Singer and guitarist Mayo Thompson formed the Red Crayola (or Krayola) in Houston, Texas in 1966 with Frederick Barthelme and Steve Cunningham, and has continued to lead the group up to the present day with an ever-changing cast of musicians. This complete interview by Oliver Hall.

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It must have been absolutely strange, thirty years after releasing a mostly-ignored record on Rough Trade, to find themselves playing a packed basement in Los Angeles for an audience made up mostly of people who weren’t even around then. But here they were, with personalities beaming! Ana carried herself like a wisened journeywoman, arching over her guitar and occasionally staring coldly into the crowd, her wrinkled face looking like it came off the cover of a Johnny Cash record. Gina, on the other hand, was all ebullient joy as she buzzed through not only the set but between-song banter about her Ebay obsession and other cute idosyncracies.

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The Mekons lived Leeds but dreamed Texas and Tennessee and after finding their feet in first-wave punk songs like “Where Were You,” they left the world of Rough Trade for the open range. They are working on a new album tentatively called 100 Years and singer-guitarist-activist Jon Langford speaks as he takes his dog to the vet. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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Micachu and the Shapes began with Mica Levi, a girl in her early twenties who doubles as a composer, triples as a grime producer and quadruples as a pop experimentalist. Along with Raisa Khan and Marc Pell, her band has risen in the U.K.’s indie scene with this year’s debut Jewellery but is already so post-vacuum cleaner. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

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American rock critics, after their oft-coldblooded fashion, took note of the battered heart of frontman Finn Andrews—son of XTC keyboardist Barry Andrews—since The Runaway Found first blipped the indie radar back in 2004. In this interview with Ron Garmon, Finn gives up a glimpse of characteristic romanticism while putting discreet end to some rumors.

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Download: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros “40 Day Dream”

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros—photographed here supporting Glasser, and spotted alongside L.A. RECORD in an L.A. Times article on new music in L.A.—will release their debut album Up From Below on July 14 on Community Music and Fairfax Recordings and on Rough Trade in the [...]

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Alela Diane comes from a town that was famous first for a gold rush and is famous now for its music, which tends toward the kind of thing that would show up on a brand new anthology of American folk. She shares a song on her new album To Be Still with Michael Hurley and speaks now before a show at Hollywood Forever. This interview by Thomas McMahon.

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