Jim Beckmann

The Army says Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, whose freedom from the Taliban was gained by a prisoner exchange, has been cleared for active duty and assigned to a unit in Texas. When he was released in May, Bergdahl had been held by the Taliban for five years.

Responding to questions from ...

With all the sunlight in Los Angeles, it's easy to overlook the beauty in the darkness there. Yet Chelsea Wolfe doesn't. The SoCal singer-songwriter has carved a unique place in the musical landscape with her epic "drone-metal-art-folk" style. On her recent third album, Pain Is Beauty, she takes a ...

The typography of the band's name — tUnE-yArDs — mirrors the ecstatic rhythms of its new album. For Nikki Nack, Merrill Garbus has traveled far, sonically and literally, to expand upon the conceit of her self-recorded debut and turn tUnE-yArDs into a communal tribe of singers, dancers and ...

Lykke Li may sing about repeating past mistakes, but on her new album, I Never Learn, the Swedish singer-songwriter has clearly grown. While continuing to work with Björn Yttling (of Peter Bjorn and John), who contributed to her first two albums, Li took the helm in producing this ...

For such a good-natured duo, Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent can sound darker and more dangerous than you might imagine. As Shovels & Rope, they play gritty, boot-stomping roots-rock that spans rousing sing-alongs, heartwarming ballads and harrowing tales of vengeance.

For Shovels & Rope's return to the KEXP ...

Paul Janeway's vocal range is some kind of miracle. For the young, Alabama-based soul stirrer and his band St. Paul & The Broken Bones, the sounds of Memphis and Muscle Shoals go marrow-deep. On Half the City, the group's unbelievably mature debut, Janeway channels '60s R&B greats like Otis Redding, ...

The paralyzing virus had seemed on the verge of disappearing. But this year cases are being reported in 10 countries. The World Health Organization has responded with strict vaccination rules.

The boozy blues of obsession and regret have never sounded so good — at least not in the last 16 years, which is how long it's been since The Afghan Whigs released an album. But while other '90s bands have cashed in with 20- and 25-year anniversary reunions and ...

The young U.K. band Temples has been touted by Britpop luminaries like Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher, who've both fallen for the group's shimmering debut, Sun Structures.

It's a sound you've heard before — particularly from pop, glam and psychedelic bands of the '60s and '70s like The ...

His band's new album is called Lost in the Dream, but The War on Drugs' Adam Granduciel sounds like he's just woken up from one. While it's only the band's third record since forming nine years ago, Lost in the Dream is leaps and bounds ahead of its ...

The three brothers in the Southern rock band Pontiak could tear the roof off any coliseum with their arena-sized riffs. Hailing from rural Virginia, the Carney brothers — Van, Jennings and Lain — have crafted a long string of albums filled with fuzzy, feedback-laden neo-psych stoner jams since forming Pontiak ...

It's hard not to use fiery rhetoric when describing Angel Olsen's new album, Burn Your Fire for No Witness — whether it's the heated passion of her lyrics, her smoky voice or her occasionally scorching melodies. There's just a brightness, an intensity that shines through even the album's ...

"Are you digging our laid-back vibe?" Band of Horses band leader Ben Bridwell asked the audience during the group's recent concert at Seattle's Moore Theatre. Following their recently released live recording, Acoustic at the Ryman, Bridwell and company chose to perform very loose, rootsy interpretations of their most ...

Not sure if it's a compliment to be called a "thinking man's metal band" — if nothing else, it's not so nice to the other metal bands — but Helmet has always made smart music that never loses its punch. Singer and guitarist Page Hamilton founded the group back in ...

"If you're meaning to seduce anybody, you don't announce your intention," L.A. singer-songwriter Joe Henry joked when introducing his new song "Swayed." Nevertheless, he hooked us by the heart during a recent in-studio appearance.

It had been a while since we'd heard Henry's voice. As a Grammy-winning producer, he's ...

If you were to define a sub-genre for Julianna Barwick's ambient music, it might be something like "polar pastoralism," as the young singer and composer evokes both the Southern straw-dust farmland of her youth and the glacial fields that surrounded the recording of her latest album.

For Nepenthe, producer ...

Jagwar Ma is on a quest to revitalize Britpop. Actually, the band may be unintentionally hindering the genre's revival; Noel Gallagher of Oasis has been quoted as saying he and his former bandmates are too busy listening to the budding Australian group to even entertain the idea of ...

From within the quaint wooded oasis of the Bunny Glade at the Portland, Ore., festival Pickathon, singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten thrilled us during a brief acoustic set with a brand-new song. "It'll be a radio debut," she said after performing a gorgeously sung version of "Tarifa" with her touring ...

The Portland-area Pickathon festival is most commonly associated with roots music, but in recent years has stretched out to include performers in other genres, including garage rocker Ty Segall. On his new album Sleeper, the prolific young Bay Area musician set aside the metal riffs and psychedelic freakouts of his ...

The greatest benefit to the current flood of anniversary tours and album reissues might not be the chance for fans to experience or relive shows of the past, or even the bands' second chances at recouping earnings beyond what they'd experienced before. Maybe more important is the chance for the ...