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Talkhouse

Mike Bones has solo albums as a singer and guitarist, and with ad hoc supergroup Soldiers of Fortune. Weak Signal — the band he’s put together with Sasha Vine (bass) and Tran (drums) — will release their album BIANCA via Colonel Records October 2021.

Mike Bones

Music

Matt Sweeney (Chavez) and Mike Bones Want To Keep Dumbness in Rock

The composer/electronic musician/healer Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s new album The Mosaic of Transformation on Ghostly International is the follow up to the critically acclaimed 2017 album The Kid.
For her, expressions found in the physical body&#8217;s relationship to sound and color became the foundational frequency of the new album. A bright, sensorial glide through unbound wave phenomena and the radiant power discovered within oneself, with a distinct healing quality to it that existed long before society’s recent shift. Katilyn continued to explore the endless possibilities of electronic instruments as well as the shapes, movements, and expressions found in the physical body&#8217;s relationship to sound and color. It is this life-guiding interest that forms the foundational frequencies of the new album.  While writing and recording, she embraced a daily practice of physical movement, passing electricity through her body and into motion, in ways reflecting her audio practice, which sends currents through modular synthesizers and into the air through speakers.
Not a dancer by any traditional definition, she taught herself improvisatory movement realizing flexibility, strength, and unexpectedly, what she calls “a visual language” stemming from the human body and comprised of vibrational shapes. Understood as cymatics, as she says, &#8220;as a reference for how frequencies can be visualized,&#8221; much like a mosaic.
(Photo Credit: Chantal Anderson)

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Emile Mosseri on Taking Care of Their Creativity

Mas Aya is Brandon Vldivia, a Nicaraguan-Canadian producer and percussionist. His album Máscaras is out now via Telephone Explosion.

Mas Aya

Lido Pimienta and Mas Aya are Grateful To Be “Outsiders”

Bria is an intimate and incisive labor of love from multi-instrumentalists Bria Salmena and Duncan Hay Jennings. Salmena and Jennings have toured for years as members of Toronto four-piece FRIGS, whose 2018 debut Basic Behaviour was long-listed for the Polaris Music Prize. Making a mark in diverse genres from country to punk, both play as permanent members of Orville Peck’s band. Bria’s debut EP Cuntry Covers Vol. 1 is out September 24, 2021 via Sub Pop. 
(Photo Credit: Agustin Farias)

Bria

Le Ren and Bria on Being Very Personal, Very Publicly

Ashley Shadow is a Vancouver-based singer-songwriter. Her second album Only the End is out September 24, 2021 via Felte Records. 
(Photo Credit: Tyler Mcloed)

Ashley Shadow

Ashley Shadow and Amber Webber (Black Mountain) Have a Wine Date

Spirits Having Fun is a Chicago and New York-based rock band. Their second album, Two, is out now via Born Yesterday Records.
(Photo Credit: Julia Dratel)

Spirits Having Fun

Andrew Clinkman (Spirits Having Fun) and Ruth Garbus Are Trying to Unlearn What They’ve Been Taught

When you hear Pom Pom Squad, you might picture a gaggle of matching teens, or a wry, sarcastic clan decked out in black; the reality is somewhere in between. Fronted by vocalist and guitarist Mia Berrin, the Brooklyn-based band unites punk inclinations with a raw, visceral vulnerability. It’s quiet grrrl punk reminiscent of Rilo Kiley, Mitski and PJ Harvey that would rather growl than yell.
Alongside Berrin, Pom Pom Squad features bassist Mari Alé Figeman, and drummer Shelby Keller. Hailing from a variety of different backgrounds — whether Keller’s jazz training or Berrin’s classic hip-hop and new wave upbringing &#8212; the group manages to be serious without taking themselves too seriously. It’s that balance of solemnity and whimsy that allows punk and tenderness to live side by side: chunky, distorted guitar on some tracks, and near-whisper on others; brash yells or tame, wry wit.
They first released the EP Hate It Here in 2017 and followed it up with “Heavy Heavy,” the first single off their most recent EP, Ow, which earned praise from the likes of Stereogum, High Snobiety, Paste and more. Berrin’s music reveals internal discord — she’s intent to cast off the “nice girl” narrative, and that means turning herself inside out to show that the inside isn’t so put-together after all.
Also integral to Berrin’s self-excoration is her existence as a queer woman of color, two identities that come with their own preconceived notions. With lyrics centering on mental health, abuse, trauma, and healing, Pom Pom Squad pursues radical self-acceptance through periodic self-exposure and self-undressing.

Pom Pom Squad

Pom Pom Squad and Kaina Stan Each Other

Craig Fahner, Matt Learoyd, and Jesse Locke’s paths have intertwined for a long time. They’ve played together as Motorists for three years, but have been in and out of various projects together since their teenage years. Craig’s previous bands include Feel Alright and Leather Jacuzzi, while Jesse plays with Tough Age, Simply Saucer, and Chandra, with whom he runs the label We Are Time. They also share an eclectic mix of influences from post-punk to power pop to krautrock. Their debut record Surrounded was mastered by Australian punk-rock legend Mikey Young (of Total Control and Eddy Current Suppression Ring), and released September 2021 via We Are Time/Bobo Integral/Debt Offensive.
(Photo Credit: Michelle Lemay)

Motorists

Motorists and Mikey Young Are in It For the Love of the Game

Ben Chasny is an indie rock guitarist who performs as Six Organs of Admittance. His newest album The Veiled Sea is out now on Three Lobed Records.

Ben Chasny

Ben Chasny and Damon & Naomi Dive Deep on The Recording Process

Devin McKnight is currently a working musician in Brooklyn, NY. You might have previously seen him playing guitar in such indie rock projects as Speedy Ortiz, Grass is Green, and Philadelphia Collins. At the moment, his main focus is the rock band he fronts, Maneka, which fuses elements of jazz, improvisation, math rock and shoegaze.

Devin McKnight

Water From Your Eyes is Anti-Connection Music

Josh Korody is a Toronto-based artist/producer who records as Breeze. Breeze&#8217;s second album, Only Up is out August 2021 via Hand Drawn Dracula.
(Photo Credit: Jayme Keith)

Josh Korody

Josh Korody and Oliver Ackermann (A Place to Bury Strangers) Talk Designing Pedals and Recording Yourself

Jess Viscius is the singer of the Chicago-based quartet Bnny, which she plays in with her twin sister Alexa Viscius, and Tim Makowski and Matt Pelkey. Their debut record Everything is out now via Fire Talk.

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