Since their inception in 2008 we’ve watched as Tampa five-piece Merchandise have morphed from DIY hardcore punks into reverb-drenched indie merchants on their excellent 2013 mini-LP Totale Night.

Each year there are a couple standouts in the horror genre, but director Víctor García’s The Damned is not one of 2014’s pleasant surprises.

Ironically enough, Jack Antonoff’s side project, Bleachers, is a lot more fun than the more famous band, fun., for which he plays guitar.

Kudos to the FYF organizers for mobilizing like a Rapid Response Unit. In response to the problems of Day One, they’ve instituted changes overnight. The entrance lines are shorter and attendees were reportedly given free water by way of apology for the long wait on Saturday. The price of water has been cut from $3 to $2. And the balconies inside the Los Angeles Sports Arena have been opened up to accommodate those unable to access the indoor shows for lack of room.

Arcade Fire is sometimes accused of being a bit too cerebral and serious.

In this latest depiction of Chris Carter’s hugely popular ‘90s television series, Mulder and Scully revisit the origins of The X-Files to compare notes to a current case. While tracking down a large cat, the duo hear about a mysterious man named “Mr. Zero,” who Mulder recognizes from the very first X-File.

“You’re the same as me/You’ll never be free,” snarls Ty Segall on “The Feels,” a Sabbath-informed piece of cosmic bummer sludge-punk. Call it poetic license, because withManipulator, Segall has liberated himself from the strictures of album-length concepts.

Errol Flynn’s final days get the biopic treatment in The Last of Robin Hood, where Kevin Kline plays the late actor with loads of slimy charm.

There may come a day when we no longer need new material from The Raveonettes but that is not this day. Pe’ahi came out as a surprise release, appearing out of the blue, and what a pleasant surprise it was.