Slow and steady wins the race, but sometimes, as in life, you need a moody sidekick to get you through it. (Or maybe that's just Daria.) Over the course of three mid-tempo albums, True Widow's stoner-rock and shoegaze mix (dubbed "stonegaze," of course) trudges with back-breaking heft. It's actually perfect music for hiking — tough and determined, yet as hypnotic as the rhythmic crunch of dead leaves beneath your feet. The thudding "Four Teeth" comes from the Dallas trio's forthcoming album, Circumambulation.

My favorite True Widow tracks tend to be ones where guitarist D.H. Phillips and bassist Nicole Estill trade vocal duties — or, better yet, twirl on top of each other like smoky wisps. "Four Teeth" is mostly Estill's show, with her classic 4AD voice and distorted bass matching time with Slim TX's steady drum hand. Turn it up on a good pair of speakers or headphones, and "Four Teeth" rattles like a heavier bummer jam from Neil Young's Zuma, complete with one-string guitar solos.

Circumambulation comes out July 23 on Relapse Records.

Now that we've taken a look back on the year (so far), it's time to go full-speed ahead with a look to the future. On this week's All Songs Considered, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by a revolving cast of NPR Music's finest to share some of the summer albums they're most excited about.

We kick the show off with an album that isn't technically a summer release, but it'll certainly be talked about a lot in the coming months. Kanye West swore his Yeezus record wouldn't leak ahead of its June 18 release date. But it did and Frannie Kelley offers an early review, along with another new release she's excited about from hip-hop artist Schoolboy Q.

After a shimmering blast of electro-pop from the band Gauntlet Hair, Stephen Thompson, Lars Gotrich and All Songs intern Thor Slaughter then battle to see who can rock harder, with bruising rock from Neko Case, the two-piece punk group No Age, a guitar-free metal track by the band Pinkish Black.

Also hear great new music from Omar Rodriguez Lopez and Teri Gender Bender's most recent project, Bosnian Rainbows; a lush and hypnotic track from electronic artist Shigeto; and the extremely orchestrated studio-pop of new-comers San Fermin. Yay summer!

So far, 2013 has been a year of impressive comebacks, with a number of veteran musicians returning after extended hiatuses. Electronic artists Daft Punk and Boards Of Canada are back with their first new albums in eight years. David Bowie is back with his first new release in a decade. And My Bloody Valentine finally dropped an album fans have been waiting for for more than 20 years - a followup to the band's legendary 1991 album, Loveless.

So this got us thinking: What other veteran artists need to return with a new album?

I would have said Sebadoh, but that band is, in fact, releasing a new record in September, the band's first in 14 years. I wouldn't say "no" to a new Peter Gabriel album with all-new songs, or one from Talking Heads. I was holding out hope that Pink Floyd would do another album (even if it paled in comparison to the band's earlier work). But after keyboardist Rick Wright died in 2008, I figure it's probably the last we'll hear from the group.

But really, even though John Bonham shuffled off this mortal coil long ago, I would love, love, love to have a new Led Zeppelin album. I bet they could pull it off. Bonham's son, Jason, who's no slouch of a drummer, could sit in.

Tell us what you think in the comments section. And while you give it some thought, check out the guest DJ set we did with Daft Punk.

Editor's note: Daft Punk's Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo visited our New York City bureau to speak with All Songs Considered about the making of their new album, Random Access Memories, and share music by some of their favorite artists. NPR Music's Sami Yenigun spoke with the band from our D.C. studios. Read the Q&A below, where we've embedded YouTube videos of their selections, or listen to the entire interview. You'll find more guest DJs in our archives, including sessions with Thom Yorke, Brian Eno, and Panda Bear.

Sami Yenigun: Thank you so much for coming in. I want to ask you guys: What are some of the influences that came into putting [Random Access Memories] together?

Thomas Bangalter: The idea behind this record was to focus on the eclecticism and variety of the music that we like and actually not thinking in any kind of formatted way about music or any musical genres, and that's why we really like this chaotic — initially chaotic — juxtapositions of all the different collaborators that worked on the record and all the different styles and different eras that the music was pointing towards. So we really liked the idea of breaking all the barriers between these musical genres. It's a little bit like a hard drive where things are fragmented and next to something completely different.

Yenigun: A lot of these collaborators are from the golden age of '70s and disco. Is that something you were pulling from when you put thought into this record?

