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Talkhouse

Alt-rock godfather and Chainsaw Kittens frontman, Tyson Meade, is back yet again with another fabulous new album, Robbing the Nuclear Family. Like his critically-acclaimed 2014 solo release Tomorrow in Progress, which included fantastic contributions from Smashing Pumpkins’ Jimmy Chamberlin, Other Lives’ Jesse Tabish, and The Flaming Lips’ Derek Brown, Robbing features contributions from elder statesmen of the Beijing rock scene PK 14, Shanghai violinist Haffijy, The Flaming Lips’ Matt Duckworth, and Grammy-award winning drummer Rob Martin. Robbing also has the heavy imprint of multi-instrumentalist David “Immy” Immerglück of alternative rock greats Counting Crows, Camper Van Beethoven, and the Monks of Doom.
Through the years, Meade has toured with Iggy Pop, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction, the Meat Puppets, and many others. Butch Vig and John Agnello have produced his albums, and Spike Jonze, George Salisbury, and Phil Harder have directed his videos.

Tyson Meade

Music

A Billion Dollar Baby on the Desolate Plains

Adam Weiner is the frontman and songwriter for the band Low Cut Connie. He has written articles for SPIN, Billboard, and TIDAL. He lives in Philadelphia.
(Photo Credit: David Norbut)

Adam Weiner

Pour on the Steam: Little Richard at Age 19

Hannah Rainey is a musician based in St. Louis, Missouri. She sings and plays guitar in Shady Bug who recently released their sophomore album, Lemon Lime, on Exploding In Sound Records.

Hannah Rainey

Listening to Deerhoof on an iPod Shuffle

Kiri Oliver is a writer and musician from Brooklyn, NY. She wears bright colors and sings about her feelings in the folk-pop-punk band Early Riser. She was a music booker for The Chris Gethard Show from its public access days through its run on truTV. Follow her on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/kirioliver" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://twitter.com/kirioliver">here</a>.

Kiri Oliver

How Songwriting Saved Kiri Oliver from the Curse of Perfectionism

Murray A. Lightburn, the longtime frontman of Montreal’s acclaimed The Dears, returns with his deeply personal new solo album, Once Upon A Time In Montreal, available digitally, along with a vinyl edition available online and in stores via Dangerbird Records.

Murray A. Lightburn

Murray A. Lightburn’s Guide to Songwriting

Spacey but not alienating, loud yet still light, painting panoramic sound against a moving melodic backdrop, Moving Panoramas make dream rock from Austin, Texas.
It all began in Brooklyn, where songwriter Leslie Sisson lived while playing in a number of touring bands. She came back to her home state of Texas to be closer to her family after navigating through a series of life changing events. This led to an array of songs that shaped the birth of the band. The debut LP One, released on Modern Outsider Records in 2015, conjured a wave of dream gaze and international acclaim.
As life would have it, unexpected roadblocks arose during production of the sophomore album, with health hiccups and timing twists causing release detours. Fortunately, the finish line has been crossed and the new LP, In Two finally takes flight in 2019 via Modern Outsider Records.
Moving Panoramas break the shell of One veritably In Two with the new record, expanding room for more diversity, rhythm, volume, instrumentation such as the swimmy pedal steel, plus special guests Matthew Caws of Nada Surf, Sabrina Ellis of A Giant Dog/Sweet Spirit, and past Panoramas Karen Skloss, Jolie Flink, and Laura Colwell. Over the years, the band&#8217;s lineup featured a moving cast of magical busy talent, but has luckily landed on the incredibly solid current Baby Blues crew with Cara Tillman, Rosie Castoe, Jordan Rivell, Jody Suarez, and Phil McJunkins.
(Photo Credit: Mike Manewitz)

