When electro-rock sensation Lights first hit the music scene in 2008, she was just a songwriter with a synth and a dream. Her name may have been pluralized but Lights Poxleitner was a one-woman show who played and programmed her own instruments and sang her own lyrics.

This admirable self-reliance is rare in pop—in fact, Lights, signed a publishing deal at 16 and began writing songs for other artists—but after her 2008 self-titled debut EP (precocious enough to earn her a best new artist Juno) and gold-selling full-length follow-up The Listening, Lights was ready to open herself up to collaborations on her unexpectedly experimental album Siberia. And by choosing such leftfield collaborators as live electronic outfit Holy Fuck and rising rapper Shad, she also opened up her sound.

“It’s a huge step,” she readily admits. “For a year after my first record, I was confused and searching. I was writing all over the place and not finding anything that was essentially different. But after tour last year I was turned onto dubstep.” The genre’s grimy beats and sonic minimalism influenced the creation of Siberia, if not necessarily shaping the music itself (though she does pay homage with a dubstep drop on “Fourth Dimension.”)

Rather, dubstep led Lights away from the “perfection” of her past work. “Everything was tuned and timed just right. The new stuff is raw and gritty but still pop with a focus on the melodies. It’s the marriage of those two that make it really different and unlike anything I’ve ever done before.” This dirtier direction came from collaborating with Holy Fuck, a fellow Juno-winning, electronic-influenced Canadian act who she met when both played the dance stage at last year’s Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK. Impressed by their “grime and grit,” she decided to see what might happen when she infused her pop sensibilities with their experimental tendencies.

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My daughter married a serial killer addicted to online porn and lost her swimming scholarship to a girl in a fat suit before being falsely accused of prostitution. And I found a baggie of weed in her sock drawer! Or maybe that was my mother? Anyway, Saki, Everything is Terrible and The 3-Penny Was Here are proud to present ONCE IN A LIFETIME, the show that unleashes some of Chicago's funniest comedians on the Lifetime original movies you're ashamed to admit you've seen... twice.

Food & Drink Specials:
- "Cheesy" Burger w/ Merks Pub Cheese and Fried Onions - $8
- Budweiser & Bud Light drafts - $3
- White Wine Spritzers - $3

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If you would like to pick up your copy of American Savage before 6/20 please bring in a copy of your confirmation email to Unabridged Bookstore (3251 N. Broadway)
Only single tickets remain for this event!

Dan Savage, the author of the internationally syndicated sex advice column “Savage Love” and the editorial director of The Stranger, Seattle’s weekly newspaper, turns his sharp wit and keen perspective to some of the most salient issues facing the country today, including marriage equality, sex education, healthcare, gun control, and more. In addition to his frequent appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher, and The Colbert Report, Savage is a regular contributor to NPR’s This American Life. His books include the New York Times bestseller It Gets Better, Skipping Towards Gomorrah, The Commitment, and The Kid, his award winning memoir about adoption.

Join Unabridged Bookstore at Lincoln Hall as we welcome Dan and his new book.

Unabridged Bookstore opened in its current location at 3251 N. Broadway in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood on Saturday, November 1, 1980, and while it has expanded since, the vision has remained the same: to promote and sell great books. Unabridged is known for its dedicated, knowledgeable staff, (and their hand-written personal recommendations) an unparalleled sale book section, and an award-winning children's section. It's safe to say that Unabridged is the BEST bookstore in the Chicago area where a shopper can buy the latest issue of a magazine, a copy of children's classic Goodnight Moon, or newest title, and pick up the latest literary fiction & non-fiction sensation, all in one stop.

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If you would like to pick up your copy of American Savage before 6/20 please bring in a copy of your confirmation email to Unabridged Bookstore (3251 N. Broadway)

Dan Savage, the author of the internationally syndicated sex advice column “Savage Love” and the editorial director of The Stranger, Seattle’s weekly newspaper, turns his sharp wit and keen perspective to some of the most salient issues facing the country today, including marriage equality, sex education, healthcare, gun control, and more. In addition to his frequent appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher, and The Colbert Report, Savage is a regular contributor to NPR’s This American Life. His books include the New York Times bestseller It Gets Better, Skipping Towards Gomorrah, The Commitment, and The Kid, his award winning memoir about adoption.

