Listen to an exclusive track stream of "Coney Island" from the ensemble's upcoming album Brooklyn Babylon. 

Hear iconoclast psych rock band's latest album in its entirety as part of NPR Music's First Listen series.

Contributor Faith Salie finds out the truth about the music she listened to as a kid.

Watch Waxahatchee's intimate, early morning performance of "Swan Dive" at a bar in Austin, Texas during South By Southwest.

Greil Marcus once pointed out that lyrics are something that are felt before they’re understood. But Billboard editor Joe Levy reflects on why misunderstanding lyrics is sometimes more fun. 

Singer-songwriter Erin McKeown reflects on the intersecting worlds of music and sports fandom.

+ More: The Return of Baseball!

From The Beatles to Nick Cave to Britney, Team Soundcheck shares some of our favorite music about or inspired by the circus.

Hear "Brennisteinn," a new song from Sigur Ros' upcoming album.

Brooklyn band Ex Cops performs "Spring Break (Birthday Song)" in a funky Austin bookstore during South By Southwest.

Pitchfork called Godspeed You Black Emperor's 2012 song "We Drift Like Worried Fire" a "summary of everything that made this band great." But our Tough Critics think this song would sound really great if it just had some Taylor Swift vocals on top. We took their challenge – and decided to find out what that sounded like.

Touré plays basketball with The Purple One. Read an excerpt from his new book 'I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became An Icon.'

I’m not a big planner, and it kind of screwed me this year at South By Southwest. But even though I ended up sabotaging myself, I'm already excited for next year. Learn from my mistakes, kids.

Songs for the world wide ear, from the chart topping band.

Harper Simon, son of Paul, releases a psych-pop sophomore album with Division Street.

This year's South By Southwest music festival is over, and there's much to recommend. Soundcheck producer Michael Katzif recaps his favorite moments of the week.

Soundcheck producer Michael Katzif recaps Saturday at South By Southwest.

Soundcheck producer Michael Katzif recaps bands from Friday at South By Southwest.

The work of Michael Benjamin Lerner, Telekinesis always is just what I want to hear: big, catchy choruses, memorable guitar hooks, and the chance to see Lerner sing and play drums at the same time.

+ Listen: Full Concert by Alt-J, Songs from Youth Lagoon

Billboard editor Joe Levy on the just-released album from the late guitarist and icon. Hear more from Joe Levy here.

If you looked at the charts this week and saw that Jimi Hendrix’s newest, People, Hell & Angels debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard album tally and that David Bowie’s latest was on its way to claiming the No. 1 spot on the UK charts, you’d be forgiven for wondering if we’d all tripped, fallen into the Way Back Machine, and landed in 1972.
 
That’s the year that Bowie immortalized a Hendrix-like figure on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, capturing all the lost potential and mythic power of rock’s greatest improviser on songs like “Rock & Roll Suicide.” Two years earlier, on September 18, 1970, Hendrix had become the first of the rock stars to die for our sins (beating Janis Joplin by a mere 16 days), though like many of the departed starmen and women, he’s never really left us.