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Talkhouse

Alejandro Aranda’s influences and eclectic musical palette includes everything from Frank Zappa to The Deftones, and Nick Cave to classical masters such as Chopin. Aranda is self-taught guitar and piano player, developing his unforgettably distinct style over the past few years.  As he expanded his guitar skills, Aranda taught himself music production and began exploring his vocal talents. By the time he was 22, Aranda had begun busking all around LA County and playing backyard parties where the name Scarypoolparty emerged. His latest album, Doom Hologram, came out in September of 2020.
(Photo Credit: Bex Griffin)

Scarypoolparty

Music

Three Great Things: Scarypoolparty

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Louise Goffin is a songwriter, musician, and producer with a rich, multi-decade career, spanning 10 solo albums as both a major-label act and her current status as an independent, business-savvy creator both on and off stage. Goffin became a dedicated musician at an early age, opening for Jackson Browne at the world-famous Troubadour when she was 17 and releasing her debut, Kid Blue, as a teenager. She has since performed with some of music’s biggest names; a personal highlight was playing lead guitar and singing harmony on tour with Tears For Fears. She also is a trained producer — recently a graduate of a six-month course at Nashville’s Blackbird Academy — who produced Carole King’s GRAMMY-nominated LP, A Holiday Carole. A natural historian who remains dedicated to exploring, preserving, and demystifying iconic songs, Goffin is behind the newSong Chronicles podcast, the successor to the acclaimed podcast she co-hosted with Paul Zollo, The Great Song Adventure. As the creative director of The Goffin &amp; King Foundation, Goffin also works to preserve the legacy of her parents, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, through providing educational opportunities for songwriters, performers, and musicians. Goffin’s latest release, 2020’s Two Different Movies, is a cinematic record that finds its creator nodding to multiple influences: classic pop, rootsy rock ‘n’ roll, jazzy piano ballads, strutting glam, and the California folk-pop that&#8217;s emanated from her Laurel Canyon stomping grounds for decades. The album cover is special, too: it is a hand-drawn portrait of Goffin by Joni Mitchell, which connects her inspired present with her equally inspiring past.
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<div class="col-sm-6 twitter-block">(Photo Credit: Victoria Gold)</div>
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Louise Goffin

Three Great Things: Louise Goffin

With Fish Pond Fish, Darlingside — Dave Senft (bass), Don Mitchell (guitar, banjo), Auyon Mukharji (violin, mandolin), and Harris Paseltiner (cello, guitar) — has created a natural history in song, taking us into gardens, almond groves, orchard rows, down to the ocean floor and under stars. The band has long been praised for their harmonies and intelligent songwriting, described by NPR as “exquisitely-arranged, literary-minded, baroque folk-pop,” and their dynamic presence (crowded tightly together onstage) has made them a live-performance favorite.
(Photo Credit: Rob Stey)

Darlingside

Three Great Things: Auyon Mukharji of Darlingside

The Room, the debut album from Grammy-winning multiplatinum producer and songwriter Ricky Reed, was just released via Reed’s own Nice Life Recording Company. Best known for his work with Lizzo, Maggie Rogers, Twenty One Pilots, Halsey, Leon Bridges and many others, The Room marks Reed’s first official full-length following the release of three solo singles from 2016-2017. The album features collaborations from Leon Bridges, Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Lido Pimienta, Duendita, Kiana Ledé and John-Robert among others.

Ricky Reed

Three Great Things: Ricky Reed

Briston Maroney’s latest single, “Deep Sea Diver,” was co-written by Dan Wilson and produced by John Congleton, so it’s got a lot going for it. It’s the latest in a young career that’s produced three great EPs so far, with a full-length due in 2021. He plays deceptively breezy Americana that’s somewhere on the continuum between John Prine and Kacey Musgraves.
(Photo Credit: Sophia Matinazad)

Briston Maroney

Three Great Things: Briston Maroney

Ben Gibbard is the frontman of Death Cab For Cutie. The band recently launched <a href="http://wehavethefacts2020.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wehavethefacts2020.com</a>, a site whose proceeds benefit <a href="https://fairfight.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fair Fight</a> and <a href="https://www.futurenow.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Future Now</a>, which seek to support voter rights and combat voter suppression.
(Photo Credit: Rachel Demy)

Ben Gibbard

Three Great Things: Ben Gibbard

Malik is a 24-year-old GRAMMY-winning producer and artist who’s been taken under the mentorship of No. I.D. and his label, ARTium Recordings. He’s also a darling of his hometown Austin, TX, a restless creative spirit who’s been writing and creating music locally for some time. The pinnacle of his work so far is Spectrum (Demo). Out now, each song on Spectrum (Demo)  which Malik describes as “a sort of musical take on Pixar’s Inside Out, if it were as heavily influenced by Outkast, Graduation-era Kanye West, Days Before Rodeo-era Travis Scott, Acid Rap Chance the Rapper, and Nostalgia, Ultra Frank Ocean, as I was”  is named after a specific color and channels its energy and purpose.

Malik

Three Great Things: Malik

Juiceboxxx is an American artist from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His forthcoming LP is slated for release on Dangerbird Records in early 2020.
(Photo Credit: Brad Dececco)

Juiceboxxx

JUICEBOXXX RECOMMENDS: Listening to the Radio

Hennessey is a good old fashioned hipster band from New York. Manhattan to be exact. In the tradition of Le Tigre, Gorillaz, Devo, and Roxy Music, they are a group of multidisciplinary artists who have come together to create vintage-pop obsessed electronic dance punk.
Leah Hennessey, also known as a playwright and creator of the underground web series Zhe Zhe, is the lead singer and principal songwriter of the band. Synthesizer/drum machine “operator” and Eno-like “non-musician” E.J. O’Hara has been collaborating with Leah “almost since high school.” His main concern is to make the beats sound more like Timbaland. Electronic guitarist Noah Chevan eschews amplifiers and traditional guitar rigs in favor of computer processing.
(Photo Credit: Mike Martinez)

Hennessey

Three Great Things: Hennessey

JUICEBOXXX RECOMMENDS: Old Concert Footage

JUICEBOXXX RECOMMENDS: Listening to Music

In music, there’s often a tendency to focus on personal pain. It’s a useful shorthand for understanding how an artist got to where they are now, but sometimes that heaviness doesn’t leave enough room for nuance and change. In his solo work, the Indiana musician Kevin Krauter doesn’t flinch when staring down his past, but he doesn’t get too obsessed with the dark stuff either.
In 2018, Krauter released Toss Up, a quiet album that was built on intricate guitar riffs that looped back on themselves to create a feeling of sunlit calm. Krauter’s sophomore follow up, Full Hand, dives further into the world he’s created — one where songs are evocative of late afternoon light, or dust settling on a creaky floorboard, but with lyrics that probe Krauter’s personal life, grappling with sexuality and religion, while exploring what it means to grow up, grow more critical, and, in turn, more self-confident.
Full Hand is out now via Bayonet Records.
(Photo Credit: Hana Mendel)

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