Join Unabridged Bookstore at Lincoln Hall as we welcome Dan and his new book.

Unabridged Bookstore opened in its current location at 3251 N. Broadway in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood on Saturday, November 1, 1980, and while it has expanded since, the vision has remained the same: to promote and sell great books. Unabridged is known for its dedicated, knowledgeable staff, (and their hand-written personal recommendations) an unparalleled sale book section, and an award-winning children's section. It's safe to say that Unabridged is the BEST bookstore in the Chicago area where a shopper can buy the latest issue of a magazine, a copy of children's classic Goodnight Moon, or newest title, and pick up the latest literary fiction & non-fiction sensation, all in one stop.

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A Chicago-based alternative rock band with electro indie roots is making its way onto the national music scene. Since its launch in 2010, Polarcode has played popular music venues from New York City and Boston to Chicago, Milwaukee, and onto L.A. Creating songs about personal discovery, relationships, worldly matters and the rise of technology, Polarcode draws inspiration from the challenging realities of 21st century life. Polarcode delivers its original songs with layers of synthesizers, keyboards, intricate bass and drum interaction, tribal percussion and soaring vocals. The band’s jazz and classically trained musicians bring a unique juxtiposition of fiery virtuosity and delicate warmth to their music. Polarcode released their debut album, Polarcode, in 2011 and continue to delight audiences with their passionate performances.

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Transmission is...
Damon Locks (Trenchmouth / The Eternals)
Paul Kelvington (Econoline / INSTRUMENT)
Rebecca Flores (Tyler Jon Tyler / Negative Scanner)
Jay Ranz (Tiger Bones)
Aleks Tomaszewska (Magic Key)

For one night only: Transmission brings the post-punk energy of Joy Division to life. Front man Damon Locks evokes Ian Curtis as the band performs songs from Unknown Pleasures and Closer with some bonus favorites. Transmission was assembled by Paul Kelvington, a man who loves to pay tribute and adores doing it for a good cause. With his tributes to Minutemen and Fugazi, he has helped foster DIY spirit and musicianship in future generations through generous donations to Girls Rock! Chicago summer camp.

Former front man for In the Red recording artists The Horrors, Paul Cary is an old soul, creating haunting melodies for these modern times. Following a split 7" with Thee Oh Sees, his solo LP - Ghost of a Man - feels like a ride through the dark depths of a deep Iowa night in a '57 Chevy.

Richard Smith, aka DJ RikShaw, founding member of the experimental band Rome, has one of the finest collections of vintage Jamaican music in town -- ska, rocksteady, roots reggae, punk & new wave.

All proceeds benefit Girls Rock! Chicago, a 501c3 non-profit dedicated to fostering girls’ creative expression, positive self-esteem and community awareness through rock music. Girls Rock! summer camps are open to girls 8-16 regardless of their ability to pay or play.

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The Bloom and the Blight is the work of a band that has matured and redefined itself, and the album is imbued with a palpable sense of personal catharsis. Opening tracks "Halcyon Days" and "Song of Songs" illustrate the type of build to explosion that's omnipresent throughout the album, and the prowling "My Love Won't Wait" - with a menacing chorus underscored by a pounding backbeat - is an epic, booming anthem. The gentler "Broken Eyes" - all voices, guitar, harmonica, and tambourine - has already become a fan favorite with its rousing, harmony-filled final verses, while the cinematic "Ride Away" soars on Adam Stephens' raspy howl and Tyson Vogel's relentless drumming. The songs have a dark side and a dynamic sonic heft, yet a sense of salvation and resolve courses throughout: an urgent, emotional poignancy stemming in part from Stephens' recovery from a serious van accident in 2010.

