Looking back at 2022, Olsen reflects on touring with Van Etten and Baker, the book she wants to write, and what kind of music might be coming next.

After going viral in 2020, the trio fulfills expectations with their debut album.

While Songs from The Golden One touched on Thomas' fraught relationship with his previously absentee father Whit Thomas Sr. ("Dancing with My Dad"), his mother's death ("Partied To Death") and his struggle with depression ("Hurts To Be Alive"), The Older I Get has Thomas examining why he feels so nostalgic for his adolescent years while also grappling with the trauma from his turbulent familial life. It also features contributions from Menne, Christian Lee Hutson and Phoebe Bridgers' guitarist Harrison Whitford.

As happens with every movement, the culture moved on. But as Gen Z begins to adopt Y2K aesthetics, indie sleaze has returned. From the beginning of 2022, numerous trend pieces prophesied that this year would mark a comeback. That prediction turned out to be accurate.

It took five years for Alvvays to release a follow-up to their critically acclaimed 2017 album Antisocialites, but the Toronto-based band didn’t intend to be away for quite so long. The odyssey to get to their third album, Blue Rev (out now via Polyvinyl and Transgressive), was rife with setbacks and challenges. In fact, Alvvays had planned for Blue Rev to come out shortly after Antisocialites.

Miya Folick is seemingly everywhere. Following the release of her debut album Premonitions in 2018, The LA-based singer-songwriter shared one-off single "Malibu Barbie" in 2019, recorded a stunning cover of Mazzy Star's "Fade Into You" with American Football, covered Death Cab For Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" for Hulu's Looking For Alaska miniseries and was featured in Petey's song "Haircut." But with her new EP 2007, Folick is ready to reintroduce herself. Folick began writing thi

Indie vets are back for the first time in four years with a fresh approach.

Paul Banks and Daniel Kessler break down how the making of indie veterans’ latest album was a new experience.

Two years after acclaimed debut, ‘Live Forever,’ unclassifiable artist reflects on newfound indie stardom with ‘Farm to Table.'

The emerging three-piece indie rock act introduces itself with one of the summer’s most exciting debut albums.

It’s been a decade since Rebecca Black became an instant viral meme at just 13 years old with her video for “Friday.” After teasing a new era of her music in 2020 with singles like “Self Sabotage/Closer” and her collaboration with Dorian Electra, “Edgelord,” Black released Rebecca Black Was Here this past June. It’s a collection of tracks unlike anything the singer had released before, exploring hyperpop territory, among other genres.

After a year of tedious Zoom chats and phone calls, Lucy Dacus is returning to normalcy—or at least the closest thing to it, for her. She’s making tea (throat coat, the kind that she says not many people like) in an Airbnb in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, before settling down at a rustic dining table, feeling at ease after chatting with other journalists throughout the day.

Michelle Zauner first introduced the world to Japanese Breakfast, her solo musical project, with 2016’s Psychopomp, an album that detailed her mother’s cancer diagnosis and death. Zauner further delved into her grief and fear of dying on sophomore album Soft Sounds From Another Planet; most recently, her memoir about her mother’s death, Crying In H-Mart, became a New York Times bestseller. But for her latest Japanese Breakfast record, Jubilee, Zauner wanted to try something different.

In 2005, Taking Back Sunday signed to Warner Bros., marking a big shift for the group’s career. TBS had contributed one of the Louder Now tracks, “Error: Operator” to the Fantastic Four soundtrack before Louder Now came out, but the band still needed a lead single to introduce audiences to a new era of Taking Back Sunday. “MakeDamnSure” proved to be the perfect choice. It was devoid of the Myspace emo fare of overly dramatic references to self-harm (though they’re still addicts for dramatics in the Louder Now era), retaining the emotionally charged essence of the band’s previous hit singles, with a chorus that begs to be sung along to: “I just want to break you down so badly in the worst way.”

It’s rare for an artist to go from being unknown to becoming one of the most talked-about indie artists of the year within months, but Bartees Cox—who goes by the moniker Bartees Strange—has achieved just that. Strange introduced the world to his solo work with his EP Say Goodbye To Pretty Boy on March 13, 2020, a collection of reimagined The National covers. But even a month before the EP’s release, Paramore’s Hayley Williams tweeted that she was sold within the first few seconds into listening

This was meant to be a very different year for Pinkshift. The Baltimore pop-punk band were set to embark on a short March tour, their first as a four-piece, but the pandemic upended their plans. Then a silver lining emerged when their song, “I’m Gonna Tell My Therapist On You,” went viral upon its late July release.

The fall after Will Butler’s debut album, Policy, was released in 2015, he went to the Harvard Kennedy School of Government to study…policy. After working with Partners in Health, a non-profit focused on providing global medical health care, by donating proceeds from Arcade Fire’s single “Haiti” off Funeral and licensing proceeds from NFL ads that used the band’s “Wake Up,” Butler wanted to help the organization more.

I spoke to Lucy while she's on tour to discuss No Burden, her new label, her plans for the next album, and her musical roots.