Going to an Akron/Family show is like attending a hipster tent revival, so it’s fitting that the band’s sixth album is full of psychedelic hymns for its flannel-clad brethren. Mixing folk-y melodies with strange rhythms and switching time signatures and tempos constantly, the band has fully realized its signature genre on Sub Verses: prog folk. Expansive opener “No Room” is a primal waltz with a grinding, repetitive ... Read More

Marnie Stern is rock personified. She writes the kind of music you can thrash around to (or ride your bike to and feel badass), and is just plain cool. Before the release of her fourth album The Chronicles of Marmia back in March, Stern hit up the SXSW festival. Luckily, MTV’s Weird Vibes were there to film it, producing the short documentary ‘This Is Marnie Stern’. In the documentary, Marnie and her cute doggie Fig charm ... Read More

Wowza, David Bowie. You done it again. “The Next Day” is the third video from his new album of the same name. It was written and conceived by Bowie, and he also stars in the vid. As usual our man’s in good company; this time he acts alongside A-listers Gary Oldman and Marion Cotillard, with direction by Floria Sigismondi. The video plays out as follows: while Bowie croons about death and pain in a dingy church brothel, ... Read More

Chicago-based duo Hobbyist are no noobs when it comes to creating a weirdo sound of their own. They formed the strange electronica project, I Luv Luv Birds, back in '04 but dropped the name and started anew as Hobbyist. As a garage-y indie rock band, Holly Prindle sings and Marc Mozga provides the guitar, bass, melodica, and drum machine programming. They've just released their first full-length as Hobbyist, a self-titled, angsty ride that ... Read More

It's been six years since Patty Griffin released an album of new material. Yeah, she did a way cool Gospel album (which won a Grammy) then recorded and toured with Robert Plant's Band of Joy but no new stuff since '07's stand out Children Running Through. Well, girlfriend is back with what I consider to be her most personal album yet and it's in tribute to her recently departed father. Although Ms. Griffin is identified as an ... Read More