Rock is obvs not dead but it’s not hard to see why people always say it is, almost wishfully. For decades, the most commercially viable (and even critically bolstered) rock was dominated by white dudes, which is troublesome considering how many of its pioneers, including the dearly departed, radically queer genius Little Richard, were not. And considering how many boomers put the genre on a pedestal while finding creatively bigoted ends for disco and rap, it wasn’t exactly sad to watch visionaries of other genres, particularly R&B and hip-hop, inarguably revolutionized the 2010s more than any guitar-bass-drums unit. It was great, actually — a relief. A reckoning.

But that doesn’t mean we have to dismiss rock; if anything, giving the genre something to prove has only made its best practitioners hungrier. And while much of the best rock’n’roll has always been queer (from Hüsker Dü to R.E.M.), non-white (from X-Ray Spex to TV on the Radio), and non-cis male (from Bikini Kill to… I mean, we’re not gonna just list thousands of women), the landscape, amateur-hour dictatorship aside, finally seems primed to recognize it. Here are 50 mostly guitar-wielding innovators, barnburners, and eardrum-ruiners to help get you through this dogshit year. Please consume and love it all. And play loud, because they rip.

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50. Hum

Hometown: Champaign, IL

Why We Love Them: If Lush measures a 2 on the Swervedriver-O-Meter and My Bloody Valentine a 7, Hum is a solid 9. Unlike most American disciples of the shoegaze boom, this Illinois-based band delivered metallic riffs — riffs sludgy and heavy enough to earn fans like Deftones (Chino Moreno famously cited the band as an influence), Deafheaven, and possibly other metal bands beginning with the letter “D.” Hum’s appealing mix of fuzzy swirl, post-hardcore intensity, and interstellar imagery reached its peak on 1995’s You’d Prefer an Astronaut, which even produced a minor rock radio hit with “Stars.” The band’s brief major-label run concluded with 1998’s Downward Is Heavenward, which also seemed to be the end of the band’s recording career — until a month ago. Inlet, the band’s new, long-rumored fifth album, evokes cosmic expanse with lengthy, extravagantly textured burners like “Desert Rambler” and “The Summoning.” Welcome back.

Finest Moment: Hum has only made one album in Lil Nas X’s lifetime. So in terms of recent achievements, the wholly unexpected Inlet — surprise-released in June — takes the cake-disguised-as-a-delay-pedal-until-you-cut-into-it. — Zach Schonfeld

49. Spanish Love Songs

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Why We Love Them: Spanish Love Songs, a band much too sad to actually be from L.A., has taken the Springsteemo cocktail mastered by Philly stalwarts the Wonder Years and the Menzingers and spiked it with more concentrated Hollywood angst, courtesy of tormented frontman Dylan Slocum. Ravaging tracks like “Routine Pain” and “Loser,” highlights from the band’s killer February LP Brave Faces Everyone, smack you square in the sternum — hurtling pop-punk riffs and tales of depression, addiction and existential crises, born from the band’s rigorous pre-pandemic touring schedule. But as with all good emo-punk, it’s only fun if there’s some catharsis tucked away, too. And deep within the bleak, there are glimmers of redemption. Maybe we’ll all be okay. Probably not.

Finest Moment: The too-real opening verse of “Generation Loss,” where Slocum wails: “You 29-year-old panic attack / And not the fashionable kind / The kind where you wake up and say ‘Man, I just wanna survive.’” — Bobby Olivier

48. Coriky

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Why We Love Them: The Ex Hex to Fugazi’s Helium, you can tell Ian MacKaye’s new trio with wife Amy Farina (they were both formerly the Evens) and Fugazi’s Joe Lally is the most fun he’s had in years, with the simplest and most succinct tunes of possibly his career — dare you to not hear flickers of Grease‘s “Summer Nights” in “Hard to Explain.” On their just-released self-titled debut, Farina’s pounding drums and Lally’s crawling bass are given roomfuls of atmosphere to walk around in; rarely has a power trio been perfectly content to not fill the audio space. The parity is refreshing, too: “Say Yes” and “Too Many Husbands” are almost entirely Farina’s show and absolutely the funkiest things MacKaye’s ever been part of. A best-case scenario for an artistic democracy in miniature.

Finest Moment: The most Fugazi thing on Coriky is “Inauguration Day,” which begins, “Forecast calls for an execution,” if you thought Mr. Straight Edge lost any of his political bite. — Dan Weiss

47. The Voidz

Hometown: New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA

Why We Love Them: Anything and everything can happen in a Voidz song. Acoustic blues, heavy metal, deep prog, funk, pop, the 8-bit Freon-chill a bank of synthesizers creates — sometimes individually, sometimes en masse. This three-guitar sextet firmed and led by Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas pursue this alchemy with true heart and enthusiasm, a go-for-broke gusto that makes 2014’s Tyranny, 2018’s Virtue, and a handful of 2019 one-off cuts a stoner’s sonic amusement park. Here, Casablancas has free rein to indulge his whims beyond the sleek, robotic rock-populism the Strokes are constitutionally mandated to champion. His accompanying sentiments — a mélange of Trustafarian contrarianism, personal philosophy, and passive-aggressive winks allegedly targeting different Strokes — complement a musical aesthetic inclined to melodic overload. This excess sidles to tender, epic life on the 11-minute “Human Sadness” and informs “Wink,” a roiling, cutting synth-pop bop that threatens to transform into reggae or an alternate 90210 theme. Theirs are consummate “older brother” records, arriving a couple of decades too late.

Finest Moment: The syncopated, Pacific Coast haze of 2018’s “Permanent High School,” complete with plastic falsetto. — Raymond Cummings

46. Bad Moves

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Why We Love Them: The catchiest band ever to bear the honorable Don Giovanni legend on their product (and the least, uh, discordant punk-adjacent band to ever hail from D.C.) make cheerleader chants for Bill Barr’s guillotining. Bad Moves stack hooks like a cotton candy cone spun to the heavens, albeit on a 2020 sophomore album called Untenable that asks “You think that poverty’s a role-play, baby?” and laments the plight of the “the worker, the smothered, Dickensian sucker.” It’s more downcast than 2018’s excellent Tell No One, which for this band simply means “all-syrup Squishee” rather than “black-tar Pixy Stix.” But it also means between that between the “Hot Child in the City” palm-mutes and prerequisite whoa-oh refrains that you get snippets like “There’s a genocide of the poor” and “I got myself a SIM card, it’s prepaid / To tell me just what’s wrong with me.”

Finest Moment: “Spirit FM,” the best power-pop song of 2018, is more euphoric than catching the bouquet at a queer wedding, which is fitting for a song about realizing at church camp that your crush is the same gender as you. — D.W.

45. Body Count

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Why We Love Them: In gangsta rap’s early-’90s pomp, Ice-T was often the clearest about exactly what force had created this most natively Reaganite of genres’ volatile brew of social realism and sociopathic fantasy, class analysis and moral trolling. His clarity-first flow, cutting through mixes like a cold-hearted Chuck D, painted a blasted American landscape organized from elegant top to gory bottom on the principle of all-against-all. Since their 2010s revival, Body Count — formed on Ice’s own admission to “just to let one of my best friends, Ernie C, play his guitar” — has given our more-Reagan-than-Reagan era the more-gangsta-than-gangsta soundtrack it badly needs. (“Give me a fucking break,” he groans on “Black Hoodie,” “I’ve been talking about this shit for over 20 years.”)

