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Talkhouse

Freda Love Smith is a lecturer and advisor in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. She is a rock drummer and co-founder of the Blake Babies, Antenna, Some Girls, and the Mysteries of Life, is a staff writer for Paste Magazine, and has published short stories in journals such as the North American Review, SmokeLong, Bound Off and Riptide. Her first book, Red Velvet Underground: A Rock Memoir, with Recipes, was published on November 1, 2015 by Agate/Midway.
(Photo Credit: Rebecca Dudley)

Freda Love Smith

Music

Freda Love Smith and Juliana Hatfield Got Matching Quarantine Haircuts

In the years between the release of Alice Ivy&#8216;s Australian Music Prize-nominated 2018 debut I&#8217;m Dreaming, the curator has grown into one of Australian electronica&#8217;s most prominent advocates for female producers. Now with the release of Don&#8217;t Sleep, Alice Ivy&#8217;s position alongside respected contemporaries is solidified, and her status as a revered collaborator confirmed.
Platforming new artists and helping new voices to break-through to the mainstream goes beyond just tastemaking for Alice Ivy, whose refined curatorial skills are on full display across Don&#8217;t Sleep. Through her choice of collaborators, Ivy is working to diversify the sound and look of the traditionally male-dominated studio space. This cause moves forward again through her second LP where Ivy is equally adept at uncovering new dimensions to well-established artists such as Cadence Weapon on &ldquo;Sunrise,&rdquo; Montaigne and Bertie Blackman on &ldquo;Sweetest Love&rdquo; and Ngaiire on &ldquo;All For You;&rdquo; as she is seeking out and breaking new ones including Thelma Plum on &ldquo;Ticket To Heaven,&rdquo; Odette on &ldquo;I&#8217;ll Find It&rdquo; and more across 13 tracks.
Written predominantly on the road where pool houses and kitchen tables were made into impromptu studios, in making Don&#8217;t Sleep Ivy strove to write music that could soundtrack both feelings of pure elation and move listeners emotionally. Challenging herself to experiment with new songwriting methods, explore the rawness of sound and collaborate with a broader range of voices, the result is a colourful journey made all the more vibrant and tender with tales woven from some of Australia&#8217;s most established and exciting upcoming voices.
(Photo Credit: Michelle G Hunder)

Alice Ivy

You Don’t Have To Make Your Pandemic Album

Aly &amp; AJ is LA-based sister duo Alyson and Amanda Michalka. They recently released their singles &#8220;Attack of Panic&#8221; and &#8220;Joan of Arc on the Dance Floor&#8221; were released earlier this year and they are recording a new album now.
(Photo Credit: Stephen Ringer)

Aly & AJ

The Way We Get By: Aly & AJ Have Found Kinship in the Berninger Brothers

Nashville band Moon Taxi has been taking their genre-bending musicality around the world since 2006, playing everywhere from the Ryman to big festivals. In a dynamic new era for the band — vocalist/guitarist Trevor Terndrup, guitarist Spencer Thomson, bassist Tommy Putnam, keyboardist Wes Bailey, and drummer Tyler Ritter — their upcoming fifth album Silver Dream broadens their sonic palette, exploring everything from folk to soul to inventively crafted electronic pop.
(Photo Credit: Jake Matthews)

Moon Taxi

Moon Taxi’s Wes Bailey is Cooking Up a Storm

Pure Bathing Culture is Sarah Versprille and Dan Hindman, an indie pop duo from Portland, OR. Their EP Carrido is out now via Infinite Companion.

Pure Bathing Culture

Too Easy: Pure Bathing Culture Talks with Jonathan Rado (Foxygen) About Richard Swift

Dave Stewart is one-half of the legendary pop duo Eurythmics.

Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart of Eurythmics Talks About Quarantine Recording, Bahamas Living, and His Latest Collaboration

Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott have been making music as JR JR — formerly Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. — for a decade, playing electronic-tinge indie-pop that slots nicely next to bands like MGMT and Portugal The Man. The band’s latest single is “The Gambler,” a song inspired by a particularly horrendous trip to Las Vegas.
(Photo Credit: Pamela Littky)

JR. JR.

Josh from JR. JR. Recommends Ip Man Movies For a Brain Break

Art Feynman (aka accomplished recording artist and producer Luke Temple) stitches art-pop, Nigerian highlife, worldbeat, and other lesser-known genres into a musical quilt that displays his unmistakable guile and eccentric songcraft. On his sophomore album Half Price at 3:30 (out now on <a href="https://smarturl.it/ls8g04" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://smarturl.it/ls8g04&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1594406618320000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFBBoLnjNsvhRwgMZDfYkAMTAa3mA">Western Vinyl</a>) he delivers songs that side-smile while pointing out the emotional sinkholes that whirl beneath the most overlooked, seemingly commonplace scenarios. As effortlessly as he inhabits his Art Feynman character he also slips into the lives of other personalities, both living and fictional. Where previous entries in the Luke Temple discography — including his well-liked former group Here We Go Magic — have utilized organic timbres even while sailing far from the guitar-and-drums shore, Half Price sees him employing drum machines, slightly glossier production, and even autotune with a tasteful balance that suggests these tools have been in his kit all along. The result affectionately evokes guerrilla recording predecessors like Francis Bebey, Arthur Russell, and Haruomi Hosono in musicological detail, yet it’s Temple’s hard-won creative voice that resounds over top of it all facing Half Price forward instead of nostalgically backward.
(Photo Credit: Aubrey Trinnaman)

Luke Temple

A Deep Dive Into Music Theory and Lyric Writing with Luke Temple and Buck Meek

James Petralli is the frontman of White Denim, a band from Austin, TX. Their album World As A Waiting Room is out now via Radio Milk Records.

James Petralli

White Denim Planned and Executed an Entire Lockdown Album

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

The Way We Get By: FEELS’s Amy Allen Is Dabbling in Circus Arts

Holding fast to the emotional honesty of Playing House (2017), Common Holly’s sophomore record, When I say to you Black Lightning is a look outward; an exploration of the ways in which we all experience pain, fear, and self-delusion, and how we can learn to confront those feelings with boldness.
The record is more experimental than Brigitte Naggar’s debut. It is rougher, looser, louder and more atonal. It feels edgy, but still kind. WISTYBL ditches fear without losing vulnerability, and trades in sadness for the healing powers of anger, and the strength of observing, recognizing and confronting. Through its 9 labyrinthian yet catchy tracks, shaped sonically by the seriously unique visions of Devon Bate, Hamish Mitchell, and Naggar herself, the album observes the complexities of mental health, the precarity of life, and the challenges of finding strength in the face of grave misunderstanding. 
(Photo Credit: Alex Apostolidis)

Common Holly

Checking In with Little Kid and Common Holly

Tom Russo is a singer, songwriter and guitarist with Melbourne band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Their second LP Sideways to New Italy is out now through Sub Pop.

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