Let’s get this out of the way straight off: The self-titled debut from local synth-driven pop rockers The Bynars doesn’t offer up anything you haven’t heard before. At all.

Beastie Boys have evolved from hardcore kids to beer-chugging brats to disco acidheads to funky skate punks to crate-digging jazzmatazzers to global hip-hop polyglots. Now, after a Best Pop Instrumental Grammy and a cancer scare, Adrock, MCA and Mike D return as…nostalgic foodies?

Some of the most intriguing records of late have been film scores by the Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and Trent Reznor. But it makes sense that following a developed narrative (or, well, Tron) would lend itself to crafting a compelling long-player.

Four years have passed since Battles unleashed their hyped, heavy and forward-thinking debut, Mirrored. While the supergroupish melding of post-whatever jazz and art-metal minds led to playfully inventive results, the quartet wasn’t immune to an old-fashioned clashing of egos…

LCD Soundsystem hung it up last week. If James Murphy’s disco-punk wonders taught us anything, it’s that just about any band—dance, rock or otherwise—lives or dies based on its ability to move us, both emotionally and physically.

At least two curmudgeons we’re aware of have maligned Boston’s Oilhead with unflattering comparisons to Paramore…

John Darnielle is like that friend who totally scares the crap out of you just as often as he tells you that it’s all gonna be OK. Which is about right—between childhood abuse, a meth addiction and a stint as a nurse in a psychiatric ward, the guy’s had a crazy rough life…

Rather than gathering years of leftover songs and calling it a mixtape, Chicago indie label Closed Sessions has adopted a more ambitious approach…

It’s an East Coast–West Coast thing with Middle Brother, an all-star Americana trio featuring John J. McCauley of Providence’s Deer Tick, Taylor Goldsmith from L.A. outfit Dawes and Matt Vasquez from Long Beach indie-rockers Delta Spirit.

Conor Oberst, 30, spent half of his young life building an indie-rock empire in Omaha. The last few years, it seems as if he’s been running away from what he created…