So 2017’s Bloodlust didn’t so much “fuse” political paranoia (“Civil War,” featuring Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine in the role of Jello Biafra) with horrorcore violence (“Here I Go Again”) and straight-up Marxist agitprop (“No Lives Matter”) but reveal each to be an already-fused facet of life as a fully alienated economic monad for whom society is nothing but murdering gangs from the cops down and the cops up. And this year’s Carnivore opens by folding a goofy meat-eating anthem full of T-rex roars neatly into the band’s moral universe (what’s more capitalist than the food chain?) and closes with a diagnosis of medical precision: “The love is fake / But the hate is real.” The genuine Blackpill.

Finest Moment: Their remake of Suicidal Tendencies’ classic “Institutionalized,” because — again — the only thing more wanting a Pepsi than wanting a Pepsi is wanting to kill some motherfuckers on Xbox. — Theon Weber

44. 2nd Grade

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Why We Love Them: “We live in a punk-rock world / Oooh-oooh, oooh-oooh,” sings Peter Gill on 2020’s astounding Hit to Hit, which honors both sentiments by sounding like Big Star if Alex Chilton had Bob Pollard’s ADHD, across 24 tunes that only break the two-minute mark on a quarter of the record. Homemade-sounding music is often championed for its roughness-as-realism, but Gill’s band shows how gorgeous and pristine the DIY life can be, albeit by leading with the Beach Boys rockabilly of “W-2,” a tax-form lament for anyone just trying to get their fucking quarantine check. Treat their breakthrough album as a thought-experiment about what would happen if you straightened all the crooked lines in Wowee Zowee and marvel at how much fractured beauty is still there.

Finest Moment: “Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider” is “September Gurls” for a generation that first experienced “Little Honda” via Yo La Tengo’s I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One. — D.W.

43. Otoboke Beaver

Hometown: Kyoto, Japan

Why We Love Them: On every track, Kyoto’s self-described “Japanese girls ‘knock out or pound cake’ band” unleash a delicious rage so compact you could dropkick it down the block. With relatable, pithy titles like “6-day working week is a pain” and this year’s astute Valentine’s single “Dirty old fart is waiting for my reaction,” each of their songs is a bomb shorter than its title that detonates on the micro absurdities of existing in the world as a woman. 2019’s Itekoma Hits compiled new tracks alongside older singles in 26 minutes, framing Accorinrin’s snarl among Yoyoyoshie’s, Hiro-Chan’s, and Kahokiss’s mind-boggling command of breakneck rhythm buttressing the demolition. The resulting album captures rage at its deadliest, most satisfying flashpoint.

Finest Moment: Their 18-second song “ikezu” (and its Naoyuki-Asano-directed music video), which hit with the efficiency of an aneurysm. — Stefanie Fernández

42. Foxing

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Why We Love Them: Foxing has become one of indie-rock’s most juiced-up alpha-sluggers, calling its towering shots and clobbering homers into the Busch Stadium parking lot. The valiant six-piece led by singer Conor Murphy swung big with their soaring 2018 LP Nearer My God, which landed somewhere between American Football’s disconsolate debut and Radiohead’s blinking Hail to the Thief. It’s a sincerely commanding effort; 90 seconds into the emphatic album opener “Grand Paradise,” as Murphy shrieks the unforgettable phrase “shock-collared at the gates of heaven!” and the full band kicks in, it’s an arena-worthy moment for a band that plays to hundreds, not thousands. Yet those live shows are teeming with the group’s unapologetic self-belief — Foxing plays like it wants to be the rock band that saves your life. If concerts ever return, you better believe those clubs will be full.

Finest Moment: “Nearer My God,” the title track, in all its triumphant, anguished, soul-affirming glory — the Hotelier-worshipping Missouri grandson of Queen’s “I Want to Break Free.” — B.O.

41. Pearl Jam

Hometown: Seattle, Washington

Why We Love Them: “Best album since Yield” is nearly as much of a Pearl Jam cliché as “best since Tattoo You” is a Stones cliché, but this year Pearl Jam really did release their best album in 20 years. No, it doesn’t quite match the band’s flannel-clad glory days. But Gigaton is a rare beast: a late-career album from a respected but quiet legacy band that manages to update their sound without losing the qualities that attracted fans in the first place. With a sense of urgency buoyed by Eddie Vedder’s avowedly anti-Trump fury, it’s certainly better than — Thunder Struck was it called?

Finest Moment: In recent memory? It’s got to be “Dance of the Clairvoyants,” an uncharacteristically funky spin on Talking Heads paranoia that consummates Gigaton’s stature as the most adventurous Pearl Jam album in two decades. — Z.S.

40. Skeleton

Hometown: Austin, TX

Why We Love Them: Texas runs metalpunk, and Skeleton runs Texas. The Austin trio exemplifies Texas’ style of just going harder than everyone else, merging early thrash and first-wave black metal’s frayed swagger. Drummer and vocalist Victor Ziolkowski is a tank snarling and pounding with firm command and killer intentions; his brother, guitarist David, slashes many ’80s styles through his own punky lens, efficient yet wholly expressive. Skeleton are youthful insurgents like Texas legends Iron Age and Power Trip before them, taking the best from the old Gods without aping them mindlessly. Every generation needs such a band. Victor also heads I Hate I Skate, which (in the before times) puts on shows unleashing the youngest, hungriest, and weirdest punks in Austin. He knows in Texas, real recognize real.

Finest Moment: “Ring of Fire,” no relation to the official anthem of clueless tourists gorging boot-leather brisket in downtown Austin, shows a wounded majesty to their rage with David eking mournful airs from Celtic Frost’s mid-paced grandeur. — Andy O’Connor

39. Flasher

Hometown: Washington, D.C.

Why We Love Them: Imagine the Breeders covering XTC’s “Making Plans for Nigel” with Andy Partridge on guest vocals. That kind of comes close, but not really; Flasher knows who they are and don’t give a shit what you think. After signing to Domino Records, they released their 2018 debut, Constant Image, one of the most inventive post-punk records of the last decade made by three musicians who gel like conjoined triplets. (That’s the difference between a good band and a great band: the ability to sound effortless, like one freaky entity, not a bunch of people playing against one another.) Flasher’s lyrics are smart and, if you look for it, political, but not so direct that you can’t escape the references, if you just want to melt into the music and forget how polarized America is in 2020. These D.C. bubble-punks are infectious, anthemic, and easy on the eyes. We won’t be looking away anytime soon.

Finest Moment: The hilarious, fast-paced, chop-and-drop video for “Material” takes the piss out of YouTube, flash-dancing, the Illuminati, and, most close-to-home for these former Comet Ping Pong employees, #pizzagate. (Vocalist/bassist Danny Saperstein even appeared in the 2020 documentary, After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News talking about the scandal.) Flasher confronts the homophobic pizza spazz by dressing up like Marina Abramovic, cock-punching, and lampooning conspiracy-theory Vloggers. — M.B.W.

