Ryan Hall

Indie rock

"Several Shades of Why." J Mascis. Best known as the main ax-wielder/frontman for beloved indie icons Dinosaur Jr., J Mascis is a master at combining punk-rock energy, heavy-metal muscle and classic-rock melody into his distinct brand of high-volume fretwork.

When Mascis goes it alone, his solo work takes on a softer and intimate quality, assuming a singer-songwriter mantle that strips away the distortion and feedback to reveal the fragile intimacy lurking beneath. His latest work, "Several Shades of Why," is Mascis at his most stripped-down, largely unadorned with little more than an acoustic guitar and his wavering voice.

Indie rock

"Smoke Ring for My Halo." Kurt Vile. Philly troubadour Kurt Vile began dropping his enigmatic mix of mumbled classic rock, hazy folk and streetwise proto-punk in the middle of the last decade, gaining considerable notice for 2008's "Constant Hitmaker," 2009's "Childish Prodigy" and 2010's "Square Shells" EP.

These records found Vile playing the elusive prankster, ducking and weaving through a lo-fi fog of spacey effects, offering layers of gorgeous guitar work offset by seemingly mundane or outright nonsensical vocal observations that played like private jokes that only Vile got.

Indie rock

"We Live In Rented Rooms." East River Pipe. New Jersey's F.M. Cornog (aka East River Pipe) spent a good part of his adult life drifting aimlessly as a self-proclaimed "garbage-head," a habitual drug and alcohol abuser who drove his life into an abyss he was certain he'd never get out of.

Ending up homeless and sleeping on park benches and in train stations, he was rescued by Hell Gate label owner Barbara Powers, the woman who encouraged Cornog to clean up and pursue music. Years later, the two are happily married with a young daughter and a pet dog, with Cornog holding down a full-time job selling tile for a Home Depot.

Every few years, Cornog hunkers down in his modest home studio and crafts shimmering guitar-pop masterworks, aching mini-opuses that fuse Television's shimmering fretwork and Springsteen's blue-collar realism to his gritty tales of drifters, drug addicts and gamblers.

Punk rock

"First Four EPs." OFF! Keith Morris comes as close as punk rock can come to having an elder statesman. At the very least, he can lay claim to having been at the forefront of the movement.

As the original vocalist for the hugely influential Black Flag -- as well as the frontman for hard-core legends the Circle Jerks -- Morris and his cohorts helped build the entire West Coast underground scene.

Rock

"Halcyon Digest." Deerhunter. Atlanta's indie-rock wunderkind Bradford Cox has wowed critics and amassed a sizable fan base with both his solo Atlas Sound project and his Deerhunter moniker.

Maintaining a prolific recording output and constant touring, Cox has assembled an impressive oeuvre that frequently has found him compared with universally acclaimed contemporaries such as Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear.

Cox's latest album, the Deerhunter-helmed "Halcyon Digest," files away the noisier bombast and rough-hewn psychedelia of previous efforts, stripping its 13 tracks down to their melodic essence. This more subdued atmosphere allows for a more meditative, pastoral ambiance that pits gorgeous layers of guitar over Cox's haunting and luminous harmonies.

Rock

"Grinderman 2." Grinderman. Back at the beginning of what has proved to be a prolific and varied career, Aussie post-punk crooner Nick Cave fronted one of the most combative and abrasive acts in underground rock, the much-feared, often-imitated but never-duplicated death-core bludgeoners, The Birthday Party.

Alternative pop

"Before Today." Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. Los Angeles-based artist Ariel Pink has been making music for more than a decade, mostly in his bedroom on old stereos and four-tracks.