Talkhouse Podcast

On this week's Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got a look back at a fantastic record on its 20th anniversary by an interesting pair of collaborators: the guy who made the music and the guy who created its iconic visuals. It’s Andrew Bird and Jay Ryan chatting about The Mysterious Production of Eggs.

Andrew Bird has been on the podcast before, and he’s had such a rich and varied career we could have him on a dozen more times. He was a music-school kid and violin expert whose early career focused on more traditional sounds, but watching him break out of his shell—sorry—was fascinating. He made records with Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire for a few years, but it was when Bird officially went solo that he found his sound—a sort of gentle, intricate indie-folk made unmistakable by the triple threat of his gorgeous voice, his violin, and his uncanny whistling. You could reasonably argue that 2005’s The Mysterious Production of Eggs is where he really cracked the code—sorry again. It’s an essential record that didn’t come easy: He recorded and scrapped it a few times before getting it where he wanted it. Some of the early versions of the songs are included on the album’s new triple-LP reissue. Check out “Measuring Cups” from The Mysterious Production of Eggs right here.

In addition to revisiting the music of Eggs for this anniversary edition, Bird decided to revisit the iconic artwork, made by his longtime collaborator Jay Ryan. Ryan was just coming into his own as an artist—mostly of show posters at the time—as Bird was making his way as a musician, both in Chicago. As you’ll hear in this chat, their worlds collided and they eventually found a creative collaboration whose zenith was the artwork for Eggs, whose cover features an odd beast covered in a blanket. Ryan created an image for every song on the album, and he expanded on those images for the upcoming box set, revealing more about the songs and the drawings. Ryan has created art for a million bands and other projects—and he’s in some bands of his own, including the awesome Dianogah—but it’s his work with Bird that might be his best known. 

As you’ll hear in this chat, these two are old friends who were excited to work together to revisit The Mysterious Production of Eggs. They talk about the individual songs and drawings, about their early days in Chicago, about how being creative shouldn’t necessarily be easy, and much more. At the end, you’ll hear them reference Bird’s 2026 tour dates, many of which will find him performing The Mysterious Production of Eggs backed by major symphonies around the world—sounds awesome to me. Check out andrewbird.net for tour dates and for some interactive artwork based on Jay Ryan’s art. Enjoy.

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Jay Ryan and Andrew Bird 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. 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.
Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more.
Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠.

This episode originally aired on February 18, 2026. Subscribe to ⁠That's How I Remember It⁠.

Courtney Marie Andrews is my guest on the first That’s How I Remember It of 2026. Courtney is a great songwriter, poet, painter - a true artist who does a lot of things. We talked about love and grief on her great new record ⁠Valentine⁠ as well as light affecting memory, Marin County, the musical Annie, playing covers, Warren Zevon’s Preludes, and poetry vs. songs. Really enjoyed this and happy to be back with new episodes of THIRI. Listen and ⁠subscribe⁠!

This week’s Talkhouse episode is particularly exciting for me, since my two guests are also two of my favorite songwriters and singers ever—and they happen to be big fans of each other. It’s Matt Berninger and Eric Bachmann.

Eric Bachmann was a massive part of the ‘90s indie-rock explosion as the snarling voice behind Archers of Loaf, a band that released four incredible albums in its relatively short run. But Bachmann ditched most of that genre’s signifiers afterward and has spent the last quarter-century writing and recording incredible songs both under the name Crooked Fingers and under his own. His records are more in line with Tom Waits or Townes van Zandt than Pavement, and his deep catalog is worth a deep dive. You could start pretty much anywhere, so it might as well be with the brand new Crooked Fingers album Swet Deth. It’s the first time Bachmann has dusted off the Crooked Fingers name in more than a decade, I’m assuming because it sounds like a more fleshed-out affair. He also invited some friends to provide backing vocals on a few tracks, including Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan, Sharon Van Etten, and today’s other guest, Matt Berninger of the National. Check out the Crooked Fingers song “From All Ways,” which features Berninger’s distinctive voice.

