Raleigh-via-Eau Clair BTW Megafaun debuted impressively earlier this year with Bury The Square. The trio nip-and-tuck experimental tendencies (tape splicing, white noise colliding with banjo,…   Read Story »

Human Highway is the collaboration between Islands' Nick Thorburn and Royal City-associated songwriter and solo artist Jim Guthrie. Their debut Moody Motorcycle is out next week. A little while ago…   Read Story »

The War On Drugs play psychedelic, scruffy guitar grit with Dylan-esque (via Tom Petty) overtones and Springsteen anthemics, but a spacier vibe. Their Secretly Canadian debut full-length Wagonwheel…   Read Story »

Chromeo's the Montreal/New York electro duo of childhood friends P-Thugg (Patrick Gemayel) and Dave I (David Macklovitch). Gemayel handles keyboards/synths and talk box. Maclovitch, the other vocals…   Read Story »

The Bergen trio Ungdomskulen play proggy post punk, mixing chops and hooks with a sense of humor. But they don't sound like Primus. When I was in Norway a couple years ago, "Ungdomskulen" seemed to…   Read Story »

I'm a big fan of Finnish free-folk -- or whatever you want to call it -- especially the work of Laura Naukkarinen, aka Lau Nau. I was lucky enough to catch her, along with some of her   Read Story »

Torche's Meanderthal is definitely one of the best albums of the year. Accordingly, I listen to it more than I probably should (basically daily). We posted "Healer" some time ago. If that's all…   Read Story »

Outside of recording, touring, reading Kerouac, and the like, the guys in Death Cab For Cutie no longer spend their days embroiled in manual labor ... but not too long ago, they did. For this special…   Read Story »

Valet is Honey Owens. She was recently on tour as a member of Atlas Sound, but if you want to hear her own unique approach to homegrown ambiance, check out her beautiful sophomore album Naked Acid. I…   Read Story »

Port O'Brien started three years ago as the duo (and couple) of Van Pierszalowski and Cambria Goodwin. The Bay Area band's currently a quintet, but the two remain at the group's core. It's a highly…   Read Story »