Jim Beckmann

The members of ADHD keep busy with a multitude of projects, but that's not to say they distract easily. Since forming on a whim in 2008, this award-winning Icelandic supergroup of sorts has produced five albums of expressive avant jazz. Yet bringing brothers Óskar and Ómar Guðjónsson (saxophone and guitar, ...

He's never lived so far away, yet he's never sounded so much like himself. After a move to London, former Sonic Youth singer-guitarist Thurston Moore recently reclaimed his place as a ranking don of noise-rock while reassembling his band with some true ringers: former SY bandmate Steve Shelley ...

"Put your hand on the chest / of a heart that is beating."

That line, from The Barr Brothers' new album Sleeping Operator, might as well be the Montreal band's mission statement. While the new songs mix acoustic folk-rock, electrified blues, lush chamber-pop, traditional West African styles and other influences, ...

One of 2014's biggest breakouts, FKA twigs is no mere singer, songwriter or dancer. She's all those things, plus a director, a producer and more. Her ability to combine so many elements into a multi-sensory feast of performance art is what's propelled her from London cabarets to the international festivals ...

Northern soul? How about Arctic soul? That's yet to be a thing, but if young Icelandic singer-songwriter Júníus Meyvant has anything to do with it, you'll hear more similarly soul-stirring melodies from way up north. The singer — whose real name is Unnar Gísli Sigurmundsson — has yet to release ...

It'll take a little practice, but you'll likely find yourself saying the name Ásgeir like a true Icelander soon enough. When we started playing the young singer-songwriter's music two years ago, we knew his ethereal falsetto and captivating songs would catch on, even though his lyrics were sung completely ...

It's not as if Conor Oberst needs much help sounding great. The Omaha native has been writing and performing with various projects, most notably Bright Eyes, since his early teens, and he's helped found two important independent labels: Saddle Creek and Team Love. Everything he does is worth ...

The English band alt-J has staked its career on defying expectations, so nervous anticipation surrounding its second album was perfectly understandable — particularly following the departure of bassist and multi-instrumentalist Gwil Sainsbury. But if alt-J felt the pressures of improving upon its beloved, award-winning debut, you wouldn't know it ...

It's the classic peanut-butter-meets-chocolate kind of story. A chance meeting brought Amelia Meath (of the folk trio Mountain Man) and Nick Sanborn (of psych-rock band Megafaun and his own electronic project, Made Of Oak) together. A conversation led to the two sharing their talents in a song Meath ...

Music has always provided catharsis, relief and healing. But few artists tap directly into that power the way Tim Showalter has: His Strand Of Oaks project goes so far as to name its most recent album Heal. Like pages from a diary, the Philly songwriter's lyrics delve into moments of ...

Its name sounds like nowhere you'd want to be, and not necessarily something you'd want to hear, but Diarrhea Planet makes amazing music. Six guys from Nashville — four of them playing guitar! — live the credo of "Shred 'Til You're Dead" by blasting a fiery torrent of riff-heavy good ...

Josh Carter's dark hooks and Sarah Barthel's breathy vocals are to die for. But on this year's Voices — the dance-rock band Phantogram's first album in five years — they reach a new level that suits the stadiums they're filling and their songs' ubiquity on television and in movies.

The ...

Shabazz Palaces' music sounds like nothing else. Whether you describe them as "sci-fi," "way-out" or just a little strange, the Seattle duo's songs might as well come from outer space, considering how different they sound from most rap.

In the 18 songs and seven "astral suites" on their ...

It's hard to imagine a better indie-pop dream team than this: Grammy-winning producer Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton) and singer-songwriter James Mercer (of The Shins), each of whom has made some of the most infectious songs of the past 10 years.

Unsurprisingly, their debut as Broken Bells ...

It had been almost a year to the day since Sam France of Foxygen fell off a stage, canceling the band's 2013 tour just as it was getting started. But now he and songwriting partner Jonathan Rado are back with a glittery, glammy vengeance. On the day of ...

While onstage, Parquet Courts can go from indolent to aggressive in about a second, but we still weren't sure what to expect: The Brooklyn band arrived at KEXP's studios on the last day of what must have seemed an interminable tour. Thankfully, the year and a half of globetrotting ...

Twenty-plus years into its career, Spoon retains its capacity to surprise and delight. They Want My Soul, the Austin band's follow-up to 2010's Transference, has all the hallmarks you'd expect: the fiery voice of frontman Britt Daniel; the wry if bittersweet lyrics; the punchy, concise, immediately identifiable pop-rock sound.

Courtney Barnett may prefer the mundane, but that doesn't mean we have to. In the songs on her debut album, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas, really two early EPs mashed together, the young Australian singer-songwriter relates with hyperfocus the details of a day and moments ...

Mark Lanegan has a voice that stops you dead in your tracks, no matter when or how you hear him. The former singer of Screaming Trees has released a series of deep, dark solo albums that have grown progressively more expansive. So has the roster of artists with whom ...

The Brooklyn band The Antlers frequently finds inspiration in dark places: On 2009's Hospice, singer-guitarist Peter Silberman reflects on terminal illness and emotional abuse, while this year's Familiars turns the Buddhist notion of bardo, a state of being between incarnations, into the impetus for a dialog about multiple selves.