Photo by Francis Chung-- Welsh septet Los Campesinos! are already having a great 2009, playing a bunch of sold-out U.S. shows with Titus Andronicus. This is especially impressive since-- in my humble opinion-- they released not one but two of 2008's very best albums, Hold On Now, Youngster... and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed. Live, their th...

 -- As Bloodshy & Avant, the Swedish producers Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg provided the deliriously great synthetic whizzing noises for jams like Britney Spears's "Toxic" and "Piece of Me", as well as hits for Kylie Minogue and Rachel Stevens. And now they've pulled an N.E.R.D., hooking up with musician Andrew Wyatt (...

I'm just going to go ahead and say it: Cornelius is pretty cool, but he's even cooler for filling his MySpace Top 40 with cats. I can absolutely imagine him and his cat friends chilling at the bar, drinking milk, making meow-based beats. Pretty cool.The Japanese master of sound released Sensurround-- a DVD chronicling his Sensuous Synchronized S...

Bay-area avant-rockers Deerhoof appear on a very special three-part episode of "Juan's Basement". In Part 1, they blast through "Tears and Music of Love" and "Fresh Born", both from their latest LP, Offend Maggie, and then go on to discuss how they formed the band and getting heckled by irate fans. In Part 2, they reach back into the catalogue a...

Hot Chip draft avant-music elder statesman Robert Wyatt-- and Geese; don't forget Geese-- to re-imagine a quartet of their own songs, giving the band cultural capital by working with a legend, while Wyatt himself gains a dose of youthful energy.read more