May 15, 2013 – In 1990, Kim Deal, bassist for the Pixies, and Tanya Donelly, singer-guitarist in Throwing Muses, ganged up for a new project with Deal as frontwoman and rhythm guitarist, enlisting help from bassist Josephine Wiggs of noisy British guitar-pop band Perfect Disaster and drummer Britt Walford of Louisville, Kentucky art-punks Slint. Pod, their Steve Albini-produced debut as the Breeders, was released by 4AD later that summer, and followed up in 1992 by the four-song Safari EP, which also featured Kim's twin sister Kelley on guitar. Walford and Donelly ultimately moved on and the remaining trio poached drummer Jim MacPherson of the Raging Mantras, a local band from the Deals' Dayton, Ohio hometown.

May 16, 2011 – Call it chillbilly, bootgaze, artisanal rock, outhouse, tin can alley, or hobohemian. But dismiss it at your own peril. The homegrown retro scene is here. [Magazine Excerpt] Red Hook, Brooklyn, is isolated from the rest of New York City by New York Harbor, which sits to its south and west, and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, which slices through its eastern half. The neigh-borhood's gentrification has been slow and spotty -- there's no subway stop nearby, and bus service is notoriously sporadic. Red Hook is salty and wild: a vestige. On a bright Sunday afternoon, I make my way to Jalopy Theatre, a small performance space on Columbia Street, near the glowing entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. A scrum of aspiring performers -- almost all under 30 and most sporting vintage eyeglasses and nose rings -- has gathered near the door.

December 14, 2010 – With their distinctive blooze racket and breakout year, you'd think it'd be hard to confuse Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney with will.i.am and apl.de.ap. But you'd be wrong. [Magazine Excerpt] Patrick Carney is certain it's possible to get from ricotta cheese to the Black Keys in six clicks or less. "I have this new thing," he says on a gloomy afternoon in Newcastle, England. "I'm working on a game show about navigating Wikipedia for the most obscure information. The fastest route to the information wins -- it's like six degrees of separation, but in Wikipedia pages. I'm on the ricotta cheese page right now. If I click on cheesecake, I'll get to New York. That's three." A minute later, bingo: ricotta to cheesecake to New York to Lake Erie to Cuyahoga River to Akron, Ohio. "Keep this to yourself, because I think it could definitely work," Carney jokes.

December 24, 2008 – In 2008, indie rock discovered a brand-new mecca: the woods. Skinny ties and neon art-rock ensembles were supplanted by wool hats and Twin Peaks plaid, and Seattle's Fleet Foxes, led by singer and guitarist Robin Pecknold, saw their self-titled debut album -- with its beckoning harmonies, Peter Pan melodies, and ax-swinging backwoods charm -- emerge as one of the year's most celebrated rookie efforts. Fleet Foxes has sold nearly 120,000 copies in its first six months, and you'd be hard pressed to buy a venti caramel latte without brushing your arm against a stack of 'em. "It's been a little strange," Pecknold admits, sheepish and fatigued, en route to taping an episode of Later With Jools Holland in London.

August 1, 2008 – The drive from Cardiff to Nefyn, a remote fishing village on north Wales' Llyn Peninsula, is only about 160 miles, but it takes me nearly seven hours. Squinting through nonstop rain, muttering at itinerant sheep, and stifling long-ingrained right-side-of-the-road steering impulses, I fret over ominous-sounding traffic signs I can't read (arwyddion rhan amser?) and take a few desperate gulps of instant petrol-station coffee. I'm chugging north to Duffy's hometown on the foreboding shores of Caernarfon Bay. I am going to the coast to get unstuck in time. B4417, the primary road leading into town, is a single narrow lane, and when an oncoming car approaches, I'm forced to pull my rented Fiat off into a pasture. Once a bustling vacation destination for British golfers and families, Nefyn now has the disembodied feel of a boomtown gone bust.