Bangalter: Not really. It's true that we very instinctively and spontaneously reached out to musicians that have touched us, and which we really love. And whether it's Nile Rodgers, or Giorgio Moroder, or Paul Williams, they are really iconic artists and iconic producers and songwriters, and it was a blast to have the ability to interact with them and ... create something new. Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder are really the foundation for modern pop music and dance music, and we were really excited by the idea of getting with them and doing new music together, and also preserving a certain craftsmanship that we loved from these records from the '70s or early '80s that were special for us. But we really tried to create something more composite, something that didn't really exist. And that's the juxtaposition and the idea of Random Access Memories: the juxtaposition of different ideas, of putting a Panda Bear from Animal Collective and Julian Casablancas from The Strokes next to Paul Williams or Nile Rodgers.

Yenigun: I'm curious, are there any examples of these records from that era that we can take a listen to?

Bangalter: "Good Times" from Chic is definitely one of these records that we wouldn't stop listening to when we were 10 or 11 years old. It's really what it's about and what dance music and disco music is about, which is having a good time.

Yenigun: Great let's take a listen.

Yenigun: So you said you were pretty young when you first heard this song. I'm curious after all these years, does it conjure up the same feelings you had when you first heard it?

Bangalter: It's timeless and universal music. We get the same feeling we get when we were kids, for sure. And I think it's the same for everybody. If you drop that song in any club or birthday party, people are going to fill the dance floor right away. It's instant effect.

Yenigun: And this is something you wanted to bring to your record?

Bangalter: I think it's something we try to do in our music: We are making the music we would like to listen to. So making music for us is a very personal process. We aren't really making music for the audience or thinking about people's expectations. So the music on this record is really the music we wanted to make because it's the music we wanted to listen to. It's true we wanted to create music that could fit in some timeless place or timeless zone, where we can keep a focus on an instant effect that would last. So that's why our creative process takes a lot of time, sometimes years making records, because we like making a song or making a track and letting it rest and seeing if it does indeed have that lasting power.

Yenigun: So you feel that you need to take a step back after you've taken the first step toward a song?

Bangalter: Yes, that's something we usually like. Sometimes we feel this thing instantly, but sometimes we like to let it rest a little bit, like wine. A track like "One More Time" on our second album, Discovery, we recorded it in 1998. While we were making the rest of the record, it sat on a shelf for almost two and-a-half to three years, and by the time the single was out in late 2000, it became the sound of 2000 or 2001. But it had been made three years before, and some people are still listening to it today. But we felt like, at least internally, we had tested the song and somehow tried its longevity internally before releasing it.

Yenigun: This is a very dance-y track with that 4/4 beat underneath. I noticed that not everything on the new record has that 4/4 kick necessarily. I'm curious, did you feel that you wanted to make a record that included things that didn't need to be played in a club? Are there any examples of songs that you can think of that are better suited for bedroom listening or places outside of a dancefloor?

Bangalter: On our albums, there has always been a fraction of the record that is oriented to the dancefloor and "One More Time" is a song like that. And other pieces of music that are not necessarily four-on-the-floor records — a track like "Something About Us" on Discovery — can be maybe similar in tone to new tracks on the record, like "Game Of Love" or "Within" or "Beyond." And at the same time, "Lose Yourself To Dance" or "Get Lucky" might have certain similarities with the spirit of "One More Time" or "Around The World." We usually say that "Around The World" was a song inspired by disco and by Chic, and there are definitely similarities between "Around The World" and "Get Lucky." The main thing is that we really replaced the drum machines by live drumming, but apart from that, the music comes from the same place. We're making music like the soundtracks of our lives and we don't really associate it with a certain environment where music can be listened to in a bedroom or a dancefloor. But this album, Random Access Memories, felt for us like a musical journey, where we were trying to break the different barriers and the different genres and not think really stylistically about four-on-the-floor or not. The process was more spontaneous than that. It's maybe focusing more on the emotion. And if you take a song like "Retrograde," from James Blake, that we really like, when we listen to the song, we don't think about whether it's something we listen to in a bedroom or a dancefloor or in a living room, rather than just feeling touched by the power of the music, whether we're listening on headphones walking down the street or during night times with friends.

Yenigun: You said this song is something that conjures up a great deal of emotion in you. I'm curious, what is it about James Blake's music that stirs up these feelings inside?

