Ian Traas

Just as the coldest, most unbearable part of winter grabbed their native Canada by the throat, Braids' Native Speaker (thankfully) popped up on the radar. Crystalline guitars cascaded everywhere, tiny tropical drums peeked out from the background and Raphaelle Standell-Preston's surging vocals held the whole thing together. It sounded like...

Christopher Mercer, better known as dubstep purveyor Rusko, isn't really interested in drawing connections between electronic beats and the spaced-out sounds of Jamaican dub. He just wants to party. His take on the rapidly expanding genre is closer to the intersection of trunk-rattling bass music and pop, a concoction mixed...

The Thermals often get saddled with the "punk" tag, but that's a bit of a misnomer. Sure, the band has plenty of buzzing up-tempo anthems at their disposal, and they've been known to pair their high-energy sound with righteous political dissent, but they're not solely concerned with smashing the system...

For a scrappy DIY pop duo, Matt and Kim have enjoyed some pretty substantial success. Partially thanks to inescapable breakout hit "Daylight" (and partially thanks to a whole lot of web exposure), the pair are everywhere right now—being featured in TV shows and commercials, getting some radio love and playing...