Moving Panoramas

The Duality of Moving Panoramas

In the fall of 2017, David Huckfelt left behind the familiar—the comfort of his home in Minneapolis; the camaraderie of his critically acclaimed band, The Pines; the luxuries of heat, hot water, and electricity—and relocated to Isle Royale, America’s most remote and least visited national park in mighty Lake Superior. Six hours by boat off the Michigan coast, Isle Royale is the largest island in the world’s largest freshwater lake, an isolated stretch of wilderness seemingly forgotten by the 20th century (to say nothing of the 21st). There, as an Artist In Residence selected by the National Park Service, Huckfelt spent ten hours a day for two straight weeks writing in solitude, channeling the mysterious and lonesome island’s spirits into his stunning debut solo album, Stranger Angels.
Stranger Angels is a record about “thin places,” those spiritually charged locales where heaven and earth seem to meet and the veil between the world we see and the mystical world beyond becomes transparent. Artfully weaving the historical, the ecological, and the personal into an elegant lyrical web, these songs contain layers of surprise and richness.
When it was time to record the songs from Isle Royale, Huckfelt again sought geographic isolation, working out of a 110-year-old farmhouse studio in Menomonie, Wisconsin. This time, however, he chose to surround himself with fellow artists, assembling a dream team of musicians including drummer/co-producer J.T. Bates (Andrew Bird, Mason Jennings), bassist Darin Gray (Tweedy, William Tyler), and guitarists Michael Rossetto, Erik Koskinen, and Jeremy Ylvisaker, cutting sixteen songs in just three days. Very special guests rallied to Huckfelt’s side, including spectacular performances by Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath and Trampled By Turtles’ Dave Simonett. Recorded and mixed by engineer-extraordinaire Adam Krinksy (Bellows Studio) the album captures the magic and spontaneity of a gifted band discovering the beauty and brilliance of the songs and each other all at once.

David Huckfelt

Not All Who Wander Aren’t Lost

Michal Towber was born in Ashkelon, Israel, and raised in NYC. She is a classically trained pianist and self-taught guitarist who graduated from Yale University and Columbia Law School.
Michal released her first record at 17, Sky With Stars on Columbia. The album was co-produced by Towber and Soul Asylum front man, Dave Pirner. In the years since, she’s released seven more album including the latest and had her music appear in numerous television shows and films including ABC’s One Life to Live for which she won an Emmy award, HBO feature films Kiss the Bride and Jack and Jill vs. the World, Lifetime’s True Confessions of a Go Go Girl, the films Dark Rising and Duck Farm No. 13, to name but a new. Her eighth album is No Resolution.

Michal Towber

When I Was a Teenage (Almost) Rockstar

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

The Spectacle and Sensation of Shania Twain

H.Grimace is a London-based post-punk quartet.
Born of a partnership between vocalist/guitarist Hannah Gledhill and guitarist Marcus Browne, the band draws from the dark and enigmatic, occasionally allowing shades of shoegaze and psych to slip through the cracks.
Bassist Corin Johnson and drummer Diogo Gomez provide a driving rhythm to complement Gledhill and Browne’s songwriting; together H. Grimace has drawn comparisons to Savages and Sister-era Sonic Youth.

H.Grimace

Introducing: H.Grimace’s “She’s In a State”

Butch Vig is a legendary producer (Nirvana&#8216;s Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkins&#8216; Siamese Dream, among many others) and the founding drummer for alt-rock pioneers Garbage. Vig currently plays in the supergroup 5 Billion In Diamonds.

Butch Vig

Crushingly Loud: Tales from Smart Studios

Drew Holcomb and his band the Neighbors turned a new corner with 2017’s Souvenir, a highly collaborative album that debuted #1 on iTunes and Amazon and garnered acclaim from Rolling Stone, CMT, Entertainment Weekly and more.  A road warrior for more than a decade, Holcomb has spent adulthood traveling from place to place with a catalog of vibrant, honest songs that explore the full range of American roots music.  Holcomb &amp; crew have appeared at Bonnaroo, Outsidelands, Stagecoach and more, while sharing stages with legendary artists including Willie Nelson, John Hiatt, Ryan Adams, and The Avett Brothers.
An Emmy Award-winner with his music synced in over 75 of TV’s most watched shows, Holcomb has also appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! twice, most recently for his collaborative EP Goodbye Road with JOHNNYSWIM performing their resounding single “Ring the Bells” in summer of 2018. Among Holcomb’s ambitious projects are his Moon River Music Festival, an annual event benefitting local and national non-profits and Magnolia Records, a monthly vinyl subscription service, both curated meticulously by Holcomb himself. In 2019, Drew and his wife Ellie have teamed up for the Electricity EP which features two new original songs and a stunning Willie Nelson cover, “On the Road Again,” as well as limited engagement tour – The You and Me Tour: An Evening with Drew &amp; Ellie Holcomb &#8211; to kick start what promises to be a busy year.

music essay