the gentle waves

The members of Belle & Sebastian reconfigure themselves to support their own Isobel Campbell- - out in front now with a stellar set of her own songs

robert forster & grant mclennan

Not everyone took note when the great Go-Betweens ended their decade-long run a few years back. Now the band's founding pair are touring the old songs (plus a few new ones)-and suddenly, happily, there's a crowd

the flaming lips

BYOBB ("bring your own boom box") was the watchword in '98, when the Lips obliged their fans to throw multiple-box parties (oh no!) simply to hear Zaireeka. What will they make us do this time?

mia doi todd

Some of us here will be very surprised if there's a finer, more startling album of songs released this year than this performer's Come Out of Your Mine

francisco hinojosa

What's so funny about a death or two in the family? Ah, you have to be there... Fiction from a great Mexican fabulist

suki hawley & michael galinsky

A feature film, a photo exhibit, a book-this year's fruits from a creative team who seemingly never sleep

kitty craft

weird garage-sale records provide a sonic matrix for Pamela Valfer's indie hip-pop

lenola

sturdy Jerseyites wired the place to make their brilliant musical home brew

john sims

UK foursome infuse electronica with a melodic and wistfully human impulse

punctureviews

Top of the pile: the Delgados-in music as in literature, Scotland rules these days. Plus: Cibo Matto, Prolapse, Those Bastard Souls, Kristin Hersh, American Analog Set, Fugazi, Apples in Stereo, Kid Silver, Marine Research, Drunk, Pavement, Low, Oldtime Relijun, Tortoise/the Ex, Novak, Mogwai, Bailter Space, Jim O'Rourke, Songs: Ohia, Of Montreal, Red Krayola, Kevin Coyne, Wolfie, Family Fodder...

books

Biographies of hard-living performers Janis Joplin and Charles Bukowski; a Creedence memoir; poetry from Silver Jews guy David Berman; and more...