One of America’s newest musical sensations has been a humble East Coast quintet that grew out of an absurdist art project at a snootily unappreciative upscale college. It may have taken them a few months to catch on with the masses, but MGMT incredibly made the jump from interesting indie…

You don’t need to have a sunup hangover or dawning erection to “get” the Morning Benders’ sly moniker. One of the coolest baroque pop units to hit the scene since the Elephant Collective went south ‘round 2000, this spellbinding SoCal quartet integrates orchestral labyrinths with quixotic lyrical melancholia in a…

Living in the modern world without forsaking a charmingly typecast retro spirit sometimes tied to theatrical familial roots, old-fashioned composing thespian Zooey Deschanel amassed a number of eclectic original tunes ultimately given fuller arrangements by indie rock lynchpin, M. Ward, under the unassuming moniker, She & Him. Inspired in part…

Challenging folk-derived electro-acoustic duo High Places tie artificial percussion sounds and syncopated disco beats to scintillatingly climactic acoustical dreamscapes with the same glistening pastoral splendor that kept Kate Bush “Running Up That Hill.” Learning the bassoon at an early age before joining a few local musical troupes, heavenly vocalist Mary…

Rangy world-traveling Australian-reared vocalist-guitarist Angus Andrew came to America in the ‘90s, settling in New York City to form the Liars with a few aspiring local musicians. Now residing in the Los Angeles area betwixt Venice Beach native, Aaron Hemphill (guitar-synths), and Highland Park resident, Julian Gross (drums), Angus recently…

“When I find myself useless by my own standards, I’ll take my life. I will take a swan dive off the World Trade Center hopefully on top of someone I hate,” Type O Negative’s Peter Steele quipped while promoting his greatest commercial accomplishment, ‘96’s October Rust. Coming on the heels…

A utopian collection of Canadian friends and associates, whose side projects also draw attention, Toronto’s Broken Social Scene came into fruition under the tutelage of de facto leaders Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Both singer/songwriters also scored big time indie rock points with their solo debuts while related projects by…

“This is wild, colorful, exotic music, but it’s important you could dance to it,” Tribecastan multi-instrumentalist John Kruth reveals when defining his musical collaboration with fellow ethnomusicologist, Jeff Greene. While globetrotting aesthete, Greene, reveals a game Middle Eastern influence, native New Yorker, Kruth, flaunts long-time underground notoriety, spending ’86 to…

NEW YORK, NY—After spending the early part of my evening watching Duke beat Butler in the annual college basketball tournament at Hop Devil Grille, I headed three blocks north to Webster Hall to catch a midnight showcase by one of New York’s finest underground rock bands now making the circuit.…

Just outside the bohemian state capitol of Austin lies prospering urban municipality, Denton, Texas, where an exciting contemporary music scene now flourishes thanks to visionary beacons such as Alan Palomo. Ready to breakout and now residing in musical hotbed, Brooklyn, New York, the industrious composing architect contemporaneously helms zestful solo…