When first we met Wallpaper. in 2005, the project was Eric Frederic’s way of making earnest, artful music while satirizing the lack of genuine sentiment in mainstream pop. Then, the music was composed on computers and the lyrics were delivered strictly in Auto-Tune (almostunheard of at the time), further emphasizing the sterility of hackneyed song themes.In the four years since, as Wallpaper.’s become a genuine phenomenon via three well-loved EPs and an unforgettabl...

Mississippi-based singer/songwriter and ukulele aficionado Dent May crafts elegant and whimsical pop tunes in the vein of Jens Lekman and Magnetic Fields, with a dash of Serge Gainsbourg and Jonathan Richman thrown in for good measure. In 2008 May inked a deal with the Animal Collective-founded Paw Tracks imprint, culminating in the release of The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele the following year. May soon turned to creating dance music under the name Dent Sweat, re...

White Arrows may never divulge the source of their strange magic, but it's hard not to picture a mystic dance floor hidden in the midst of a tropical rainforest. The Los Angeles band stands at these balmy crossroads like a vision from an alternate reality: classic without leaning on nostalgia, visionary but not unfamiliar. What should be a collision of sounds and styles-ritualistic rhythm and four-four thump, synth sequences and strummed guitars, garage-y grind and airy atmosphere-is, in this...