Raleigh rockers Drag Sounds, the crew cut the fourteen songs that would become her new album, No Dados, over six days.

Reese McHenry

Hear First: Reese McHenry’s No Dados

The group that ignited an electro-pop-punk movement is back with an 11-track deep-dive into themes on modern society, the internet, and ego — specifically social media and its dark effects. It’s been four years since the Saddle Creek flagship act The Faint dropped a proper studio album, and more than two decades since they first tore onto the Midwest scene, alongside area staples Cursive and Bright Eyes, with anxious electro-pop-punk anthems that meshed doomsday themes with thudding dance-floor hooks. The band made a unanimous decision to self-produce the entire record, making it unique and far more involved than any of their past work.
(Photo Credit: Bill Sitzmann)

The Faint

Hear First: The Faint’s Egowerk

Primer is the alias and creative project of vocalist/producer Alyssa Midcalf. Originally from Palm Springs, California, she now lives and creates music in Detroit, Michigan.
(Photo Credit: Nicholas Alcock)

Primer

Hear First: Primer’s Novelty

In 2017, Natasha Jacobs—a Brooklynite who performs as Thelma—released her self-titled debut. In the months that followed, she found herself in and out of doctors’ offices while her future as a musician hung in the balance—twice. Her first scare came with mysteriously painful &amp; dislocating joints and the conclusion of surgery, where she lost most of her ability to play guitar. The second, the discovery of thyroid cancer threatened her voice. In time, it was finally discovered she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a genetic disorder affecting joint form and function. With her primary instruments in jeopardy and ableist attitudes in the music industry thinning her patience while in recovery, Jacobs retooled the process for her second album while trying to reclaim her life and learning to live with chronic pain and physical limitations.
The Only Thing is more liberated, upbeat, and adventurous than its predecessor. Nine tracks are primarily constructed around burbling synthesizers, and Jacobs’ expressive vocals which find themselves vaulting for new territory. While still retaining her haunting vocal quality, there is a newfound playfulness even as she sings about trying times: a last ditch effort to find humor &amp; lightness in a painful situation. The Only Thing is her first claim at marking her identity in the wake of critical change, and it’s fully on display: it’s fearless, mobile, and active. And that might be the bravest thing she can be.

Thelma

Hear First: Thelma’s The Only Thing

Morgan Enos is a musician, essayist and music journalist specializing in classic rock. He records and performs as <a href="https://finalhouse.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://finalhouse.bandcamp.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567703426703000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE969PQS5H6jwcQaH3Zb_8LZ4WVew">Other Houses</a> and has bylines in Billboard, HuffPost, the Recording Academy, Vinyl Me, Please, TIDAL and more. He is also the co-founder and editor of <a href="https://northoftheinternet.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://northoftheinternet.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567703426703000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGi0xmSRKyGPRseoPZ41v4L7WkbQw">North of the Internet</a>, a series of conversations with creative people. He can be found at <a href="https://www.morganenos.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.morganenos.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567703426703000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG79-8vfghEO9sl4msNRI9Ts-3rdQ">his website</a>.
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Morgan Enos

Hear First: Other Houses’ Funny Papers

Sadie Dupuis is the guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter of rock band Speedy Ortiz. She&#8217;s also the producer &amp; multi-instrumentalist behind pop project Sad13. Sadie heads the record label Wax Nine, has written for outlets including Spin, Nylon, and Playboy, and holds an MFA in poetry from UMass Amherst. Mouthguard, her first book, was published in 2018.
(Photo Credit: Jordan Edwards)

Sadie Dupuis

Sam Goblin currently lives in Tallahassee, FL and plays music with Mister Goblin and Deady. He hopes to never, ever, ever become a music writer.

Sam Goblin

Hear First: Mister Goblin’s Final Boy

Sloucher began with Jay Clancy (Makeup Monsters, Cayucas, Hibou), a drummer looking to try his chops at writing his own songs. After trying his hand as a solo act, Clancy sought a more familiar format—he started a band. Clancy wrote the material that would become Sloucher’s 2016 debut EP, Certainty, and recruited a couple friends to help flesh out recordings—drummer Jack Hamrick and former The Globes guitarist Kyle Musselwhite. Two years later, the band’s reputation and sound have only grown—the band itself has quite literally grown, adding bassist Lance Umble (Telekinesis, Cumulus, Bod). They’ve landed opening slots for acts like Angel Olsen and Guided By Voices and opened the main stage at the 2017 Sasquatch! Music Festival. Those two years later, they’re releasing what they’re heralding as their first truly collaborative record, Be True, on November 16 via Swoon Records.

Sloucher

Hear First: Sloucher’s Be True

Hayley Livingston (guitar/vocals), Marisa Gershenhorn (guitar/vocals), Vicki Guillem (drums), and Abby Austin (bass) met in 2014 amongst NYU and the city&#8217;s indie rock scene. They bonded over a shared love of classic punk, and soon after joined forces to create Human People. In 2016, they released two EPs—Sleep Year and Veronica—that blended the primal energy of early New York punk, the off-kilter tunefulness of ‘90s alternative, and the unbridled eccentricity shared by their community of fellow Northeastern musicians (bands like Washer, Stove, and Remember Sports). The band carved out a unique space with their wide range of influences (everything from post-punk to riot grrrl to power-pop), sharp lyrics, and energetic live shows, all the while navigating the existential messiness of college, interpersonal relationships, and one’s own inner dialogue.

Human People

Hear First: Human People’s Butterflies Drink Turtle Tears

Night Shop is the songwriting project of Justin Sullivan. Sullivan has worked as a touring drummer for the past twenty years, much of which was spent playing house shows, warehouses and art spaces with a half dozen DIY punk bands, including Ringers and an early incarnation of Worriers. In 2009, he joined the Babies alongside Kevin Morby and Cassie Ramone. When the band went on hiatus in 2013, Sullivan moved to Los Angeles with Morby and continued working with him as a staple of the live band and playing on all of Morby&rsquo;s studio albums. In the meantime, Sullivan also formed the fuzz punk outfit Flat Worms, with Tim Hellman of Oh Sees and Will Ivy.&nbsp;In the Break is Night Shop&#8217;s first full length album, following a self-titled EP released in 2017 by 1234 Go! Records.&nbsp;The album was engineered by Jarvis Taveniere of Woods, a longtime collaborator from Sullivan&rsquo;s time in Brooklyn and mixed by Drew Fischer.

Night Shop

Hear First: Night Shop’s In The Break

Reverent as it is prophetic and stark, King Dude has previously shared his spiritual visions with releases on Dais, Avant!, Bathetic, Clan Destine, and Ván records. Pulling together the biblical sound and isolation of the bygone days of revelation with an atmosphere filled with hope and salvation, King Dude has woven his own brand of American music.
He brandishes many varied influences in his songwriting. Everything from British Folk, Americana, Country and Blues can be heard in his songs. Even the heavier sounds of Heavy Metal tend to sneak and slither it&#8217;s way into the King Dude canon. The resulting songs are much more of a modern day hymn then your average pop song.
King Dude&#8217;s music begs the soul to lift itself up from the darkness of ignorance, towards the ever shining glorious &#8220;Light&#8221; that exists outside of all of us yet that which we are eternally connected to and at once connects everyone on Earth.

album premiere