Bangalter: It's pretty much inexplicable. Probably because it's the magic of the music. But I think James Blake is an example of a new songwriter — a new artist, a new musician, a new producer — that manages to express beautiful things with his voice and with modern technology, with synthesizers, drum machines and electronic instruments. And that's, for us, the perfect example of how we love to interact with electronic music instruments. Our record does not have a lot of electronic music instruments. There are a few tracks that have more of it, you know, but it's true that we're living in a time where we're not feeling really touched by electronic music that fails to carry those kind of emotions. But it's always good to listen to a song that is made with electronic instruments and feel something deep inside. So that's why we really like him.

Yenigun: I'd like to hear an example on your record that uses electronic technology, maybe not in instrumentation, but...

Bangalter: Probably the most electronic track on our album Random Access Memories is called "Doin' It Right," that we co-wrote and co-performed with Panda Bear from Animal Collective.

Yenigun: He's one of the many guests you had on this album. How'd you go about picking the people you wanted to feature on this record?

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo: I think we didn't really pick anybody. Rather, [we] randomly sometimes bump into people that we like, like Pharrell Williams, who we bumped into at a hotel room about three or four years ago and then bumped into again at a party two years ago, and then spoke a bit and decided to work together on some songs. Panda Bear, for example, put out an album two years ago called Tomboy, and he reached out to us to do a remix of one of his songs and we decided to go back to him and propose [that he] be a guest performer on our album. Paul Williams we met through Chris Caswell, who [had] been playing keyboard on Random Access Memories and has been an arranger and was the best friend of Paul Williams. All of the guest performers, rather than us actively going to them, it's been more like life put everyone in the same room or hotel lobby and [we're] randomly meeting these people. And what's fun is that all these guests are people that we love so much.

Yenigun: So, the human connection.

de Homem-Christo: Yeah, it's really life, human connections. It's really simple. We've always been really shy and making music in a small bedroom on our own. And in more recent years, we've been more open to the outside and working with different collaborators. When we did our movie, Electroma, it was the first time we were in touch with a big team, a big group of people. And then working with an orchestra on Tron, teamwork has been more and more something that has interested us. And especially on Random Access Memories, the team was so big and such in a good vibe, and a lot of enthusiasm went into making the record, and a lot of love that we all share, I think it's all one of the best things that has happened to us recently: sharing our work and allowing people into our bubble and maybe us getting into a bigger bubble with all of them. Random Access Memories is the result of all that teamwork, and it's one of the things that I think we are most proud of. But it's all been random and the result has been incredible [for] us. We are really thankful and really blessed.

Yenigun: You mentioned Paul Williams as one of the guests you had on the record. Can we hear some of his music?

Bangalter: Yes. I mean, probably one our favorite songs or moments from Paul's career, which we really admire from beginning to end, is the song called "The Hell Of It," which is the ending title [music] of the movie that we love so much called Phantom Of The Paradise, directed by Brian De Palma. It's a 1974 film that had a very major place in our teenage years, [in our] discovery of films and music and what we wanted to do as musicians and as artists.

Yenigun: You mentioned this song is hugely influential in your teenage years. I'm looking at the list of songs you brought in and one of them is The Strokes' "Hard To Explain," which, for me as a teenager, was a big, big record. One I listened to all the time. I'm curious why you picked that one.

de Homem-Christo: I picked it because, obviously, Julian Casablancas is on our record and has been one of our favorite composers in the rock category, and that song in particular, to me, is full of magic. Julian and The Strokes to me are... meeting Thomas when we were 12 or 13, we were huge fans of The Velvet Underground, and the New York punk scene in the '70s has been influential on what we do, even if you don't notice. And I think The Strokes and Julian Casablancas are really in the legacy of great bands. And The Strokes, to me, are as good as The Velvet Underground. So we've been really lucky to work with them and that song to me encapsulates the magic of The Strokes.

Yenigun: God, I love that song. That's a more rock-y influence like you said. You're known as electronic music producers, and I know that's sort of a limiting term, because you've done things in a lot of different genres. What was an influence in the electronic side of what you do? Are there any names in particular that stick on your mind?

de Homem-Christo: A lot of them in the '70s, when it started. But, I mean, Kraftwerk was very influential, obviously. And maybe more close to us in France, Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygène album.

