Jeff Terich

If we’ve learned anything from rock music in the ’00s, it’s that a rock band only really needs two members. Yet the guitar and drum (or bass and drum) duos who have made the loudest and most dynamic music are part of a more exclusive clique that make the most of their limitations, which in some cases is none at all. Lightning Bolt, Death from Above 1979, No Age and, of course, The White Stripes have all pulled off the trick of playing the most immense music possible while sticking to their minimal lineup. And they’ve all managed to do so without sounding anything like one another, with the dynamic ranging from Lightning Bolt’s noise assault, to The Stripes’ classic rock, to DFA79’s dance punk and No Age’s own unique blend of shoegaze and punk rock styles.

Indie rock doesn’t really have a single, unifying ethos, but the closest to such a thing might be “doing more with less.” It’s not by choice so much as necessity, however; with a smaller budget comes the increased challenge of stretching it as far as it will go, and finding a way to fill space without the added benefit of expensive studio equipment. Easily accessible recording software has changed some of that in recent years, and independent labels have increasingly been crashing into mainstream success, but in a pre-Arcade Fire world, it took a little more ingenuity to turn low fidelity into a higher form of art.

Since the release of their debut album Wagonwheel Blues in 2008, Philadelphia’s The War on Drugs have treated their album titles as a kind of shorthand for the stylistic techniques that color those very albums.

Nick Cave ‘s always been a storyteller, but for much of his career those stories weren’t necessarily his own. He delivered trash-culture retellings of Shakespeare and the New Testament. He reinterpreted American blues and folk tradition in more grim and shocking ways. And he created a definitive pop song depiction of the devil

On Nov. 3, 1983, two separate explosions just minutes apart tore through Wise Fashions at 427 E. Broad St.

I wouldn’t exactly call it a milestone, but this is the 14th end-of-year metal list I’ve compiled for Treble. My first was in 2011, and remarkably—as is sometimes the case for a lifers-only genre like metal—one of those same bands appears on this list as well. But a lot has changed since then, primarily that the scope of the year’s best metal list has expanded threefold, and we’re on year two of it being a top 30. It almost became a top 33. But then again, having that much great metal in a single year is a good problem to have, I suppose.

We've highlighted our picks for the best headphones of 2023, including wired and wireless over-ear headphones and wireless earbuds

The opening of the Canal Walk in downtown Richmond in June 1999 saw the unveiling of more than a dozen murals on the floodwall, depicting figures from throughout the city’s

In 1984, following a Henrico sting operation, Charles Frith earned the dubious distinction of being the first person arrested for the sale of counterfeit Cabbage Patch Kids dolls.

We’ve revealed our favorite albums of the year, along with our favorite songs, plus the best in metal, jazz, hip-hop, experimental and reissues. And we’re continuing our coverage of the best music of 2024 with deeper dives.