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With a move to a Sub Pop Records, Atlanta post-punkers Omni go for a more understated, stripped down affair on their third album, Networker.

Seattle's Tacocat returns with This Mess Is a Place, a stellar new album in which the band confronts existential crisis and embraces widescreen guitar-based pop.

Quiet and thoughtful, yet nimble in his poetic applications, hip-hop artist Porter Ray has much to say in our 20 Questions feature.

Weyes Blood (a.k.a. Natalie Mering) conjures up a beautiful, cinematic world through with her insightful songwriting on Titanic Rising.

Cast is a deeply moving and harmonious introduction to electropop mastermind Tobiasz Biliński's latest persona, Perfect Son.

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Dinosaur Jr. guitarist/vocalist J Mascis carries on with his trademark solo sound on Elastic Days, producing another intricate work that mixes folk and rock.

On his sophomore effort, Kyle Craft creates an album from another era that still manages to sound fresh, unique and inspired.

In the official video for Kyle Craft's "The Rager", the singer/songwriter brings a sense of poetic tragedy to an intoxicating folk ballad.

On the band's third album, there is a constant search for a frequency that is thrilling and a commitment to it.

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On their second reunion album, the Afghan Whigs craft a layered exploration of the fluid nature of memory and how experiences shape us as individuals.

Porter Ray's rapping on Watercolor is relaxed but quick, a style that emphasizes the intellectual bent to many of his rhymes, but intentionally fails to prepare you for the weight of his message.

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Recreating the magic of something like Apologies to the Queen Mary is no easy feat, yet it shines as a stunning example for those who might want to make music matter again.

Kyle Craft has no right to make a debut album this damn good.

Low's Ones and Sixes is surprising for sounding very much of the moment.

The Afghan Whigs release creepily compelling video for "Lost in the Woods" just in time for Halloween.

Australian songwriter Zoë Randall of Luluc has been listening to her favorite albums, over and over, for decades. Her own new one Passerby is so effortlessly lovely that you can likewise imagine yourself putting it on again this year and next year and the one after that.

Seminal Seattle band Mudhoney celebrate their 25-year existence by playing at the top of the city's iconic Space Needle. I guess that makes sense.

Bassist and songwriter Chris Zasche of the wildly popular group the Head & the Heart speaks on the new record.

Dum Dum Girls release details of new album, unveil first single's video.

Illusion’s five songs occupy a dreamy netherworld elicited by the hushed, acoustic instrumentation and subdued production.

Maybe it’s time to call a moratorium on cribbing beats from nearly-half-century-old Ronettes singles.

For those that fear Sub Pop has strayed too far from its sweaty grunge rock roots, the presence of New York’s rough-and-ready garage rock revivalist Obits offer plenty of reassurance to the contrary.

While it's no secret that the retro-leaning indie popsters aren't exactly forward-thinking originators, all it takes is one well-chosen cover song to leave the Girls’ creative limitations exposed.

Do you feel inspired?

On the hot-and-bothered Nothing Hurts, Male Bonding represents for a new generation of orgasm addicts and slack motherfu**ers.

Hopefully next time out, Ryan McPhun will cast his intentions out of the bedroom and into the wild with some friends.

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Grand Archives' sophomore effort really is worth the listen.

Sub Pop's first lens on the grunge scene offers an early look at the signs of flannel to come, and the distinctive regional imprints on the sounds that followed punk.