Yenigun: Where were you when you first heard the Oxygène album?

de Homem-Christo: I think we were so small. We were babies. Maybe that's why, it's been there since we were born.

Bangalter: The funny thing with Oxygène is that the recording engineer and the mixing engineer that mixed it in the studio — where we recorded Pharrell's vocals and Panda Bear's vocals — was an audio consultant on our album, too. So it's one of those connections we [got to] invite on board, people that really contributed to the songs that we love — in the same way that we recorded [Daft Punk fashion engineer Janet] Hansen recording in a studio in L.A. that used to be A&M Records, where Paul Williams recorded all these songs, and The Carpenters recorded their songs, too. So it was interesting, too, to see the connections between the people and the places that were taking us back to this music that we love.

Yenigun: For those at home, who are less familiar with Jean Michel Jarre, can you tell us a little background on him and then we'll listen to his music.

Bangalter: He is the son of the famous French composer Maurice Jarre. He wrote the Lawrence of Arabia score, for example, the soundtrack. He's been making electronic music since the early '70s-mid '70s.

de Homem-Christo: You would have Tangerine Dream and CAN or Neu! and Kraftwerk. He was part of the electronic scene from the '70s. The ambient scene.

Yenigun: And what have you brought for us [to hear] today?

de Homem-Christo: It's "Oxygène (Part II)" — Oxygène songs are like "Part I" and "II" and "III" and "IV" — and this part was maybe less known. But I really like the classical side of it and it could have been done today, in a way.

Yenigun: Our producer, Robin is having an "oh my god, I remember this" moment right now. You said you heard this song when you were really young. We're running out of time, but I wanted to ask you if there was anything on the new record that any young kids listening to this show right now, that you'd want to have the same effect that this song had on you? What do you think you'd pick, what would you go out on?

de Homem-Christo: I think "Motherboard." Listening to that song again right now, I think there are a lot of similarities with "Motherboard," or it has a lot of similarities with that song. Mainly because we used a modular synthesizer on Random Access Memories which is a big, big wall of cables. It's like an old synthesizer that people used in the '70s and '60s and earlier. And that typical sound is what you can hear throughout our album. And "Motherboard," which is the only instrumental song on the album, is full of this big modular synth.

Yenigun: I want to thank you so much for coming in. Daft Punk has been a huge influence on my musical taste and it's been a pleasure talking with you today.

Bangalter and de Homem-Christo: Thank you for having us.

Earlier this week, while we were prepping our list of favorite songs and albums of 2013 (so far), we asked you to tell us your own No. 1 track for the first half of the year. We got a ton of submissions and made a little mixtape with some of the highlights for you in Spotify and Rdio.

Thanks to everyone who submitted a song. As always, you can continue the discussion in our comments section below.

I adore this song, and the video makes me love it all the more. "Green Blood" is from Sonny and the Sunsets' new album, Antenna to the Afterworld. It's a record filled with cinematic tales, told simply with guitars, bass and drums. And none of those tales are told as endearingly as they are in this song and video about love on a distant planet.

I probably love the storytelling here so much because it reminds me of another artist I adore, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers. It makes even more sense when you discover that Sonny Smith is also a playwright and author who draws comic strips and more. Smith saw "Green Blood" as a chance to make a sequel to another animated video for "Planet of Women," from a previous album, Tomorrow Is Alright. So he reached out to Teppei Ando, an animator and painter from Oakland.

"[Sonny] sent me the album, pointing out 'Green Blood,'" Ando tells us via email. "He thought it would be cool if it was a conversation between [Sonny and the Sunsets guitarist] Tahlia [Harbour] in a cab, and I immediately thought of 'Planet of Women' when I heard the story within the song."

Ando says he likes to visualize his animations by going for a run. At first he tried working on another song called "Dark Corners," and when it was time to try another idea — this time for "Green Blood" — he says it was time to put on the running shoes

"I went on another run, this song being much more immediate for visual inspirations. I approached animating in two distinct looks to further differentiate the line between what might be real or not real, though it's all a blend. I suggested that Sonny himself illustrate the taxi customers who come in and out. He was game, and pretty soon I had enough people to fill the San Francisco Mission streets. After that, it was just about working to a very giving song and continuously getting subtle visual inspirations as I went along. Our little take of the sci-fi genre, I guess."

For Sonny Smith, "It's strange to see yourself as a cartoon," he says in a note. "The song began as a comic-strip idea. Weird that someone else returned it to the original idea."

