FLOOD

Gregg Turkington on the intersection of punk rock and easy listening and bringing absurdist sincerity to the masses.

The actress best-known as a bubbly tour guide in heaven is learning a lot from playing non-human.

Fifty years after the MC5 played the Democratic National Convention, hoping to jumpstart a new era, things don’t look much different in the USA. But Wayne Kramer knows that it’s still on us—and him—to change.

Set and filmed in the cozy Midwest, “Joe Pera Talks with You” isn’t your typical Adult Swim fare—though it is still on really late (and Joe will understand if you tape it for later). 

The stand-up comedian and “Silicon Valley” actor discusses his new memoir “How to American” and the life lessons and empathetic tone behind it.

The famously behatted standup took on Trump and made a Netflix comedy special his own way.

It’s in the way the hidden reveals itself that Gun Outfit finds its surest footing.

The composer and synthesist dives into the visually rich world of the greatest anime filmmaker of all time.

The rapper, comic, and podcaster on what he learned in one of Chicago’s most notorious housing projects.

In conjunction with the label of the same name, the Beastie Boys launched “Grand Royal” magazine without much of a plan. But with the help of a ramshackle editorial team that included Spike Jonze and Bob Mack, they didn’t need one.

Bartz was interested in broadcasting a particular worldview, one that was stridently African, anti-war, and cosmically enlightened. He wanted to make music that reflected his experience.

Now that he’s settled into his seventies and is releasing his eleventh studio album, it’s a remarkable comfort to see how unflinching Randy Newman remains.

Popol Vuh Agape-Agape Love-Love (8/10) Spirit of Peace (9/10) ONE WAY STATIC Of all the disparate figures grouped incongruously under…

Abstract horror soundscapes: coming soon to a festival near you.

Scott makes synthesizing a century of jazz seem easy.

Staples remains unconvinced at his own soirée.

What does it all mean? The Long Beach native isn’t telling.

Though they play clumsy rubes, there’s no hiding the Brooklyn trio’s combined smarts.

“The Joshua Tree” is a record so universal, so full of modern pop hymns, that people probably wouldn’t have minded it showing up automatically on their iPhones.

On their second LP, the Scottish/English/Indian trio of guitarist James Yorkston, double bassist Jon Thorne, and sarangi player Suhail Yusuf Khan demonstrate a subtle mastery of fusion.

Some questions are more complicated than they seem.

The LA quartet has crafted one of the most pleasurable sounding records you’ll hear this year, the idea of personal liberty permeating the record’s warm grooves.

Plus: You’ve been calling Kenny Loggins by the wrong name all these years.

“Dirty Projectors” can at times be exhausting, and its density can feel crushing, but at their best, David Longstreth’s songs center on connection.

While so often synthesizer music seeks to make the listener feel weightless, Jaime Fennelly finds beauty in binding, securing forces.

On their second album, the Montreal quartet drill deep into the concept of groove.

Indie vets Chavez return after a twenty-year recorded absence with a surprising, vital set of songs.

After pop stardom, the “She Blinded Me with Science” singer set his sights on the intersection of music and technology.

Like so many retro-leaning artists before him, Donald Glover riffles through classic sounds for a lens through which to view his modern anxieties.

How a comic about an anxiety-ridden “little gentleman” with a serious aversion to liver and onions became one of the most beloved cartoons of its era.

The co-star of FXX’s alchemical comedy talks the season three finale, what to expect next—and the special linguistic privileges afforded the British.

The Gulf Coast humidity means things often get melded in Houston, but one gathering is blurring the line between music festival and art installation in a new way.

This isn’t your grandmother’s cross-stitching. Unless your grandmother has a thing for Paul Thomas Anderson and has sold work to Ai Weiwei.

As he did throughout the tenure of The Weakerthans, Samson on his second solo record resolutely resists the tropes that so often plague singer/songwriters.

On their eleventh LP, our finest chroniclers of life below the Mason-Dixon explore the duality of the American thing.

Death has always loomed over Canadian post-punk band Preoccupations.

