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Talkhouse

<div class="c-message__content c-message__content--feature_sonic_inputs" data-qa="message_content">For more than two decades now Giants Chair records have lived on turntables, blasted through car speakers, rattled apartment walls, destroyed headphones, and finally become recognized as the timeless artifacts of emotional experience and endeavor that they are for so many people. Now, in perfect time, 2019 marks the return of Giants Chair with the release of the bands highly-anticipated new album on Spartan Records, Prefabylon. With all of the the band’s original core components and members still intact, listeners needn’t brace for any departure from the band’s signature post-punk DNA. Equal parts early new wave, skate punk, prog, political folk, and &#8217;70s and &#8217;80s radio rock, Giants Chair’s influences can be traced across their now ‘era-transcending’ catalogue.</div>
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Giants Chair

Music

Introducing: Giants Chair’s “Kids Running”

<div>Between days at a slew of odd jobs- running a vintage store, on the line at a record manufacturing plant, bartending at a hometown hole-in-the-wall) Diane Jean founded Clever Girls — a quartet formed in the drunken dives of Burlington, Vermont. Diane’s quirky outlook buoys the band’s writing, but together, the group creates hard-hitting, emotional pop- never slipping into diaristic monotony. Clever Girls as a group will elicit the same emotion and nostalgia that Diane seeks to find in their day jobs; the music will live somewhere between straight forward rock &amp; roll of bygone eras and dusty, moth eaten grunge pop. </div>

Clever Girls

Introducing: Clever Girls’ “Remember Pluto”

<div>Fran, the songwriting project of Maria Jacobson, is sexy rock u can cry to. Since releasing their debut EP, More Enough, on Chicago’s Lake Paradise Records in December 2017, they have embedded themselves into the Chicago music scene and opened up for notable acts such as Jen Cloher, LVL UP, and Karl Blau. Fran’s songs have been described as “catchy and complex, a little strange, bringing to mind the side of the fork in the road of ’90s alt rock that didn’t lead to Creed” and “introspective anthems made for rainy days” and are prescribed to those who suffer from ‘time’ as a medical condition.</div>
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<div>The trick is to make a confession entertaining. A Private Picture, the debut album by Chicago’s Fran, delivers a collection of extremely personal experiences that have been distilled and abstracted to the point that you can see yourself in their imagery, find analogs to your own emotional history in their scenarios — when you hear them, it’s a conversation. It’s therapy, if therapy was allowed to turn you on and make you shake what you got. At its core, Fran’s music is about sharing a truth — telling it, confessing it, yelling it — in the service of human connection. Or, as Jacobson puts it, “I feel that I am a songwriter for the same reason I wanted to be an actor. I want to tell the truth. I want to challenge myself to get closer and closer to the core of an experience, an emotion- I want to say it, sing it, in a way that says exactly what it is. I cry when I write songs because I am constantly making discoveries, about myself, about the world, about the best way to convey and connect and get closer.”</div>
(Photo Credit: Reilly Drew)

Fran

Introducing: Fran’s “In My Own Time”

Wished Bone, the folk project of Ashley Rhodus, began with borrowed instruments and broken tape machines in an Athens, Ohio basement called The Pseudio. Rhodus, plant biologist turned bartender, finds peace in viewing human behavior and emotion as organic and normal parts of nature. A flower opens up because it is meant to. Often accompanied by instrumentalist Wandering Lake, stripped down melodies float like a cloud atop Kupillas’ subtle drones, simple guitar licks and clean drums.
(Photo Credit: Jason Wyman)

Wished Bone

Introducing: Wished Bone’s “Pink Room”

Onstage, bassist Jon Samuels is the only Friendship member who stands up. He is usually swaying back and forth as the songs bear down, pulling together and apart. Friendship’s new record, Dreamin’ (out Nov 8 on Orindal Records) is an exorable wave of motion, endlessly rocking between intimacy and loneliness.
The contemplative alt-country songs on Dreamin’ were recorded to tape in July last year with the help of The Low Anthem’s Jeff Prystowsky. The band moved away from the inclusion of digitally programmed drums and Rhodes piano for Dreamin’, opting instead for a warmer, more organic aesthetic and a starker performance. Most of the songs on Dreamin’ took shape while Dan Wriggins (vocals and guitar) and Mike Cormier (drums) worked and lived as groundskeepers at a private estate in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, frequently driving into Philadelphia for shows and friends. The record is set both in the country and the city — community, peacefulness, and isolation can all be heard and felt throughout the superb new record.
Friendship have retained a loyal cult following since their first offering in 2015, You’re Going to Have to Trust Me, which was released on Burst and Bloom Records that year. The F/V Hope EP on Sleeper Records and another record on their current label Orindal Records followed in 2017 — the acclaimed Shock Out of Season.
(Photo Credit: Jeff Berkowitz)

Friendship

Introducing: Friendship’s “You Might Already Know”

