Lars Gotrich

The country singer's VHS-quality video gathers friends in a bar to laugh and forget the pain.

When we translate the natural world through instruments, we commune with it. The guitarist culls her 12-string compositions from birdsong, rivers and the sacred drone of Appalachian folk music.

Featuring the whisper-soft vocals of Chris Taylor (Pygmy Lush, pg. 99), Big Hush radically transforms the sludgy, feedback-squealing Nirvana song into a quiet, softly strummed apology.

Into The Light is an imaginary soundtrack for a science-fiction western. The guitarist's "He Is Without His Guns" conveys the urgency of a stand-off, but feels small in its somber movements.

David Grubbs, C. Spencer Yeh, Jennifer Walshe, Chris Forsyth and others pay tribute to the experimental composer and to his natural gifts as a mentor.

Led by Chris Schlarb, "Brother O" is a breezy and beachy number that's way more involved than it lets on. The video beautifully quick-cuts scenes set in Long Beach and L.A.

Under her alter ego Jackie Lynn, Circuit Des Yeux's Haley Fohr exists in an alternate world where outlaw country dreams of synth wires and her moaning baritone narrates the seediest story ever told.

Erin Tobey's blossoming music opens just at the moment of revelation. After more than a decade, the Bloomington singer-songwriter returns with a reflective second album.

If you only had 24 hours left to live, how would you spend it? If you answered "skydiving, shotgunning beers at national landmarks and bathing in milk," then you are the band Tiny Moving Parts.

Aloha's first album in six years is largely inspired by the grand gestures and airy atmospheres of '80s pop music — particularly in the rhythmically rich "Faraway Eyes."

No rock 'n' roll record has felt this mysterious and free-spirited in years. The honky-tonkin' "Tosca" recalls the rambling '70s vibe of Jorge Ben and Bob Dylan.

Ross Shapiro was that surly record store clerk, but was also the frontman for one of the great late '90s Athens bands. We remember the late musician with a perfectly perverse rock 'n' roll dance song.

The noise-punk-prog-stoner-pop band goes for full-contact catharsis in this two-minute barnstormer.

Gunn's music thrives on exploration. In a video for the breezy "Conditions Wild," he's a pioneer in a mythological cut-and-paste frontier.

Troper crams heartbreak, hard-hit open chords and doo-doo-doo's into a two-minute power-pop song.

Let Lucius, Maren Morris, Timmy Thomas, A-WA, Miya Folick and others sing you to sleep with lullabies performed around Austin, Texas during the wee hours of SXSW.

The metal visionary takes yet another left turn, this time with a sax-fueled smoove-jazz number.

The Israeli sister trio sang us a Yemeni folk song in a hotel room at midnight. Sung in gorgeous and haunting three-part harmony, it's a song about a love that hurts.

At our SXSW showcase, Mitski's songs rang loudly in feedback-riddled heartbreak and quiet desperation. She performed two songs from the forthcoming Puberty 2, including the new "Once More To See You."

Armed with a menacing bass line and a long list of wrongs, the country singer turned up the heat on no-good-men at our SXSW showcase.