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Talkhouse

Graham Elliot is a chef who loves music. He has appeared on MasterChef and Top Chef, and he is the culinary director of the Lollapalooza festival. He recently opened his first restaurant in Asia, called Coast.
(Photo Credit: Lucas Oleniuk)

Graham Elliot

Music

Best of 2018: Chef Graham Elliot’s Favorite Album of 2018 is Steve Perry’s Traces

Split Single frontman Jason Narducy is a universally beloved lifer, having first appeared on the scene at age 11 in the ‘80s Chicago punk band Verböten. He fronted Epic/Sony alt-rockers Verbow during the ‘90s alt-rock bubble, then spent nearly a decade as the bassist and backup vocalist for folks like Bob Mould, Robert Pollard, Telekinesis and Superchunk. Split Single’s <a href="http://www.shopbenchmark.com/splitsingle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Metal Frames</a> was released in 2016.

Jason Narducy

Best of 2018: Jason Narducy (Superchunk, Split Single) loves Deeper’s self-titled album

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

Best of 2018: Ellen Kempner’s (Palehound) Favorite Album of 2018 is Tierra Whack’s Whack World

Juliana Hatfield is a singer, songwriter and guitar player. She began her music career in the late 1980s in Boston with the Blake Babies. Since then she has released approximately fifteen solo albums and been involved with numerous other groups including the Lemonheads, Some Girls (with Freda Love Smith) and MInor Alps (with Matthew Caws from Nada Surf). Her latest project is a collaboration with Paul Westerberg called the I Don’t Cares. Their debut album, Wild Stab, came out in early 2016. Hatfield&#8217;s new album, Pussycat, will be released on April 28, 2017.
(Photo credit: Brad Walsh)

Juliana Hatfield

Best of 2018: The Voidz’ Virtue is Juliana Hatfield’s Favorite Album of the Year

Dylan Baldi is a guitarist and songwriter in the band Cloud Nothings. He currently lives and drinks lots of seltzer in western Massachusetts.

Dylan Baldi

Best of 2018: Dylan Baldi (Cloud Nothings) Loves an Obscure French band Called Rose Mercie

Phoebe Bridgers grew up in the rose-colored city of Pasadena, attending the prestigious Los Angeles County High School for the Arts to study music. Heavily influenced by Elliott Smith’s sparse lyrics and subdued emotional style—in addition to that of her other favored singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen—her first single &#8220;Killer&#8221; (produced by Ryan Adams) was released in 2015.
Her debut album Stranger In The Alps was released in 2017 via Dead Oceans and featured appearances by Conor Oberst and John Doe; in 2018, she released an EP with Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus as the indie supergroup boygenius.
(Photo Credit: Lera Pentelute)

Phoebe Bridgers

Best of 2018: Phoebe Bridgers Loved Mitski’s Be The Cowboy This Year

Jenn Wasner is a songwriter, musician, producer and human being. She has released solo music as Flock of Dimes and collaborates with others as a member of Wye Oak and Dungeonesse. She is alive, at work and at play in the city of Durham, NC. You can follow her on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/wyeoak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a>

Jenn Wasner

Best of 2018: Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes) Loves Christine and the Queens’ Chris

Soccer Mommy is the project of Sophie Allison, a Nashville native. She&#8217;s toured with Mitski, Jay Som, Slowdive, and others, and was featured in the New York Times article “Rock’s Not Dead, It’s Ruled By Women.” Her debut studio album, Clean, was released in 2018.
(Photo Credit: Natalia Mantini)

Soccer Mommy

Best of 2018: Soccer Mommy’s Favorite Album of 2018 is Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour

<div>Robin Edwards is Seattle-based musician who performs as <a href="https://lisaprank.bandcamp.com/">Lisa Prank</a>  and in the supergroup <a href="http://whoisshe.bandcamp.com/">Who is She?</a> You can follow her on <a href="https://twitter.com/lisaprank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lisa_prank">Instagram,</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lisaprankmusic/">Facebook</a>.</div>

Robin Edwards

Best of 2018: Lisa Prank’s Favorite Album of 2018 is Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour

Matt Quinn is the lead singer of Mt. Joy, whose self-titled debut was released in 2018, and whose “Silver Lining” you probably heard this year.
(Photo Credit: Matt Everitt)

Matt Quinn

Best of 2018: Matt Quinn of Mt. Joy loves Khruangbin’s Con Todo El Mundo

Nick Sanborn is half of the musical duo Sylvan Esso, and he also makes solo electronic music under the name Made Of Oak.

Nick Sanborn

Best of 2018: Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso) Can’t Get Enough of Low’s Double Negative

Shamir is Shamir and remains Shamir through and through, no matter what the universe puts him through. You may know the singularly named artist (think—Madonna or Cher) from his 2015 debut hit record Rachet, beloved by NPR listeners and club kids alike. After quickly rising to underground fame with his Northtown EP in 2014, the DIY pop star made a sonic splash with Rachet’s lead single “On The Regular,” a poppy banger that had extensive commercial usage. But how to follow all that up? Shamir, who came from the dusty dunes of Las Vegas, to Brooklyn’s Silent Barn, to the Philly indie scene (and all over the world in between), wanted to go back to what had inspired him from the beginning. Outsider music, country &amp; punk. Raw and vulnerable tunes, stripped down to their emotional core. 2017’s Revelations explored a new avenue of guitar driven hooky indie rock and was widely critically praised in the US and overseas.
Shamir’s most recent releases, the brilliant Room 7” on Father/Daughter, and his self-released limited edition album, Resolution, are pinnacles in the catalog of the increasingly fascinating artist’s career. Room and its b-side Caballero celebrate Shamir’s love of country music, while Resolution is a deeply introspective look into the fabric of society and the artists’ own mind.  With these two releases he has refined his craft exponentially and done so in less than six months from the release of Revelations.

music essay