38. Dumb

Hometown: Vancouver, British Columbia

Why We Love Them: Try to resist a unit that Brooklyn Vegan described as “a whole band made of Jimbos from The Simpsons.” If Danger Mouse was the last straw for you with Parquet Courts, here’s the Stooges to their Velvet Underground, an all-spikes sarcasm brigade formed around the holy mission to Make Indie Angular Again on 2018’s deliciously discordant Seeing Green and 2019’s slightly craftier Club Nites. Just check the Archers of Loaf grungebursts that punctuate Dumb’s “Submission” or the manic Beefheart-sliding-on-a-dessert-cart-into-a-wall spree of “My Condolences.” And they even mock their own revival with an anti-anthem called “Slacker Needs Serious Work.”

Finest Moment: The only time Dumb break g/b/d allegiance is to stick a gloriously honking sax solo at the end of “Beef Hits,” revealing their most furious song as their silliest, as most angry dweebs boil down to anyway. — D.W.

37. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

Why We Love Them: Unlike the more pillowy Tame Impala who pivoted away from it, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever stick with what they know best: Bringing out the anxious intensity of moody and melodic three-guitar jangle like some kind of upside-down-timeline Skynyrd. That in itself would please the graying rock fans in 2020, but it comes with immense hooks that that would make Miracle Legion steal their own songs back from Pete and Pete. Yep, RBCF can really do it all — at least for those shelves boast dusty “Radio Free Europe” seven-inches. And their festival-stealing live show (should they ever get to put on one again) ensures their best days will happen sooner than later.

Finest Moment: Following 2018’s assured Hope Downs, June’s Sideways to New Italy, showed not only a tremendous leap in lyricism (touching on their own individual histories and interconnectivity as a whole) but the intricate musicianship that made a triple-songwriter unit the most promising act to come from Down Under since, oh, you know who. — Daniel Kohn

36. Algiers

Hometown: Atlanta, GA

Why We Love Them: “Yeah, yeah, I see,” nods an overbearing critic-fan-inquisitor on Algiers’ 2019 single “Can the Sub_Bass Speak?”, “it’s kinda like, gospel-punk. Soul-punk. Soul-rock. Doom-soul?” He doesn’t like it (though he does muse that it reminds him of every Black rock band he can think of, from Fishbone to TV on the Radio). But if you’re at all interested in hearing sharply political call-and-response gospel vocals filtered thru pop-punk songwriting and arranged by one of the best live bands on the planet into a smoldering, jittery roar, these guys are your only option. Each album starting with their eponymous 2015 debut has built on the last, further crystallizing that famous gospel-punk-soul-punk-soul-rock-doom-soul sound; in early 2020, they released not only the explosive There Is No Year but a flood of show-length live recordings on Bandcamp that show off their squall and wail in its essence.

Finest Moment: Live in Atlanta: The Last Show on Earth, on which the band returned to their hometown in March 2020 to tear up OutKast and Childish Gambino covers in front of an audibly rapturous crowd days before the city would shut down: The sound of gathering a last harvest of community before this strange, indefinite winter. — T.W.

35. L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation

Hometown: New York, NY

Why We Love Them: L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation were over 2020 before 2020 even began. Led by acclaimed punk artist Alexander Heir, the industrial punk quartet wage war against the future. Heir references Terminator’s unfeeling T-800s frequently in his art and L.O.T.I.O.N. is definitely human tissue over metal exoskeleton: d-beats are mechanized, guitars are noisy rail guns splattering what’s left of humanity, and Heir’s own vocals are primal yawps ensnared in digital servitude. They’re screaming that the future is a robotic wasteland out of our control, if we ever had control in the first place. Is there a band more made for our moment?

Finest Moment: Computers may not have a heartbeat, but they do have rhythm: “I.C.B.M.” is dance-punk for dancing on the graves of our futures. — A.O.

34. Wolf Alice

Hometown: London, England

Why We Love Them: Name a better Britrock band in 2020, we’ll wait. (The 1975 themselves would tell you they don’t count, though that only makes them more rock.) Wolf Alice’s Mercury Prize-winning breakthrough record, 2017’s uproariously good Visions of a Life, fused crunchy post-grunge, hypnotic shoegaze, and deliciously dissonant noise-rock into a project that was both ethereal and urgent — a banner leap from their 2015 debut LP, My Love Is Cool. Singer/guitarist Ellie Rowsell is a ferocious, era-traipsing acrobat — she could’ve easily jammed alongside Morrissey in ‘84, Bilinda Butcher in ‘91 or Shirley Manson in ‘98 — and has no trouble toggling between sonic maelstroms (“Yuk Foo”), Arctic-Monkeys-esque bar-rock (“Beautifully Unconventional”) and sweeping indie showstoppers (“Don’t Delete the Kisses”). Not to mention the band’s live show kicks your teeth in.

Finest Moment: The perfect back-to-back stack of “Yuk Foo” and “Beautifully Unconventional” — two songs, each precisely two minutes and 13 seconds, shooting an epic swirl of fury from a confetti cannon of melody. — B.O.

33. The 1975

Hometown: Wilmslow, Cheshire, England

Why We Love Them: From their early days churning out face-slap pop-punk basslines to their now-endless journey crafting highly-anticipated, everything-an-experiment albums that no critic can ever agree on, Matty Healy and his boys have taken the Only Band That Matters™ mantle from U2 and they’re not shy about it (they let us know). Their fourth album, Notes on a Conditional Form, throws away any sense of cohesion, with folk songs nobody asked for (that we’re still cool with) and period pieces that could’ve graced the Empire Records soundtrack or played Warped Tour in the early 2000s. For a year when nobody knows that hell is going on or if we’ll ever escape for that matter, we could always use a big-ass album and a band unafraid to overthink it.

Finest Moment: “(Tonight) I Wish I Was Your Boy” and that fire-ass, chipmunked Temptations sample. — Brenton Blanchet

32. Meet Me @ The Altar

Hometowns: Florida, Georgia, New Jersey

Why We Love Them: Meet Me @ The Altar so lovingly summon the cues of ‘00s-era pop-punk and emo with an emotional intelligence and maturity that the genre’s most visible (re: white) sad boys never really lived up to. Based in three different states after discovering each other on YouTube, singer Edith Johnson, guitarist and bassist Téa Campbell, and drummer Ada Juarez command their instruments with an attention to detail that belies the fact that they usually only get a day or two to practice in person before shows (and that was pre-pandemic). These three young women of color create with a care befitting internet friends, paying homage to and carving out their own place in a genre notorious for gatekeeping its sound and sadness from anyone who isn’t a suburban white boy, and hold Paramore as a sacrosanct influence. The challenges of social distancing during the pandemic are real for any band, and must be especially for these three, but they’ve already overcome separation with ease.

Finest Moment: The delicious, math-y first 20 seconds of their 2020 single “Garden” grow into one of 2020’s hardest, tenderest punk choruses. — S.F.

31. Vampire Weekend

Hometown: New York, NY

Why We Love Them: These guys don’t make mistakes. The deepening complexity of the tightly wound miniatures on their first three albums reached on 2013’s Modern Vampires of the City what felt like the absolute maximum allowable density, hanging the most intricately constructed pop-rock this side of the New Pornographers on the breeze and lightness of highlife and harpsichord like jet engines suspended in spiderwebs. It’s an apotheosis, but it was unsustainable, which is why Father of the Bride is a relaxed, guest-studded country-rock sprawl, a letting out of breath.

