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Talkhouse

<a href="http://www.leeranaldo.com/">Lee Ranaldo</a> co-founded Sonic Youth in 1981. His latest album, with Raül Refree, <a href="http://namesofnorthendwomen.com">Names of North End Women</a>, came out February 21 via Mute Records.

Lee Ranaldo

Music

Hockets for Two Voices Is an Audio Illusion

Loren DiBlasi is a writer and musician from New York. She is the bassist of post-punk band <a href="https://patio-bandcamp.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://patio-bandcamp.bandcamp.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1558011684779000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFJ9loT6K1Ygxmofcf9l1xKipQRiQ">Patio</a>. Her writing has appeared in MTV News, Vulture, and NPR Music.

Loren DiBlasi

On Auto-Pain, Deeper Feels Everything

Ellen Kempner is the vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter for the Boston and New York-based indie rock trio Palehound. Their latest record, Eye on the Bat, is out now Polyvinyl.

El Kempner

Ellen Kempner Is Kicking Herself for Not Listening to Destroyer Sooner

Robbie Fulks is a musician — country, but also strongly attracted to jazz, bluegrass, gospel, experimental musics — living in Los Angeles. His latest record is Bluegrass Vacation. His 2017 release, Upland Stories, was a multiple Grammy nominee. His website is <a href="http://robbiefulks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.

Robbie Fulks

Robbie Fulks Dives Headfirst into the Strangely Messy World of Gordon Lightfoot

<a href="https://www.mergerecords.com/power-chords" target="_blank" rel="noopener">P</a><a href="https://www.mergerecords.com/power-chords">ower Chords</a>, Mike Krol’s new Merge release, picks up where 2015’s <a href="https://www.mergerecords.com/turkey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Turkey</a> left off. It traces Krol’s journey back to punk rock, harnessing both the guitar technique and the musical redemption referenced in its title. He’s wielding the same influences — Misfits, The Strokes, early Weezer, Ramones — but turning up the gravity and the gain. Indeed, Krol has gone somewhere new; yes, he bludgeoned himself with over-analysis and self-loathing, but along the way he stumbled upon a trove of intricate guitar lines and artfully mutating melodies.
Music ruined Krol’s life. And then saved it. In chronicling that process, Krol has made his best record — painful, voyeuristic, and angry, but ultimately transcendent and timeless. It is the sound of Krol giving in to a force greater than himself, as though the chords are playing him rather than the other way around.

Mike Krol

Best of the 2010s: Mike Krol’s Favorite Night of the Decade Was October 6, 2012

At its heart, Hundred Acres — the third full-length album from Wisconsin singer/songwriter S. Carey — finds him grounded comfortably in his skin, but still with one foot in the stream. More direct than ever, there is a wellspring of confidence in this new batch of songs that lays bare the intricacies of life while keeping its ideas uncomplicated.
Trained in jazz, Carey’s astute musicianship has never been in question nor taken for granted, and the execution of Hundred Acres’ new ideas is seamless. He intentionally unburdened himself from a more complicated instrumentation palate for these ten songs, and, in effect, this modification to his approach brings the content of the work much closer to a living reality. By giving equal status to the indifference of nature and the concerns of a material world — while employing more pop-oriented structures instead of the Steve Reich&#8211; or Talk Talk-ian repetitions of his past work — a new balance is struck that creates something unique. This in turn provides equal status for the feeling that created each song, and the feeling each song creates. Almost impossibly, there is more air between the bars; Carey and his contributors sway like treetops in the wind, remaining flexible enough that they never threaten to break.
Written over the course of a few years, in between touring schedules and the growth of his family, Carey recorded, mixed and produced Hundred Acres at home and in various studios in rural Wisconsin with support from his longtime collaborators Zach Hanson, Ben Lester, and Jeremy Boettcher, as well as new contributions from Rob Moose (yMusic), Casey Foubert (Sufjan Stevens) and Sophie Payten (Gordi).

S. Carey

Best of the 2010s: S. Carey Was Blown Away by Stranger In The Alps

FEELS is a noise punk band from Los Angeles. Their second album, Post Earth, was released via Wichita Recordings in 2019.
(Photo Credit: Jeff Fribough)

FEELS

Best of the 2010s: FEELS Tell Us Their Top Albums of the 2010s

Lillie West is an artist, musician, and producer from London, currently living in Chicago. She values collaboration, fervor, and community.

Lillie West

Best of 2019: FKA Twigs’s “Cellophane” Did It for Lillie West (Lala Lala)

Faye Webster’s second full-length 2019 album Atlanta Millionaires Club is a case-study in duality. The instrumentation (a heart-rending mix of pedal-steel, guitars and strings) recalls the country-folk of her musical upbringing but listen deeper and you’ll discover a soulful undertone to her vocal delivery, a spare groove laid down by her rhythm section; a subtle and elegant genre-bending which just happens to make her one of the most compelling young songwriters in music today.
The near-whisper of Webster&#8217;s voice feels like the embodiment of the maxim &#8220;speak softly and they’ll listen harder.&#8221; Singles &#8220;Kingston,&#8221; &#8220;Right Side Of My Neck&#8221; and &#8220;Flowers&#8221; (a brilliant collaboration with Atlanta rapper and Awful Records label-boss Father) are highlights on an album which has landed on multiple end-of-year best-ofs.
Webster’s talent doesn’t lie solely in music, her collection of portraits documenting the Atlanta hip hop scene are near-iconic and have made her a much in-demand photographer. She is also the proud owner of a line of signature yoyos,  a hobby-turned obsession she picked up on the road after a new drummer turned out to have a side-hustle as a yoyo professional.

Faye Webster

Best of 2019: Faye Webster Loves Hannah Cohen’s Welcome Home

Chris Simpson is the singer-guitarist of Mineral and a solo performer under the name Mountain Time (formerly Zookeeper). After a four-year run and two albums, Mineral broke up in 1997, with Chris moving onto the Gloria Record. In 2014, Mineral reunited for a tour and has since hit the road again, in addition to releasing a retrospective book compiled by writer Mischa Pearlman called <a href="https://mineralofficial.bandcamp.com/album/one-day-when-we-are-young-mineral-at-25">One Day When We Are Young: Mineral At 25</a>. It includes a 10” of the group&#8217;s first new songs in 20 years.
(Photo Credit: Peter Beste)

Chris Simpson

Best of 2019: Chris Simpson (Mineral) Was Amazed by Big Thief’s Two Hands

Marisa Dabice is the frontwoman of the Philadelphia-based punk band Mannequin Pussy. The band&#8217;s third full-length, Patience, was released in 2019 via Epitaph Records.
(Photo Credit: Marcus Maddox)

Marisa Dabice

Best of 2019: Marisa Dabice Was Fucking Obsessed with Rosalía This Year

Sarah Tudzin is a music producer/engineer, burrito aficionado, and pretty good listener. She also fronts Los Angeles&#8217; own tenderpunk outfit, illuminati hotties. When she is not yelling about expertly crafted sounds or the movie Top Gun, she is crying about lyrical turns of phrase or cute cats with very short legs.
(Photo Credit: Kristy Benjamin)

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