June 8, 2012 – More is more and still not nearly enough on Scott Aukerman's Comedy Bang Bang, the IFC network's first venture in to the ever-crowded talk show arena. Premiering tonight at 10 p.m., EST, nearly every overstuffed on-screen second has a gag shoved in there somewhere. Some of these bits are absurd jokes pushed past the brink of reason (someone gets crushed to death by a credit scroll), some of them are jokes pitched at deliberately awkward rhythms (Reno 911's Thomas Lennon interrupts the proceedings to suggest multiple wine pairings), and some of them are actually informative, such as the onscreen pronunciation guide that lets you know the correct way to say host Scott Aukerman's name. In case you're curious, it rhymes with "Stop Tacoman." "That's what the people look for on TV," says Aukerman from his Los Angeles home.

June 14, 2011 – Frontman Tyondai Braxton abruptly left New York math-funk mutants Battles during the recording of their follow-up to 2007's Mirrored. Yet despite the drama, the band went forward as a trio (Gary Numan and Boredoms' Yamataka Eye contribute guest vocals) and turned out Gloss Drop, which cements their status as the most accessible band of indie's avant-garde. John Stanier (drums): It's taken us two years to do this record, and the obstacles we overcame were ridiculous. From the very beginning when we were writing this record, we took way too much time off and other people's extra things ended up going way longer than they were supposed to, and people weren't inspired and fun things like that. And then of course we turned into a three-piece. We didn't even have time to sit down and have this master plan of what we're going to do.

May 17, 2011 – The Okkervil River leader and the outlaw country legend trade notes on tradition, storytelling, and just plain pissing people off. Steve Earle -- country rebel, playwright, actor, and now novelist -- fishes an iPhone from his weathered denim jacket, eager to show Will Sheff a video of his one-year-old son, John Henry, bopping his head to "The Valley," the opening track from I Am Very Far, the artfully raw sixth album from Sheff's band Okkervil River. "As soon as the drums came in," Earle says in his laconic drawl, "it was automatic. It gets the John Henry Seal of Approval." With his corduroy suit and glasses, the Okkervil River frontman could pass for an English professor, whereas Earle looks like a particularly wise roadhouse bouncer, weathered, but more robust than he ever could have dreamed during bouts of drug addiction and jail time in the '90s.

March 24, 2011 – The latest solo album from Verve singer Richard Ashcroft, United Nations of Sound, came out in the U.K last year, and reviews were not particularly kind in his home country. Last night at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC, making his first U.S. appearance in three years just a day after United was released in America, Ashcroft aimed to start fresh.

January 25, 2011 – On their new album, The King Is Dead, the Decemberists embraced elegantly simple, harmony-rich, salt-of-the-earth folk pop, and judging by last night's tour kick off, this new philosophy now extends to the Portland, Oregon band's live show, too. Sure, Colin Meloy's heady lyrics still make references to things like the "queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab," but there's a marked shift from the band's last go-around supporting the prog-rocking and complicated narratives of 2009's The Hazards of Love.

November 24, 2010 – With her virtuoso harp-playing and an ear for complex, ever-morphing arrangements, burgeoning art-rock icon Joanna Newsom undoubtedly deserved to take the stage at New York City's legendary Carnegie Hall last night. Over nearly two hours, she displayed not only an ability play her harp with both a delicate touch and the ferocity to deliver Jimmy Page-sized classic rock riffs, but proved she's one of the most polite and gracious artists of the moment. Focusing mainly on this year's acclaimed Have One On Me, Newsom led her six-piece band -- which included two string players, a drummer, a trombone player, and her studio collaborator/multi-instrumentalist Ryan Francesconi -- through complex compositions such as "Have One On Me" and "Good Intentions Paving Company" that moved from Carnegie-appropriate classical to wheezing country waltz to multi-voiced gospel choir.