width

lede/featured-topic

core/column

style

lede/post-card

core/columns

lede/featured-posts

postId

bylineOption

aspectRatioOption

align

backgroundColor

textColor

fontFamily

lede/featured-post

Podcast

Francisca Valenzuela

type

providerNameSlug

responsive

className

core/embed

title

displayCta

postCount

textOnly

hideDek

lede/post-river

overlayColor

isUserOverlayColor

minHeight

minHeightUnit

layout

core/paragraph

core/group

core/cover

height

core/spacer

subtitle

lede/newsletter

taxonomy

termId

termTitle

termLink

ctaText

The Album Leaf has been making its mark as a soft-spoken innovator steadily and surely since 1999. It&#8217;s clear mastermind Jimmy LaValle is unafraid of thinking outside the box, both as an individual artist and within the larger scope of modern music.
(Photo Credit: Devin Oktar Yalkin)

The Album Leaf

Music

The Album Leaf and Hundred Waters Take Turns

<div class="gs">
<div class=" ">
<div id=":1xc" class="ii gt adO">
<div id=":1xb" class="a3s aiL ">
<div id="avWBGd-223">
<div dir="auto">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
Curls Ultra is an underground post groovy rock band and activist network based in America. The band is known for their exhilarating live shows which feature Boredoms-esque noise jams, Can-inspired kosmiche grooves, and tender ballads depicting the degradation of the American psyche. They have performed at Pitchfork Music Festival, toured across multiple countries and opened for or collaborated with Tame Impala, Ariel Pink, Frank Hurricane, Sunburned Hand Of The Man, Wild Pink, Salesforce Child, and most recently Tim Heidecker’s Dekkar.
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="avWBGd-224" class="WhmR8e" data-hash="0"></div>
</div>
</div>

Curls Ultra

Mood Board: Curls Ultra’s American Blood

CS Cleaners is an art punk band based in Brooklyn. Their latest record, What’s This?, is out June 26, 2026 on Wharf Cat.

CS Cleaners

Lathe of Heaven is a post-punk/new wave band from Brooklyn. Their latest record, Aurora, is out now on Sacred Bones. 
(Photo Credit: LJ Ripley)

Lathe of Heaven

CS Cleaners and Lathe of Heaven Talk Their Favorite, Most Busted Shows

Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile are Visible Cloaks, an electronic duo based in Portland, OR. Their latest record Paradessence is out now on RVNG.
(Photo Credit: Jonathan Sielaff)

Visible Cloaks

Kara-Lis Coverdale is a composer, musician, and producer based in Montreal. Her latest record Changes In Air is out now.

Kara-Lis Coverdale

Kara-Lis Coverdale and Visible Cloaks Wonder If Machines Have Souls

Nick Dawson talks with filmmakers, musicians and comedians whose work he loves, avoiding the mundane, predictable questions they&#8217;ve heard numerous times and instead asking substantive, thoughtful questions that get to the heart of who they are.

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: John Early

Malin Barr is a Swedish director, writer, and actor working between Los Angeles and Stockholm. Her directorial debut, the short film <a href="https://www.malinbarr.com/work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sauna Sickness</a>, premiered in competition at Sundance Film Festival 2026, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. A darkly comedic psychological drama-thriller that explores self-doubt, manipulative love, and self-preservation, it follows a young woman whose romantic New Year’s getaway with her boyfriend in the mountains turns into an icy nightmare when they accidentally lock themselves out in the cold. As an actor, her recent credits include the Netflix series Bad Thoughts and the upcoming feature El Tigre, and her previous work includes Honeydew, starring opposite Sawyer Spielberg, as well as The Beta Test and A Wounded Fawn. Malin is bilingual in Swedish and English, and also speaks French.

