During the 2010s indie-rock explosion, Orange County’s Local Natives set themselves apart in a sea of folksy schmaltz with detailed drumming and multifaceted vocal harmonies. Gorilla Manor (2010) and 2013’s Humming Bird took a smarter approach…

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of music on the internet. Don’t get me wrong, I love how platforms like YouTube, Bandcamp and Soundcloud have opened the floodgates of independent artists. But navigating…

During the five years since Nick Murphy released Built on Glass, he’s reoriented himself as a frontrunner in modern soul. Besides leaving his stage name Chet Faker, the Australian musician and producer embarked on a…

Brooklyn trio Spotlights has steadily developed their “atmospheric bludgeoning” from the 2009 single they spontaneously recorded. Married couple Sarah and Mario Quintero mix thick riffage with lofty synths and shoegazey ambience, while Chris Enriquez’s dynamic…

With two solo albums and collaborations with the likes of Sharon Van Etten, Heather Woods Broderick has become far more than a folk singer-songwriter. Her ethereal singing and luscious arrangements seamlessly blend ambient music, chamber…

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of music on the internet. Don’t get me wrong, I love how platforms like YouTube, Bandcamp and Soundcloud have opened the floodgates of independent artists. But navigating…

Coming off its 2016 opus, Paradise Gallows, Inter Arma was still getting lumped in with the doom metal troop. It was understandably frustrating, considering the Virginia quintet’s unique blend of old-school death metal, psychedelic sludge and…

Since his Grammy-winning 1986 debut, The Way It Is, Virginia pianist Bruce Hornsby has ridden the line between a musician’s musician and chart-topping songwriter. From his forays into bluegrass and gospel funk, to getting sampled by…

Bangladeshi electronica musician Sajeeb Saha has steadily moved past the Skrillex remix that gave his Jai Wolf alias his big break in 2014. Single “Indian Summer” and following EP, Kindred Spirits, foreshadowed an expansion past the…

Since Washington, D.C.’s Periphery helped spearhead a Meshuggah-worshiping tech-metal offshoot, what’s kept the band relevant hasn’t been  the polyrhythms, but the songwriting. The band’s hyper-syncopated breakdowns have proven an unlikely partner for sticky vocal melodies…