As Monotonix tear through their bare-bones, Thin Lizzy riff-rock at a disused Milwaukee warehouse -- a basement show in every way, except that it’s on the first floor -- I’m afraid my pants are going to catch fire.

Lykke Li had a good South by Southwest. Mostly. The 22-year-old Swede (whose name is pronounced "Luke-ee Lee") played 11 shows in three days before "literally falling offstage and going eurrrrgh," she says, evoking the ailing larynx that made her cancel a 12th gig at the festival.

When they spotted a meteor crater in the Arizona desert recently, Seattle's

Since its release in the spring, Volume One, the first album from She & Him, has been something of an under-the-radar surprise. While some may have wanted to dismiss this folksy collaboration between indie troubadour M.

In a slightly sketchy part of north London, a cockney blonde whom we'll call Myrtle smokes a cigarette in the driveway of the plain white-fronted former bakery that serves as recording studio, office, and grown-up clubhouse for the members of one of the worlds' biggest bands, Coldplay. Myrtle says she works at the office next door, and when asked if the guys are good neighbors, she hedges.