With ‘80s nostalgia in full effect, the indie rock landscape has become increasingly synthetic. Rather than jumping on the bandwagon, Baltimore’s Snail Mail has doubled down on emotive guitar noodling as the core instrument of the style. The project centers around 19-year-old guitarist-singer Lindsey Jordan, who enhances her demure…

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 the best…

The Wrecks, courtesy. A band’s success requires skill, work ethic and a couple of lucky breaks. All three propelled The Wrecks into festival circuits with only two EPs under their belts in as many years. Frontman Nick Anderson, bassist Aaron Kelley, guitarists Nick Schmidt and Westen Weis, and drummer…

Scottish trio Chvrches began making waves in the indietronica scene with an energized take on the style in 2011. Though Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and lead vocalist Lauren Mayberry center their music around the most accessible side of keyboard-driven pop and electronic dance music bangers, punk undercurrents manifest through their…

  Courtesy: BottleRock Napa Valley With a lineup ranging from The Killers and Bruno Mars to Snoop Dogg and Earth, Wind & Fire, few festivals can match BottleRock’s crossover appeal. Looking beyond the headliners reveals a diverse array of up-and-comers waiting to break big. At BottleRock, Napa becomes the…

Since releasing “the grossest pop album of all time” in 2016, the members of Portland’s The Body have kept themselves busy with two collaborations with Full of Hell and a self-released mini-album. Even so, the sludge metal interlopers’ cacophonic experimentation remained ornamental, against strangulated cries, crushing riffs and caveman…

Maturation defines singer-songwriter Jess Williamson’s career in more ways than one. Her jump from the raw twang of 2014 debut Native State to 2016’s methodically melancholy Heart Song translated not only through increased complexity but through Williamson herself as her experiences pushed her vision beyond the indie folk’s usual…

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 the best…

Even without taking Seaway‘s residence on Berkeley label Pure Noise into account, the Bay Area remains prominent to the band’s history. The punk rock tradition of brazen attitude over airtight performances keep the Toronto band enthused about playing legendary San Francisco clubs. “Playing Gillman was awesome, just because how historic…

  When California garage rocker Tim Presley of White Fence joined forces with Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon, the results subverted everyone’s expectations not only of them but of music in general. Under the moniker Drinks, the duo’s 2015 debut, Hermits On Holiday, flaunted its disdain for convention. Presley’s raw…