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“I think it’s decent,” says Foals bassist Walter Gervers as he ushers me on board the band’s tour bus. He doesn’t have anything to worry about cleanliness-wise, though I didn’t expect to be greeted by a pair of preserved alligator skulls and a couple of matching claws that the English art-rockers picked up on a recent jaunt through New Orleans. The souvenirs are just one reminder that they’re far from their home in Oxford.

We had a feeling that Tomorrow’s Harvest, the hotly anticipated new album from Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada, would be a dark affair—they’ve released strange snippets of creepy ambiance in a secretive, puzzle-ish way—and now “Reach For The Dead,” initially broadcast in Japan, confirms it. Almost by title alone. Below, hear the band’s first new music in seven years, set to a vivid short film by Neil Krug.

For much of the past decade, we’ve been witness to the music industry eroding in a truly historic fashion. This tends to happen in industries when a new invention comes along to make it obsolete. Horse and buggy manufacturers experienced this with the rise of the automobile. Candle makers spiraled into poverty due to the light bulb. Even the recording industry itself replaced the “booming” sheet music industry in the mid-20th Century thanks to technology that allowed music to be recorded and sold. This allowed for a small empire to be built on records, eight-tracks, cassettes and ultimately CDs, creating unfathomably wealthy artists and executives who traipsed the globe and lived in palaces. Then MP3 technology was born, the tsunami of illegal downloads hit without warning, and worldwide recording industry revenues were cut in half in less than a decade—a loss of over 20 billion dollars.

If there's one thing Explosions in the Sky evokes, it's all of the emotions. Every last one. Anyone who has watched Friday Night Lights will understand how "Your Hand in Mind" played at dusk over a football field is truly the easiest trigger for tears. And if you've ever gazed wistfully out a bus window in the country while listening to "Who Do You Go Home To," you know the magical power of some stirring instrumental indie rock. And although David Gordon Green latest film, the Sundance hit, Prince Avalanche isn't a philosophical tear jerker, it does possess a strikingly beautiful glowing and burnt natural landscape and some existential dilemmas, which, are always grounds for some EITS. And with composer David Wingo collaborating at the helm for the score, the tone of Prince Avalanche is set by its subtly lovely soundtrack that melds his and EITS' sensibilities. 

When Washed Out, a.k.a. Ernest Greene, chillwave’s reigning maestro, finally released Within and Without, his first LP, it was something like relief. Seemingly everyone with ears had been relaxing to the max with his prior releases, and we craved a longer work to luxuriate in. Now, with a brightly saturated teaser for his new album, Paracosm, he’s got us salivating for more all over again.

The past few years have seen plenty of bands record songs and albums indebted to the infamous Flying Nun label and kiwi-pop’s 1980s heyday as the root of much of what we today consider “indie” and “alternative” rock. And though seminal bands of that scene like The Clean and The Bats continue to kill in live shows and pen great tunes, the heirs apparent are New Zealand’s Surf City. The first taste of their sophomore album, below, should tell you why.

Since single edition 12''s were unearthed on Record Store Day, Scottish experimental ambient electro dudes Boards of Canada have been teasing us, leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that leads to Tomorrow Harvest, the band's first album in seven years. And having remained quiet—save one-off cryptic releases—since Trans Canada Highway, we're pretty thrilled that in come June 10th, we'll all be able indulge in our favorite chilled-out and hauntingly spacey tunes.

Hot on the heels of that hideous punk-themed Met Gala (as if Madonna needed any prodding to wear a fishnet body stocking) comes the announcement that CBGB, the legendary dive of a Lower East Side music venue that closed in 2006, is having a birthday of sorts this fall. Across 175 venues, from October 9 to 13, the massive festival includes 525 bands, 100 film screenings and 40 workshops/seminars. The prices, however, are not 1970s-stabilized.

"We'll go up, up, up, but I'll fly a little higher. We'll go up in the clouds because the view's a little nicer."

When conceptualizing his latest music video collaboration, director Martin Snyder was inspired by one of the loftier moments in cinema history. "Godard’s Band of Outsiders derives its French title bande à part from the phrase 'faire bande à part,' which means, 'to do something apart from the group,'" Snyder explains. "To me, this ideology defines Madison’s aesthetic." And with his video for the pop starlet's new single, "Speakeasy," we're transported through time with their homage to one of cinema's most classic scenes from Godard's iconic 1964 film.