Produced by John Congleton (The Walkmen, Explosions In The Sky, St. Vincent), The Bloom and the Blight moves away from Two Gallants' more folk and blues-based past, representing the duo's ferocious live show and their past steeped in punk and grunge. The album simultaneously maintains the thoughtful storytelling and eloquent lyricism for which the band has become known, and contains gorgeous, quieter moments like the finger-picked ballad "Sunday Souvenirs" and the dreamy, unearthly "Decay" (the first Vogel-penned song on a Two Gallants album).

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Now we’re born again,” sings Zach Rogue on the closing track of Rogue Wave’s fourth studio album, Permalight.

The dreamy acoustic lament lasts just over a minute but in sound and spirit it neatly sums up everything that comes before it. A punchy, deceptively effervescent set of multi-instrumental pop tunes, the Northern California band’s latest set represents a giant breakthrough for Rogue and his longtime musical partner, drummer-keyboardist-vocalist Pat Spurgeon.

“The record sounds, for lack of a better word, fun,” the frontman says.

It’s an astonishing change of direction, to say the least. Formed by Rogue in 2002 after he lost his tech job and parted ways with the Oakland rock group Desoto Reds, Rogue Wave has a reputation for crafting classic, inward-looking pop songs highlighted with psychedelic guitars, pastoral sound effects and intricate rhythms.

On tunes from the new album like the title track “Permalight” and “Good Morning,” however, Rogue Wave steps away from expectations. Rogue says the former was written as a left-field sequel to Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration,” with synthesizers that simultaneously sound brittle and blissful. “Stars and Stripes” builds on a deep groove before spilling over in a raging chorus. Clubby beats are prominent but the album doesn’t sit still for long. “Per Anger” is a straightforward rock tune that takes its cues from Pixies’ loud-quiet-loud dynamic.

Then there’s the album’s unofficial centerpiece, “I’ll Never Leave You,” a simple acoustic tune that finds Rogue coming to grips with the overwhelming emotions that come with young fatherhood. Like many of the songs on the album it’s rooted in Rogue Wave’s triumph over seemingly constant peril – including the tragic death of a former band mate and constant health issues – and the band’s undying determination to push forward.

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Hari Kondabolu is a Brooklyn-based, Queens-raised comic who has been described by Timeout NY as “smart, analytical and rising.” He has performed on CONAN, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham and John Oliver’s New York Standup Show. HisComedy Central Presents half-hour television special debuted on the network in February 2011. Hari is currently a writer and recurring on-camera contributor for FX’s Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. He made his UK television debut on BBC 3’s Russell Howard’s Good News in April 2011, which preceded a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He then had a regular segment on the first series of BBC3's “Live at the Electric” starring Russell Kane. He has also appeared on popular podcasts like WTF with Marc Maron and You Made it Weird with Pete Holmes.

When in New York City, he co-hosts the mostly improvised, monthly talk show The Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Project with his younger brother Ashok (“Dap” from hip hop group Das Racist). He also wrote the cover story for Spin Magazine about Das Racist in 2011.

Hari is also a former video blogger for WORLD COMPASS, a joint initiative between WGBH Boston, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Andrew Trim is a guitarist and composer living in Chicago, IL. His most recent project is a trio album with Denver saxophonist Danny Meyer and Chicago drummer Charles Rumback. He also co-leads the Hanami Quartet and plays as a side man with Rock Falls and Mark Lavengood's Steel Guitar Band among others.

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For seven years now, Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s – led by singer and songwriter Richard Edwards – have been creating music that swirls with fear and doubt and tension and beauty. Their music was born out of Indianapolis with the lushly melancholic The Dust of Retreat (2005), came of age with the bittersweet duo Animal/Not Animal (2008), and most recently arrived with the primal Buzzard (2010).

