Beach Fossils’ songwriter Dustin Payseur crafts carefully arranged songs focusing on life’s simple pleasures: sun, friends, maybe a quick trip out of town. Their debut EP earned rave reviews in 2o1o, and last year’s What a Pleasure EP deepened their guitar pop sound with cleaner... Read More →

Sweden’s Jens Lekman brings an uncommon wit and humanity to his songs, detailing his vulnerabilities with a smooth baritone. First drawing attention for his 2004 debut, When I Said I Wanted to Be Your Dog, Lekman is the latest in a long line of songwriters too smart for their own... Read More →

In the late 90s, Kevin Barnes was a young addition to the Athens, Georgia’s influential Elephant 6 collective. His style in those days, like founding members Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples in Stereo, and Olivia Tremor Control, took melodic pop in unexpected directions. Barnes’ long... Read More →

Portland, Oregon, trio The Thermals have been blasting away since 2002, their songwriter Hutch Harris calling bullshit in snarls for a solid decade now. They formed from remnants of other Northwestern groups, and at their beginning they were usually loud, sloppy, and done done with... Read More →