We get a lot of mail at NPR Music, and amid the American Girl catalogs we never ordered is a slew of smart questions about how music fits into our lives — and, this week, how first-time music-festival attendees can survive and thrive in an overwhelming setting.

Kendall Levinson writes: "Any advice for a young person going to his or her first music festival this summer? Any tips for preparation or survival would be appreciated."

Whether you're wading through the boiling asphalt at Bonnaroo this weekend, gaping over the gorge at Sasquatch or taking in any of a zillion festivals popping up on six of the seven continents, festival preparation can be broken into three categories: music, logistics and simple survival.

Let's start with survival. When I first became a parent more than a dozen years ago, the local PTA installed a chip in my brain that contains the following stern lecture: People die at music festivals. Sometimes it's drug- or alcohol-related, often it's due to dehydration and/or overexposure to the elements, and occasionally it's due to freak injuries as a result of stage collapses or folks leaping around and landing the wrong way.

It's impossible to live a life in which you encounter no risks, but take basic precautions: Bring powerful sunscreen and a portable cell-phone charger. Have earplugs handy whether you think you'll need them or not; don't hesitate to pop them in at a moment's notice. Abandon footwear-related vanity and wear the most comfortable shoes imaginable. Get thee some shade and other means of cooling off; check in with the state of your skin and your body temperature. Drink water like a mofo — even if it means building expensive onsite bottled stuff into your festival budget. Hang back behind violent mosh pits, should they arise. And think through worst-case scenarios involving illicit substances, even alcohol; you're in a huge crowd of people, many of them idiots, often at a remote location. Is your first music festival the time to relinquish control over your faculties? Go with friends and keep an eye out for each other; it's no fun to babysit drunk or otherwise addled companions, but prepare for the possibility, because the alternatives can be far worse.

That leaves music and logistics, which are often intertwined. Show up early, because it's way more fun to wait outside the gate with your friends at 11 in the morning than it is to sit in standstill traffic while thinking about everything you're missing. When you're dealing with multiple stages — any set-up where you're choosing from a menu of musical options at any given moment — plan ahead and jot down where you'd theoretically like to be. Take advantage of Bandcamp, Spotify and a million other ways to pre-screen festival acts you've never heard of. Many large events have useful apps for your mobile devices to help you plan, but remember that hugely crowded areas full of young folks often get crummy cell-phone reception, so jot down backups on an old-fashioned piece of paper.

Finally, remember that the best part of leisure planning — whether it's a music festival or a low-key vacation — comes from serendipitous opportunities to abandon your agenda altogether. Maybe your group meets a bunch of fun strangers who want to see a favorite band you've never heard of. Maybe you get word of a surprise appearance by an artist you've always wanted to see. Maybe the single most appealing option in a given moment is to walk to the quietest spot on the grounds and spent 10 minutes drinking a smoothie in the shade. Prepare yourself for any festival you attend, but always remain notionally open to life's infinite capacity to surprise.

Got a music-related question you want answered? Leave it in the comments, drop us an email at allsongs@npr.org or tweet @allsongs.

"Plastic Cup," the moody opening cut to Low's latest album, The Invisible Way, recalls a friend's substance abuse, a lifetime of dependence on others and a soul-crushing future of pointless drug tests. But in a strange new video for the song, director Ryley Fogg takes those themes in a dark and curious direction. Creepy, hooded figures intercut with black-and-white images of the band performing in period costumes.

It takes a while to realize that the alien creatures seen in the video are actually massive giants. And the band is playing inside a glitter-filled snow globe. Frontman Alan Sparhawk sneers sarcastically and rolls his eyes through every line, before the band breaks into a kaleidoscopic dance, shot overhead, like something out of a Busby Berkley film.

"I have known director Ryley Fogg since we were in a band together in college called 3D Psycho Paisley," Sparhawk tells us via email. "The video imagery draws heavily on the look of the first 'talkies,' taking the band thru a psychedelic, alien encounter from outside our little sparkly world."

This is the second video from Low's Invisible Way. The band previously released a Phillip Harder-directed performance clip for the song "Just Make It Stop."

