Pop Spotlight

Ever wanted to skip down the street even when you’re kind of bummed out, or felt the need to put on a happy face when you’d actually prefer to hide from the world under the […]

Karina Rykman identifies as “genre-fluid.” The bassist/singer is almost frighteningly conversant on the guitar sparring of Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes, 311, Captain Beefheart and metal. After learning the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” on […]

When the Iron Roses formed a couple of years ago, they were a pretty basic angry punk band that stemmed from performing with vocalist Nathan Gray for his solo career. They played as a unit […]

The imaginatively named Akira Galaxy (it turns out to be her real name!) was born in Seattle, Washington 24 years ago, a time when the ghosts of grunge sailed through the city, their music not […]

With his perfectly trimmed red beard, sweater vest, spectacles, and black stocking cap, Joel Danell resembles your hipster teenager’s favorite college philosophy professor. However, the albums the Stockholm-based artist/producer/composer makes as Sven Wunder are anything […]

If you walk into the right barbershop in Jakarta, Indonesia, you can expect to be transported back to the mood of a heaving, sweaty underground club from any Western city in the 1990s. It is […]

“We’re gonna-gonna-gonna take over the world,” chants Jaimie Branch with breakneck urgency. “Give it give it give it back-back-back to the la-la-la land.” Her fury in this song, “Take Over the World,” is fueled by […]

The Disney starlet-to-pop star pipeline can be a delicate transition to navigate for any budding musician. Over the years, we’ve seen Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus face the daunting […]

After five years, Speedy Ortiz is finally back. Today, the Philadelphia-based quartet led by Sadie Dupuis released Rabbit Rabbit. We can confidently say that this is the group’s finest work yet. Speedy Ortiz spent time […]

If Paerish were based in the U.S., its journey would have been much easier. The four-piece, which recently released its new album, You’re In Both Dreams (And You’re Scared), would have been better able to […]

Less arty than My Bloody Valentine, less angsty than Swervedriver, less cheeky than Lush, and rarely as loud as any of them, Slowdive was the beautiful, beating heart of the ‘90s U.K. shoegaze scene for […]

If “Not Giving Up” by Pleasure Pill sounds more refined than most bands’ third songs, there’s a good reason for that. Even if they’re technically “new,” the San Diego quintet has been around the local […]

Young Summer is a wonderful singer, musician, and songwriter who has been banging on the door of success/stardom — that’s what the door’s called — for nearly 10 years. But it’s a very big and […]

Even for the esoteric Chester Watson, there’s no greater knowledge than self-awareness. This becomes evident across his latest project, fish don’t climb trees, which takes its title from a quote Albert Einstein may or may […]

Call it the latest surreality of Taylormania ‘23. Next week, Taylor Swift’s meticulously re-recorded “new” album, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), will become the pop deity’s 12th consecutive No. 1 album, passing Jay-Z for the longest […]

A lot can change in a year. Just ask Donna Missal. Last year, the singer-songwriter was dropped by her label, severely depressed, and was living out of her car. This year, she’s back on her […]

Forgive me, but let’s open with some math. Depending on what sounds you consider canonical—never an easy decision in Frank Zappa world—the enigmatic composer released somewhere around 60 albums in his lifetime. His first, the […]

That Mexican OT (Outta Texas) was mumbling raps before he could write them. When he failed grade school classes, he remembers his mother saying, “Fuck that school — my son is going to be a […]