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Talkhouse

Black Pumas — the duo of frontman/songwriter Eric Burton and producer/guitarist Adrian Quesada — received three 2021 Grammy nominations recently, including two in the ceremony’s biggest categories, Album of the Year (for Black Pumas (Deluxe Edition)) and Record of the Year (for “Colors”). “Colors” was additionally nominated for Best American Roots Performance. The nominations are a thrilling culmination to a year that began with the duo attending the 2020 Grammys as Best New Artist nominees and has seen their star rise through massive streaming and radio success, multiple high-profile TV performances, and a passionate and ever-growing fanbase.

Black Pumas

Music

Best of 2020: Eric Burton (Black Pumas) Loves Moses Sumney’s Grae

In 2015, the beloved Boston indie-rock band Krill broke-up. Actually, hold on, broke-up may be too intense of a phrase. They did stop playing shows in the fall of 2015, but by 2016, they put out a posthumous five-song EP, and a couple years after that, Krill reunited for a one-off show supporting their friends in LVL UP. So, there was no acrimony, Krill just kind of ended. But in 2019, Knot was born, which, depending on how you look at it, is kind of Krill and also kind of not at all Krill.
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In the simplest terms, Knot is effectively Krill’s final lineup with an additional musician added in, but it’s the particulars that highlight the differences between the two bands. In Knot, Krill bassist and vocalist Jonah Furman switches to guitar, Krill guitarist Aaron Ratoff handles both guitar and bass, Ian Becker is still on drums, and Joe DeManuelle-Hall, the relative newcomer, also plays guitar. In essence, Knot is a bigger, more ruminative version of Krill, but it’s also something that’s distinct unto itself. And on the band’s debut album, which is called Knot, too, it’s easy to see that Knot has a perspective all its own.
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Knot

Best of 2020: Knot Was Super Into Guitar Records This Year

Deeper&#8216;s Shiraz Bhatti, Nic Gohl, and Drew McBride take a thoughtful and direct approach with their songwriting, yielding spry melodies and inventive structures. It’s a clever combination of jagged post-punk and refined indie rock. A tightly wound rhythm section teeters on the edge, but is anchored by intricate guitar interplay and saturated with an enigmatic spirit. Their first album, 2018’s Deeper channeled the anxiety of change in everyday life and navigating the unhinged political atmosphere. Run takes a more existential approach, reaching down past the emotion and staring back at the inner.
Backed by an astutely scientific cover of the John Maus rarity “Bennington”, Deeper sheds the searching bottled up in previous material, carving out an ambit distinctly their own. Brisk, pointed and efficient, and no note wasted, Run b/w Bennington, a new 7 Inch out in October 2019, sets the stage for the Chicago trio’s sophomore LP.
(Photo Credit: Brendan Carroll)

Deeper

Best of 2020: Deeper Talks the New Yves Tumor Record

Rahill Jamalifard is a DJ and the vocalist for the Brooklyn-based band Habibi. Her debut solo record, Flowers At your Feet, is out now on Big Dada.

Rahill Jamalifard

Best of 2020: Rahill Jamalifard Talks Jasper Marsalis and Jack Name

Mamalarky is down to water your houseplants while you&#8217;re out of town and plot an elaborate revenge on your high school bully. Mamalarky could very well be the cure for depression or the cause of all universal sadness. Mamalarky is a campfire song for American Idol rejects and a somber soundtrack for the months leading up to your next breakup. They are exactly what you would expect to see in an increasingly sentient robot&#8217;s dream journal.
Mamalarky started in Austin, TX and now resides in Atlanta, GA. The band combines doe-eyed vocal melodies, cerebral keys, dynamic finger-picked guitar, ebullient bass lines, and hard hitting drums to create an intoxicating elixir, entirely their own.
Their self-titled debut album Mamalarky is out November 2020 via Fire Talk Records.