Fun fact: When the first two Crooked Fingers albums were reissued about 10 years ago, Bachmann asked two of his biggest fans to write the liner notes. One, I’m proud to say, was me, and the other was Matt Berninger, the intense baritone frontman of the National. As you’ll hear in this chat, Matt has been a fan of Eric’s since back in the Archers days. Berninger of course has had an incredible career in roughly that same timeframe, leading the National from small clubs to huge venues with a thoroughly unimpeachable catalog of smart, dark songs. (These two have those adjectives very much in common.) In addition to fronting the National, Berninger has stepped away on occasion for side projects and solo records. His latest release under his own name is Get Sunk, which came out last year. He’s about to launch a Canadian tour followed by some dates in Europe—catch him if you can, the solo shows are a different vibe than the National, but no less worth your time.

This wide-ranging conversation starts with a discussion of Bachmann’s recent heart attack—a scary situation that’s going to keep him off the road for a bit. They also talk about working together on “From All Ways” and a semi-secretive new thing that they’ve been hatching for the past couple of years. It’s a great, deep chat between two guys who obviously admire each other’s music a lot. If you’re not familiar with both, I strongly suggest a deep dive. Enjoy the episode.

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Eric Bachmann and Matt Berninger for chatting. If you liked what you heard, please follow Talkhouse on your favorite podcasting platform, and check out all the other great shows in our 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.
Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more.
Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠.

On this week’s Talkhouse Podcast, we’ve got two women whose singing styles are similar in that they’re both absolutely singular, unmistakable, and wonderfully out of step—just don’t call it spoken-word. It’s Florence Shaw of Dry Cleaning and Sue Tompkins of Life Without Buildings.

As you’ll hear in this chat, Dry Cleaning sort of fell together in London around 2017, when the three instrumentalists approached their friend Florence Shaw to add some vocals to the music they had been writing. It turned out that Shaw’s approach—speaking dense, clearly crafted but never obvious words—slotted in perfectly with the sort of nervous-yet-precise songs they had been working on. By 2020, Dry Cleaning had signed with the venerated 4AD label and the next year released a debut album, New Long Leg, that earned comparisons to post-punk greats like Siouxsie and Sonic Youth. For their third studio album, Secret Love, Dry Cleaning worked with producer-slash-musician Cate Le Bon, and they stretched out a bit, mellowing the sharp corners a bit while Shaw experiments more with vocal melody than before. Check out “Cruise Ship Designer” from Secret Love right here.

Another person that eagle-eared listeners have compared Florence Shaw to is Sue Tompkins of the legendary, kinda-lost Scottish band Life Without Buildings. Life Without Buildings only released one album, Any Other City, in their brief three-year run, but it had a focused impact. Shaw remembers hearing the record as a teen. “It blew my mind that you could free yourself from the pressure of making traditional sense in lyrics,” she told the website Hearing Things, before mentioning that she’d love to meet Tompkins one day and thank her. Well, with some recent activity on the Life Without Buildings front—Tompkins contributed vocals to a new Sleaford Mods song, and the band just announced a couple of reunion shows—it seemed like the perfect time to get them together.

In this delightful chat, Tompkins and Shaw talk about the similar origins of their respective bands, how genuinely kind the dudes of Sleaford Mods are, and their understandable reticence about the term “spoken word.” They also chatted a bunch about the TV shows Dragons’ Den and Eastenders, but we had to trim that in the interest of time. Trust me, it was great. Enjoy. 

Thanks for listening to the Talkhouse Podcast, and thanks to Sue Tompkins and Florence Shaw 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. 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.
Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more.
Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠.

For this week's episode, we're going to skip the typical Talkhouse format and give you something that I think you're going to love just as much, about a band called The Fiery Furnaces. I bet a lot of you remember, but if you don't, The Fiery Furnaces are siblings, Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger from Oak Park, Illinois, not far from Chicago. Together they put out seven of the scrambliest, catchiest rock albums of the 2000s, and then they kind of disappeared. We got contacted by a longtime radio journalist and producer of the show Snap Judgment, John Fecile, who wanted to talk to Matt and Eleanor. It turns out he had spoken to them over a decade ago, and as he'll explain, there was a very specific reason he wanted to talk to them again.

Upcoming live shows for The Fiery Furnaces

Find more illuminating podcasts on the ⁠⁠⁠Talkhouse Podcast Network⁠⁠⁠.
Visit ⁠⁠⁠talkhouse.com⁠⁠⁠ to read essays, reviews, and more.
Follow @talkhouse on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Bluesky⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Twitter (X)⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Threads⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠.