Brassneck PR Andy Partridge's career has to be one of the more circuitous and often ill fated in the history of pop music. At the height of his former band XTC's commercial powers in the early '80s, the singer-songwriter suffered debilitating stage fright, forcing the band to stop touring altogether. The British trio almost missed its ...

SKH Music Brooke Waggoner has had little time to catch her breath over the past 12 months. The 28-year-old musician spent most of 2012 crisscrossing the globe, playing keyboards in the Peacocks, the all-female backing band Jack White used on his extensive Blunderbuss tour. "It's been a crazy year," Waggoner says, speaking to Spinner a day ...

Courtesy of Banchory Recordings The news of a solo album by Belle and Sebastian member Stevie Jackson was greeted in the blogosphere with a sense of inevitability. Jackson has, after all, written some fantastic songs for his band already ("Seymour Stein" and "To Be Myself Completely," among them). So, surely he had a backlog of material ready ...

David Thayer An album of artful and political pop songs that urge listeners to speak up loudly against the powers that be, but is entitled Silencio, provides a delicious bite of irony to the proceedings. But the woman behind the album, Laetitia Sadier, is quite serious about the implications and spiritual growth that can come with finding ...

Sony Legacy Few bands have been able to survive as long or as successfully as Heart. Credit for much of that goes to the band's ability to rise and fall with the sounds of the time. The group -- led by singer Ann Wilson and her sister, guitarist Nancy Wilson -- came to life nearly 40 years ago, enjoying immediate success with raw rock anthems ...

Alex Lake Fourteen hours have passed since her last performance and Lianne La Havas is still audibly glowing. The early promotional dates in the U.S. to drum up some buzz for the forthcoming release of her debut album Is Your Love Big Enough? have been going incredibly well for the 22-year-old singer-songwriter and her band. Especially after ...

Terrorbird For all the fuss being stirred up by major press outlets about the rise of electronic dance music, one factor that's often glossed over is how the pump was primed by acts like LCD Soundsystem, the Rapture and Out Hud. Groups like those drew from many of the same dance, disco and club influences that are now driving the new school ...