Edwards saw Buzzard as the beginning of a “panic pop” trilogy: albums filled with a gnarled version of the pop music of his childhood, loosely tied together by the concepts of aging and starting over. For the second installment, he took his notebook full of song fragments and went to the place that held some of his most vivid memories of calm, a mere five months after Buzzard’s release. Subsisting only on aloe vera extract and clam chowder, Edwards spent 26 days burying himself in sand, sleeping outdoors, and finishing a batch of songs inspired by childhood, fatherhood, and bad stomach pain. Calm evenings bore panicked music.

Because when Margot ended the touring cycle for Buzzard, which included multiple headlining tours and a run supporting The Twilight Singers, Edwards was ill. Plagued with stomach pain, he boarded a bus and headed to Pismo Beach, CA. Over the years, Pismo had unintentionally become an oasis during Margot tours. The Nukes' battered black school bus, as if divinely inspired, always found its way there. They would spend a night or two by the fire, listening to music, eating clam chowder, drinking beer and recharging. With each tour, the band’s collective narrative grew and the town became more mythical, especially on bad days; “Pismo” was conjured up and whispered into the ears of a grumpy, hung-over drummer, the guitar player sighed it while replacing blown tubes, the keyboard player chanted it in his sleep, the bus’ engine grunted it. A place to rest. The end of the road.

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Adjust Your Tracking: The Untold Story of the VHS Collector is a new documentary that sheds light on the underground VHS culture and the people who still collect and cherish what many call a "dead format." Directed by the true believers at VHShitfest in association with Horror Boobs and Lunchmeat Magazine, Adjust Your Tracking captures and celebrates an eccentric and surprisingly large community of weirdos, cinephiles, and borderline hoarders united by their love of VHS.

See directors Dan Kinem and Levi Peretic in person! After the screening, bring your best VHS treasures to share with Dan, Levi and the rest of your fellow obsessives!

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Savages is not trying to give you something you didn’t have already, it is calling within yourself something you buried ages ago, it is an attempt to reveal and reconnect your physical and emotional self and give you the urge to experience your life differently, your girlfriends, your husbands, your jobs, your erotic life and the place music occupies in your life. Because we must teach ourselves new ways of positive manipulations, music and words are aiming to strike like lightning, like a punch in the face, a determination to understand the will and desires of the self.”

Sky Ferreira. Act like you don’t already follow her on Twitter – as if you haven’t Googled her, or checked her out on Wikipedia. Now check again. Before you can hit refresh, there might be another paragraph. She's co-written and recorded with half the Billboard chart, survived in Hollywood and on the Lower East Side, seen the world from thirty-five thousand feet, been shot by every photographer you can name off the top of your head.

Now get one thing straight: Sky was singing first. Just click on her piano-andvocal only cover of Miike Snow’s 'Animal' on YouTube for your evidence that her other skills might pay the bills, but music is her life and her voice is bona fide. Her 2011 debut EP As If! hinted at her soulful range and stylistic versatility. But if you think it prepared you for the step Sky’s about to take on her first long-player, think again. She’s hard at work with a hand-picked team of collaborators. And this time she’s in charge, making the record she wanted to make all along.

Anxiety is the full-length follow up to Autre Ne Veut’s 2010 self-titled debut, which was for many the definitive post-millennial Failure Pop statement outside of time and style. Autre Ne Veut rivaled other lovelorn “missteps” such as Marvin Gaye’s Here My Dear and Big Star’s Sister Lovers. If you didn’t hear the connection, you weren’t listening closely enough.

Be that as it may, ANV brazenly decided to make it easier for people with his post-canonical return. No longer playing the role of pauper or king, Anxiety is simply his high definition arrival. Born April 20th, 1982 Arthur Ashin is the first of two children and the only son of American ex-patriots living in rural Kenya. He’s struggled with minor bouts of depression throughout his life, but a year of intensive psychoanalysis helped Arthur to realize that anxiety was at the crux of his problems.

Anxiety is in some sense Ashin closing a chapter on his adolescence through song-form depictions of his own relationship struggles and ecstasies. There are club bangers on Anxiety, for sure; “Counting” a cybernetic sea shanty tips its hat to Timbaland, and opening track “Play By Play” rolls out like a slowly evolving Top 40 operetta with nods to Dr. Luke and Patti LaBelle in equal measure. But when experienced as a whole, there is an unfolding sense of confession to Anxiety.