The elements here are simple, but in Bowles’s capable hands these common tools are utilized in marvelous ways.

John Dwyer’s long-running powerhouse builds on the expansive sound of last year’s “Mutilator Defeated at Last.”

The Topanga Canyon singer/songwriter/producer’s second LP—and Sub Pop debut—is defined by an immaterial dreaminess.

Chunklet releases a live recording of the vital Athens band’s final live performance before their 1983 breakup.

“Delirium Tremens,” which dropped last month, is the third in a series of albums that finds Harvey taking on the catalog of the French provocateur.

“IV” serves as the best example yet of the Toronto jazz quartet’s ability to synthesize their disparate influences.

The Kiwi actor/comedian/writer (“Flight of the Conchords”/”What We Do in the Shadows”) ponders the New Zealand film renaissance and the Paranormal.

Ben Bridwell is working from home.

Teaming with Grandaddy leader Jason Lytle, the South Carolina band confidently turns the wheel in another direction with their fifth studio album.

Following breakout remixes and production on material by Mobb Deep, Freddie Gibbs, and Katy B, the Haitian-born DJ seems intent on making multiple statements with his debut LP.

Originally just a kid who liked doodling on notebooks and reading “Thrasher,” the award-winning artist has turned into a force to be reckoned with both inside and out of the skateboarding world—all from Dayton, Ohio.

In light of recent blockbuster records like the expansive “Lemonade” and the constantly shifting “Life of Pablo,” “Views” feels anticlimactic.

With her new electronic pop album, the singer formerly known as Antony Hegarty unpacks the meaning of “HOPELESSNESS.”

The legendary comics artist takes on The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” plus talks the current crop of superhero movies.

Vessels have long served as a reference point in the works of Brian Eno. But on his new ambient album, “The Ship,” he evokes one of the most symbolically loaded boats in history: the “Titanic.”

Bringing together the likes of Phoebe Gloeckner, Lynda Barry, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Alison Bechdel, Robbins’ series blazed a trail for female comic artists.

The former Cul de Sac guitarist’s alternately tuned acoustic guitar and banjo tug and pull on the conventions of American Primitivism.

If Iggy’s going anywhere, it won’t be quietly.

What’s this new breeze blowing over North Carolina group Mount Moriah?

The road has long served as a symbol in American roots music, and few have sung about it as distinctly as Lucinda Williams.

The medical-show parody returns to Adult Swim this Friday, January 22.

It’s a loose, effortless-sounding record, but new deluxe box set “The Ties That Bind: The River Collection” attests to the fact that as grand as the album is, its twenty-song track list only came after obsessive pruning and labored deliberation.

The group’s friskiness wasn’t sacrificed for the sake of accessibility. It was enhanced.

You might know him as Andre from “The League”—which ends its seven-season run this week—but Paul Scheer is cooking up many a strange brew.

There’s plenty of that same velvety lushness on his full-length solo debut, “AQUARIA,” but Boots is given more to menace than mystery on the album

On its own, “City Lake” is an enveloping listen.

The stand-up comedian (and the voice of Gene on Bob’s Burgers) tells us why his new box set is ninety-three discs shorter than he intended.

They’re as capable of drifting up into space as descending into the canyons, cosmic like a midnight drive.

Though Girl Band spends the rest of the album matching “Umbongo” in volume and intensity, it never quite manages to equal that perfectly queasy equilibrium—push and pull, tension and release—with the same mastery.

One of the minds behind Modern Seinfeld on what the deal is with making a fool of yourself on the Internet.

The lead up to Slayer’s eleventh album, “Repentless,” was as punishing as the thrash metal mainstay’s music.

“In my heart, there is blood. In my heart there is only blood,” Deaf Wish guitarist Sarah Hardiman intones at the beginning of “Dead Air,” the thrashing penultimate track of the band’s serviceable full-length Sub Pop debut, “Pain.”

We chat with the legendary director about the reissue of her three-part documentary series, “The Decline of Western Civilization.”

These days, Isbell sounds like a man determined not to lose the things he loves.

Meet the band deemed “too gay” for the outré ’70s.