The Year: 1989 The Album: The Field Mice, Snowball Who It Influenced: Saint Etienne, Acid House Kings, The Softies, The Boy Least Likely To, Los Campesinos!, The Pains of Being Pure at ... Read More

The last time Yoni Wolf issued a Why? LP, he delivered one of 2008's best albums. Now, just a year-and-a-half after unleashing the almighty Alopecia, Wolf's fronting with his fifth ... Read More

Recognize that chap with the beard? The mighty, mighty, mighty beard? Of course you do. Why, that's Kyp Malone, everyone's favorite TV on the Radio member and regular Iran moonlighter. ... Read More

Three years since I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, Yo La Tengo have a brand new album to share. Popular Songs is familiar terrain ... Read More

Name: Nisennenmondai From: Tokyo, Japan Story: Practice makes perfect Sound: Impressively precise instrumentalism Nisennenmondai, a razor-sharp instrumental rock-machine from Tokyo, aren't afraid to wear their influences on their sleeves. On their debut recording, 2004's ... Read More

The Year: 1969 The Album: Scott Walker, Scott 4 Who It Influenced: Nick Cave, Pulp, The Smiths, Smog, Tindersticks, Radiohead, Goldfrapp The Scott Walker story is one of rock's great anecdotes, a magical ... Read More

The actual physical release-date of Time to Die, the third album for fingerpickin' San Franciscans the Dodos, isn't until September 15. But, in the face of an era of early ... Read More

The grandaddy of all those awards-for-album-of-the-year-based-on-artistic-merit prizes, the Mercury Music Prize, has announced its Short List of nominees for the British record of the year. In the running for 2009's ... Read More

They've release one of 2009's best albums, and now Grizzly Bear are taking it to the people. In support of Veckatimest, the New York quartet are taking their resplendent, harmony-soaked ... Read More

Name: Blue Roses From: Shipley, England Story: Hello, Blue Roses Sound: Dreamlike folk prettiness Three years ago, Laura Groves decided it was time to give up on her lifelong dream of making music. Despite ... Read More

The Year: 1993 The Album: Mazzy Star, So Tonight That I Might See Who It Influenced: Beach House, Brightblack Morning Light, Marissa Nadler, Sian Alice Group, The Concretes With the glorious news that ... Read More

It's been eight years since Hope Sandoval, the breathy, ghostly voice of Mazzy Star, issued her first solo album, Bavarian Fruit Bread. But the long wait for a follow-up is ... Read More

If Sufjan Stevens keeps up his current pace, his much-vaunted '50 states project' —in which the ambitious songsmith records an album for every state in the union— will be completed ... Read More

When I interviewed Bradford Cox of Deerhunter recently, he told me that he had "an Atlas Sound album done." Turns out he wasn't lying. Logos, the second longplayer for Cox's ... Read More

Name: Silk Flowers From: New York, New York Story: No Age bros know weird Sound: Fuzzy, muffled, proto-electro gloom When Dean Spunt from No Age says, of Silk Flowers, "they're probably the weirdest band ... Read More

The Year: 1997 The Album: Elliott Smith, Either/Or Who It Influenced: Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Grizzly Bear, José González, Jeff Hanson 12 years after Either/Or was released —and six ... Read More

When turgid corporate-rock embarrassments Nickelback started cleaning up Canada's Grammy-equivalent, the Juno Awards, in the '00s, something needed to be done. Taking inspiration from the UK's long-running Mercury Music Prize, ... Read More

When Lou Barlow released his first "proper" solo album, Emoh, in 2005, he told me it was a "completion of a journey." Barlow had made piles of ostensibly-solo albums as ... Read More

Last month, I dropped the details of Vivian Girls' forthcoming sophomore set, Everything Goes Wrong. With its September 8 release-date looming ever-closer, the spunky New York trio have unveiled a ... Read More

Name: The Horse's Ha From: Chicago, Illinois Story: To the piano-bar born Sound: Nancy & Lee Once upon a Chicago night, a pair of star-cross'd Thrill Jockey alumni met. Janet Beveridge Bean —veteran of ... Read More

The Year: 1989 The Album: Galaxie 500, On Fire Who It Influenced: Low, The Clientele, British Sea Power, Beach House, Xiu Xiu, Deerhunter/Atlas Sound This week, indie legends Galaxie 500 announced their three ... Read More

Indie-rock colossus Modest Mouse started off making limited-edition singles for Northwest labels like Up and K, and, recently, they've been returning to those roots. After recently releasing the "Satellite Skin" ... Read More

Last year, when I interviewed Spiral Stairs —AKA Scott Kannberg, the founding guitarist of slacker kingpins Pavement— he told me that he had his first-ever 'solo' record close to finished ... Read More