Johnny Staxx and the Durty Boyz’ debut album captures the raw sounds of a performance fit for a bar.

Returning home can be the most rewarding and reflective of journeys, as it’s often a means of coming full circle.

In some ways Brooklyn-via-Columbia, Mo., indie rockers White Rabbits have the sounds of their musical affiliates permanently embedded in their music.

Andrew Bird always finds a way to approach familiar musical territory with innovation. Bird creates unique, yet catchy music that blends classical, jazz, rock and folk, breaking the shackles of category.

No matter how much napkin you shove in your ear, the P.A. system at Chapel Hill Underground on Rosemary Street is still going to hurt.

On first glance, “Friends with Kids” seems like it takes the formula of unemotional sex buddies and interchanges the sex with raising a child.

Tuesday marks the release date of “A Church That Fits Our Needs,” the latest record from local orchestral indie-pop act Lost in the Trees. The album, the band’s third, features swelling string sections among other acoustic instruments to form a rich, dreamlike sound.

In comedies, some concepts get routinely drilled into the ground. Black-guy-meets-white-guy cop duos, fat people acting silly and stoner antics have all had their day in the sun.

If you were at the pajama rave at Cat’s Cradle last month and smelled something burning on stage, it wasn’t a short in the expansive lighting setup, one of the lasers overheating or a glitch in the 3D projection mapping rig — it was actually the frying of a particularly tasty meat.

As Bowerbirds, Beth Tacular and Phil Moore have crafted delicate, captivating folk songs that make the heart swell.

The Clearing is a record that almost didn’t happen for local duo Bowerbirds. Faced with illness and a temporary break-up, Beth Tacular and Phil Moore spent a year apart.

Attempting to straddle the void between “Jeepers Creepers” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Gone” will ultimately tumble into the ravine of mediocre thrillers.

With the occasional thrash of a banjo or hack at a mandolin, it’s certainly trendy for bands to try to capture the sound of early bluegrass and folk music.

The Best Picture frontrunner tramplesover its “talkie” competition by breathing life into along-forgotten genre. If “The Artist” does win Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, it will be the first silent-film winner since 1929.

In a nation filled with Disney, Pixar and various other companies known for their work in children’s movies, “The Secret World of Arrietty” tries to insert itself into the animated world.

Living in Oklahoma isn’t exactly everyone’s idea of “cool.” Some might argue that mixing bass clarinet or bassoon with indie rock isn’t either.

Considering the importance of collaboration for many local musicians, a mixture is the perfect way to describe the community of artists, genres and bands that comprise the Trekky Records family.

Bitter Resolve is one of a handful of metal bands in the Triangle gaining steam on the local scene. Its slow but powerful tunes burn slowly and hit hard all at once. Frontman, guitarist and vocalist Robert Walsh talked Triangle metal and more with Assistant Diversions Editor Allison Hussey.

My generation is anything but naïve. Embittered by news media, as well as Comedy Central, we cannot accept purported truths with a nod and smile.

In a dusty enclave at the end of the month, surrounded by stacks of comic book-filled cardboard boxes, Andrew Neal was sifting through forms and ticking boxes, readying the next order for Chapel Hill Comics on Franklin Street.