6 bits of The Talkhouse that are well worth your time

Annie Clark (St. Vincent) Talks Arcade Fire’s Reflektor

Annie takes a road less travelled when approaching her review of the tropical, futuristic Reflektor, using Google searches as the basis of her lively, thoughtful points. How very modern.

Amongst her agonising about tall frontpeople, the victims of Greek tragedy, and which bass the band used on Flashbulb Eyes, Clark deduces that Reflektor “is an utterly 2013 record”, and this is a review written in an utterly noughties way.

Choice quotation: “THE BASS TONE IN “HERE COMES THE NIGHT TIME” IS SUPER-SICK! PERVERSE-SOUNDING! LIKE A BARGE CAREENING INTO AN ICEBERG! INEVITABLE DOOM!”

Will Butler (Arcade Fire) Talks Grimes’ Art Angels

Shoutout to Will for highlighting his prejudices against early noughties dance music early in this review. It takes a surprisingly big person to admit any musical blindspots (yes, that counts as a musical blindspot), and Grimes’ album is admittedly thick with references to that much maligned era.

Ultimately, this is a review that tries to access Art Angels in any way possible despite Butler’s difficulty in getting past those banging beats, but concludes pleasingly by admiring Grimes’ artful world-building.

Choice quotation: “I appreciate and admire Art Angels. That sounds lame — no, it’s like how Orthodox Jews and devout Mormons get along. “I respect your devotion, and you probably understand me better than, say, anyone else on this F train — but I really, really don’t care that much about your Jesus. High fives on father Abraham, though.””

Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) Talks with Laura Jane Grace (Against Me!)

In an uncompromising and eye-opening conversation on the Talkhouse podcast, two prominent trans musicians talk in-depth about gender, identity and society’s ascending curiosity in trans issues.

The pair talk openly about personal experiences, including Genesis’ head-on response to a TSA officer’s search, Laura Jane Grace’s experiences in being “forced into archetypes of “the male lead singer” at photo shoots and videos” as the lead singer of Against Me!, and why Caitlyn Jenner might not be the best spokesperson for trans issues.

All in all it’s an exceedingly enlightening listen. Hats off to Talkhouse for getting these two in to have such a frank chat.

Choice quotation: “We actually saw one thing on the news and Caitlyn’s going, “I feel like I can be a spokesperson for the transgendered community.” And later on she says, “I actually don’t know any transsexuals.” What the fuck, she’s going to be a spokesperson? She hasn’t got a clue!”

Lou Reed Talks Kanye West’s Yeezus

You might not have thought Lou Reed would care a fig for Yeezy, but here’s the proof to the contrary: Reed chatting on West’s industrial rap masterpiece.

In fact, Lou seems to have a lot of respect for Kanye. He praises his braggadocio, defends his most controversial lyrics, and thinks deeply about Kanye’s production choices – even if he thinks some of it sounds like “farting”.

Choice quotation: “But it’s just ridiculous that people are getting upset about “Put my fist in her like a civil rights sign”?  C’mon, he’s just having fun. That’s no more serious than if he said he’s going to drop a bomb on the Vatican.  How can you take that seriously?”

Meredith Graves (Perfect Pussy) Talks Beach House’s Depression Cherry

This is pitched as a study of Depression Cherry by a depressed person – but its so much more than that.

Graves talks us through what other people have to say about Beach House’s recent album, and gets into how she started listening to the band, leading into attempting to describe what her depression feels like by using films and TV series, and delving into the construct of the ‘Dream Girl’, and finally exploring what Depression Cherry might mean to sad girls the world over.

Touching, clever and fierce.

Choice quotation: “Depression is, as Legrand found her album to be, impossible to describe without sounding totally crazy. We feel, by the end, when we’re done projecting our own problems into her words, that we are in this with her.”

Zohra Atash (Azar Swan) Talks Sexwitch’s Sexwitch

In this recent piece, Atash takes down Natasha Khan and TOY’s project Sexwitch in a blaze of disbelief. Sexwitch’s first full-length is meant to cover material sourced from 70s folk and psych songs from the Islamic world, but as Atash points out, it makes so many mistakes it comes off as an insult to her heritage.

An essential read if you want to know more about how it feels when your culture is unthinkingly misappropriated.

Choice quotation: “My blood went red-hot; I actually yelled out, “Khak da-sarit!” It’s a phrase in Farsi that doesn’t have a translation in English, but it’s very poetic.”