In the years since the demise of the '90s cult phenomenon Soul Coughing, Mike Doughty's been assiduously cultivating a fruitful career in the singer-songwriter mold, though he's not above sharing the spotlight with other musicians like his admirer Dave Matthews. His 2005 album, Haughty Melodic, was his first to feature a full band; PopMatters praised the album's marriage of "post-Soul Coughing singer-songwriter compositional style with the tapestry of brightly colored sounds and snarled grooves......

Real Emotional Trash, the fourth post-Pavement solo album by Stephen Malkmus, is arguably his best, and at the very least rivals the acclaimed Pig Lib for inventiveness. A well-crafted balance of catchy pop, multi-part prog rock compositions, heady guitar shredding and his signature lyrical whimsy, the album is sure to stymie Pavement fans on a nostalgia trip and the skinny jean set appalled by any song that dares last longer than five minutes. Joined by......

You know you’ve finally arrived when your name appears in an Onion headline. The satirical paper of record paid that respect to the decades-spanning indie-rock phenomenon Yo La Tengo some years back with an article titled “37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster.” Since 1984 the band, started by husband and wife duo Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan, has been blazing an independent trail of restlessly inventive guitar rock. Their most......