Guys, did you hear? The '90s are back! By all means, don't let go — you've got the music in you — but as the nostalgia gap gets shorter every year, there's a fine line between homage and theft. That's why recent rock bands like Milk Music, Speedy Ortiz and Roomrunner get it right, ingesting bands that made 120 Minutes and the left side of the dial vital, while still demonstrating that there are still plenty of raucous hooks to mine. You can count Two Inch Astronaut among that growing list, thanks to its spastic freakout "Spank Jail," from the forthcoming Bad Brother.

Reckless and irresponsibly catchy, "Spank Jail" is clearly a product of Two Inch Astronaut's surroundings in suburban Washington, D.C. It explodes with a twisted riff and a nasty bass line out of The Dismemberment Plan or Frodus, but in those bands' respective misfit-toy phases — goofy, awkward and loud as all get-out (hey, it's the '90s). But the chorus is where Two Inch Astronaut sets itself apart, finding two notes to breathe before the gliding, melodic full-steam-ahead. This is nerd music for who those who plug in.

Bad Brother comes out June 18 on Exploding in Sound Records.

It's that time of the year again, when All Songs Considered co-hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton are joined by NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and Ann Powers for a look back at the first half of the year in music. On this week's All Songs Considered, the four battle it out over their biggest surprises and favorite new artists, songs and albums from the first half of 2013.

It's already been a big year for music. Our midway list includes remarkable comeback albums from veteran artists David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Boards of Canada and My Bloody Valentine. We've also got Vampire Weekend's best album to date, a strange and transfixing record from The Flaming Lips, and the wit and wisdom of Chance The Rapper, plus the mysterious and sexy sounds of Rhye, the swoon-worthy voice of Valerie June, raw rock from Savages, the veteran electronic and dance band Daft Punk and more.

Listen to the full conversation above and check out the playlist below to see what the crew had to say about their favorites of the year so far. As always, tell us your picks in the comments below.

For more great music from the first half of the year, check out NPR Music's 25 favorite albums and 50 favorite songs. You can also tell us about your favorite song of the year so far.

The latest video for the Canadian electro-pop band Young Galaxy is a study in stark, disturbing contrasts. "Here it comes again, the beautiful, warm weather," sings frontwoman Catherine McCandless, just as all hell breaks loose.

McCandless says the seemingly big-budget spectacle is meant to ask fans to rethink the meaning of the song. "The video for 'New Summer' came out of many wine-fueled, philosophical discussions about the nature of videos and their role, and how a lot of modern videos miss the mark by failing to add anything of substance to the song," says McCandless in an email. "Director, Ivan Grbovic agreed we should try to make a video that is ambitious and intelligent, or not bother making one at all. This was achieved through no small feat, as Ivan had to assemble a large team of post-production wizards in order to create the dazzling epic you see before you."

"New Summer" appears on Young Galaxy's fourth and latest full-length, Ultramarine, out this spring on Paper Bag Records.

We get a lot of mail at NPR Music, and amid the perfume samples that inadvertently leave our fingertips smelling like a soap factory is a slew of smart questions about how music fits into our lives — and, this week, the challenge of describing our favorite bands to the people around us.

Zach Rowe writes: "In one week this summer, my wife and I are going to three concerts: Dawes, The Lone Bellow and Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. People who don't know these bands have asked me what kind of music they play. Dawes, folk-rock; The Lone Bellow, country-soul; Thao, I have no idea. None of these titles seem to be particularly helpful, though, and the word 'alternative' means almost nothing. What do you say in a similar situation?"

You are absolutely right about the word "alternative" — when you start to suspect that a term has been warped into nothingness, it's usually wise to chase that feeling. "Alternative," like "indie" or "hipster," can provoke reflexive disdain, and doesn't evoke a sound or give anyone a reason to care. And what we're really talking about is just that: giving your friends a reason to seek out the bands you like.

Think of talking about your favorite bands the way you'd think of any persuasive argument, and start by asking, "Why should people care?" In the case of music, interrogate yourself a little bit: "Why do I like it? What does it evoke in me, or say to me? Why does it matter?" It's fine to say that Dawes plays bittersweet Southern California folk-rock with smart, personal lyrics; that's a perfectly apt description. But why do you like it, specifically? Maybe it's the energy and passion of the live shows, or an ability to mix energetic barroom rock 'n' roll with a thoughtful ballad like "A Little Bit of Everything," which actually aims to break down the meaning of life. For many fans and many bands — certainly for the ones you describe — talking about music isn't that far removed from talking about feelings.

