Talkhouse Podcast

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got an absolute legend of the punk and indie-rock worlds in conversation with a relatively newer voice who’s making some great music, too: Bob Mould and Will Anderson. Bob Mould got his start in the late 1970s with the Minneapolis-born punk / post-punk band Husker Du, a trio that was at the tip of the spear of incredible new sounds. After that band ran out of jet fuel in the late 1980s, Mould embarked on a solo career and also created the band Sugar, itself a touchstone outfit. Mould has released a total of 15 solo albums over the years, and there’s not a dud in the bunch. His latest is a tuneful, melodic set of ragers called Here We Go Crazy [https://bobmould.bandcamp.com/album/here-we-go-crazy-3], which he once again made with his ace rhythm section, Jon Wurster and Jason Narducy. He’s toured a bunch in support of the record with those guys, but his next set of dates—in August and September, check bobmould.com [http://bobmould.com] for details—will find him playing solo-electric, which is also a powerful way to experience these songs. Check out the title track of Here We Go Crazy right here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9WNAhNrmEM]. The other half of today’s conversation is Will Anderson, who’s been making music for the past few years under the name Hotline TNT—sometimes by himself, sometimes with a rotating band of players. His first album under the name, Nineteen in Love [https://hotlinetnt.bandcamp.com/album/nineteen-in-love], was recorded by himself during COVID, all in GarageBand. His third—and second for Jack White’s Third Man Records—feels much more like a full-band affair: It’s more fleshed out and expansive. Hotline TNT has frequently been called a shoegaze band, but it’s a tag that Anderson is quick to refute, at least a little bit: In this conversation, he says that his shoegaze knowledge pretty much begins and ends with My Bloody Valentine. Whatever you call it, its swirls and layers feel pretty damn good right now. Check out [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RylVTdo6sMc] a little bit of “Julia’s War” from the latest Hotline TNT album, Raspberry Moon [https://hotlinetnt.bandcamp.com/album/raspberry-moon]. In this great chat, Bob and Will talk about Bob’s recent commencement speech at his alma mater and they also chat about the proper construction of an album, playing overseas for the first time, Bob’s Super Bowl appearance and much more. Enjoy! Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Will Anderson and Bob Mould for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com [http://talkhouse.com]. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/talkhouse-podcast-network/]. Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/] to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/talkhouse.bsky.social], ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠ [https://x.com/Talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.threads.net/@talkhouse], and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/talkhouse].

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast we’ve got one of our favorite repeat Talkhouse guests alongside an artist who just released her debut album—on which they collaborated. It’s Ben Gibbard and Natalie Lew. Gibbard is of course the frontman and primary songwriter behind both Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service, and he’s been writing heartfelt, incredible songs for the past, oh, 30 years or so. The latest Death Cab album, called Asphalt Meadows [https://deathcabforcutie.bandcamp.com/album/asphalt-meadows], came out back in 2022, but he’s kept busy with an anniversary Postal Service tour and, coming later this summer, some shows celebrating the 20th anniversary of Death Cab’s Plans [https://deathcabforcutie.bandcamp.com/album/plans-2] album. I’m a fan—the guy has written some of my favorite songs of all time, and he hasn’t lost a step over the years. He’s also been super supportive of other musicians over the years, including today’s other guest. Natalie Lew who, like Gibbard, calls Seattle home, records under the name Sea Lemon. Like a lot of younger artists, she started out by releasing singles and EPs, but in May she graduated to what some folks think it’s a lost artform: the full-length album. It’s called Diving for a Prize [https://sealemonmusic.bandcamp.com/album/diving-for-a-prize], and it’s full of shoegazy indie-pop goodness, hiding catchy melodies under swirling layers. Gibbard was already a fan of Sea Lemon’s music, so it seemed like a no-brainer that she’d ask him to duet on a song from the album. Check out “Crystals” right here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq8i1-EH5Yk]. In this lively chat, these two talk about their shared city and how they’ll never live anywhere else, the sanctity of the album as an artistic statement, and whether they’d like to venture into creative pursuits beyond music. One of them is a yes, the other not so much. Enjoy. Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Natalie Lew and Ben Gibbard for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the great stuff at Talkhouse.com [http://talkhouse.com]. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/talkhouse-podcast-network/]. Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/] to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/talkhouse.bsky.social], ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠ [https://x.com/Talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.threads.net/@talkhouse], and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/talkhouse].