Or at least it seems so, before you go back and listen to the bridge of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” or the chilled electronic burble of “Diplomat’s Son”, and remember this band has always known exactly how good space sounds — and that they were just as arch and undeluded on their first album about the rarefied life of Ivy League whiteness as they are on their fourth about the even further rarefied life of rock stardom. If you’re gonna have bards of privilege — and you’re gonna; that’s what privilege is — you’re about as lucky to have V-Dubz as you were to have F. Scott Fitzgerald. Be careful in Hollywood, guys.

Finest Moment: Probably this. — T.W.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

For October’s iteration of SPIN‘s Five Artists to Watch series, there’s a U.K. singer-songwriter who’s refurnished her careers in the embers of Nashville’s fast-burning country scene, a Grimes-cosign set to release her first album via Claire Boucher’s record label, and more.

Long Beard

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Who: Emerging from New Brunswick’s DIY scene, Leslie Bear — under the name Long Beard with her bandmates — evokes imagery of quiet and intimate summer night rendezvous. Claiming that 2015 is the “the year of higher quality,” she leaves behind the tape hiss of her previous self-released bedroom EPs and takes on a brighter, more refined sound on her upcoming album, Sleepwalker, due this month by Team Love Records.
Sounds Like: The flickering of weak, golden candlelight cast during a power outage.
Where to Start: Bear’s delicate and tenuous voice soothes on “Porch,” a song she first released on a split EP with Tom Christie of Quarterbacks and Fraternal Twin. — MEILYN HUQ

Lucie Silvas

Mal Blum

Who: A bedroom-punk band from New York City, who — given their verge-of-tears verses — sounds like they’d be more comfortable hiding underneath a stairwell in upstate New York. Signed to Don Giovanni Records, Mal Blum’s about to release their fifth studio album, You Look a Lot Like Me, which comes produced by label stalwart Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females and mixed by Philly DIY king Kyle Gilbride (Waxahatchee, Swearin’, Upset).
Sounds Like: Expect immediate vocal comparisons to indie-folk queen Kimya Dawson. But unlike the former Moldy Peach’s twee-leaning, sing-songy solo work, Mal Blum‘s curling alto syllables are accompanied by deep-toned guitars in the key of three-chord melancholics the Weakerthans, while the bass-brimming single “Better Go” is a folkier cousin of Green Day’s hit single “When I Come Around.”
Where to Start: The standout, string-swelled 2013 single “Side I’m On.” — RACHEL BRODSKY

Nicole Dollanganger

Who: Dollanganger is the first signee to Grimes’ artist-cooperative (don’t call it a record label), Eerie Organization, after the Visions singer fell in love with her work upon hearing the SoundCloud demos that made her a minor Internet sensation. (Says Boucher: “It blew up my brain so hard that I literally started Eerie to f–king put it out because it’s a crime against humanity for this music not to be heard.”) That music shows up on Dollanganger’s debut LP Natural Born Losers (October 9 on iTunes) as a collection of ghostly, violent torch songs that are as insidious as they are inscrutable.
Sounds Like: Johnny Jewel producing the bar singer from True Detective season 2.
Where to Start: “You’re So Cool,” half fatalistic love song and half male ego-smack, gorgeous and devastating in its entirety. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Spencer Radcliffe

Who: A reformed abstractionist who makes sparklingly clear guitar pop under his own name, Chicago resident Spencer Radcliffe used to traffic in dripping ambient compositions as Blithe Field; but as he’s picked up a guitar and started issuing solo recordings, he’s slowly crystallized his approach to shaggy-dog indie rock to a fine enough point that would make Doug Martsch (or maybe even Seurat) proud. His Run For Cover debut Looking In is as cold and direct as a shard of ice straight to the heart — but there’s still room for a freeform saxophone line or two.
Sounds Like: The foggy, narcotized intersection between Built to Spill and Bedhead.
Where to Start: Looking In is out this week, but the acoustic addict’s lament “Brown Horse” (from a split of the same name with R.L. Kelly) was his first spark of real brilliance. — COLIN JOYCE

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

Summer has not technically come to a close just yet, but brisk mornings and sweater weather are on the way. Ring in the end of the season with a batch of five new artists — including a smoky-voiced 15-year-old singer with the confidence of a pro, a young Matador signee with two full albums on the way, and a jazz-educated psychedelic throwback out of Chicago — who are all worth every second of fleeting warmth.

Car Seat Headrest

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Who: Virginia native-turned-Seattle resident Will Toledo — the lo-fi prodigy known as Car Seat Headrest — is only 22 years old, but he’s got the fully-realized songwriting prowess of someone at least, oh, say, 30: “I co-write the songs with myself / He feels the feelings, I write the words,” he kids on the sung-through-a-tin-can anthem “Beast Monster Thing (Love Isn’t Love).” The just-announced Matador signee will unveil two back-to-back records soon: Teens of Style this October and Teens of Denial in early 2016. But the prolific Toledo currently has self-released 11 (seriously) albums on Bandcamp.
Sounds Like: If the Strokes left the garage and entered the bedroom, if Built to Spill collaborated with Grandaddy, or if Radiohead reverted back to their Pablo Honey era — all in the form of one person.
Where to Start: In order to keep from feeling overwhelmed, go with How to Leave Town first, which features 14-minute long-form experiments like opener “The Ending of Dramamine” and traditional indie-rock heart-squeezers like the mid-tempo “I Want You To Know That I’m Awake/I Hope That You’re Asleep.” — RACHEL BRODSKY

Grace Mitchell

Who: A burgeoning teenage pop sensation from Portland, Oregon, who has already found herself a number of high-profile champions: Beats 1’s Zane Lowe has been pushing her cotton-candy-bombed single “Jitter” relentlessly, and pop blog Popjustice basically launched a state investigation into how it was possible to hear the song online. It was worth the hunt: “Jitter” isn’t just one of the pop songs of the year, it’s three or four of them, fastballing between combusting trap-pop, French-dropping dance-soul, turbo synth-rock, and back without ever losing its flammability.
Sounds Like: Lana Del Rey teaming up with Jack Ü, the Weekend, and/or Foster the People, depending on the song.
Where to Start: Nothing else on Mitchell’s Raceday EP is quite as explosive as “Jitter,” but it’s still immaculate big-budget pop, bursting with hooks and ideas. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Loren

Who: With a debut EP out in October, Loren’s a 15-year-old pop sensation from Walloon Lake, Michigan waiting in the wings. According to the young lady herself, she wrote and arranged her first song seven years ago — as an 8-year-old — and her smartly rounded lyrics do the necessary fence-riding between accessible and engagingly unique storytelling. Her voice brushes down on its lowest register with a quiet husk, lending her songs the proper depth for maximum impact.
Sounds Like: If Sia held back her register for a quieter, achier impact while Lorde egged her on.
Where to Start: The Dare is out in only a month, but get cracking on your pre-EP homework with the faded pixie dust of “Echo.” — BRENNAN CARLEY