Montreal-based singer-songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Geoffroy makes a point, in both life and music, to weave a tale with his words; one that asks audiences to dig deep.
Following his EP Soaked In Gold (2015), Geoffroy released his debut album Coastline in March 2017, earning critical and commercial success while the album landed on the Polaris Music Prize long list and garnered 25 million streams.
In the two years since Coastline, Geoffroy and his band experienced a groundswell of support in Quebec, culminating in a sold-out headlining show at Montreal’s MTelus (FKA Metropolis). They toured 1000-2000 capacity venues in Europe with Fakear and Møme, and also started to write the next album. Audiences in Mexico, the United States, Brazil, and Germany grew organically and showed enthusiasm for the Montrealer’s music. His single &#8220;Sleeping on My Own&#8221; was a big sensation, racking up over eight million streams on Spotify.
(Photo Credit: Alex Dozois)

Geoffroy

Introducing: Geoffroy’s “The Fear of Falling Apart”

Over the last few years, The Schizophonics have built up a formidable reputation around the world as an explosive live act. Tapping into the same unstoppable combination of rock &amp; roll energy and showmanship that fueled The MC5 in the heyday of the Grande Ballroom, their wild live show is heavily influenced by artists like James Brown, Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard, and The Sonics. Singer/guitarist Pat Beers and drummer Lety Beers formed the band in San Diego in 2009 and have worked tirelessly since then, playing hundreds of shows around the globe and winning seven (SEVEN!) San Diego music awards.
The band is more than just an outstanding live act, they’re also committed to writing great, memorable songs. After releasing two singles and an EP over the last few years on Munster, Ugly Things, and Pig Baby Records, they put out their first full-length album in July 2017 titled Land Of The Living on the label Sympathy For The Record Industry with famed record man Long Gone John. In January of 2019 they started work on their second LP recruiting Dave Gardner (Hot Snakes, RFTC) mixing engineer Stephen Kaye (JD McPherson, Mike Krol) and Pierre De Reeder (Rilo Kiley) to put their live, raw sound to tape.
The album, titled People in the Sky will be released on October 31st, 2019 on Pig Baby Records.

The Schizophonics

Introducing: The Schizophonics’ “Steely Eyed Lady”

TR/ST is the musical project of Toronto artist Robert Alfons.

TR/ST

Introducing: TR/ST’s “The Stain”

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<div>Stemming from various bands that guitarist/vocalist Steven Instasi and bassist Ben Semeta had been in since their teenage years, Black Beach formed in 2012 in their hometown of Middleboro, MA when the two joined with childhood friend and drummer Ryan Nicholson. Originally starting as a hardcore band, the trio decided to focus on writing a style of music that encompassed all of their interests rather than existing in the confines of any one particular genre. What resulted was a sound that took inspiration from noise rock, post-punk, proto-punk, doom, free jazz, and art rock. Eventually relocating to Boston where the band found kindred spirits in the local music scene, Black Beach found a home in the various basements and music venues in the city and began playing with international touring acts such as Thee Oh Sees, Protomartyr, and Acid King. With two EPS, a split with friends Nice Guys and 2016’s LP Shallow Creatures under their belt, Black Beach continues to evolve their genre bending version of rock music. </div>
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Black Beach

Introducing: Black Beach’s “Dumpster Fire”

Marco Benevento has built his career out of musical fearlessness. He was dubbed “one of the most talented keys players of our time” by CBS News. His seventh album, Let It Slide, comes out September 20 on Royal Potato Family.

Marco Benevento

Introducing: Marco Benevento’s “Send it on a Rocket”

Jail Weddings are much more than a just a band — they are a bona-fide gang, a swaying precarious study into the extremes of human behavior, a walking, wailing “musical” happening in real time. Their third full-length album Wilted Eden is out September 2019.
(Photo Credit: Lisa Johnson)

Jail Weddings

Introducing: Jail Weddings’ “(I Can’t Wait to Get to) Nowhere”

How far does our sentimental strength go? When do we turn to the other without any resistance? What is the breaking point? By showing emotional connections we become vulnerable. Existing together, we cannot conceive without the other. &#8220;I am another you&#8221; is a Mayan thought that blurs the limits of personal bonds, extending individuality to any being that we choose to look in the eyes, allowing us to find something shared in each others stare.
Entre Los Dos is the follow up to critically acclaimed Mujeres (NPR, Pitchfork, Billboard), Y La Bamba&#8216;s most recently released full-length album (February 2019). This EP comes as a collection of portraits, affinities, and new visions birthed during Luz Elena Mendoza&#8216;s frequent stays in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico. These are songs and powerful prayers, created with their purpose being to protect the land and its people, recognize the ancestry that burns in our hearts, and treasure wisdom weaving healthy bonds that reflect self-love with dignity.
Through the veins of front person Mendoza, runs Purepecha blood. Adapting to new environments over and over again, she has become someone who constantly questions and empowers through music: her great teacher and tireless companion.
The creative flow of Entre Los Dos moves without stopping, without resisting its own form. It adapts, migrates, and fuses with its environment and receptors. The adrenaline of a new beginning moves us, but also leaves a fragile space where the fear of being cornered and devoured may exist. When you float in foreign waters, you can not do more than surrender to doubt and become one with the death. The world is dangerous, and even more so when it comes to surrendering blindly to love.
(Photo Credit: Nadev Benjamin)

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