Talkdemonic was established by O'Connor in December 2002 after he moved from
Pullman, Washington, to Portland. It began as a musical project to express his obsession with
instrumental hip hop and electronic music. O'Connor said he was at a local club when he heard a voice utter the word "talkdemonic" and he felt it fit his new project perfectly. Their first album, Mutiny Sunshine, was released in May 2004 by Lucky Madison. It was recorded over the period of a year at talknumeric and Miracle Lake studios with Skyler Norwood engineering. After a few solo tours, O'Connor convinced Molinaro to become a full-time member. Talkdemonic was named "Portland's Best New Band 2005" by the
Willamette Week and toured with
The National and
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in the fall of 2005. The band spent most of 2005 recording and playing shows. They signed with the
Arena Rock Recording Co. The label released their second record, Beat Romantic, in March 2006. The album received critical acclaim. Pitchfork media wrote of the album "When the punctuated rhythm of programmed percussion gives way to cascading cymbal crashes and spacious break beats, it's nothing short of cathartic." Following the release of the album, the band toured the country twice over with bands like
Quasi,
The Walkmen,
Scout Niblett and The National. In February 2007, Talkdemonic signed with
One Little Indian in the UK. Their offshoot label, Tangled Up! was to issue a deluxe expanded edition of Beat Romantic in Europe on September 17, 2007. The enhanced version was to include a cover of
Brian Eno's "Sombre Reptiles" and a video for "Mountain Cats". Lisa also spent six months as a touring multi-instrumentalist and vocalist with the Decemberists in late 2006 and early 2007. She was a full-time member of
Modest Mouse and was in a committed relationship with the band's frontman,
Isaac Brock. They broke up sometime in 2017–2018 and she left the band in June 2021. In August 2022, Talkdemonic announced a new record Various Seasides, to be released on October 28, 2022, by Lucky Madison. The band is now a solo project of Kevin O'Connor, as it was in 2003. The video for 'Glass Tower' was released on October 17, and premiered on The Big Takeover website. == Touring ==