Malin Barr

Film

Never as Alone as We Think We Are

Chase Joynt is a non-fiction filmmaker and writer whose latest film, <a href="https://www.thefilmcollaborative.org/films/stateoffirsts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State of Firsts</a>, about Rep. Sarah McBride, is playing in theaters across the US from June 26. His documentary features The Nest (with Julietta Singh) and State of Firsts both premiered in 2025, at Hot Docs and Tribeca, respectively. His documentary feature Framing Agnes was named a Best Movie of the Year by The New Yorker after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award. The film has played more than 100 festivals internationally and is distributed by Kino Lorber. With Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase co-directed No Ordinary Man, which was presented at Cannes Docs, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and was hailed by The New Yorker as “a genre unto itself” and Indiewire as “the future of trans cinema.” For the CW, Chase directed episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories which are now streaming on Netflix; his episode Elliot from Season 2 won a Telly Award for directing. He is the co-author of three non-fiction books, including the Lambda Literary Award Finalist You Only Live Twice with Mike Hoolboom and Boys Don’t Cry with Morgan M Page. His latest book, Vantage Points, was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust of Canada Prize for Nonfiction and named a Best Book of the Year by CBC Books, The Walrus and Autostraddle. (Photo by Amos Mac.)

Chase Joynt

A Trans Lens, a Cinema of Defiance

Ash Mayfair&#8216;s new feature, <a href="https://www.filmmovementplus.com/videos/skin-of-youth-trailer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Skin of Youth</a>, an all-consuming love story between a transgender singer and a dog-cage fighter set in 1990s Saigon, Vietnam, is out now on Film Movement Plus from June 26. She was born in Vietnam and educated in the UK and the US. Ash received a BA from Oxford University for English Literature, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for theatre directing and received an MFA in filmmaking at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Her first feature, The Third Wife, was released by Film Movement in 2019 and is now available through leading digital platforms and Film Movement Plus. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the NETPAC Jury Award, and also won awards at the San Sebastian, Milano, Chicago, Minsk, Kolkata and Cairo film festivals.

Ash Mayfair

Transgender / Transcendence

Song of Rimbaud

Warped depravity in pop bubblegum packaging, Emma Higgins is a writer and director interested in telling stories she hasn’t seen before through a genre lens. Emma’s debut feature as writer-director, <a href="https://fela.tv/work/special-projects/sweetness-first-look/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sweetness</a>, premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival to rave reviews and is out now in theaters. A coming-of-age story for the digital age exploring the line between innocent fandom and twisted obsession, it stars Kate Hallett and Herman Tømmeraas. A self-taught filmmaker, Emma established herself directing commercials and music videos, helming Jessie Reyez&#8217;s music video “No One’s in the Room,” which earned the esteemed Video of the Year win at the 2021 Juno Awards. Emma currently lives in Los Angeles, where she enjoys living amongst the coyotes and nurturing the filmmaking community.

Emma Higgins

Sinking into Sweet Uncertainty – Otherwise Known as Making a Movie

Writer-director Carmen Emmi’s award-winning debut feature,<a href="https://www.magpictures.com/plainclothes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Plainclothes</a>, starring Tom Blyth, Russell Tovey, Maria Dizzia and Amy Forsyth, premiered at Sundance in 2025, was released theatrically by Magnolia and is out now on digital. Set in 1997, the film follows a promising undercover officer assigned to entrap gay men, who defies professional orders when he falls in love with one of his targets. Emmi is a filmmaker with deep roots in Syracuse, New York, where he grew up in a family of farmers. After graduating from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, Carmen began his career as an independent Director of Photography, contributing to a range of projects, including short films, commercials, and feature-length productions. (Photo by Lindsy Avritch.)

Vorhex Angel and Primitive Ring Chat About Drain

802: 200 Million People Watch Vikas Khanna Talk About Indian Food. Here’s What He Couldn’t Say on TV.

966. – Chris & Jason

Nobody’s Ever Asked Me That: Desiree Akhavan

John Carter with Matt Singer

Mood Board: Horse Lords’ Demand to Be Taken to Heaven Alive!

801: We Went to the Summer Fancy Food Show. We Have Notes.

Francisca Valenzuela

Latest Posts

965. – Griffin Dunne

Aja Monet Talks with Mick Jenkins on the Talkhouse Podcast

Richard Franecki and Karl J. Palouček Talk Tape Experiments, Cassette Networking, and More

Ep. 305 | Overcoming The Dreaded ACT TWO

Searching for That Missing Element

Swamp Dogg

Transmissions :: Annahstasia

800: How Long Gone’s Jason Stewart on Erewhon Losing the Pizza Plot, Noma’s LA Adventure, and a Visit to Ballerina Farm

964. – Jon Kelly

Talkhouse Weekly