Mild High Club

Who: Alexander Brettin studied jazz in Chicago once upon a time, before ditching that urban tundra and eloping to laid-back Los Angeles with new label Stones Throw Records. The result of this cooler-than-cool union is Mild High Club’s debut LP, Timeline (out September 18) — a psychedelic 60’s throwback that sounds way more West Coast than Midwest. Brettin’s complex musical arrangements — incorporating harpsichord, tambourines, electric guitar, woodwinds, and vocal harmonies — are head-swayingly hypnotic. Mild High’s melodies are refreshing in their simplicity, harkening back to the days when the studio was an instrument and songs topped out at three minutes. MHC’s chill, cerebral, and spaced out: the stoner-philosopher of 2015.
Sounds Like: If John Lennon and David Bowie crashed the Pet Sounds recording sessions.
Where to Start: “Windowpane,” a twinkling slow-motion jaunt through Strawberry Fields. — ANDREW STONE

Visionist

Who: The production moniker of London DJ/producer Louis Carnell, who’s been churning out third eye-opening revisions of grime since he was just a teenager. Last year he opened a slate of dates for FKA twigs, who’s a peer in approach if not in sound. His cold-blooded take on dance sonics (iced out synth lines and gunshot percussion) is similar to how twigs treats pop music: Rip out the skeleton, dress it up in new clothes, leave the old flesh to rot.
Sounds Like: A frigid night standing just outside a club.
Where to Start: “Victim,” the lead single from his forthcoming LP, Safe. — COLIN JOYCE

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

The last full month of summer is — incredibly — upon us, and with it comes a batch of new artists to whom attention must be paid. There’s Georgia, a Domino-signee who’s churning out music with a blend of Phantogram-heavy beats and silky singing. There’s also Pearl Charles, an enigma of a performer who presents her straightforward, beachside tunes in bundles of sadness. Without further ado, these are the five artists you need to watch in August 2015.

The Domestics

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Who: The core of this Portland five-piece is songwriting duo Michael Finn and Leo London, who shy away from synthesized sounds in favor of gritty guitars, lo-fi drums, and breezy unison melodies. Their still-fresh self-titled debut is a heart-on-its sleeve affair, loaded with wistful tunes steeped in the tradition of the great American rock song.
Sounds Like: Dashes of Wilco, Elton John, and From a Basement on the Hill-era Elliott Smith.
Where to Start: “American Drag,” a bittersweet mid-tempo track that builds an impressive emotional arc in its brisk two and a half minutes. — TREE PALMEDO

Georgia

Who: A London electro-pop chameleon, Georgia Barnes (sometimes stylized as GEoRGiA) got her start drumming for fellow Londoner and noted producer Kwes. Now it’s her name on the masthead and she has creative control — writing, singing, rapping, and producing her own stuff. Her talents combine to form a unique soundscape that is at once danceable, euphoric, and paranoid. Georgia’s beats bump with boiling angst — the eerie soundtrack to a youth rebellion.
Sounds Like: If M.I.A. could belt.
Where to Start: Georgia’s eponymous debut LP comes out on August 7. In the meantime, check out her hypnotic single “Nothing Solutions.” — ANDREW STONE

Marrow

Who: The members of Marrow have their feet in Chicago’s bootstrapped indie scene but their fingers in many pies: Some have recorded and toured with Kids These Days, Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper’s now-defunct hip-hop crew, and all of them appear on Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment’s Surf. Outside of the rap realm, however, singer-songwriters Macie Stewart (who also plays keys) and Liam Kazar (guitar), bassist Lane Beckstrom, and drummer Matt Carroll specialize in a harmonious cacophony of freestyle jazz, Nashville garage rock-indebted riffs, and wildly optimistic yet sardonic lyrics.
Sounds Like: Shirley Manson making a surprise appearance onstage with the Districts.
Where to Start: The electrically charged “Paulson,” which tears around like a pack of wild dogs behind Stewart’s richly textured warble. — HARLEY BROWN

MIYNT

Who: The Stockholm songstress first enchanted us with her steamy and brooding take on Britney Spears’ classic “Baby One More Time” a couple of months ago. Her two singles — “Nick Drake” and “Civil War” — both hold signature sultriness and Banks’ brooding suspense through her pulsating production. Make sure to check out her 7” coming out on B3SCI Records on August 21.
Sounds Like: If the eeriness of MS MR was mixed with the vocal humidity of Tove Lo, recorded in a forest under the moonlight.
Where to Start: “Civil War” has chilling lyrics and soporific drumbeats that make for a flirtatious invitation. — MARGARET FARRELL

Pearl Charles

Who: The Los Angeles-based songwriter is the latest addition to Burger Records’ stoned stable, but unlike the majority of her fuzzy labelmates, she gets low instead of getting high. Her debut EP for the label is a dreamy and downcast affair, and Charles herself demonstrates a unique knack for turning otherwise lilting tracks into grave and harrowing ballads. If, like the rest of the Burger discography, this is beach music, then it’s meant to soundtrack the eerie nighttime stillness, with a morose Charles slinking along the abandoned shoreline under a full moon.
Sounds Like: Echo and the Bunnymen in sunglasses and Hawaiian shirts.
Where to Start: The mystic downer “I Ran So Far.” — COLIN JOYCE

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

With the summer months firmly upon us, SPIN has gathered up the most surefire new artists in July of 2015, including a nouveau-disco master with a voice spun from gold and a Los Angeles singer who’s honed his craft opening for Sufjan Stevens and Erykah Badu. Find them and more below.

Bad Bad Hats

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Who: A Minneapolis trio that’ll warm any frigid, bitter ventricles with sincere guitar melodies, sugar-sweet “oooh-oooh” harmonies, and lead singer Kerry Alexander’s wishful and (worryingly!) vulnerable vocals.
Sounds Like: If Club 8 turned down the twee and borrowed some of Metric’s don’t-mess-with-me aura — then toured every DIY venue in Brooklyn.
Where to Start: Their 2013 EP, It Hurts, is available to stream (bookmark the voice-breaking, kazoo-buzzing title track). Until their debut album Psychic Reader drops on July 17 via Afternoon Records, try out singles like the gently forceful “Fight Song.” — RACHEL BRODSKY

Gavin Turek

Who: A 28-year-old West Coast native whose melodies sound like they’ve been steeped in the ashes of Studio 54 since its closure, Turek produces songs that’d fit right in at roller discos on the outskirts of Coney Island (the non-ironic kind). If that’s enough of a selling point, try this: She possesses the silky, arms-outstretched harmonizing of an in-her-prime Donna Summer.
Sounds Like: If the Knocks gave up enlisting guest vocalists for their tunes, hired a soul singer with a bit of spice, and took up permanent residency on an Ibiza beach every Sunday night.
Where to Start: Turek’s recent Frontline EP is comprised of only two tracks, but “Don’t Fight It” stands out powerfully against the clanging, high-powered crop of summer singles being tossed your way. — BRENNAN CARLEY

M.I.L.K.

