Grayson Haver Currin

For the first time, the band members, their crew and their fans tell the story of a landmark moment they didn't realize was happening. Sonic Youth's new album, Live in Brooklyn 2011, is out this week.

On her best album to date, Feist mines age and experience, love and loss to shape 12 songs about the hard-earned insights of simply existing.

The saxophonist and composer resisted his Japanese American heritage for decades. He now funnels that painful and triumphant personal history into a string of vital records.

Kurt Wagner's Nashville collective has always been an expression of absolute possibility. The Bible, his best album in a decade, points that instinct at life's most inescapable truth.

Matt Pike overcame long odds to find success in metal bands Sleep and High on Fire. But his deepening obsession with conspiracy theories has created a dissonant riff.

An arthritis diagnosis means the latest album by the Bay Area band The Dodos is likely its last. It is a striking reminder of the oft-overlooked physical strains of music careers.

This Heat lasted for less than seven years, but helped shape the future of music, from noise rock to experimental electronica. Today, its groundbreaking catalog is finally available to stream.

At 54 years old, the dance music superstar has shifted more of his time and money toward animal rights activism and philanthropy. Does he have to change himself if he wants to change the world?

No, songs addressing climate change aren't new. But the new music that does seems animated less by a sunny streak of mainstream activism, and more by a certain feeling we all seem to be sharing.

The Austrian electronic-music pioneer uses his laptop to splice, sample and otherwise subvert the sound of his guitar and field recordings, in the process forming crackling electric symphonies.