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An acid-loving hip-hop crew takes on the dark side of reality "Sometimes I like to take a trip real deep into my mind," says Meechy Darko of Brooklyn hip-hop trio Flatbush Zombies. "I travel back into my consciousness and face my demons." So far, that's worked out well for Flatbush Zombies, probably the first hip-hoppers […]

Beyoncé's favorite YouTube stars break out on their own  Sisters Chloe and Halle Bailey are only 17 and 16, respectively, but they have Michelle Obama as a fan, and they appeared on the video album for Beyoncé's Lemonade. "Magic was in the air in New Orleans," says Halle of their work in the clip for […]

Synth-poppers turn quiet angst into an excellent album Brooklyn has become a top exporter of great synth-pop bands in recent years. But Wet have set themselves apart with music that combines the elegant ache of Nineties R&B with the raw honesty of indie pop. "I feel like that's a very pure thing," singer Kelly Zutrau […]

An EDM whiz finds the "human element" Electronic music has been good to Harley Streten, a.k.a. Flume. His blend of stuttering beats, trance-y synth swoops and woozy ambient effects has scored him Top 20 hits in his native Australia and featured spots at Coachella and Lollapalooza. But as the 24-year-old approached his second album, Skin, […]

How a famous dad and Miley shaped a great punk band SWMRS co-leader Cole Becker is hanging from the ceiling. The California punk rockers are charging through bracing, hook-y songs off their debut, Drive North, at a New York show. They even return to the stage after their allotted set time and keep rocking unplugged. […]

An L.A. soul-rap visionary who wowed Dr. Dre A little more than a decade ago, Anderson Paak was a high school kid in Ventura, California, playing drums in his Baptist church and setting chopped-up samples to homemade beats. A demo tape sparked deal meetings, and his dreams seemed to be taking solid form. "I thought […]

Futurist soul from a former magician and dancer "I like casting spells," James says. "Nina Simone, Led Zeppelin, Nirvana, Michael Jackson, Prince – people who are really powerful, they cast spells." On his debut EP, Whutcha Want, the Harlem singer-songwriter lives up to that bravado with a futuristic blend of gutbucket soul and modern groove, […]

An indie-pop prodigy takes off Greta Kline wants to meet at her high school hangout, the local diner where she and friends would loiter for a bit too long after class let out. At Eli's Market on New York's Upper West Side, the macaroni-and-cheese costs so much per pound it may as well be made […]

A chart-topping Danish singer with a radical background  "I knew how to mix a Molotov cocktail before I knew how to mix a Long Island iced tea," says Lukas Forchhammer. The Danish singer-songwriter grew up in Copenhagen's Christiania neighborhood, an autonomous commune founded by anarchist squatters, and routinely battled local police. "We threw rocks at them," […]

A suburban shut-in turns anxiety into garage gold Will Toledo is garage rock's most promising young songwriter, but for years music was something he did by himself. He started out recording alone, in bedrooms, dorm rooms and – now somewhat famously – the family Subaru, parking after school with his guitar and laptop outside big-box […]