Apr 27, 2018 By Kyle Mullin Unknown Mortal Orchestra

Not every punk ascribes to the “disco sucks” movement. In fact, Unknown Mortal Orchestra frontman Ruban Nielson dives right into such highly danceable grooves on the new album Sex & Food, despite New Zealand-born Nielson’s neo-punk roots in prior bands like The Mint Chicks.

Apr 26, 2018 By Ellen Peirson-Hagger Issue #63 - Courtney Barnett

“I’m not naive: I knew what I had done,” says Charlotte Gainsbourg of Rest, her fifth album, her first in six years, and first as a lyricist. Rest is an album fuelled by grief even in its most beautiful moments, something Gainsbourg has had to repeatedly explain.

Apr 20, 2018 By Charles Steinberg Son Lux

The ethos of Son Lux has always been of allowance-absorption. Anything discovered or stumbled upon that perks the ear can be engaged if it enriches the dynamism of the work. Accordingly, flourishes of the myriad genre have flowed in and out of Ryan Lott’s compositions since he began officially making music as Son Lux in 2008.

Apr 18, 2018 By Lee Adcock Gwenno

Near the end of our conversation, Gwenno Saunders (who releases music simply under her first name) asks me what channels of media exist in the U.S. for other languages beyond English. Raised on the neglected tongues of Welsh and Cornish, the polyglot singer/songwriter has grown into a fervent crusader for representation.

Apr 11, 2018 By Max Freedman U.S. Girls

“I’m roastin’ in this van, so I gotta get out of here,” Meg Remy, better known to the public as the avant-pop auteur U.S. Girls, says after we’ve talked for over half an hour. She’s calling in early on a Friday morning, alone in a van parked in front of a San Diego Airbnb, getting ready to head to the next city on her tour behind her addicting, incredibly distinct sixth album, the 4AD-released In a Poem Unlimited.

Apr 06, 2018 By Chris Davidson EELS

Since the mid-1990s, Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) has crafted wildly inventive and stylized orchestral indie rock that blends the philosophical and the heartbreak without ever sounding overly calculating or sentimental.

Apr 05, 2018 By Max Freedman Web Exclusive

When we connect to talk about her band Hop Along’s new album Bark Your Head Off, Dog, Frances Quinlan is calling from Independence Hall, a leading historical attraction in her native Philadelphia. It’s a fitting location given the band’s extensive ties to the city, but there’s just one problem with it-it’s making her impossible to hear.

Apr 03, 2018 By Max Freedman Shearwater

Jonathan Meiburg’s favorite moment from Loma, his collaborative record with Dan Duszynski and Emily Cross of Cross Record, happened completely by accident. As Meiburg, best known as the mastermind behind 21st century indie mainstay Shearwater, tells it, the song “I Don’t Want Children” “happened very quickly, but was completely random.

Mar 30, 2018 By Matt Conner The Go! Team

When the average music listener thinks of the act of songwriting, it’s often from a point of scarcity. Images of an artist struggling to channel the muse come to mind, strumming a guitar for hours in hopes of finding a spark. Even that word, spark, is symbolic, an immediate flicker of light that disappears with immediacy.