If Radiohead is “Experimental Rock” then Punch Brothers are Experimental Bluegrass.  

In the past, Chris Robinson has incorporated his musical influences into his original material the way an Italian chef works four cloves of garlic into a recipe — with total pride and absolute confidence in the distinct flavor of the finished product.   

Irony is not a concept usually shared by international cultures. Case in point: cats.
  

Welsh musician Gruff Rhys’ band Super Furry Animals released its major label debut, Rings Around the World, in 2001 and the group appeared to be a successor to the throne occupied by fading superstars like Blur and Oasis. The album put a brilliant, creative spin on “Brit Pop,” highlighted by fascinating sounds between the grooves.
  

Strung Out's current tour is dedicated to revisiting those solidly melodic, Heavy Metal-influenced albums, as they'll be playing both front to back nightly — a performance that's sure to fill every thirtysomething dude who still wears cargo shorts and oversized Pulley T-shirts with gooey nostalgia.  

Chicago’s Krewella represents another faction within the Electronic Dance community with its cross-pollination of Dubstep, House, Electronica and pure Pop.  

The Black Shades are the kind of high-energy band you can’t help but love. With songs that are catchy and performances that are electrifying, The Black Shades have an image and sound akin to The Hives.
  

To a certain extent, once you dive into each musical genre or subgenre, all bands start to sound alike. That goes for Australia’s Indie/Pop/Alternative group The Temper Trap, too. But just because everything “new” has already been discovered doesn’t mean that something old/overplayed can’t be enjoyable, right? The Temper Trap is definitely enjoyable. Plus, the band has the bonus secret weapon of lead singer Dougie Mandagi’s voice, which is quite unique.    

When I told a friend via cell phone that a band called A Lull was about to take the stage at the recently completed Pitchfork Music Festival his response was, “A what?” Possibly uninspired moniker aside, Chicago’s A Lull went on to deliver a dynamic, percussively driven set that drew heavily from the band’s 2011 full-length, Confetti, and this year’s EP, Meat Mountain.
  

Post Rock Brooklyn quartet Bear Hand's sense of humor is bannered up front with their name and extends through their playfully weird lyrical content, which often addresses serious subjects from a skewed perspective (or vice versa).
  

Perhaps it’s too prosaic to continue to believe that Stuart Baker created the persona of Unknown Hinson for a North Carolina public access show 20 years ago and thus began his Whackabilly onslaught of stages and studios. It may be convenient to imagine that Hinson blacks out his front teeth, glues on some cheesy sideburns and assaults his audiences with a raucous musical hybrid of Country and Rock.
  

 Born in Lake Charles, La., Lucinda Williams has the keen ability to craft Southern tinged Country songs that attract both AltRock and Country fans. In her 30-year career she’s become known as a deft lyricist, which is appropriate because her father, Miller Williams, was a well-known poet. Most recently, in 2011, she released the album Blessed, which reflected upon her growth as a musician.   

Having friends in high places never hurts and Kendrick Lamar has the fascinating fortune to boast a friend in a really high place. In a recent interview, the Compton, Calif.-cultivated rapper described Lady Gaga as “a good friend” — a connection solidified by the Pop bigwig making an appearance during Lamar's set at the recent Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago.  

In the ’30s, German scientist Wilhelm Reich proposed the existence of orgone, a biophysical life force that he postulated was at the root of sexual energy and later conceived as a subliminal living essence connecting everything in the universe.That explanation makes a perfect case for a quintet of talented Los Angeles musicians to have christened their highly charged and deeply grooved Funk outfit after Wilhelm’s fringe theory.   

Exitmusic’s recent Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, in which artists literally perform live amid desks in the media outlet’s office, was anything but tiny. The New York City-based quartet, led by husband-and-wife duo Devon Church and Aleska Palladino, played four songs from the band’s recently released full-length debut, Passage (on Secretly Canadian), all of which were delivered with a majestic sweep — both sonically and emotionally — that belied the modest surroundings that housed them.