Let's get technical for a second: Yellowcard didn't appear out of nowhere with Ocean Avenue, their violin-spiked take on the sleek, speaker-slamming world of pop-punk. Believe it or not, the ban …

Descendents spent their lives disproving punk stereotypes, making music that embraces such seemingly un-punk concepts as romance, ambition, positivity, and brainpower. They delivered hardcore from its  …

Milo was never one to dumb things down, and Descendents' lyrical approach reached its intellectual peak with the philosophical album All and songs like "Jealous of the World," as Bad Religion to …

If anyone ever provided a soundtrack for letting the Lord into your heart, it's gospel powerhouse Kirk Franklin. The self-proclaimed "church boy" grew up playing piano in his auntie's Texas church, but …

When the Spirit moves a soul as deeply as it moves Kirk Franklin's, it's only natural that the faithful will want to get next to that shining light. Franklin's new-school gospel draws stars from the wo …

Elephant 6 began like so many other record store legends - a merry gang of high school friends (Robert Schneider, Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, and Jeff Mangum) sharing their love of the Beatles and Bea …

OK, we were lying: There is no easy, beginning-to-end way of explaining Elephant 6's constantly evolving world of mind-manipulating music. Ah, but that's exactly why it's such a rewarding stack of reco …

All the threads of country music's multicolored tapestry come together in Dierks Bentley's sound, which may explain how he's managed to make his face a fixture on CMT while still lighting the honky-ton …

Don't let the photogenic mug and pop appeal fool you, Phoenix-born Dierks Bentley's neck-deep in the twang 'n' holler building blocks of classic country music. He delivers the ultimate honky-tonk kiss- …