Mamalarky

Best of 2020: Mamalarky Talks Ginger Root’s New Album (and His TikTok)

Widowspeak is singer-songwriter Molly Hamilton and guitarist Robert Earle Thomas. Their fifth album, Plum, is out August 28, 2020 via Captured Tracks.

Widowspeak

Best of 2020: Widowspeak Was Looking for Different Perspectives This Year

Ani Ivory-Block, Lily Konigsberg, and Nina Ryser met while attending Bard College and formed Palberta in 2013. My Pal Berta (2013) and Shitheads in the Ditch (2014) were both released by Feeding Tube Records. Bye Bye Berta (2016) was their first album for Wharf Cat Records and it was followed by 2018’s Roach Goin’ Down, both recorded by Paco Cathcart (The Cradle). These albums were surrounded by a slew of EPs and split releases as well as frequent touring of the United States and Canada. Palberta opened for Bikini Kill at Brooklyn Steel in 2019 and were set to tour the UK and Europe for the first time in April of 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Their fifth album, Palberta5000, was preceded by the stand-alone single “Something in the Way” and will be released on January 22, 2021. When they can safely do so, they look forward to touring the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

Palberta

Best of 2020: All the Things That Excited Palberta This Year

On March 3, Nathaniel Rateliff kicked off his sold-out &#8220;And It’s Still Alright Tour&#8221; — which marked a nine month continued run. Nine days later on March 12 the rest of the tour was canceled when the pandemic hit. After months of virtual shows and livestreams, Rateliff performed five socially distanced shows at Colorado’s renowned Red Rocks Amphitheatre. The Marigold Project is Rateliff&#8217;s foundation dedicated to economic, racial and social justice. All funds raised through the Red Rocks were distributed to organizations working in Colorado to propel their mission forward. Lean more about the foundation at <a href="http://the-marigold-project.org/">the-marigold-project.org</a>. Earlier this year, Rateliff released his latest solo album, And It’s Still Alright, on Stax Records. 
(Photo Credit: Danny Clinch)

Nathaniel Rateliff

Best of 2020: Nathaniel Rateliff Talks Tyler Childers’s Long Violent History

U.S. Girls is Meg Remy’s musical moniker. The Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist&#8217;s music traces a circuitous evolution. It encompasses unconventional, challenging sound work as prominently as her vocally-driven explorations of American pop mores (often on the same album). Since 2007, Remy has toured several times in Europe, Eastern Canada and the United States. She accompanies her hugely distinctive voice with innovative set-ups, including combinations of reel-to-reel players, tape decks, and samplers, as well as occasionally singing with a full band. Remy has released a clutch of original records on labels as diverse as Siltbreeze, Kraak, FatCat and her own Calico Corp. imprint.
Her latest album Heavy Light was released in March 2020 via 4AD.

U.S. Girls

In Conversation: Meghan Remy (U.S. Girls) and Jack Name

Sarah Beth Tomberlin is a Louisville, KY–born, LA-based folk singer–songwriter. Her debut album At Weddings was released in 2018 by Saddle Creek, who also put out her EP Projections in 2020.
(Photo Credit: Marc Silverstein)

Tomberlin

Tomberlin and Slow Pulp Talk EPs, LPs, and Alex G

Doug Brod is the former editor in chief of SPIN magazine and was a long-time editor at Entertainment Weekly. He has worked for Atlantic Records, taught at New York University, and was a segment producer of the comedy/music television series Oddville, MTV. Brod has also written for the New York Times, Billboard, Classic Rock, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Trouser Press Record Guide. A native New Yorker, he lives with his family in Toronto.

Doug Brod

Book Excerpt: Meet Skatt Bros., the Sleazier, More Extreme Village People

Corin Tucker is a founding member of the legendary Sleater-Kinney, which has released nine albums since forming in Olympia, Washington in 1994. Tucker has also released music with the Corin Tucker Band and the supergroup Filthy Friends, in which she shares frontperson duties with Peter Buck of R.E.M.

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