Kevin Bronson

The Futureheads streaked out of Sunderland, England, in 2004 in jetstream of U.K. post-punk bands such as Franz Ferdinand (the respective quartets' debut albums came out only months apart) who looked to the likes of Wire, Gang of Four and XTC for inspiration. The difference-maker in the music of brothers......

There are harmonies, and there are harmonies. The twining vocals of teenage sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg seem sent from somewhere in the clouds. The young Swedes, who make music as First Aid Kit, have swept American audiences off their feet since they became one of the wunderkinds of South......

You could almost feel the pop geeks pinching themselves when Dayton, Ohio's favorite former fourth-grade schoolteacher Robert Pollard announced earlier this year that Guided by Voices would reunite to play the Matador at 21 festivities, and then do a reunion tour too. The tour, featuring the band's original lineup, comes......

John Lennon would have turned 70 next week, and among the events celebrating the legendary Beatle are two shows this weekend featuring a reconstituted Plastic Ono Band, the loose collective of musicians Lennon assembled 40 years ago. His widow Yoko Ono and son Sean Lennon (the musical director who pulled......

Pavement's year-long victory lap has been exhilarating for the band and fans alike -- we know people who haven't stopped grinning since Coachella. But the faithful who have it in the back of their heads that the pride of Stockton might keep the wheels turning and make another album shouldn't......

Jimmy Eat World shouldn't get dinged for the ostensibly presumptuous title of their new album and first in three years, Invented. In the minds of the many, the Arizona quartet did pioneer its brand of radio-friendly emo-rock -- taut and anthemic guitar music with an honesty that's more a tool......

Mike Hadreas, the 28-year-old Seattle-based pianist who makes music as Perfume Genius, creates hyper-emotional ballads so fragile a stiff breeze might knock them over. He's found plenty of strength in the them, though -- Hadreas turned to the keyboard to quell the inner turmoil that roiled from his difficult childhood......

Those Abe Vigoda kids, so hard to pigeonhole. The noisy, tropical smirk of the L.A. quartet's 2008 debut album Skeleton has been shelved for the follow-up effort, which in keeping with the naming scheme, ought to be called "Pale Flesh" instead of Crush. Released last week, the album is at......

Few would have thought that the Orange County ska-punk kids who a decade ago started playing as the Pharmaceutical Bandits would grow up to be a Coachella band. But the quartet now known Rx Bandits has, their party in the desert last spring certifying Matt Embree and crew as musical......

You almost wonder what Fool's Gold can do for an encore. The L.A.-based purveyors of pop and world-beat jambalaya have now toured the globe with their songs for a multinational, friending (in the true sense) the likes of Malian musical rebels Tinariwen and challenging the conventional notions of world music......