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Chicago singer-songwriter Xoe Wise has just released her sophomore album, Archive of Illusions, which reached #41 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart, and was immediately placed in the music store’s “New and Noteworthy” section.

Originally from a small town on the ocean in North Carolina, Wise moved to Chicago to pursue a music career. She burst onto the scene in 2009, collaborating with Ethan Stoller on her debut album, Echo. Stoller has contributed music to the DVD extras and promotional materials of several major Hollywood films, including V for Vendetta, Ninja Assassin and Sherlock Holmes. Echo was released in October of 2010 to critical acclaim. Chicago Innerview recognized Wise as “easily the singer/songwriter and pop counterpart to Columbia native Chaz Bundick’s (a.k.a. Toro Y Moi) laconic chill-wave synth ballads.” The Chicago Tribune’s Redeye described her single “Dear Sendai” as “spiritual.”

Xoe Wise has performed at venues ranging from Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles to Hard Rock in Nashville. She has shared the stage with such artists as Lisa Loeb, Greg Laswell, Tyrone Wells, and more.

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Reinvention can be a bitch. But for the men behind The Draft - three-fourths of whom recently crawled from the wreckage of the now-defunct, legendary post-punk outfit Hot Water Music - taking a powder was never, ever an option. Instead, frontman/guitarist Chris Wollard, bassist/spokesman Jason Black and drummer George Rebelo - the nucleus of what became this new band - stared down their collective doubts and insecurities, flipped off their detractors, recruited a new guitarist in longtime associate Todd Rockhill and took the next evolutionary step.

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In the four itinerant years since their self-titled debut, Smith Westerns have grown unphased by the rigors of touring. The melodic indie-rock group—whose latest album, Soft Will, drops June 25—has tested its mettle (and passed) with pivotal opening slots for MGMT and Wilco, not to mention high-profile stints in front of the itchy, overbaked masses at Coachella and Lollapalooza. Yet, come February 2012, after finishing up a whopping 140 dates to promote their second album (the critically hailed Dye It Blonde), Smith Westerns were apprehensive about returning home to headline a gig in their native Chicago.

When Smith Westerns finally arrived home, friends they looked forward to seeing had moved, and clubs they once frequented had disappeared. All the while, on the road, singer-guitarist Cullen Omori, bassist-brother Cameron Omori, and guitarist Max Kakacek had grown from—as they say in music parlance—boys to men. Everything, now, was ominously different.

This intersection between success and post-tour unrest culminates in the band’s third full-length, Soft Will, produced by Chris Coady (Beach House, Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and the first to feature new drummer Julien Ehrlich, formerly of Unknown Mortal Orchestra. It starts with “3am Spiritual,” the album’s dreamy opener. “You’re creating your own future,” says Cullen, “and lot of the ideas on the record were reactive. For a long time, you’re playing music every night where you’re bringing the party. And you go from having something to do every day to…nothing.”

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When discussing ‘Father John Misty’, Tillman paraphrases Philip Roth: ’It’s all of me and none of me, if you can’t see that, you won’t get it’. What I call it is totally arbitrary, but I like the name. You’ve got to have a name. I never got to choose mine."

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Jessie Ware is a proper pop star. With her soulful, melancholy vocal, effortlessly elegant songwriting skills and, of course, that striking slicked-back hair, she marks a new era for pop. Her outstanding debut album "Devotion" combines the ultra-modern feel of downtempo R&B and British electronic music.

