David Christensen

Watch this Saskatchewan singer-songwriter play a bittersweet song about betrayal.

The relatively new band, selected for our Slingshot program, knows how to start small and end big. "Had It All" takes a looping pop riff and ramps it up to an all-out rock jam.

The Oregon band plays the reflective, striking "Joik #3," a tribute to frontman Israel Nebeker's father, live for opbmusic.

With their buttery harmonies, the Portland sister trio makes the move from quiet acoustic songs to flourishing anthems.

Heartless Bastards released Restless Ones, the band's fifth album, last year. That followed a long stretch of almost constant touring before the group slowed down long enough to write. Not surprisingly, the songs reflect a certain world-weariness and a persistent sense that it's time to keep moving. Last summer, ...

This week, opbmusic and NPR Music premiere a new performance from the Pickathon Woods Stage, featuring the Brooklyn band DIIV. The video begins with a brooding song called "Yr Not Far" and segues briskly into a second song, "Dopamine." The latter was released a single last fall, and deals ...

Bassist, singer and producer Stephen Bruner, a.k.a. Thundercat, has an impressively wide-ranging resume, from playing in the band Suicidal Tendencies to touring with jazz great Stanley Clarke; he's also collaborated with Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington and Kendrick ...

Melbourne, Australia's Husky is the duo of singer-guitarist Husky Gawenda and pianist-singer Gideon Preiss. This year, Husky released Rucker's Hill, and while the album's full sound lends gloss and percussion to Gawenda's songs, both voices shine in this duo setting.

SET LIST

• "I'm Not Coming Back"

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Mackintosh Braun's brightly colored, danceable pop songs have appeared on TV series like Grey's Anatomy and Gossip Girl, and the band's song "Never Give In" was even featured in the Veronica Mars movie. In spite of this success, Mackintosh Braun remains largely under the radar in its hometown of Portland, ...

The Portland, Ore., band Blind Pilot made its first appearance at Pickathon in 2014. After several years spent making a name in the Portland area — and touring behind its first two records, including a famous tour by bicycle down the length of the West Coast in 2009 ...

Portland singer Liz Vice didn't set out to sing; her first passions were acting and filmmaking. She also didn't grow up with gospel music, and says she's uncomfortable with the gospel-singer label. But Vice began singing through a local church, then with a gospel collective called Deeper Well.

Her surprising ...

The gorgeous harmonies of Joseph come from three sisters: Natalie, Allison and Meegan Closner. The sisters' happy memories of visiting grandparents in Joseph, Ore., high in the Wallowa Mountains helped compel them to change the name of their group to Joseph two years ago. They kept things simple ...

Double K and Thes One, of the underground hip-hop duo People Under The Stairs, do their share of freestyling in this song, "Tuxedo Rap," recorded live at Pickathon. The song was a high point in a set that seemed perfectly in tune with its setting: a ...

Perfect for an outdoor summer night, Mac DeMarco's song "Freaking Out The Neighborhood" opens with the words, "Sorry, mama, there are times I get carried away." But nothing about the song conveys worry at all, as DeMarco presides over a briskly paced arrangement that finds his voice set ...

A first impression of Diarrhea Planet is likely going to be four guitarists at the front of the stage: "Wow — that's a lot of guitars." And also the intentionally obnoxious name. Onstage, they start songs with volleys of hooks and distortion, not so much counting in a tune as ...

Valerie June's surprising blend of Appalachian folk and blues styles is rendered unusually powerful by her timeless but distinctive voice. Dan Auerbach produced June's 2013 album Pushin' Against A Stone, which introduced us to this song, "Workin' Woman Blues," with its shifting rhythms, dulcimer-like guitar and plaintive lament. ...

The Portland band Greylag quietly released a great self-titled debut in 2014. Produced by Phil Ek, the album finds a sweet spot in which moody, autumnal songs receive a welcome jolt of gritty electric guitar.

"Arms Unknown" opens with Andrew Stonestreet's strummed verse and gains momentum throughout a thumping chorus ...

The Brooklyn-via-Texas band Parquet Courts released two albums in 2014: Sunbathing Animal in June and Content Nausea (under the name Parkay Quarts) in the fall. In a performance last summer at the Pickathon Music Festival, the band introduces one of its new songs, "What Color Is Blood." With ...

This week, opbmusic and NPR Music present the first video in a new series: Pickathon Woods Stage. Each month, we'll premiere a new video recorded at the 2014 Pickathon Music Festival, hand-picked by opbmusic to showcase some of the most exciting performances from last summer's lineup.

Last year, Angel ...

London band Yuck's buzzworthy 2011 tour included a stop at SXSW, where they played the NPR Music showcase and marked the release of their debut album. They returned with their second album, Glow & Behold, in October. In the interim, former lead singer Daniel Blumberg left the band, ...