ContactMusic — Now in its 6th year, the Virgin Mobile FreeFest returned to the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, just outside Baltimore, and sported two... more info

Guardian Music — ZZ Top's third album offered this none-more-spooky take on the tale of a boy who just wanted to drive fast I'll come clean. There's a particular reason for me to be nominating ZZ Top for this slot today. Tomorrow I'll be flying to the US to interview... more info

Guardian Music — (Warp)In pop, the year 2009 will be mostly remembered for the death of Michael Jackson. But in recherché rock circles, 2009 will long be recalled as a hell of a year for the Brooklyn art-house band. Three groups released landmark records marking hig... more info

KEXP Seattle — Animal Collective don’t really like the spotlight. With 2009′s excellent Merriweather Post Pavilion, the group’s guitarist and writer Deakin took a hiatus and the band pursued a more sampler heavy work. The resulting album was surprisingly more... more info

Guardian Music — (Domino)How many Animals does it take to form a Collective? Two, officially. This minimum quorum has ensured maximum wriggle room for such an expanding, contracting band of psychedelic brothers, originally from Baltimore. They go by aliases – Avey ... more info

Here Comes The Flood — Texas trio ZZ Top are like the Ramones or Motörhead. They make the same album every time. They may have enlisted Rick Rubin to co-produce their new album La Futura, but singer and gutiar player Billy Gibbons made damn sure that their signature swa... more info

Guardian Music — (Domino)There are really two Animal Collective stories. There's the band's hopscotch artistic development – a self-confessed desire to never make the same record twice – which has led them through 15 years of campfire meditations, clattering psyc... more info

Brooklyn Vegan — The Virgin Mobile FreeFest returns to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD on October 6 with a lineup that includes Jack White, Skrillex, M83, Nas, ZZ Top, Santigold, Alabama Shakes, Ben Folds Five, The Dismemberment Plan, Allen Stone, Trampled... more info

Guardian Music — Animal Collective are back with a new song, and it crams in as many sonic niggles as humanly possibleReading this on mobile? Click here to viewPremiered by band member Panda Bear during the first ever show on Animal Collective Radio, the dizzying Tod... more info

melophobe — While many in Boston headed to the Esplanade to celebrate our independence with the Pops and Jenifer Hudson, the House of Blues was filled to sweat-capacity for the aural and visual explosion that is Sleigh Bells. You’ll get all hot and bothered lo... more info