South London born Jessie started singing at school, inspired by the romance of her mother's Frank Sinatra and "Ella Fitzgerald Sings Cole Porter" tapes, appearing in musicals and picking up some classical training along the way. Jessie cut her teeth as a vocalist when she wrote the track "Nervous" with SBTRKT. She then hooked up with Sampha, who had also sung on "Nervous," to write "Valentine," one of last year's sweetest tracks, all breathy vocals and beautiful simplicity. Armed with those two songs and riding a growing wave of hype, she was snapped up by brand new British label PMR. With her name on everyone's lips, the time seemed right for an album. But, despite another big guest spot on Joker's "The Vision" and standout vocals on a number of tracks on SBTRKT's debut album, Jessie wanted to make sure she was truly ready to go it alone,

"I wanted to combine electronic with a more classic songwriting," she explains. "I didn't want it to feel too 'of now', so that's why I went back to beats and grooves of things I loved before, like Prince and Chaka Khan and Grace Jones. I wanted to make downer R&B, and songs that are beautiful and bittersweet, like Sade. It was just about mixing it up in the right way."

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Hailing from the San Fernando Valley, HAIM consists of, "Three sisters, and a mister" that has been shaking things up in the city of Los Angeles for the past four years. It is truly a family affair for the band which prides themselves on being able to switch from instrument to instrument with complete confidence and ease, and all while singing in three part harmony.

The sisters, Este, Danielle, and Alana, grew up playing classic rock songs with their parents in a family band, called "Rockinhaim," which played for charity events and street fairs. After years of playing with their parents, the girls decided to strike out on their own, and began writing their own material. Este, the eldest of the three, plays bass guitar and found time in between touring to graduate from UCLA with a degree in Music. Danielle, the 22 year old lead guitar player, who previously toured with Jenny Lewis, Cee-lo Green, and Julian Casablancas. Alana, the youngest in the band, plays rhythm guitar, keyboard, and percussion. Rounding out the group is Dash Hutton, who previously played drums for LA bands Wires on Fire and Slang Chickens. Over the past few years, the band has opened up for Julian Casablancas, Cold War Kids, Ke$ha, Group Love, No Age, The Bird and the Bee, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Chief and The Henry Clay People.

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alt-J’s name takes a little explaining. Pronounced “alt-J”, the delta sign is created when you hold down the alt key on your computer keyboard and punch ‘J’ on a Mac computer. The symbol has a deeper meaning for the band, as guitarist/bassist Gwil Sainsbury notes, “in mathematical equations it’s used to show change,” and the band’s relatively new name came at a turning point in their lives.

Gwil, Joe Newman [guitar/vocals], Gus Unger-Hamilton [keyboards] and Thom Green [drums] met at Leeds University in 2007. Gus studied English Literature; the other three Fine Art. In their second year of studies, Joe played Gwil a handful of his own songs inspired by his guitar-playing dad and hallucinogens, and the pair began recording in their dorm rooms with Gwil acting as producer on Garageband.

Needless to say, the response to Joe’s hushed falsetto yelps and Gwil’s rudimentary sampling skills was good. When Thom was played the tracks he joined the band straight away. “I hadn’t heard anything like it,” he says. “It was music I was looking for, I just didn’t know I was. I just loved it.”

Veering wildly from psychedelic avant pop to skeletal folktronica, the finished album promises to trade in understated beauty one minute and epic oddities the next, just as you’d expect from a debut album that tackles everything from love to bullfighting to the heroic life of 1930s war photographer Gerda Taro, crushed by a tank on the frontline. Other tracks are inspired by cinema, including ‘Matilda’ (about Natalie Portman’s character in Luc Besson’s Leon) and the Good The Bad And The Ugly-referencing ‘Tessellate’.

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With accesories and regimines being more exciting than some females these days, it's nice to know that some of us can still rap. Rhymesayers has its hands full with this one, but part of that is because she has boobs. Psalm One, the self-proclaimed "fuck a" fem-cee is gearing up for her second offering, the follow-up to 2006's critically acclaimed "The Death of Frequent Flyer". After telling academia to piss off, then inviting it into the bathroom again, touring, male-to-female-to-female contact, manicures and dirt baths, Psalm is doing the unthinkable: letting you in. With the skills that are hardly anything but stellar, new production, old friends and the world by the tight and curlies, it's on once again. And what more could you ask for? She's not your prom date; she's the one you hung out with at prom in the back of mom's volvo, got blasted and talked about all the people with their noses in the air and thumbs up their asses. And she plays drums. Go figure.

