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