Subscribe to All One Song: A Neil Young Podcast [https://episodes.fm/142891498] Welcome to the very first episode of All One Song: A Neil Young podcast, presented by Aquarium Drunkard Transmissions. Join liner notes author, musician, and Shakey historian Tyler Wilcox and an array of great musicians and writers discussing their favorite Neil Young song, diving deep into Shakey lore and getting personal about this amazing body of work. It’s a series for Neil heads by Neil heads. Our first guest on All One Song should need no introduction for long time Aquarium Drunkard readers. But let’s give him one anyway! For the past 15 years or so, ⁠Steve Gunn⁠ [https://www.steve-gunn.com/] has built up one of the strongest, most wide-ranging catalogs in independent music. He’s released classic albums on such labels as Three Lobed, Paradise of Bachelors, Matador and more. Steve is a singer-songwriter-guitarist triple threat with a powerful sense of adventure and imagination that’s always worth paying attention to, whether he’s collaborating with drummer John Truscinski in the ⁠Gunn-Truscinski Duo⁠ [https://gunntruscinskiduo.bandcamp.com/], creating beautiful soundscapes ⁠with David Moore⁠ [https://stevegunn.bandcamp.com/album/reflections-vol-1-let-the-moon-be-a-planet], or ⁠playing all on his own⁠ [https://stevegunn.bandcamp.com/album/other-you]. Steve’s latest album, ⁠Music For Writers⁠ [https://stevegunn.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-writers], falls into the latter category. Coming out on August 15 on Three Lobed, this is his first completely solo instrumental record — he played all the instruments, building luminous, hypnotic pieces that encourage the listener to slow down and really listen. The songs here aren’t just ambient background sounds. They’re sonic meditations that take you to some other place.   The solo aspect of Music For Writers dovetails nicely with the Neil Young song that Steve chose for us to discuss: “Will To Love.” This is a unique one in Neil’s catalog and a song that’s prized by die-hard Shakey fans. Accompanied only by a crackling fire, Neil recorded the basic track at his ranch in the spring of 1976, somewhere in between his European tour with Crazy Horse and the ill-fated Stills-Young Band trip that summer. Then he put it aside, for a few months, only returning to it in December of 76, when he went into Indigo Studios in Malibu to overdub vocals, keyboards, guitars, drums, even vibes, aided and abetted by producer David Briggs. By the time it was released on American Stars n Bars in 1977, “Will To Love” was a ghostly, seven-minute piece of music that’s unlike almost anything else he’d done before or anything he’s done since. Let's dive in. Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/talkhouse-podcast-network/]. Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/] to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/talkhouse.bsky.social], ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠ [https://x.com/Talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.threads.net/@talkhouse], and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/talkhouse].

On the latest episode of the Talkhouse Podcast’s spin-off series, host Nick Dawson sits down with writer, director, artist and musician Terence Nance, a longtime Talkhouse Film contributor best known for his debut feature, An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, and his boundary-pushing HBO series Random Acts of Flyness. In this very wide-ranging conversation, the two touch on numerous topics, including: communing with the dead, St. Peter as a Pauline Kael archetype, Tyrese Haliburton’s Game 7 injury in the context of stoic masculinity, the Abrahamic idea of God as surveillance system, why humans are seemingly hastening the end of the world, a discussion of the two AIs — Allen Iverson and artificial intelligence, plus Terence being fired by Warner Bros. as the writer-director of Space Jam 2, and how he handled the aftermath of that. For more filmmakers talking film and TV, visit Talkhouse at talkhouse.com/film. Subscribe now to stay in the loop on future episodes of the Talkhouse Podcast. Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/talkhouse-podcast-network/]. Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/] to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/talkhouse.bsky.social], ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠ [https://x.com/Talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.threads.net/@talkhouse], and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/talkhouse].

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a pair of old friends who dive right in on some light-hearted topics like death and aging: Amy Millan and Kevin Drew. Both Amy and Kevin are deeply connected to the Canadian indie scene that took shape in the late 1990s around Broken Social Scene. That band was initially Kevin’s baby, but a whole constellation seemed to spring from it, including Metric, Feist, and the band that Amy is most closely associated with, Stars. The impetus for today’s conversation, though, is Millan’s gorgeous new solo album, I Went to Find You [https://amymillan.bandcamp.com/album/i-went-to-find-you]. It’s her first in 15 years, and as you’ll hear in this conversation, was inspired by stirred-up feelings about the death of her father when she was just a little kid. Millan created the album with a musician she only met recently, Jay McCarrol, after a chance encounter with him that stirred up some dormant emotions about her childhood. It’s a really beautiful and quietly triumphant record that’s worth some time and attention in your headphones. Check out “Kiss That Summer” right here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKs7ySLO4io]. Kevin Drew directed that great video for that song, and he’s got bona fides when it comes to writing songs about difficult subjects, too: His latest solo album, Aging [https://kevindrew.bandcamp.com/album/aging], came out in 2023, and you might be able to guess what it’s about from that title. It’s a topic that Kevin and Amy get into here as they get deep and sweet together—they were even a little worried they’d forget they were being recorded since they’re such close friends. They talk about Amy’s record but also, perhaps for the first time on Talkhouse, perimenopause. There’s also memories of Hal Willner, a great name for Amy’s tour that she didn’t end up using, and living in your “who gives a fuck” years. Enjoy. 0:00 – Intro 1:59 – Start of the chat 3:20 – On grief and the death of their parents 12:00 – Amy bringing her dad back on her new record 14:42 – The process of creating 'I Went to Find You' 20:28 – "I had panic attacks on stage when I played solo" 24:02 – On aging and perimenopause 38:01 – On fulfillment and bringing people together Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast and thanks to Amy Millan and Kevin Drew for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform and check out all the great stuff in the Talkhouse Podcast Network. This episode was produced by Myron Kaplan, and the Talkhouse theme is composed and performed by the Range. See you next time! Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/talkhouse-podcast-network/]. Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.talkhouse.com/] to read essays, reviews, and more. Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.instagram.com/talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠ [https://bsky.app/profile/talkhouse.bsky.social], ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠ [https://x.com/Talkhouse], ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.threads.net/@talkhouse], and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.facebook.com/talkhouse].