Bassel & The Supernaturals officially released "Dreamer" at The Empty Bottle in Chicago on February 28, 2013 as part of a humanitarian effort for Syria during an intense civil war that has drastically affected Bassel's family along with millions of others. Bassel Al-Madani is a Syrian-American souljazz artist born/raised in Northeast Ohio, currently residing in Chicago, IL. Despite facing intense challenges in recent years (including a massive apartment complex fire and car theft), he has been frequently recording and touring the nation since 2008.

"Dreamer" was engineered at Hinge Studios in Chicago, IL during the summer of 2012. The album was an independent effort by Bassel & The Supernaturals, and the funds generated from their presale campaign helped to support their recording experience, a 3-week US tour, and a charity donation to Syria.

Bassel released "Submerged" as a solo effort in 2010 at Used Kids Records in Columbus, Ohio. Shortly after the conclusion of a four-week tour supporting his first LP, he was invited to perform at the Pelotonia opening ceremony with The Counting Crows and Augustana.

Bassel's self-titled EP was released in 2008, featuring the production talents of Sinkane (Ahmed Gallab), who has actively performed in groups such as Yeasayer, Caribou, Of Montreal, and Born Ruffians.

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Olympia is an album of transformation. Though it has only been two years since Austra’s 2010 debut Feel It Break, it presents a quantum evolution in the Toronto-based band’s sound, structure and style.

After three years of non-stop international touring with the likes of the XX, Grimes and the Gossip, when it came time to record Olympia, Austra had evolved into a complex collaborative effort between its six members. “Previously, I would flesh out songs before I brought them to the band, but this time I left them bare and let the others fill them in” explains Katie Stelmanis, the principal songwriter/vocalist.

Olympia is also the first confessional record for Stelmanis as evidenced by the heartfelt lyrics of piano driven lead single “Home” (stream now). “Home” expresses the anxieties of waiting up all night for a lover to return. “I was mad and upset and the song just wrote itself,” says the singer. The album touches on a range of sentiments that stem from a relationship ending, a relationship beginning, and friends’ struggles with addiction and motivation. Despite the sometimes dark lyrics written in collaboration with band member Sari Lightman, Olympia is bubbly and buoyant— fundamentally a dance record, which Stelmanis says was the band’s aim all along. “We are really into dense harmonies and big beautiful melodies, but I also love techno and dance music. I wanted to bring those elements together.”

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We have a tendency to take consistency for granted. Like a sunny Southern California day, Pinback have delivered record after record of mightily addictive indie pop since their inception in the late 1990s. Perhaps too melancholic and thoughtful to function as escapist entertainment, that same sense of depth is what made them one of the most reliable bands in indie rock’s three-decade history.

On one hand, their fifth album, Information Retrieved, is the logical and accessible realization of a sound Pinback have been developing and refining for over a decade. However, that consistency that we’ve taken for granted is what makes Information Retrieved such a euphoric surprise; their finest and most fully realized album, a dozen years deep into a career that includes bona fide modern classics like “Good To Sea” and Summer In Abaddon. Simply put, this is better than we ever could have expected. They could have coasted on automatic pilot to another lauded album that likely would have made it onto plenty of year-end lists, but instead they shot the moon, and the result is a major triumph.

The touchstones are still there: Zach Smith‘s stunningly unique bass guitar acrobatics driving both rhythm and melody in lock-step unison; the incredible immediacy of Rob Crow‘s voice that could make a phone book sound compelling; and the musical and lyrical interplay between the two of them that made Pinback so special in the first place. The difference now is their exquisite control over dynamics and a greater emotional resonance throughout. It’s the most complete and soulful Pinback album by a fair distance, the finest moment in the career of a band whose unfettered brilliance we’ve come to count on, but will never again take for granted.

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"Before, it felt finished. Now, it feels perfect. It's feels like a proper thing."

