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Talkhouse

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

Music

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.

John Beeler

A Silence Quiet Enough To Think

american poetry club is six kids in a basement, not too far from you, doing their very best to capture the sound of self-esteem. they don’t have it down quite yet, but they’re putting in the work, and they’re getting closer all the time. Their six-song EP, do you believe in your heart?!, is out February 2021.

american poetry club

To All the Hours Lost on Blogspot

Morgan Enos is a musician, essayist and music journalist specializing in classic rock. He records and performs as <a href="https://finalhouse.bandcamp.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://finalhouse.bandcamp.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567703426703000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE969PQS5H6jwcQaH3Zb_8LZ4WVew">Other Houses</a> and has bylines in Billboard, HuffPost, the Recording Academy, Vinyl Me, Please, TIDAL and more. He is also the co-founder and editor of <a href="https://northoftheinternet.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://northoftheinternet.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567703426703000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGi0xmSRKyGPRseoPZ41v4L7WkbQw">North of the Internet</a>, a series of conversations with creative people. He can be found at <a href="https://www.morganenos.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.morganenos.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1567703426703000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG79-8vfghEO9sl4msNRI9Ts-3rdQ">his website</a>.
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Morgan Enos

Every Day, I Try to Sing Like Jon Brion

Danielle Durack is a Phoenix, AZ-based singer-songwriter. Her album No Place is out January 2021.
(Photo Credit: Eunice Beck)

Danielle Durack

Don’t Date a Songwriter

Overcoming Plastic Ono Band

Aesop Rock, one of underground hip-hop&#8217;s most enduring and illuminating talents, recently released Spirit World Field Guide via Rhymesayers Entertainment. The collection, arguably the most expansive and ambitious work in the verbose MC/producer&#8217;s storied career, is a concept album of sorts; a guide to an upside-down world illustrated across 21 insightful chapters of firsthand know-how of the terrain, wildlife, and social customs of our parallel universe, rife with hallucinatory images of killer eels, magic spells, and people on the run, peppered among anecdotes, recipes, survival tips, warnings, maps, drawings, and more.
(Photo Credit: Ben Colen)

Aesop Rock

Aesop Rock Presents: The Bobcat Challenge

Not a lot of indie rockers have a side gig as an ortho/neuro nurse, but there’s nothing typical about Lindsey Radice, aka PYNKIE. The New Jersey native brings her own distinct style, work ethic, and personality to her nursing and music career alike. Following Radice’s first, self-produced album neoteny, “one of the coolest, most infectiously charming debut LPs of 2018” [Gorilla Vs. Bear],  #37 is an absolute joy of a record, a tour through Radice’s own sunlit world. For #37, Radice decamped on her days off of nursing to a small studio in Rockaway Beach, Queens with bandmates John Messina and Josh Bartsch rounding out the lineup. They would meet whenever Radice’s nursing schedule would allow for it to experiment and find the perfect sound.
(Photo Credit: Michael Todaro)

PYNKIE

PYNKIE Talks Nursing at the Height of the Pandemic

Nané is an indie R&amp;B outfit from Austin, Texas. Called Nané as a term of endearment by his family in the Dominican Republic, Daniel Sahad determined the band’s name with a communal approach in mind – when you call him Nané, you’re family too. The band originally formed in 2016 at The University of Texas at Austin where Sahad and guitarist, Ian Green first started playing and writing together. Nané rose quickly on the Austin music scene, playing a series of sold-out shows in front of the shimmering curtains of Stay Gold and in their first year as a band, they headlined for crowds of over 1,200 people, as well as opened shows for Black Pumas and Bob Schneider among others.
(Photo Credit: Alex Parker)

Nané

Dominican Cowboy

William Tyler is a composer and guitarist based in Los Angeles-via-Nashville. His new album <a href="http://smarturl.it/goeswest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Goes West</a> was released by Merge in January 2019, and features contributions from Meg Duffy, Brad Cook, and Bill Frisell, among others. 
(Photo Credit: Chantal Anderson)

William Tyler

The New Necessary

In 2015, Oakland-based group Thao &amp; The Get Down Stay Down was invited to perform in Vietnam by the Hanoi US Embassy, as part of a celebration commemorating the 20th anniversary of normalization of relations between the two countries. It was also bandleader Thao Nguyen’s first visit to her homeland. Accompanied by her mom, who had not been to Vietnam in 43 years since fleeing the war, this trip laid the groundwork for the band’s most recent, critically acclaimed album, <a href="https://dominorecordco.cmail20.com/t/d-l-cttklyk-ykdthklrtk-o/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Temple</a>. Nobody Dies, a 2017 film directed by Todd Krolczyk, documents that trip. “A profound short documentary that lays bare the bittersweet joy of returning to a homeland tarnished by personal and political loss” per KQED, it was initially broadcast on PBS in partnership with the Center For Asian American Media.

Thao Nguyen

Thao Nguyen Embraces Her Cultural Heritage and Her Queer Identity After the Fact and Right On Time

Julie Weitz is a Los Angeles based artist whose work spans several media including video, film, performance and installation. Her practice is grounded in Jewish folklore, mysticism, humor and ritual. Weitz also works as a writer, educator and activist. Follow her at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mygolem_is_here/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MyGolem_is_Here</a> and view her work at <a href="http://www.julieweitz.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">http://www.julieweitz.com/</a>.

personal essay