Magdalena Bay, courtesy Lissyelle Laricchia. Love songs by Rat Boy and Allen Stone, gritty reality checks by Chat Pile and Balance and Composure, and upbeat—and uplifting—dance tracks by Magdalena Bay and Mallrat make the cut. Rat Boy, “She’s The One” — U.K. band Rat Boy brings back the nostalgia…

Elephant Stone, courtesy. This week we bring the past into the present with Elephant Stone and Niagara Moon taking on the ’60s, NHC and SCALPING bringing back the ’90s, Saxon teaching the ’20s how the ’70s rocked, and Mallrat showing them all how the current day does it. Elephant…

Maggie Rogers performs at The Observatory OC in Santa Ana on Oct. 18, 2018. Photos: Matthew Eaton. SANTA ANA — As Maggie Rogers took the stage at the Observatory in Orange County, “Dancing Queen” blared in the background, a fitting song for the entrance of Maryland’s dancing queen. Maggie…

Nineteen-year-old Grace Shaw couldn’t believe it: Playing her first non-industry show in L.A. in early April, she spotted superstar producer and collaborator Mark Ronson staring at her from the crowd. Shaw, the real name of Australian singer-songwriter Mallrat, made a bold assertion on Twitter the previous week: Ronson and…

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…