Who: Only two tracks to his name (“If We Want To” and “Everything You Know”) but Copenhagen’s Emil Wilk has made a refreshing impression with his creamy vocals and laid-back production that begs for some sand and a hammock. Going by the name M.I.L.K., Wilk takes visual inspiration from Mac OS 9 and the French artist Yves Klein — really. There’s not an exact date set for M.I.L.K.’s debut, but with his recent viral vitality, it has to be soon.
Sounds Like: What Martians must listen to when they hang out at a beachside luau.
Where to Start: The dreamy “If We Want To” is an appropriate July soundtrack amidst the barbecues, trips to the beach, and justified unwinding. — MARGARET FARRELL

Moses Sumney

Who: An L.A. troubadour whose ghostly brand of soulful folk has earned him slots opening for Sufjan Stevens and Erykah Badu, 25-year-old Moses Sumney started performing in college with just a guitar, a loop pedal, and his rough-edged falsetto. After self-producing his mostly off-the-cuff debut EP, Mid-City Island, he’s set to release a 12-inch this summer on Terrible Records, the imprint of Grizzly Bear bassist Chris Taylor. The new single looks to add some ethereal orchestration to Sumney’s haunting mix of slow-burning R&B and reverb-soaked finger-picking.
Sounds Like: Al Green covering Bon Iver — but broadcast live from the moon.
Where to Start: “Seeds,” the A-side from the upcoming 12-inch, is a chilling, four-minute meditation and his most polished work to date. — TREE PALMEDO

Strange Wilds

Who: Sub Pop’s latest crew of grim and grimy guitar-slingers from the Pacific Northwest. Olympia, Washington-based trio Strange Wilds will sound neither strange, nor wild to those who’ve followed the label’s output since its late-’80s heyday. But their streamlined version of post-grunge grit admits what most bands of the era couldn’t: that hey, despite the hair, some of their chintzy metal contemporaries were onto something just as beautifully sickening.
Sounds Like: Mudhoney and Motörhead seesawing until they’re sick.
Where to Start: “Pronoia” — one of the band’s two 2015 singles — delivers some of the first drips of their PNW punk deluge. — COLIN JOYCE

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

The start of summer signals the arrival of a fresh wave of sound: a retro-leaning girl group with their eyes set on the future, an ethereal singer-songwriter set to make her Jagjaguwar debut with help from Sigur Rós producer Alex Somers, and much more. Here are the five artists you need to know in June of 2015.

Briana Marela

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Who: This wispy-voiced, 25-year-old Washingtonian recently signed to Jagjaguwar Records. Hooking up with Sigur Rós producer Alex Somers, Marela has crafted one of the year’s most enjoyably ethereal efforts with her upcoming full-length, All Around Us, a lovely collection of shuffling ballads and near-choral ambience. It possesses countless layers of siren songs, all floating with one another through the deep blue of Somers’ soundscapes. Marela will tour with Jenny Hval this August, which should one of the most head-swimming double bills of the summer.
Sounds Like: Say Lou Lou after a long period of immersion in Björk’s more abstract later work.
Where to Start: The gorgeously glacial “Surrender,” which is most decidedly not a Cheap Trick cover. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

Mas Ysa

Who: A Montreal-born, Brooklyn-based electro-experimentalist named Thomas Arsenault, who’ll fit on your sweaty Friday-night dance playlists with as much ease as he does your John Cage-obsessed friend’s Obscure Synth Sounds mix.
Sounds Like: If Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug took up residence at John Zorn’s all avant-garde New York City venue, the Stone.
Where to Start: Arsenault’s versatile full-length debut, Seraph, drops on July 24 via Downtown Records, but you can hear its tribal thumping single “Margarita.”  — RACHEL BRODSKY

M.O.

Who: Frankee Connolly, Nadine Samuels, and Annie Ashcroft could’ve laid back and let themselves just become a product of the girl-group machine, but instead, the trio dip into the genre’s ’90s past — flecks of TLC show up in their costuming — but remain fixed on the present. Their new one, “Preach,” could be the Song of the Summer if enough people take notice: Big, blue, and beautiful, it enlists Starsmith for a searing beat as the ladies seamlessly intertwine harmonies.
Sounds Like: Take the Spice Girls, add some sugar, toss in Little Mix’s sass, Fifth Harmony’s singing, and Ciara’s dancing, with the baggy-pants style of Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes.
Where to Start: “Preach” goes all the way in with its watery, “Drop It Like It’s Hot”-worthy plinks and a blast of confident belting. — BRENNAN CARLEY

SOAK

Who: North Ireland singer-songwriter Bridie Monds-Watson’s electro-tinged musings delve much deeper than those of her teenaged contemporaries. Alongside her soft-spoken warbles on the misty “B a noBody,” Monds-Watson’s gentle guitar strums and blocky keyboard progressions capture the gnawing tension behind relationship troubles. In the same breathy haze, “Blud” (off of SOAK’s debut LP, Before We Forgot How to Dream, out now via Rough Trade Records) finds those rare moments where the lovelorn artist kicks back and, just maybe, cracks a smile.
Sounds like: Cat Power wailing reedy verses alongside Laura Marling on a rainy day after waking up with inexplicable Derry accents.
Where to Start:  The tear-jerking “Sea Creatures,” a highlight of SOAK’s iconic gray-scaled airiness and candid vulnerability. — MATT LEVINE

Uniform

Who: A duo of New York punk veterans who now turn to the nauseating hiccups and stinging static of industrial noise. Ben Greenberg (formerly of the Men) crafts noxious, burbling guitar work and ex-Drunkdriver singer Michael Berdan sands his voice down to brittle, malformed shivs. The pair’s debut full-length is called Perfect World, and by the sound of the whole terrifying thing, their idea of utopia still involves a whole lot of plague and pestilence.
Sounds Like: The austere edges of hardcore, blurred and misshapen by a healthy dose of sulfuric acid.
Where to Start:  As with any scary story, you start from the beginning. Perfect World‘s opening title track is fitting trapdoor into the band’s harrowing work. — COLIN JOYCE

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

A young soul singer with a synthesized heart, a towering Swede ready to crush the pop competition with a comeback, a frenetic Midwestern trio hoping to capture your attention with scream-ready anthems — here are the five artists you need to know about in May of 2015.

Brayton Bowman

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Who: A singer-songwriter from Philadelphia who now makes New York City his home, Bowman’s lately been churning out heart-throbbing electro-R&B songs like “Skin Deep,” a rumination on a relationship that barely skated beyond the titular surface. Buddies with Betty Who and British producer/singer MNEK, Bowman’s also demonstrated his ability to flip a cover song on its head, injecting a remake of Britney Spears’ “Baby One More Time” with modern-day electronic wizardry and soul while still remaining faithful to the original’s playfulness.
Sounds Like: Mayer Hawthorne hammered into place by Kyle Minogue’s nouveau disco-stick.
Where to Start: How are you living your life without Brayton’s Britney cover on every playlist you’ve ever made? Change that now.

