In the long arc of American rock music, few bands have cast a shadow as strangely elongated as Big Star, a group whose commercial impact barely registered in their own time, yet whose aesthetic fingerprints show up everywhere in the decades that followed. Formed in Memphis in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel, Big Star emerged as a paradox: four young Southerners working inside Ardent Studios, conjuring immaculate pop songs that seemed to arrive

Cat Power, the creative identity of singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, occupies a singular and profoundly influential space in American music, foundational to modern indie rock and experimental songwriting. Her catalog is defined by an unflinching emotional rawness and deep, instinctual craft. Marshall's career is a restless evolution, seamlessly traversing the fractured minimalism of early New York noise rock (Dear Sir, Myra Lee), the intimate, soul-soaked restraint of the Mem

In the quiet corners of indie rock, few bands have left a mark as subtle yet enduring as Karate. Formed in Boston in 1993, the group constructed a refined sound that uniquely married the precision and improvisation of jazz, the rhythmic complexity and tension of post-hardcore, and the spacious calm of slowcore. Centered on the intricate guitar work and thoughtful lyricism of Geoff Farina, the band built a legacy on intricate musicianship and patient song structures that rewar