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Talkhouse

Richie James Follin plays and sings in Guards, and he also spent time in Willowz and Cults, the latter of which features his sister. The second Guards album — and first in six years — is Modern Hymns, and it features Money Mark, Patrick Keeler, and many more special guests.

Guards

Music

Introducing: Guards’ “You Got Me”

Communipaw is a psychedelic folk-rock band that spends its time between Brooklyn, NY and Oakland, CA. In February 2019, they released an EP entitled Power Plant that affirms their enduring interest in mysticism, memory, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. The band features Brian Bond on vocals and guitar, Keith Carne on drums, Justin ‘Bestamo’ Gaynor on guitar and pedal steel, and a rotating crew of collaborators on everything else.

Communipaw

Introducing: Communipaw’s “Power Plant”

Bellows is the bedroom recording project of songwriter and producer Oliver Kalb.

Bellows

Introducing: Bellows’ “Rosebush”

One would be hard-pressed to think of a more quintessential go-to artisan for dynamic and progressive new music than Lisa Papineau. She began her performance career in experimental theatre and has since amassed a body of work that spans albums, film soundtracks, art installations, dance and theater productions, narration and producing, but is best known for her own mold-breaking voice. Papineau can possess an unmistakably hushed yet still-beating heart-in-hand vocal style or tear screams from the same breath. She fronts her eponymous group and the band Big Sir with bassist Juan Alderete.
(Photo Credit: Kozyndan)

Lisa Papineau

Introducing: Lisa Papineau’s “The Last City”

(Photo Credit: Amanda De Angelis)

Lonely Parade

Introducing: Lonely Parade’s “Index Finger”

Jenn Wasner is a songwriter, musician, producer and human being. She has released solo music as Flock of Dimes and collaborates with others as a member of Wye Oak and Dungeonesse. She is alive, at work and at play in the city of Durham, NC. You can follow her on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/wyeoak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here.</a>

Jenn Wasner

Jenn Wasner and Madeline Kenney on the Challenges of Staying Inspired

<div>Los Angeles quintet Young Hunting&#8216;s sound is formed around gentle, lush dream pop interspersed with stark, desolate gothic folk. Primary songwriters Hari Rex and Ilya Mxx first met in 2007, quickly bonding over a shared appreciation for Nick Cave, Jason Molina, Can, and the classic California pop of the 60s and 70s.</div>
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<div>The initial collaboration led to the &#8220;Into Yr Mind/Sonata&#8221; seven-inch record, distributed by K Records and released in 2010. Their debut album, Hazel (Gold Robot Records, 2013), was recorded in various locations around Southern California, including a former ranger&#8217;s station in the Angeles National Forest, Grandma&#8217;s Dojo studio in LA&#8217;s Koreatown, a rented one-bedroom desert house outside of Joshua Tree, and living rooms, garages, and guest houses across Echo Park.</div>
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<div>Over the last few years, members of the band toured with other artists including The Pharcyde and soul legend Syl Johnson. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Hari and Ilya wrote new songs, which were sporadically recorded with Patrick Taylor (bass) and Miles Senzaki (drums) and mixed at Grandma’s Dojo in Koreatown. The result is True Believers, a psych-soul dream for the lovelorn. The record deals extensively with loss of future and loss of past, encountering the void on intimate terms—watching a familiar life evaporate from your hands, merging the self and the shadow-self.</div>
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<div>(Photo Credit: Zack Rockwood)</div>

Young Hunting

Introducing: Young Hunting’s “Sargasso”

Sophie Strauss is a musician from Los Angeles. At 24 years old, Sophie’s music is both warm and biting. She juxtaposes lush synths against sharp, organic percussion and her intimate vocals that bring you into her tense, glistening world. She is aggressively opinionated, girly, queer, shameless, and self-deprecating and her songwriting is as comfortable with discomfort as she is.

Sophie Strauss

Introducing: Sophie Strauss’s “I Was”

For the better part of a decade, guitarist/vocalist Steve Hartlett has been consistently churning out impeccable guitar music and amassing an impressive catalog of distortion-drenched cult classics while fronting college rock stalwarts Ovlov, as well as Stove—an endeavour that’s allowed Hartlett to explore a different side of all things catchy and fuzzed-out. Initially a solo project, Stove has bloomed into a full-fledged band with the additions of drummer/vocalist Jordyn Blakely, bassist Alex Molini, and guitarist Mike Hammond.

Stove

Introducing: Stove’s “Duckling Fantasy”

A native of Edmonton, Alberta, Canadian songwriter Calvin Love plays a mix of lo-fi indie and lush, darkly romantic pop. Emerging from the same vibrant Canadian scene as contemporaries Mac DeMarco, Alex Calder, and Sean Nicholas Savage, he established himself as a pop stylist with an atmospheric sound and a keen ear for melody. His latest release is Highway Dancer, out now via Modern Sky USA. There’s a palpable mood at the heart of the record: a mood as mercurial, dream-like, and haunted as a late night on the open road. A lifelong musician, Love has always been influenced by his restless spirit and his travels. Highway Dancer is full of songs for travelers, but it also speaks to anyone who’s ever been in limbo, in transition, or in-between moving and standing still.

Calvin Love

Introducing: Calvin Love’s “The Coin, The Stick, and The Take”

From the release of their 2005 debut, Juturna, Circa Survive has made a career of turning all of the things that make them difficult to categorize into their greatest strengths. The word “progressive” is often used to describe their sound, and while this term doesn’t really do justice to the band&#8217;s distinct identity, it does conjure the scope and ambition of those iconic bands from decades ago, the ones that managed to capture the attention of mainstream audiences without sacrificing their esoteric tendencies.
On their latest record, The Amulet, they continue this legacy, but filtered through the unique lens of their punk and alternative roots. Their mix of intricate guitars, muscular bass, and interlocking drums creates a dynamic foundation for vocalist Anthony Green’s unparalleled voice; however, the magic of Circa Survive isn’t just technical skill, it’s an ability to blend that technicality with undeniable sense of melody and hooks. It’s this focus on uncompromising yet satisfying songwriting that compels listeners, no matter their genre-of-choice.
(Photo Credit: Hayley Rippy)

Circa Survive

Introducing: Circa Survive’s “Flesh and Bone”

The language of sound has always been ingrained in Mich Cota’s identity. As a two-spirit woman, raised by a native father and a white mother in Southern Ontario, Cota began composing small melodies on the piano from the age of three to create her own sacred space in an intensely religious home. Inspired by her countryside surroundings, she would ingrain herself in nature, imagining herself in a place free of theology and restraint.
This is something Cota has carried with her throughout her creative existence. Her music is a way of navigating past traumas while exploring her queer experience, with open, unapologetic sincerity. It’s through her artistic expression that she relates to others, to build collective understanding and empathy, with the intention to heal and to challenge normative ways of being.

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