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Talkhouse

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

Music

Des Ark Did It First

Mesmeric and kaleidoscopic, shimmering with electrified unease, Jilian Medford’s new Show Me How You Disappear is both an exercise in self-forgiveness and an eventual understanding of unresolved trauma. Medford’s third record as IAN SWEET unfolds at an acute juncture in her life, charting from a mental health crisis to an intensive healing process and what comes after. How do you control the thoughts that control you? What does it mean to get better? What does it mean to have a relationship with yourself?
(Photo Credit: Lucy Sandler)

IAN SWEET

The Emotional Freedom Technique, Therapy, and Creativity

Personal Space is a conundrum: indie without a scene, prog disdaining complexity, a dad band without dads. Since they released their debut EP, The Early Universe Was Entirely Opaque, in 2014, the band has been a work in progress, perennially under review. For their official debut, Sam Rosenthal and Henry Koehler joined forces with Alex Silva and Jesse Chevan, recently of Brooklyn smoothcore band Face of Man, to release 2016’s Ecstatic Burbs on Tiny Engines. Ecstatic Burbs showcased the band’s “eccentro-pop” sound and range of influences, from experimental post-punk like the Dismemberment Plan to the baroque pop of The Zombies, and earned the band praise from the Village Voice, Stereogum, and Brooklyn Vegan.
A Lifetime of Leisure, the band’s second LP release, and its first for Good Eye, showcases the members’ development, musically and personally, since Ecstatic Burbs was released. Where Ecstatic Burbs dealt with reconciling the saccharine surreality of a suburban upbringing with the stark realities of life after college, A Lifetime of Leisure finds Personal Space negotiating more thematically complex terrain. The world has gotten a lot darker in the intervening years, and the grooves have followed suit. Like Steely Dan with less glitz, or a mordant Pinback, the 10 tracks on ALOL find the band fretting over downward mobility, preoccupied with ethically sourcing their groceries, and hoping, against hope, that humanity can still find its way to a very chill, socialist utopia.

Personal Space

Celebrating 20 Years of India.Arie’s Acoustic Soul

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An artist of many disciplines, Alex Somers takes inspiration from all walks of life. His studies in music took him from Boston (Berklee) to Reykjavík (Iceland Academy of the Arts), where he became involved with Sigur Rós. With the famed band, Somers’s role included not just producer but designer as well with his contributions to artwork for albums such as Takk… Alongside frontman Jónsi, he formed duo Jónsi &amp; Alex, who released two albums Riceboy Sleeps (2009) and Lost &amp; Found (2019). As a producer, Alex has lent his talents to works by Julianna Barwick, Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Damien Rice, Amiina, Sin Fang, and Briana Marela. In the decade between Riceboy… and his official debut albums, Somers expanded his audio expertise to film. As a composer, he’s contributed soundtracks for Miss Americana(the Taylor Swift documentary), Honey Boy, Captain Fantastic, the How To Train Your Dragon Trilogy, Aloha, tv shows Black Mirror (“Hang the DJ”) and WGN’s Manhattan, and composed alongside legendary composers such as Danny Elfman (Don’t Worry He Won’t Get Far) and the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. 2021 marks the first time he channels his talents into a project solely his own, a chance to express himself while simultaneously sharing all he’s learned from his partnerships, friendships, and wide-ranging interests.
(Photo Credit: Bella Howard)
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Alex Somers

Alex Somers on His Sibling Musical Careers

Israel Nash’s new album, Topaz, was recorded over the course of about a year in the Quonset hut studio he built about 600 feet from his house in the Texas Hill Country. While musician friends from nearby Austin contributed to the project, Topaz marks the first album Nash has recorded mostly on his own, both taking his time and relishing his newfound access to immediacy, punching the red button moments after an idea hit. The resulting Topaz is a triumphant rock-and-roll experiment, full of fat horns, gospel choruses, swagger, hope, and pain. The meaty rock foundation with touches of psychedelia and skylark folk that fans have come to love are still here, now with a soulful heft that nods to Muscle Shoals and Memphis. Political and personal, Topaz is moody and vast, cohesive and compelling.
(Photo Credit: Chad Wadsworth)

Israel Nash

Sutherland Springs: Any Small Town in Texas

Adam Schatz has recently released the improvised album Civil Engineering Vol. 1 and the Landlady album Make Up / Lost Time. See him on tour this summer, tickets and info at <a href="http://linktr.ee/landladyland" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://linktr.ee/landladyland&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1780425624327000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3vXy-qQUGj-lKK5bDfgzP-">linktr.ee/landladyland</a>.
(Photo Credit: Sasha Arutyunova.)

Adam Schatz

How To Write Your Own Bio

Perhaps no other instrument in the traditional music of Japan is as easily recognizable as the shakuhachi; an end-blown, bamboo flute. Originally played by itinerant monks as a form of meditation, it has endured centuries of change throughout Japan’s history. For six generations, the Araki family has shepherded this tradition under the name of Kodō. Named for his great-great grandfather, Hanzaburō made his professional debut in 1988 in Japan only four months after his first lesson from his father. In 2009, the name Kodō was bestowed upon him by his father to become the sixth in his family’s lineage to bear this title. This legacy continues to be the most influential in the genre, offering an unbroken connection to the roots of this haunting music.   In the midst of a catastrophic year for the performing arts, there was a silver lining: Araki was able to take possession of an extremely rare flute made by his great-great-grandfather. The unexpected reunification with a shakuhachi made by his namesake, the isolation of the pandemic, and over 30 years in the music industry, created an apt circumstance for a recording to honor the flute, his father, and grandfathers.   In January of 2021, he released an album titled Hankyō (Reverberation) with both traditional and more contemporary compositions.

Hanz Araki

I Don’t Ask People To Use My Full Name

Adam Sliwinski has built a dynamic career of creative collaboration as percussionist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and writer. He specializes in bringing composers, performers, and other artists together to create exciting new work. A member of the ensemble Sō Percussion since 2002, Adam has performed at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, The Bonnaroo Festival, Disney Concert Hall with the LA Philharmonic, and everything in between. Sō Percussion has also toured extensively around the world, including multiple featured performances at the Barbican Centre in London, and tours to France, Germany, The Netherlands, South America, Australia, and Russia.
(Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez)

Adam Sliwinski

A Record of A Record Of…

John Beeler lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and three daughters, where he works as Label Director for Asthmatic Kitty Records.

John Beeler

A Silence Quiet Enough To Think

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

How Artists Are Keeping DIY Alive in 2021

american poetry club is six kids in a basement, not too far from you, doing their very best to capture the sound of self-esteem. they don’t have it down quite yet, but they’re putting in the work, and they’re getting closer all the time. Their six-song EP, do you believe in your heart?!, is out February 2021.

american poetry club

To All the Hours Lost on Blogspot

Jeff Daniels loves acting, but he doesn’t get to do it every day. What he does do every day is pick up his guitar and play, often writing songs to add to an impressive pile of them. His latest album is Alive And Well Enough, and he’s virtually on tour now.

music essay