Laure Vincent-Bouleau Halfway through Spinner's conversation with Alex Ebert, frontman of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the topic turns from the band's back-to-back 2012 albums -- their sophomore album Here was released in May and its as-yet-untitled follow-up drops late this year -- to music's healing powers. "It's more about ...

Leah Horikx Royal Headache look like they haven't showered in days. An hour before the Aussie punk-pop band's set in Chicago, frontman Shogun is sleeping off last night's debauchery, somewhere. Bassist Joe is going over the merch money, and keeps losing count. In Minneapolis the night before, the band -- made up of members known only on a ...

Anna Palma Yeasayer are taking listeners on another voyage into the sonic unknown with the release of their third LP, Fragrant World. "I wouldn't say this album is particularly rooted on earth," vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Keating tells Spinner, "because we are constantly trying to find things that sound weird and new to us." ...

Charley Rogulewski for AOL Dixon, Illinois -- the location for Mumford and Sons third of four U.S. Gentlemen of the Road stopovers -- is in the middle of nowhere. Located off a barren exit along Interstate 88, the tony town is in the heart of Illinois farmland, a two-hour drive through endless cornfields west of Chicago and a hour away from ...

Aya Sato Earlier this year, Deep Sea Diver -- the songwriting alias of the Shins' touring guitarist Jessica Dobson turned full-fledged band -- released their debut LP, History Speaks. While Dobson may have cultivated her guitar jamming with other bands (Beck and Yeah Yeah Yeahs included), it's her work with drummer -- and now-husband -- Peter ...

Michael Tullberg, Getty Images Watch out, Electric Daisy Carnival: Chicago has its own electronic dance music festival and, so far, there haven't been any casualties. Over the weekend, the inaugural Spring Awakening music festival took place at the Windy City's famed Soldier Field, home of Da Bears. The turf was covered up so that avid ravers ...

Charley Rogulewski Three songs into Tom Morello's five-song set at the National Nurses United rally on Friday afternoon (May 18), just as the Nightwatchman sang the final lyrics of the Bruce Springsteen cover "The Ghost of Tom Joad," the sound died. An awkward silence befell the estimated 5,000 protesters converged beneath the 50-foot ...