The Chicago duo Two Whatevers drops a genre-smashing, high-energy protest album 'Punk Deluxe' that makes fighting hyper-capitalism sound like the best party of the year. You know that feeling when you have fifty tabs open, your phone is buzzing with notifications, and you just want to scream? Two Whatevers took that exact sensation, plugged it into a massive pedalboard, and turned it into a ten-track...

Take Jack Horton, a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose path to folk-Americana included stops at Japanese law school, Tokyo piano bars, corporate boardrooms, and government offices. His latest EP, "Imperfections," feels like finding someone's private journal set to music. And that someone happens to write really, really well. The five-song collection opens with "Set Me Free," a piano-driven confession that might surprise anyone expecting typical breakup bitterness. Horton...