Erik Hassle

Who: A confidently thrilling and upbeat pop singer-songwriter hailing from Sweden (don’t all the good ones these days?) who towers over the competition — literally. The 6’3” artist has been making music since before releasing his first single, “Hurtful,” in late 2008, but his newest releases sound slicker, boppier, and more disco-infused than ever — in the best sort of way.
Sounds Like: A huskier-voiced Justin Timberlake singing over the Knocks’ choicest beats.
Where to Start: His latest release — the absolute, sure-to-be summer smash that is “No Words” — JAMES GREBEY

Rainer

Who: A meditative London-based electropop duo, vocalist Rebekah Raa and producer Nic Nell (a.k.a. Casually Here) dig deep into their psyches by crafting earwormy love songs. Crooning melancholia over Nell’s R&B-tinged beats, Raa’s voluptuous broodings mimic the mind-bending emotional roller-coaster that comes hand-in-hand with relationships, as heard on the downtempo “Nocturn.” Whether they’re waxing poetic over soul-crushing heartbreak or recounting the better days, Rainer’s results are the same: staying in bed solves any problem.
Sounds Like: FKA Twigs trading failed bedroom stories with Lorde poolside over extra-strong daiquiris, with Purity Ring keeping the mood overcast via the nearby DJ booth.
Where to Start: Until their Water LP impacts (May 18) via Kissability Records, the emotional maelstrom “Marry” will fill you with anticipation. — MATT LEVINE

Soul Low

Who: Soul Low’s recent string releases have cemented their place as one of the Midwest’s finest young acts. Punctuated by acrobatic bass playing, frenetic drums, and skipping guitar lines, the Milwaukee trio make some damn fine songs to dance, drink, and scream along to. Their new EP Sweet Pea arrives May 26.
Sounds like: Violent Femmes, Ought, and Dick Dale running a race and chugging beers at the same time.
Where to Start: There really isn’t a bad place to dive in, but “Take Time” may be the best. — CONNOR O’BRIEN

Misun

Who: This Los Angeles group originated from Washington D.C., and they’re a mod-podge of styles from reggae to sixties rock ‘n’ roll and even a little bit of electro-pop thrown in the mix. The ashy soulfulness of Misun Wojcik’s vocals is endearing — a stabilized centerpiece for melodies and production that are impossible to cage in a single genre. They currently have two full-lengths out now, The Sea (2012) and Superstitions (2013), anticipating their third release Feel Better on May 29.
Sounds Like: If Adele spent the day with Purity Ring and Fitz and the Tantrums and they decided to make a few tracks together.
Where to Start: Their second album is filled to the brim with pop eccentricities, but their newest single “Justice” is a jazzy and feisty lament of self-salvation: “I got to be my own hero.” — MARGARET FARRELL

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

A sensational pop vocalist with a voice made of gold, a British post-punk trio with jittery bass lines, and so much more — these are five artists you need to look out for in April 2015.

Tori Kelly

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Who: A crystal-clear vocalist with pop’s best hit-makers in her corner, Kelly currently has a stellar new single starting to bubble on the radio. Produced by Max Martin, “Nobody Love” is a proper Frankenstein’s monster of Top-40 horns and hooks without ever sounding reductive, thanks to its singer’s jazz-minded, emotion-studded harmonizing.
Sounds Like: Ariana Grande with soul, flecked with bits of Olivia Newton John, Jessie Ware, and the Ting Tings’ brashness.
Where to Start: “Nobody Love” is inevitably going to be around for the long haul, so you might as well get ahead of the curve now. — BRENNAN CARLEY

Shopping

Who: An English post-punk trio that sound like they’ve flown a DeLorean straight out of the late-’70s Rough Trade catalog. Finger-picked guitar melodies and jittery bass and percussion own their debut album, Consumer Complaints, which Fat Cat will reissue come May 26.
Sounds Like: If the Raincoats played a joint show with the Feelies, then convinced Electrelane to reunite.
Where to Start: While you wait for their LP to resurface (the original came out in 2013 on London’s MÏLK Records), you can stream the convulsing single “In Other Words” via Spotify. — RACHEL BRODSKY

Heather Maloney

Who: After studying opera, jazz, and Indian singing with a tutor, Northampton songwriter Heather Maloney finally landed on a folky sound that recalls Johnny Flynn and Natalie Imbruglia. The production on her upcoming debut record — done masterfully by Band of Horses and Avett Brothers collaborator Bill Reynolds — is rounded and lushly warm. The set, dubbed Making Me Break, comes out on April 28 via Signature Sounds Recordings.
Sounds Like: Lucinda Williams and Nancy Sinatra taking turns on lead, with the Civil Wars as their backing band.
Where to Start: Her hauntingly beautiful cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” from her collaborative EP with Darlingside, is stunning, breathy, and starkly memorable. — CONNOR O’BRIEN

Elliot Moss

Who: Ethereal, spacious, and diverse, Elliot Moss’ style is a combination of minimalist, echoed beats layered with acoustic delicacies, veering into grunge and electro-pop. Moss may be only 21, but the up-and-comer is already his own performer, producer, and mixer and has toured with Cold War Kids and made a SXSW appearance last month. His upcoming full-length, Highspeeds, impacts on April 28. Look for the chameleonic performer to hit the stage at this year’s first-ever Eaux Claires festival, run by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, to whom Moss’ vocals have been fairly compared.
Sounds Like: If Jamie xx supplied some modest backbeats, laid over the tricked-out vocal stylings of Ben Howard, James Blake, and Justin Vernon.
Where to Start: In the mood for more of a James Blake-inspired, mellowed-out track with ashy vocals? Check out title track “Highspeeds.” — MARGARET FARRELL

Chipper Jones

Who: Two post-rock enthusiasts from Dallas, well-versed in pedal loop vamping. Childhood friends Charlie Martin and James Lambrecht lost contact after Lambrecht’s family moved south to Austin, but the pair reconnected as students at the University of Texas and are now known as the instrumental post-rock duo Chipper Jones. Forgoing their city’s bias towards garage and folk, the prog-rock-saturated Two Rooms EP, a mix of studio and live tracks, captures staccato strumming and electronic melodies floating over African-style rhythms.
Sounds Like: El Ten Eleven vibing out with Delicate Steve on a Caribbean island.
Where to Start: Last year’s Two Rooms, filled with chains of airy guitar vamping. — MATTHEW LEVINE

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

From a synth-pop Brooklyn R&B singer trying her luck at covering Beyoncé to a power-pop project initially sidelined by a life-altering illness, these are the five artists you need to know about this month.

Algiers

Who: A trans-continental post-punk trio — or “post-worldbeat,” as their Facebook page classifies them — led by Atlanta-born singer Franklin James Fisher, Algiers mixes ghostly sonics with jagged instrumentation. They should be a lot less fun to listen to than they actually are; a large credit to Fisher, one of the most powerfully guttural vocalists in rock today, who brings gospel authority to the music’s drama The final product is harrowing but spellbinding — particularly live, where Fisher’s soul-wrenching performances prove almost uncomfortably captivating.
Sounds Like: TV on the Radio covering the Birthday Party.
Where to Start: The beautiful and brutally austere “Blood” — which, truthfully, could title the majority of songs on the band’s self-titled debut. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

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Jimmy Whispers

Who: A Chicago street artist and anti-violence advocate, Whispers has a surprisingly secretive persona. Despite finishing his debut album two years ago, he’s kept himself under wraps until very recently. Building a reputation around the Windy City with bombastic and confrontational performances (armed with only an iPod as a backing band), he’s intentionally kept his music off the Internet until recently, and the mystery lends itself to his skittish, high-concept vibe.
Sounds Like: Daniel Johnston behind an old Wurlitzer with Jeff Mangum on drum machine, backed by Ezra Koenig’s weirder, non-existent younger brother on vocals.
Where to Start: He’s only got two songs online, but they’re both killer. “Heart Don’t Know” is a good intro for the upcoming Summer In Pain, out March 24. — CONNOR O’BRIEN

