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Talkhouse

Tyler Anthony is a Knoxville songwriter performing under the moniker Cereus Bright. His sophomore album, Give Me Time, is due May 28, 2021 — a patient record that intimately explores Anthony’s flaws and rough edges, his triumphs and maturation.

Tyler Anthony

Music

Things Didn’t Turn Out How I Hoped They Would

Juan Wauters’ fifth solo album, Real Life Situations, is a multifaceted ode to surrendering control and taking life as it comes. References to radio abound on its 21 tracks, and with good reason – the album spans genres, narrators, languages, and perspectives with the ease of spinning a rotary knob. Mining older songs, phone notes, new material, and snippets from TV and YouTube, Wauters has crafted an aural document of the year through his eyes.
(Photo Credit: Lucía Garibaldi)

Juan Wauters

Juan Wauters is Rediscovering His Hometowns

Channeling 50 years of hard rock heritage, Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser deliver heavy shredding and posi vibes. Currently based out of Miami, they’re dedicated to spreading the shred worldwide.
Formed in 2014 amidst the dirt and frenzy of Boston’s electric DIY community, DeGreaser is the unruly lovechild of one Ben Katzman (previously of Guerilla Toss), a self-trained shredder with deep roots in Miami’s metal scene yielding an undying love for KISS, Van Halen and the Ramones. Playful yet earnest, DeGreaser celebrates the rock and roll ethos, but with a dedication to the core belief that you can only be cool by being yourself. Mix in an obsession with astrology, cults, soaring guitar solos, and all things John Travolta, and you have yourself a potent cocktail of rippin’ good times.
The band has toured and played shows across the U.S. with La Luz, Mannequin Pussy, Colleen Green, Tall Juan and countless other fellow shredders. Their new album, Astrology 101, is out now on Starburns Industries Press.
(Photo Credit: Leeanne Drucker)
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Ben Katzman’s DeGreaser

Without Astrology, Ben Katzman Would Have Never Started Shredding

Jessica Dobson is an American singer, songwriter and multi instrumentalist who formed the band Deep Sea Diver. She has performed with several other bands including the Shins, Beck, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Deep Sea Diver released their third album Impossible Weight in October of 2020.

Jessica Dobson

I Fell In Love With the Drummer

Brian Fennell is a self-taught producer, programmer and engineer as well as guitarist, percussionist and classically trained pianist with deep roots in the Pacific Northwest. SYML, Welsh for &#8220;simple&#8221; and pronounced &#8220;sim-muhl,&#8221; is Fennell’s solo project after departing from the Seattle indie-rock band Barcelona, which he started shortly after college and toured with for over a decade. He shared his self-titled debut in 2019 with the now Platinum-certified single “Where’s My Love” and the wordless EP You Knew It Was Me in November 2020. His new EP DIM is out now.

Brian Fennell

On Grieving Someone Before They’re Gone

Inspired by the honest writing and timeless melodies of American greats such as Hank Williams Sr. and Joni Mitchell, Esther Rose’s songwriting has been called “The happiest saddest music.” Her 2017 debut, This Time Last Night, caught fire as her listeners tuned-in to a storied chronology of this soulful, heart-worn artist. Her latest record, Safe to Run, is out April 21, 2023 on New West Records.
(Photo Credit: Rett Rogers)

Esther Rose

Esther Rose Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

As lead vocalist of the Bush Tetras, a seminal post-punk band in New York  City, Cynthia Sley produced some of the most distinctive aspects of the Tetras sounds. Sley&#8217;s vocals were half spoken, half sung and in songs like &#8220;Too Many Creeps&#8221; and &#8220;You Can&#8217;t Be Funky&#8221; she repeated simple phrases creating a hypnotic monotony similar to Pat Place&#8217;s guitar rhythms. &#8220;Too Many Creeps&#8221; was a mainstay of the infamous early &#8217;80s New York &#8220;No Wave&#8221; club scene.

Cynthia Sley

Pyramid Club Was the Center of the Universe

As an active paramedic, firefighter, and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, Vision Video leader Dusty Gannon has seen more horror in real life than in the classic movies he draws inspiration from. When not saving lives on the front line, Dusty dons torn fishnets, combat boots and makeup to play post-punk that recalls the genre’s heyday when the lines between goth and pop blurred to create some of the underground’s most beloved acts such as The Cure, The
Smiths, and Joy Division. But hidden within Vision Video’s catchy hooks and danceable beats is a nostalgic yet desperate message exploring the darker undertones of our existence. At its core, Vision Video’s debut album, Inked In Red, looks inward to understand the effects of war and the global pandemic. Dusty’s experiences in service have imparted an authentic gravitas to the music, revealing a cautionary tale of unhinged mental illness born of trauma.
(Photo Credit: Olivia Mead)

Vision Video

The Cure Soundtracked Dusty Gannon’s Resignation From the Army

Mesmeric and kaleidoscopic, shimmering with electrified unease, Jilian Medford’s new Show Me How You Disappear is both an exercise in self-forgiveness and an eventual understanding of unresolved trauma. Medford’s third record as IAN SWEET unfolds at an acute juncture in her life, charting from a mental health crisis to an intensive healing process and what comes after. How do you control the thoughts that control you? What does it mean to get better? What does it mean to have a relationship with yourself?
(Photo Credit: Lucy Sandler)

IAN SWEET

The Emotional Freedom Technique, Therapy, and Creativity

Israel Nash’s new album, Topaz, was recorded over the course of about a year in the Quonset hut studio he built about 600 feet from his house in the Texas Hill Country. While musician friends from nearby Austin contributed to the project, Topaz marks the first album Nash has recorded mostly on his own, both taking his time and relishing his newfound access to immediacy, punching the red button moments after an idea hit. The resulting Topaz is a triumphant rock-and-roll experiment, full of fat horns, gospel choruses, swagger, hope, and pain. The meaty rock foundation with touches of psychedelia and skylark folk that fans have come to love are still here, now with a soulful heft that nods to Muscle Shoals and Memphis. Political and personal, Topaz is moody and vast, cohesive and compelling.
(Photo Credit: Chad Wadsworth)

Israel Nash

Sutherland Springs: Any Small Town in Texas

Perhaps no other instrument in the traditional music of Japan is as easily recognizable as the shakuhachi; an end-blown, bamboo flute. Originally played by itinerant monks as a form of meditation, it has endured centuries of change throughout Japan’s history. For six generations, the Araki family has shepherded this tradition under the name of Kodō. Named for his great-great grandfather, Hanzaburō made his professional debut in 1988 in Japan only four months after his first lesson from his father. In 2009, the name Kodō was bestowed upon him by his father to become the sixth in his family’s lineage to bear this title. This legacy continues to be the most influential in the genre, offering an unbroken connection to the roots of this haunting music.   In the midst of a catastrophic year for the performing arts, there was a silver lining: Araki was able to take possession of an extremely rare flute made by his great-great-grandfather. The unexpected reunification with a shakuhachi made by his namesake, the isolation of the pandemic, and over 30 years in the music industry, created an apt circumstance for a recording to honor the flute, his father, and grandfathers.   In January of 2021, he released an album titled Hankyō (Reverberation) with both traditional and more contemporary compositions.

Hanz Araki

I Don’t Ask People To Use My Full Name

John Beeler lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his wife and three daughters, where he works as Label Director for Asthmatic Kitty Records.

personal essay