One gets the sense that John Darnielle would completely lose it if he couldn’t write songs. Seriously, is there anyone on the current musical landscape who seems to get more out of unloading his fertile imagination than the prolific Mountains Goats ringleader?   

 After a handful of consistently diverse indie albums, Portugal. The Man got the call from the big leagues and delivered a world-class major-label debut with 2011's glam-charged In the Mountain in the Cloud.   

Ordinarily, Indie Rock, Halo and skating share a whole heap of nothing in common. But for Wild Moccasins vocalist/guitarist Cody Swann, each of those things has functioned as an all-enveloping obsession at some point in his life.   

Billed as primer for the Chicago quartet Disappears’ fourth full-length, to be released later this year, the freshly minted three-song EP Kone is a hypnotic dose of psyched-out Post Punk, an ominous soundtrack to a world that seems as dangerous and disturbing as ever.    

After the unexpected success of their 2010 debut, L.A. Indie rockers Local Natives return with the deep and reflective Hummingbird.  

Urgent and bracing, sullen and surrendering … the music of Frightened Rabbit often seems a mess of emotions tied up in a twitching, fragile guise of genius. Like a thin, bruised girl with a Kurt Cobain kind of problem, Frightened Rabbit would fall apart if you took any one thing (music, lyrics or sentiment) away from it.   

Brian Harding and Amalie Bruun have fairly lengthy Indie Rock genealogies between them, but none of their earlier affiliations would have indicated the sonic territory staked out on True Hallucinations, their debut together as Ex Cops.    

Mod Sun works a feel-good genre angle he’s dubbed Hippy Hop that runs on sunshine, positive vibrations and righteous herb. His infectious positivity and zest for living makes him Hip Hop’s Andrew WK.     

 Certain bands should just be required to tour every summer and then spend the fall and winter making a new album. Bands like Silversun Pickups, for example.   

Few duos make the visceral impact or cover the incredible range of Cleveland’s Mr. Gnome, comprised of impish guitarist/vocalist Nicole Barille and hammer-and-tong drummer/keyboardist Sam Meister.