FLOOD

From the depths of a dusty living room, New Zealand trio Salad Boys cobble together one the year’s most auspicious indie-pop debuts, “Metalmania.”

Indeed, Battles are one of indie rock’s best bands and one of the least obnoxious acts in techno.

Making the trip from “Selma” to South Central with the “Straight Outta Compton” actor.

There are cracks of light to be found on her second album, but it takes time and patience to find them.

The reemergence of Refused didn’t presage a new album—the group could have toured off the strength of “Shape” forever—but the willingness to evolve is what keeps any band relevant. Cheers to Refused for taking the plunge.

As every musician should, three albums deep into their career, Daughn Gibson (a.k.a Josh Martin) spends “Carnation” exploring new realms.

It’s goodbye low budget, hello high society on Best Coast’s third full-length “California Nights.”

On the Kentucky band’s seventh album “The Waterfall,” the guitars are so few and far between that the band’s metamorphosis from garage gods to production wizards is nearly complete.

The famed visual artist discusses his avant-garde progression with art by way of virtual reality.

“Edge of the Sun” is what fans were clamoring to hear while sitting patiently through Joey Burns and John Convertino’s well-received but incredibly melancholic recent releases.

Reptar is an unfortunately named band that usually has enough tricks up its sleeve to be forgiven for it. But not this time around.

Far too often, words like “trippy,” “spacey,” and “acid” pepper descriptions of Moon Duo and guitarist/singer Ripley Johnson’s better-known band, Wooden Shjips.