78%Overall

PHOX
PHOX

Albums
If you’re from the area, you know PHOX. To the rest of America, these new hometown heroes from Baraboo will be the only Wisconsin name they can remember besides Bon Iver (they even shared a production home at t...
74%Overall

First Aid Kit
Stay Gold

Albums
The world first heard from Klara and Johanna Söderberg seven years ago when they covered a Fleet Foxes song on YouTube. Plenty of acts have sprung up on YouTube, but few have blossomed in the same way the siste...
87%Overall

Sharon Van Etten
Are We There

Albums
If you are a human being with working emotions, there are plenty of albums that will make you cry. That’s not what we’re dealing with here. Sharon Van Etten has become famous for exploring the dark convolution ...

Essential Tracks:
PAPA

Essential Tracks, Madison
Childhood buds Darren Weiss and Danny Presant formed PAPA under the burning intensity of the Los Angeles sun. And weirdly enough, that’s what they sound like. I’m not talking about the jangly beach rock that’s ...

Banks: “Goddess”

Songs
Banks’ career has not been unlike the arrival of spring itself — it veritably sprung out of the ground. With the release of her 2013 EP, London, Banks became the center of international attention, and she’s bee...

YACHT: “Plastic Soul”

Songs
Usually when I write these daily song blurbs, I listen to the song over and over before putting my fingers to the keyboard. YACHT’s “Plastic Soul” took a little longer: I listened, but then I read. And read and...

Ha Ha Tonka: “Colorful Kids”

Songs
It’s been a brutal winter. With the arrival of spring, people seem to come out of the woodwork, soaking in that long-lost Vitamin D. But it’s more than their smiles that make that change so evident — even the e...

Doe Paoro: “Walking Backwards”

Songs
Doe Paoro has a ghost-like, chiming voice, clean and minimalistic production, and a Wisconsin-based backbone. For her upcoming EP, Ink on the Walls, Paoro and her creative partner Adam Rhodes came to Wisconsin ...

First Aid Kit: “My Silver Lining”

Songs
The world was first treated to the pairing of First Aid Kit and Bright Eyes’ Mike Mogis in 2012 with the release of their second album, The Lion’s Roar. Mogis’ bells and whistles paired with the sisters’ voices...

Q&A with
Dessa

Interviews, Madison
Combine a philosophy graduate, a classical composer, and a creative non-fiction writer and you've got Minneapolis-based rapper and spoken word artist Dessa. If it sounds like a handful, it is — Dessa is current...