Category: ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Band Of Horses’ Ben Bridwell and Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam both have roots in South Carolina, and Band Of

Smokey’s story is as ridiculous as it is inspiring. It involves two music-loving L.A. transplants who showcased their same-sex pride

Freedy Johnston has a keen eye for the small details that illuminate the shadows that haunt life’s darker corners. His

How do you mix the immediacy of jazz with the intricate, painstaking architecture of electronica? The short answer is that

No way is Flo Morrissey only 20 years old. Her voice is at least two decades older than that, the

The double-vinyl version of this unreleased live set (curated by “Captain” Kirk Douglas of the Roots) is cute, but it’s

No Joy was more or less a shoegaze revivalist when it got started, and so far, the band’s progression from

Seventeen years after recording its classic The Shape Of Punk To Come, Refused is back and as vital as ever.

I have no doubt that John Dwyer and the occasionally rotating crew of musicians he calls Thee Oh Sees are

According to William Blake, “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom … you never know what is

Continuing their film-buff aesthetic (band moniker plus the director their side project Herzog is named for—look it up if necessary)

It’s not as if Jim O’Rourke made easily digestible vocal records when he was part of the indie-avant pop milieu

The pleasantly cacophonous joy of Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel is the unpredictable blessing and occasional curse of Mates Of

Evan Caminiti’s main gig is Barn Owl, a duo in which he helps concoct desert-scorched drones that are pierced by