Lando Chill Every week, there’s a plethora of new music at our fingertips. Artists on platforms such as Spotify and Bandcamp are plentiful, and the radio offers a steady deluge of new singles, but who has time to sort through all that? RIFF does! We pooled our resources to find some of…

Anyone with a guitar and YouTube channel can contribute to the rising tide of forgettable singer-songwriter projects. New artists need to immediately pull in listeners to have a lasting impact. Northwest Washington’s Katherine Paul certainly stands out as Black Belt Eagle Scout—exploring culture and personal struggle from a “radical indigenous…

R&B’s ever-increasing popularity stems partly from the movement’s rejection of its past. The likes of Frank Ocean and Blood Orange have pushed far beyond what anyone could have expected during previous decades. Such generational disparities contextualize Jerry Williams, Jr.’s 22nd LP under his Swamp Dogg moniker. Love, Loss, and Auto-Tune Swamp…

Winning NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest has been a major career boost to those who have come out on top. But Georgia multi-instrumentalist Naia Izumi has remained remarkably nonchalant after beating out 5,000 entrants into the annual music competition with his single “Soft Spoken.” “I actually forgot that I put…

Doom metal quintet Thou has remained exceptionally industrious over the past 13 years, releasing more than 30 EPs, splits and collaborations between four full-lengths. The Baton Rouge anarchists incorporate Seattle grunge melody and a DIY punk ethos into traditional Louisiana sludge, steadily elaborating on its sardonic postmodern worldview. This…

TJ Cowgill has become one of Seattle’s most respected occult rockers under the moniker of King Dude. Yes, you read that right. His devotion to Luciferian satanism gives his work an authentically obscure aura. He uses it to explore the primeval precepts of existence. Continuing where 2011’s Love and…

Few Canadian folk rockers have a level of credibility comparable to Toronto’s Great Lake Swimmers. Largely the brainchild of lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Tony Dekker, the band has spent the past 15 years earning international accolades within indie folk, alt-country and heartland rock circles. Dekker’s acoustic guitar has remained…

Despite her lack of albums released, Tirzah has remained a potent force in the London underground dance music scene for much of the 2010s. Her mixture of glitch pop, trip-hop and house music is both remix-worthy and filled with lovesick songwriting and impressive vocal chops. Partnering with childhood friend Mica Levi,…

Photo illustration: Alessio Neri and Roman Gokhman Since 2008, concertgoers in the Bay Area and beyond have carefully planned out their Outside Lands itineraries. With numerous music stages, the Barbary comedy tent, wacky culinary GastroMagic stage, pop-up performances (that throw a wrench into everyone’s carefully sculpted, laminated schedules), not…

Sumac, courtesy. Drug Church, “Avoidarama” — If Turnstile formed in Seattle during the mid-’90s, there’s a good chance Drug Church would have emerged. This Albany, New York group has all the stomp riffs hardcore kids like to flail around to. But there’s a distinct flavor of slacker rock in…