Being America’s premiere sample-based psych-pop group certainly has its advantages.

Aside from having an extremely distinctive sound, becoming tourmates with the likes of the Antlers, the xx, and Minus the Bear, and getting much love from the likes of ?uestlove and OutKast’s Big Boi, Phantogram (a NYC-based duo consisting of Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel) has had one simple problem that all bands eventually want to have: having too much music to release. The group’s historic 2009 saw it putting out its debut album Eyelid Movies on Barsuk Records, along with two additional EPs. Phantogram’s 2011 ended with it releasing a highly-regarded six-track mini-LP called Nightlife, which showed the group taking cues from the now-prominent chillwave movement, albeit on its own terms.

To help celebrate Nightlife‘s success and the tour that followed, Josh Carter took some time to sit down with PopMatters and answer the famed 20 Questions, here revealing a rather strong affinity for the works of Charlie Kaufman, a desire to travel through dimensions, and lists no more than 15 different discs that could potentially qualify as “the greatest album ever” in his mind . . .

PYYRAMIDS might be one of the easiest bands to Google in the world, but what’s even more unique about the group might very well be sounds that it makes.

After all, PYYRAMIDS is the brainchild of two very different artists. On one hand, you have Chicago-bred Drea Smith of electro-pop duo He Say She Say, who also has done some time stinting with Chi-town’s very own Lupe Fiasco.  On the other hand, you have Tim Nordwind, who is one of the most recognizable members from quirk-rock masters OK Go, whose hits are too numerous to mention here.  Together, the duo form PYYRAMIDS, and their sound comes off like a merging of pop music, electronica, and experimental quirkiness, all into a package that’s as radio-friendly as it is musically daring.  Although their debut Human Beings EP is only four songs long (five if you count DMK’s remix of the title track), it shows a group with a lot of promise.

To help celebrate the release, Drea sat down to answer PopMatters’ famed 20 Questions, here revealing a love for all things Daria, how her songwriting stems from people-watching, and how phone calls with mom helps keep this rising star sane . . .

Portland’s Radiation City has an unusual sound, to say the least.

Let’s see: it’s kind of like the Andrews/Puppini Sisters vocal harmonies strapped to ‘70s rock guitar but given a modern-day indie band backing, ripe with emotion and feeling, sounding like it was homebrewed out of several eras of music but never belonging to any particular one of them.  That, and the band released its debut album, The Hands That Take You, through its own cassette-only label Apes Tapes (it has since been picked up for distribution by Tender Loving Empire).

For a band so unique in sound, it’s no surprise that this quartet is gradually picking up attention, and having just finished up the latest leg of its tour, the group recently sat down with PopMatters to answer the famed 20 Questions, here revealing how the group recorded its vocals through an old 1940s turntable, its wish to have dinner with St. Vincent‘s Annie Clark, and how it has a resounding amount of love for OutKast’s The Love Below. . .

If someone goes up to you and says “Don Fleming is one of the single most unstoppable forces in the history of music”, you would find it hard to disprove such a statement.

After all, Don Fleming was the founder of numerous bands, ranging from the Velvet Monkeys to Foot, from B.A.L.L. to Gumball. During this time, the man with the uncompromising taste in all things aural has proven to be a frequent collaborator with Sonic Youth, an incredible instrumentalist, and—most of all—a highly-regarded producer, having worked on such iconic albums as Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque, Alice Cooper’s The Last Temptation, and even had a hand in Pete Yorn’s Musicforthemorningafter. In short, Fleming’s dance card is perpetually full.

Thus, when Fleming announces a new solo EP—here simply titled Don Fleming 4—people take notice, especially when it features collaborations with the like of Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon. Following the EP’s summer release, Fleming sat down with PopMatters to answer the famous 20 Questions, here waxing philosophical on the Beatles, what it’s like going through Marty Robbins’ record collection, and why he bears a characteristic resemblance to Shaft . . .

Mr. Gnome has never really been a “play by the rules” kind of band. 

Madness in Miniature—the Cleveland duo’s third full-length album—features singer/guitarist Nicole Barille and drummer/pianist Sam Meister doing what they do best: playing whatever the hell they want. Although Barille is blessed with a vocal quality that recalls the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O at her most seductive, the group’s sound veers from Björk-like vocal experiments to raging White Stripes-styled bashers, to modern alternative experiments infused with a love of classic ‘70s rock that are hard to pin down, pulling off the rare feat of sounding both familiar and alien at the exact same time. It’s something that must be heard to be believed.

Prior to prepping for their big tour, the band sat down with PopMatters to answer our famed 20 Questions, here expressing a deep-seated love of Battlestar Galactica, engaging in the long-running debate of whether or not Kevin Bacon is cooler than David Bowie, and revealing the delightfully unsettling details behind what a “forgy” is . . .