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Talkhouse

Sasha and the Valentines is a five-piece band based in Austin, Texas. Their debut record, So You Think You Found Love? — produced by Erik Wofford — is out now via Oof Records.
(Photo Credit: JB Bergin)

Sasha and the Valentines

Music

Sasha and the Valentines and Christelle Bofale Met on Tinder

Jackie McLean, frontwoman of Roan Yellowthorn, the musical project supported by partner and multi-instrumentalist Shawn Strack, delivers confessional indie rock with a singer/songwriter heart. The duo’s forthcoming new album, Another Life, is due out May 14 via Blue Élan Records. McLean wrote much of the set as a reflection on a childhood marked by frequent mental and emotional abuse that continued into young adulthood, oftentimes causing her to question her own reality and sense of self-worth, and the idea of alternate or parallel lives serves as a throughline. She channels her healing process and the rebuilding of her individual identity through laid-back &#8217;80s era synths and airy, often bright, dream-pop sounds helmed with the help of producer John Agnello (Dinosaur Jr, Kurt Vile, Waxahatchee).

Jackie McLean

Jackie McLean and Alex Cameron Are Just Trying to Tell the Truth

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

Ritt Momney, Palehound, and Claud Roundtable on Their New Collaboration

10 years ago this April, Chicago’s Ratboys put out their first collection of songs. The RATBOY EP, consisting of five indie-folk dorm room recordings, was free to download on Bandcamp and humbly passed around to friends on social media. 
Cut to 2021, and Ratboys would normally be celebrating their 10-year anniversary on the road, playing a mix of songs from their very first release to their most recent, last year’s critically-acclaimed Printer’s Devil. Instead, just two weeks after the album’s February 2020 release and mere days before heading out on their first headline tour, the COVID-19 pandemic forced all touring to a halt. Despite not being able to play in-person shows for the past year, Ratboys has managed to stay busy by performing their music online via their own Virtual Tour series and by finding a different way to celebrate their first decade of being a band.

Ratboys

A Guide to Ratboys’ Happy Birthday, Ratboy

LAPÊCHE is a Brooklyn-based band led by singer/guitarist Krista Holly Diem, whose dark, melodic songs offer a refreshing twist on post-punk inspired indie rock. With bassist Dave Diem (Twelve Hour Turn), guitarist Drew DeMaio (Asshole Parade, Floor, Strikeforce Diablo) and drummer Jeff Gensterblum (Small Brown Bike, Able Baker Fox), the close friends compose together, drawing inspiration from both past and present, light and dark, guiding Krista Holly&rsquo;s provocative melodies and lyrics.
(Photo Credit: Kate Hoos)

LAPÊCHE

LAPÊCHE and J. Robbins on Being the Guy Who Annoys the Engineer

Born-and-bred New Yorkers, MICHELLE is refreshingly comprised of predominately POC + queer members. The collective references equally diverse influences — Noname, Led Zeppelin, Sly and the Family Stone, Orion Sun, My Chemical Romance, SZA — all of which distill to create a cohesively diverse sound. The group’s unique stylings are the result of songwriting from Sofia D’Angelo, Julian Kaufman, Charlie Kilgore, Layla Ku, Emma Lee and Jamee Lockard with production from Kaufman and Kilgore.

MICHELLE

In Conversation: MICHELLE and CHAI

John Oates is one half of the best-selling duo of all time, Daryl Hall &amp; John Oates, as well as an accomplished solo artist. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, The American Songwriters Hall of Fame, recipient of the prestigious BMI Icon Award as well as numerous American Music, MTV awards, and multiple Grammy nominations.Since embarking on a solo career in 1999, John has recorded seven solo albums: Phunk Shui, 100 Miles of Life, Mississippi Mile, The Bluesville Sessions, Good Road To Follow, Arkansas and most recently Live from Nashville with the Good Road Band. In addition, his 2017 autobiography Change of Season released by St. Martin’s press became an Amazon best seller. John continues to tour the world with Daryl Hall, and perform solo as both a musician and public speaker. He also produces, collaborates and develops new artists and has recently completed a series of songs for the upcoming feature film Gringa to be released soon.
(Photo Credit: David McClister)

John Oates

In Conversation: John Oates and, um, Saxsquatch

Chicago&#8217;s Moontype is Margaret McCarthy, Ben Cruz, and Emerson Hunton. Their debut album, Bodies of Water, is out April 2021 via Born Yesterday Records.
(Photo Credit: Julia Dratel)

Moontype

Moontype and OHMME Talk Oberlin, Sound People, and Bodies of Water

Theory of Ice is a powerful act of world-building and creative sovereignty by Michi Saagig Nishnaabeg writer, scholar, and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. One of the most compelling and important Indigenous voices of her generation, Leanne is the renowned author of Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies (named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail); This Accident of Being Lost (winner of the MacEwan University Book of the Year; finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill &amp; Quire); As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance (awarded Best Subsequent Book by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association); and the creator of the album f(l)light which combined complex poetry and multi-layered stories of the land, spirit, and body with lush electronic/acoustic arrangements. 
This new album, Theory Of Ice is the result of an ongoing practice in the poetics and aesthetics of musical relationship, the material originating in written poetry, and worked into surprising, richly organic, song-forms through a collaborative generative process with bandmates Ansley Simpson and Nick Ferrio, producer Jonas Bonetta (Evening Hymns), and producer Jim Bryson.
(Photo Credit: Aaron Mason)

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

In Conversation: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson and Wares’ Cassia Hardy

Chad VanGaalen is a Calgary-based songwriter and producer. His new album, World’s Most Stressed-Out Gardener, is out March 2021 via Sub Pop. 
(Photo Credit: Sebastian Buzzalino)

Chad VanGaalen

In Conversation: Chad VanGaalen and Seth A. Smith

Haley Blais is a Vancouver based singer-songwriter/musician. She’s been DIY-ing it since 2014, turning out song after song of defiant scream-into-your-pillow bedroom pop anthems. Since the success of her 2018 EP Let Yourself Go, Haley has organically earned a considerable online reputation for her self-deprecating, self-loving balladry sung out in operatic crescendos. 2020 sees the release of highly awaited debut Below the Salt via Tiny Kingdom Music.
(Photo Credit: Lindsay Elliott)

Haley Blais

In Conversation: Doohickey Cubicle and Haley Blais

Allie Crow Buckley is a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. Her debut album Moonlit and Devious is out now.
(Photo Credit: Nastassia Bruckin)

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