Returning to eMusic today: the Neurot label, home of all things slow and doomy. I know what a hard sell metal can be, but I feel like the stuff on Neurot has, at its core, very indie rock sensibilities. Case in point: Shrinebuilder is a supergroup featuring Dale from the Melvins, and when I saw [...]

Forty-five years ago, Dustin Payseur’s arpeggiated, reverb-soaked, trebly guitar playing might have been the stuff of surf music; 20 years ago, it was the spine of Sarah Records and the cluster of introverted, muted British pop bands around it. Now it’s the core of his Brooklyn-based solo-project-turned-trio Beach Fossils. The band’s self-titled debut album is [...]

Finally. So I’m just gonna say this outright: on the short list of innovative, forward-thinking, vibrant and imaginative artists operating in the 1980s, Prince is somewhere near the top. The run of records he made during the early part of the decade — cresting with the spectacular Sign O’ the Times — was astonishing, as [...]

Relatively light day for big-name new arrivals, which allows us to focus more on the Under the Radar gems! Here we go:

By Davis Rogan Last night’s show takes its title, “Smoke My Peace Pipe Smoke It Right,” from the song on the iconic Wild Magnolias record I discussed last week. But today I want to focus on the music performed by the buskers Annie, played by Lucia Micarelli and Sonny, played by Michael Huisman. Sonny, as [...]

Pussy Galore survivors Jon Spencer (he of the exploding blues) and Cristina Martinez (she of Boss Hog‘s sleaze rock manifestos) and beat maestro Solex (aka Elisabeth Esselink, missing in action for most of the past half-decade) have formed like Voltron to make a searching, infectious bit of psych-soul. “Galaxy Man,” in particular quivers and shakes, [...]

Having settled on the oddball alias “Pearly Gate Music,” it seems possible that songwriter Zach Tillman is doing a little preemptive descriptive work for his critics — after all, who hasn’t half-imagined floating into Heaven on a cloud of spacious, reverberating ’60s pop, anchored by howled bon mots like “It’s about time/ For a big [...]

By Davis Rogan I can’t get super insightful or behind the scenes-y about Episode #6, because I was ankle deep in co-writing Episode #7 while 6 was being made. Really, I only left my house to get groceries or pick up take out (because no one delivers to my neighborhood, Treme.) Tonight’s episode takes its [...]

In advance of their excellent new record, American Slang, Gaslight Anthem’s Brian Fallon swung by storied Seattle station KEXP to perform a brief acoustic set. Fallon debuted three of the best songs from Slang — the title track, “Boxer” and “Queen of Lower Chelsea” along with a cover of — wait for it! — Lightning [...]

The first time I saw Mumford & Sons was last October during CMJ, when they played at Glassnote Records’ pop-up shop (at a small bar on Manhattan’s Lower East Side). It was comfortably packed, but nothing like it’d be if they were to offer a free show in the city today. On Monday the folk-rocking [...]

We’re having some technical difficulties again today, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have a bunch of new records to talk about. We’re not sure when this will be fixed but let us know in the comments what you’re looking for and we’ll grab the links for you until we’re back to normal. As always, [...]

The Joy Formidable is one of those small bands that sounds big — so big they don’t need bells and whistles. Or a string section. Or horns. Or keys. Or kazoos. With just thumping bass lines, pounding drums, fuzzy guitar and bratty vocals, the Joy Formidable churn out loud, lively indie rock that make up [...]

“We’re the Blow — just here to play the hits,” announced Mikhaela Maricich on the tiny stage at Glasslands in Brooklyn last Thursday night. All that accompanied her on stage were a couple of small light fixtures, a smoke machine, microphone, and a pair of gold high heels. The Blow have been sort of off [...]

Seminal emo poster boys Christie Front Drive helped sketch the blueprint for literally hundreds of mall-dwelling, marble notebook-scribbling imitators. But this Denver quartet’s just reissued, self-titled second album from 1997, alternately known as Stereo remains a gorgeous collection of splayed rock masterpieces. The guitars shimmer and dash while the drums stay low in the mix. [...]

Van Morrison probably cannot do this Today’s Rhino haul welcomes the two most distinguished Vans in all of pop music – Van Morrison and Van Halen. They really couldn’t be more different: Morrison is pastoral, diffuse, ecstatic, and Van Halen is, well, Van Halen – the sound of body glitter writ large, still maybe the [...]

It’s an avalanche today, so let’s not waste time. It’s all after the jump, since there are a million albums to talk about.

Last month, HBO unveiled Treme, the new series from Wire creator David Simon. Set in the New Orleans neighborhood of the same name, Treme focuses on New Orleans post-Katrina, and provides a showcase for the city’s vital, thriving music scene — a scene which has given us everyone from legendary pianist Allen Toussaint to eMusic [...]

The National High Violet [4AD] Release Date: 11 May 2010 By this point, if you have even a passing interest in the quickly-shifting tides of indie rock, you’ve already figured out what you think of the National. Say this for the Ohio-to-Brooklyn transplants: they don’t engender indifference; instead, they cleanly divide those who’ve heard them [...]

Today eMusic welcomes the entire recorded output of The Grateful Dead (along with Foreigner.) The Dead are a peculiar entity, and tough to think about critically because they exist almost entirely as their own subculture. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones are similarly successful, massive revenue-generating groups, but they defined culture at large. Everyone can [...]

(the essex green preservation society) In 2008, Panic at the Disco put out a record called Pretty. Odd. The band up to that point had been plying a particularly unctuous brand of emo (their debut, A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, despite being a commercial juggernaut, was self-involved and off-putting). But Pretty. Odd was another [...]