Makthaverskan

Who: A group of gloomy Gothenberg upstarts who pair familiar post-punk grit and grime with Maja Milner’s bitingly incisive lyrics, and a soaring bellow that betrays the singer’s 21 years. In contrast to their careening tracks, the quintet’s rise has been something of a slow boil. After a couple of limited-run releases dating all the way back to 2009, their sophomore album, Makthaverskan II, saw a well-recieved Swedish release in 2013 before Run For Cover Records brought it Stateside last year, landing their ramshackle ’80s guitar pop on these shores for good. Right now, Makthaverskan’s in the midst of their first proper U.S. tour, and as befits their nostalgic musical predilections, they’ve brought along a relic of the pre-iTunes age: a tour-only seven-inch, that just so happens to feature “Witness” — one of their best tracks yet.
Sounds Like: A handful of Swedish kids for whom Three Imaginary Boys was a Bible and the ’90s never happened.
Where to Start: Hearing their music on an LP gives the best sense of the capital-R Romantic sweep that they so often strive for. Makthaverskan II, too, has both higher highs and more heartbreaking lows than their debut. — COLIN JOYCE

Nic Hessler

Who: Recording under his fuzz-pop alias Catwalk, Nic Hessler — a singer-songwriter from Oxnard, California — caught the attention of Brooklyn’s Captured Tracks several years ago. Just before leaving to tour, doctors diagnosed the then-18-year-old Hessler with Guillain–Barré Syndrome — a rare autoimmune disorder similar to Multiple Sclerosis — which partially paralyzed him, rendering him unable to play the guitar. Time in the hospital provided him a useful reflection period, enabling Hessler to gain the perspective necessary for completing his first LP — this time under his own name. On his debut, Soft Connections (due March 17), the now-23-year old trades in his former alias and brain-melding style for hi-fi power pop. Jangly guitar licks on the intimate “Hearts, Repeating” align themselves with Johnny Marr’s lilting guitar riffs, a sound well worth the long delay.
Sounds Like: An American reincarnation of The Smiths meets modern-day Beach Fossils.
Where to Start: The breezy confessional of “Hearts, Repeating” and Hessler’s XTC-polished rollercoaster “I Feel Again.” — MATTHEW LEVINE

Tei Shi

Who: When Valerie Teicher doesn’t spend her time bumming around Brooklyn, the Argentinian-born artist doubles as a celestial R&B singer by the name of Tei Shi. Spewing out dream-like melodies over subdued ’80s electronic melodies, Tei Shi embodies this indescribably alluring mystical pop radiance. She’s already worked with English indie rock band Glass Animals, released a killer cover of Queen Bey’s “No Angel,” and recently worked her way through New York City’s CMJ.
Sounds Like: A hybrid of Lykke Li and Destiny’s Child harmonies combined with the instrumentals of a smoothed-over soundtrack from an ’80s police procedural.
Where to Start: While you count down the final days till Tei Shi’s new EP drops in April, check out her debut project, Saudade. Besides the no-brainer “No Angel” rendition, mandatory listening includes the thumping “Bassically.” — MARGARET FARRELL

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.

From a trap-happy Australian DJ to a psych-rock savior to a handful of West Coast-based pop-punks, here are the five artists you need to know about this month.

Alison Wonderland

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Who: The Australian DJ has already made a bit of a mark with high-powered singles like the trip-hoppy, airhorn-punctuated “I Want U” from her Calm Down EP. Later this month, she’ll drop the skittering “U Don’t Know,” the lead single from her upcoming debut album, Run. Spoiler: It features the Flaming Lips’ frontweirdo, Wayne Coyne, and the clattering drum claps of a thousand drone armies.
Sounds Like: Grimes for the club circuit, run through a pop processor with vocal assists stolen from Miley Cyrus’ Rolodex.
Where to Start: “I Want U,” a chemically trappy anthem that crackles with self-awareness. — BRENNAN CARLEY

Colleen Green

Who: A Massachusetts native turned Los Angeleno, Colleen Green worships the Descendents (see: her 2012 release, Milo Goes to Compton), worries about maturity and matters of the heart, and, up to now, has dealt in solo DIY recordings. The forthcoming I Want to Grow Up (the 30-year-old’s newest album and second for Hardly Art) marks a shift in technique, having come together with help from a full band, including JEFF the Brotherhood’s Jake Orrall and Diarrhea Planet‘s Casey Weissbuch. Due out February 24, the ten-track set is replete with the sorts of sticky, lovesick melodies that would make Phil Spector see dollar signs.
Sounds Like: If Bethany Cosentino and Lou Barlow pooled their insecurities and pop chops.
Where to Start: Green’s lo-fi cover of Blink-182’s “M+Ms” is required listening, but for a proper primer on I Want to Grow Up, consult the full-bodied power-pop of “TV.” — KYLE MCGOVERN

Cosmo Sheldrake

Who: A 25-year-old British multi-instrumentalist and then some. Cosmo Sheldrake records the ambient sounds of his environment, remixing, warping, and beat-boxing until he’s created a wholly unique sound that should only be classified as “electro-sea shanty.” He’s recorded and performed in places ranging from the back of a horse drawn cart in rural Bulgarian mountains to the stage of a recent TED Talk.
Sounds Like: A one-man-band playing folks songs from inside of a computer located on the deck of a working fishing trawler. Also a little like Cashmere Cat, we guess.
Where to Start: As you can imagine, Sheldrake’s hodgepodge soundscapes get pretty strange, but “The Moss” is a good (and somewhat accessible) entry point. — JAMES GREBEY

Slutever

Who: A West Coast pair of “teen girl culture” enthusiasts, Rachel Gagliardi and Nicole Snyder specialize in feedback-filled punk anthems that get the blood boiling. 
Sounds Like: If Girlpool hit the distortion pedal and added a drummer, or if X-Ray Spex reunited and moved to present-day East Los Angeles.  
Where to Start: Let Slutever “Smother” you with their combative EP opener. The forthcoming six-song set, titled Almost Famous, will drop on February 17. — RACHEL BRODSKY

Yonatan Gat

Who: A former guitarist for Monotonix (a noise-pop band who SPIN once dubbed “the most exciting band in rock’n’roll”), now makes rubbery and psychedelic experimental compositions that retain the spastic energy of his punk roots. In 2012, he released a Tropicalía-tinged EP called Iberian Passage with help from Portuguese drummer Igor Domingues. He established a freewheeling improvisatory approach to his disorienting instrumental psych-rock, a thread he’s picked up again with Director, his March LP. The New York-based composer is soon set to tour with of Montreal, and though he doesn’t have a ton in common with the Athens indie vets, fans of their odd-pop chameleon act will likely find something to appreciate in Gat’s genre-defying compositions.
Sounds Like: A little bit of Os Mutantes, a little bit of the Lounge Lizards, with some misremembered afrobeat licks.
Where to Start: The Iberian Passage EP, released in 2012. — COLIN JOYCE

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