Recent

Doing What They Do Best: An Interview With Imperial Teen

Imperial Teen's latest album may be about the state of the world and how hopeless it is. It may also be about how there actually is hope. Roddy Bottum and Lynn Truell reflect on the group's past and present. "When we're at our best, we represent a movement," says Bottum.

Jedd Beaudoin

Music

Imperial Teen Are Masters of Catchy Hooks

Imperial Teen's Now We Are Timeless shows what a veteran band can do when they are locked in together. Highly recommended for fans of the kind of pop-rock that doesn't make the mainstream charts anymore.

Music

Gauche Blend New Wave and Post-Punk on Their Debut 'A People's History of Gauche'

Evoking best elements from post-punk and new wave, Gauche offers up an impolite and delightful debut album.

Music

Sacred Paws Make Fun and Upbeat Rock Music on 'Run Around the Sun'

Glasgow-based indie poppers Sacred Paws offer up a second album full of brisk, bright songs that draw from several styles, notably Afrobeat and post-punk.

Music

Fruit Bats' 'Gold Past Life' Is an Exhilarating Trip Down Multiple Memory Lanes

Deftly avoiding the pitfalls of nostalgia, Fruit Bats' Gold Past Life takes stock of life from the vantage point of middle age and charts a path forward with hope and no little circumspection, without once feeling sorry for itself.

Music

Titus Andronicus Excel With a Stripped-Down Approach on 'An Obelisk'

On their sixth studio album, New Jersey punk rockers Titus Andronicus, normally associated with big, ambitious gestures, get back to basics.

Music

Apex Manor Returns with "Asked & Answered" (premiere)

Apex Manor (Ross Flournoy) returns after a long break with his first album since 2011, Heartbreak City, and a cracking new single that deals with life's break-ups in "Asked & Answered".

Music

Reigning Sound's 'Abdication... For Your Love' Gets a Welcome Reissue

Reigning Sound's 2011 album, Abdication... For Your Love, reissued on Merge, is a tour de force of grassroots rock and soul.

Music

The Mountain Goats Get Fantastic(al) for 'In League with Dragons'

The Mountain Goats create a complex and vibrant album that moves between worlds with In League with Dragons.

Justin Cober-Lake

Music

On 'It's Real', Ex Hex Take a More Nuanced Approach to Songwriting

It's Real proves that Ex Hex can draw influences from different eras of rock music and spin them into something that sounds like only them.

Music

Britain's Ibibio Sound Machine Bring Depth to the Dancefloor on 'Doko Mien'

Doko Mien highlights Ibibio Sound Machine's versatility as the group continues to bring Lagos and London together in new ways.

Music

Lambchop Surveys the Senses on 'This (is what I wanted to tell you)'

Lambchop's new album is the musical equivalent of that final "walk" monologue from Synecdoche, New York. It's a heavy listen, but potentially a rapturous one as well, for anyone who has ever experienced a reverie of aging and all it entails.

Music

Martin Frawley's 'Undone at 31' Is an Eclectic and Mostly Joyous Adventure

Martin Frawley's (Twerps) first solo album has a lot of range but not so much anxiety, as he continues to try on musical styles and forms.

Music

Bob Mould Hits the Reset Button with 'Sunshine Rock'

With a new hometown and a fresh perspective, Bob Mould releases a rich, dense, and instantly lovable new album, Sunshine Rock.

Music

William Tyler 'Goes West'

Think of William Tyler's fingers as the wind rattling the leaves on the trees. There is no storm coming, but the gusts have their own power and cannot be ignored. They make a statement.

Music

Fucked Up Holds on to a Never Let Die Attitude on 'Dose Your Dreams'

Fucked Up's Dose Your Dreams compensates for its conceptual emptiness with a sound that blasts on all fronts.

Music

Pop Ten

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 5: 20 - 1

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 1: 100 - 81

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 2: 80 - 61

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 3: 60 - 41

The 100 Greatest Alternative Singles of the '80s: Part 4: 40 - 21

Jackie Chan's 10 Best Films

The 25 Best Classic Progressive Rock Albums

Collapse Expand Pop Ten

Mixed Media

Collapse Expand Mixed Media

PM Picks

Collapse Expand Pm Picks