Let’s cut to the chase, skip the preamble, forgo the further ado, ditch the Stuff That Comes Before the Records. Let’s get to the records!

In many ways, Fredrik are the ultimate Under the Radar band: their songs are twinkling and unassuming, possessing a distinct air of mystery. They don’t grandstand, they don’t showboat, and they seem comfortable lurking in shadow. But if you give them just a moment’s time, you’ll be drawn in — there’s a hypnotic quality that [...]

By Michaelangelo Matos A guitar-slinger of the first order, Detroit-area native Dennis Coffey was the session ace whose wah-wah-laden style helped ignite Motown’s late ’60s. Famously, he played through that namesake pedal on the session Norman Whitfield produced for the Temptations’ “Cloud Nine,” a record that announced the label’s continuing commitment to adjusting to R&B’s [...]

Shades of OK Computer and Teen Dream, PJ Harvey has recorded a video for every single song on her 2011 landmark Let England Shake. This album already feels like an old friend, and I sometimes think it’s the most singular statement that will be made this year, and spending the morning watching them only reinforced [...]

While drummer Zach Hill seems to share at least one side project a week, his old gig in Hella has been relatively quiet over the past four years. No more: according to a press release, the band’s core duo (rounded out by guitarist Spencer Seim) is in the midst of finishing their fifth album for [...]

I was inspired by the baffling news that Big Boi is producing the next Modest Mouse record to revisit their last effort, 2007′s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The Big Boi collaboration is such an oddball decision, but I can squint and see a parallel universe in which it might have made [...]

Remember when Blank Dogs records were trading for upwards of $50 a pop on eBay, even the guy’s measly 7-inches? Well, Captured Tracks founder Mike Sniper has finally decided to patch his older, foggier material together as a hefty 27-track compilation. Due out next Tuesday, Collected By Itself: 2006-2009 can be sampled via FACT below…

Here’s something I didn’t know I needed…

Nearly four years have passed since Digitalism‘s debut album, and while Idealism‘s stylized electro is still going strong with the meathead techno set, it’s been all but written off by the underground dance scene that first embraced the German duo. Good thing their long-awaited second LP (I Love You, Dude, out June 21st through V2 [...]

By Austin L. Ray File under: Blistering punk, scrappy garage, other assorted oddities Flagship Acts: Jay Reatard, Oblivians, Ty Segall, Reigning Sound Based In: Memphis, Tennessee Memphis label Goner Records was born out of — and has been sustained by — happy accidents. The first occurred in 1993 at the second-annual Garage Shock festival in [...]

X RAY from Zoltan on Vimeo. God bless the good people at Flavorwire, man. Today, they dug up something I didn’t even know existed: this super-rare BBC documentary on X-Ray Spex-era Poly Styrene. The doc features extensive clips of young Poly talking about her philosophies and views, interspersed with rarely-seen X-Ray Spex performance footage. It [...]

(and America’s least, amirite?) Lots of metal today, which I promise, I had little to do with. Fleet Foxes get harmonic (and Six Degrees-ed), Architecture in Helsinki gets danceable and the Country Formerly Known as Persia gets funky. LET’S DO THIS

BUY STEVE REICH’S MUSIC. Different Trains/Electric Counterpoint Music for 18 Musicians Drumming The Steve Reich concert I went to on Saturday at Carnegie Hall was one of the weirdest and most unshakeable concert experiences I’ve had in years. A celebration of the NYC icon’s 75th birthday, the night boasted a roster of the most renowned [...]

Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues (out in the UK today; U.S. and Canada coming tomorrow!) By Andy Beta Singing in that unequivocal lonesome tenor of his on the title track to Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold tells of his childhood. “Raised up believing I was somehow unique like a snowflake,” he sings; but he soon [...]

New Fleet Foxes, Wave Pictures, Hong Kong in the 60s, Leisure Society, mysterious old darkwave, and more, after the jump — follow us!

OK! Look who’s back with some racy, racy cover art! Original glo-fi gods Washed Out return this summer with a new album on Sub Pop, and they’re giving you a taste of what you’re in for with first single (can we call it a single?) “Eyes Be Closed.” I would describe it as hazy, ethereal [...]