Over the last five years, the British quartet Wolf Alice have built up the kind of career arc that feels like the beginnings of a storied career. After a couple initial iterations, the group cohered into a lineup consisting of frontwoman Ellie Rowsell, guitarist Joff Oddie, bassist Theo Ellis, and drummer Joel Amey before launching…

For bands of any stripe — let alone those working in the indie circuit — successfully maintaining a career over nearly two decades is an impressive feat. And that’s certainly true for Seattle mainstays Minus The Bear, who have built a steady and devoted following since the release of their 2001 debut EP This Is…

Last year, someone broke into Lillie West’s apartment while she was sleeping. She didn’t wake up. At the time, West was living in a one-bedroom on the ground floor in Chicago and, while everything that was taken ended up being replaceable, a creeping unease settled in. Paranoia took over West’s mind. It made her feel…

Anyone who spent time listening to indie rock in the ’00s has, on at least one occasion, asked themselves, “what exactly does ‘subway, she is a porno’ mean?”

Owen Ashworth has been making criminally under-appreciated music for over two decades now, first as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and more recently as Advance Base. He’s a storyteller by nature, and the narratives within his songs typically catalog the eternal ticking of the clock in heartrending but plaintive fashion.

On his new…

Two decades ago, smooth jams ruled the pop charts. Usher, K-Ci & JoJo, Next, Brandy and Monica, Lauryn Hill, and Divine were just some of the R&B acts who topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 1998. But amidst all the slick beats there emerged a goofy, lite rap-rock jam that was so undeniable, it managed…

David Le’aupepe isn’t one for small talk. That much was obvious when Gang Of Youths dropped a 77-minute album that begins with a song named after a Kierkegaard treatise, ends with one titled “Say Yes To Life,” and in between finds time to dunk on Ayn Rand, self-pity, political apathy, and any emotion that doesn’t…

Sophie Allison was eight years old when Paramore released their debut single “Pressure.” Fronted by Hayley Williams, Paramore was one of the only mainstream pop-punk bands that featured a teenage woman at the helm. She had fiery orange hair to match her stage persona and a warm but unshakeable personality that made Paramore stand apart…

Of all of the acts to spill out of the ’90s Bay Area rock scene, adult-alternative troubadours Counting Crows have been one of the most enduring. Right around the time Green Day were rattling the walls of Berkley punk incubator 924 Gilman, Adam Duritz and Counting Crows guitarist David Bryson were on the other side…

Foxing got hit by a runaway truck at 50 mph. They played the next night and released a Dido cover as a fundraiser for their totaled van. They had $30,000 worth of gear and merchandise stolen, an amount big enough to make the nightly news in Austin. Lead singer Conor Murphy got his nose broken…

Colin Stetson has probably frightened more listeners in the past week than in the preceding 15 years of his career. Many of them don’t know his name.

You probably know Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler, the de facto leader of the band of kids battling Demogorgons and Demodogs on Netflix’s Stranger Things. But Calpurnia, his scrappy Vancouver indie-rock band, isn’t just some celebrity’s vanity project. Most of the four young musicians have been playing together for years, since before Wolfhard became a…

Heaven. Earth. One we know. The other we don’t. One we experience. The other is only believed in. But to many, one is just as real as the other. That is the crux of Kamasi Washington’s latest album, and Washington knows a lot about believing something into existence.

Everyone has to grow up eventually — even ducklings. “Look, dude — the baby ducklings!” Deafheaven guitarist Kerry McCoy stops as we’re mid-conversation, pointing out a plump of web-footed friends on a small rolling pitch alongside the walking path of Los Angeles’ Echo Park.

“I know! They’re getting big,” the band’s howling lead…

Sorry are chameleonic by design. Since they started putting out music a few years ago, they’ve flitted through a variety of styles, refusing to settle on one distinct sound. For me, they recall an era of music consumption less dominated by narrative. It’s not that they lack an identity, just that their identity feels malleable…