The proper thing on the mind of 20-year-old shooting star Charli XCX is an album long in the making, one which finally sees the light of day in 2013. The wait has been as agonising for Charli as it has been for her fanbase - rapidly swelling on both sides of the Atlantic - but patience has paid handsome dividends. The debut album she releases in 2013 - perhaps unlike the album she could have released in 2012, or even 2011 - finds XCX's vision fully realised. Sweeping synths, crunchy beats, emotive vocals, coy raps, spiky and persuasive lyricism and big ideas about life, love and everything else: The album tracks (and soundtracks) Charli's journey from teenager to young woman, but deftly swerves coming-of-age clichés.

"There were all these questions while I was making the album," Charli recalls. "Like how can I twist something mundane to something really amazing that's never been done before? How can I make beautiful pieces of pop? How can I just let my mind go and let all the colours flow out?" Many of the answers have only really appeared in the last twelve months as Charli's vision has finally come into focus. And now the album is finished, its ample vindication for one of Charli's most firmly-held beliefs: “We need to reboot British girl power.”

Honed during support slots for artists like Sleigh Bells, Santigold and Coldplay, Charli’s live performances, like her music, are raw but multi-layered, sometimes stark but with a clear beating human heart. Her collaborators - Ariel Rechtshaid (Haim, Usher, Alex Clare, Solange Knowles), Patrik Berger (Lana Del Rey, Robyn), J£zus Million and Blood Diamonds - have helped unlock a unique talent. All pop is here, from Siouxsie to Spiceworld, The Knife to Nirvana. To achieve her intricate, post-modern pop with its evocative titles like ‘Nuclear Seasons’, ‘Stay Away’ and 'You (Ha Ha Ha)' she is a lightning rod, pulling influences out of the sky and channelling them into the crunchy beats, fuzzy synths, bittersweet melodies and idiosyncratic perspectives that combine in the absorbing multi-media output of this compelling new artist.

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Some artists are able to articulate a vision at the very beginning of their career, while others hone their craft over time, growing into their vision as they mature.

"I am definitely in the latter category," explains Drew Holocomb, a Tennessee-born, duck hunting, French speaking, bourbon drinking, 1st edition book collecting, golf playing Eagle Scout with a Masters degree in Divinity from Scotland's University of St Andrews (he wrote his dissertation on "Springsteen and American Redemptive Imagination") who has spent the better part of the past decade as a professional musician -- recording, writing, and touring with his band Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors.

Since releasing their first album, 2005's "Washed In Blue," Drew & The Neighbors (Ellie Holcomb, Nathan Dugger, Rich Brinsfield) have established themselves as a formidable indie act, selling more than 75,000 records, playing more than 1,500 live dates, selling-out headline shows, and touring alongside such varied acts as The Avett Brothers, Ryan Adams, Los Lobos, NEEDTOBREATHE, Susan Tedeschi, North Mississippi Allstars, Marc Broussard, and more. Their songs have been used in countless television shows and commercials, most notably in TNT's Emmy Award winning 2011 Christmas Day "NBA Forever" spot, which paired the song "Live Forever" with a mesmerizing montage of past and present NBA video footage.

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Matt Wertz is excused. Yes, it has been three years since his last full-length release, but when you take his relentless touring schedule, a breakup with his major label, a new deal with Nettwerk and the trials and tribulations of life into account, the ever-so-charming singer-songwriter gets a pass. In fact, it’s these experiences that have helped shaped the inspired songs on Wertz’s new album, Weights & Wings, and by that rationale, it was worth every bit of the wait.

All of the songs on Wertz’s new album are tied to relationships, and each track delves into what the singer has learned about himself and others during that last few years. More than ever, the reflective songwriter has his heart on his sleeve, and Weights & Wings is the very incarnation of that lifeline.

This year, Wertz will head back on the road to reconnect with his fans and share the songs he’s worked so hard on. His hope is that listeners will be able to identify with his music, and find a “windows down, sing along at the top of your lungs” quality about the album, too.

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