Omaha, Neb., may better known for insurance companies than for indie bands. But visiting the Gateway to the West was a dream come true for Swedish sister act First Aid Kit (Jo...

Changing up your sound can be nerve-wracking for any band, because you risk alienating your loyal fans. Fortunately, Cleveland’s Cloud Nothings didn’t have that many fans ...

As a child in the suburbs of St. Louis, Bhi Bhiman didn’t know he’d grow up to become a folk singer. He wanted to be a stand-up comedian. “I loved Richard Pryor and Geor...

“Watergate” is the fourth novel Thomas Mallon has set inside the Beltway, and it’s certainly the most ambitious. The novelist, who has lived in Washington for nearly a d...

Most up-and-coming artists would love to land a major-label contract. For Los Angeles-born, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jessie Baylin, that dream turned into a nightmare...

When 15-year-old Eddie Joseph joined the Black Panthers in 1968, he expected to receive a gun and orders to start the revolution. Martin Luther King Jr. had recently been assa...

Few current hip-hop acts are as outrageous as Die Antwoord, a crew from Cape Town, South Africa, that just released its second album, “TEN$ION” (Downtown). Rapper Ninja an...

Early in “The Innkeepers,” the new film by independent horror director Ti West, the heroine Claire (Sara Paxton) wanders into an empty hotel, hunting for a ghost. From the...

Last month, reclusive indie singer Jeff Mangum released a vinyl-only box set collecting nearly everything ever made by his former band, ’90s cult darlings Neutral Milk Hotel...

As Akron/Family enters its 10th year, the members of the Brooklyn-based psych-rock band have made a far-reaching New Year’s resolution: to entertain every new idea that pres...

On their latest album, “Sun and Shade,” Brooklyn-based experimental rockers Woods are all about the krautrock. Birthed in early-’70s Germany and characterized by electro...

When British director Steve McQueen began developing his second feature film, he found that London wanted no part of its controversial subject matter. “Shame,” opening Fri...

Tori Amos does grandiosity like no one else. With a huge voice and her signature grand piano, the singer-songwriter, 48, has explored a wide landscape of often controversial t...

In the beginning (well, in the ’80s), long before “indie rock” or “alternative” became mainstream genres, earnest young bands like R.E.M. and the Minutemen prowled t...

Director Simon Curtis admits he was not much of a Marilyn Monroe fan when he began working on his new film, “My Week With Marilyn,” which recounts her relationship in 1957...