Speaking of the phrase "a little bit of everything," you want to shy away from generalities when you describe your tastes in music — even if you do actually feel notionally open to music in all its forms. It's okay to be a little self-effacing: I often joke that my favorite music involves a bearded man singing about his feelings with an acoustic guitar while a woman from Portland plays the cello. Only a vanishingly tiny percentage of my favorite bands actually fit that bill — it's basically Horse Feathers, Blind Pilot and a couple others — but the description opens a window to a style that often speaks to me.

Getting back to Dawes, The Lone Bellow and Thao, all three don't fall too terribly far from the folk-rock family tree, so you can certainly start with that term. But, having already touched on Dawes, I'd describe The Lone Bellow and Thao based on their distinct ways of presenting songs. The Lone Bellow is sort of vein-bulgingly earnest, with boy-girl singers who dig for intense emotions; the result feels like The Civil Wars singing with the intensity of a Glen Hansard. (Yeah, it's fine, within reason, to throw out comparisons as shorthand. The important thing is to persuade.) Meanwhile, Thao is about live-wire energy, and about the kind of jagged precision and intelligence she brings to music that's catchy but a little strange, and always unpredictable.

The important thing here is to bait the hook with something alluring enough to give people who might like the music a reason to bite. The worst that can happen has nothing to do with others disliking your favorite bands; it's your friends opting never to listen to them in the first place.

Got a music-related question you want answered? Leave it in the comments, drop us an email at allsongs@npr.org or tweet @allsongs.

When singer-songwriter Grant Olney started working on his latest album, Hypnosis For Happiness, he never imagined it'd take six years to finish. But after laying down the first tracks in 2006, Olney left for the U.K. and the Netherlands to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics. After finishing a 300-page dissertation on something called "high dimensional geometry," Olney returned to music and found himself reflecting on identity, friendship and what it means to really know someone. It's a knotty mix of emotions and ideas he tackles in a touching new video for the song "Not From Body."

"'Not from Body' is a love song about the many ways we can know each other," Olney tells us via email. "About how even when we're isolated and far away from those we care about most, we can find comfort, companionship, and maybe even love, in the creative works of others. That's a freeing thought for me. It makes me worry less about a lot of things."

Director and animator Hlín Davíðsdóttir used paper cutouts to tell the story of a little owl ostracized by the other animals.

"My main focus was to tell the story of a character that, through a series of both sad and comical moments, finds his own path in life," Davíðsdóttir writes. "I felt the song was about trying not to worry about things that are out of our control and I wanted that feeling to come across in the video."

Grant Olney's new album, Hypnosis For Happiness, is out July 2.

Masaki Kobayashi's 1964 film Kwaidan drifts around your brain like a mist of evaporated blood. It's a cinematic retelling of four Japanese ghost stories — some outlandish and frightening from the outset, but mostly reeled in by suspense that comes from what the director once called "the juxtaposition between man's material nature and his spiritual nature, the realm of dream and aspiration." This is the perfect mindset from which to consider the band Kwaidan — a new drone-based rock trio featuring Neil Jendon on synths, Zelienople's Mike Weis on drums and Locrian's André Foisy on guitar — and the slow, menacing 12-minute build of "The Sound of This Bell" that closes Make All the Hell of Dark Metal Bright.

Much like Locrian's forthcoming Return to Annihilation, Dark Metal Bright works best as a whole, with an opening three-part suite that feels like the murky miasma of two otherworldly and occult soundtracks: The Last Temptation of Christ and Lucifer Rising. Yet "The Sound of This Bell" makes the best use of the trio's talent, with Foisy's melodic and mournful guitar, Jendon's obtuse and barely there synths, and Weis' cymbals blending into the squiggly modulations. It all builds to a deafening climax of searing synth and rolling percussion, razing the foggy space between fantasy and reality.

Make All the Hell of Dark Metal Bright comes out today on Bathetic Records.

We're about to get deep into our "Best Of The Year (So Far)" coverage - and our annual summer music preview. But before we do, we've still got a lot of great music from the first half of 2013 to share. On this week's All Songs Considered, hosts Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton play new releases from some beloved artists who made some amazing records in the '90s, then went on extended breaks. Hear return singles from the power pop band Superchunk, Stephin Merritt's lyrical pop group Future Bible Heroes and Sean Nelson, former frontman for the Seattle rock band Harvey Danger.

Also on the program: Great new psych-rock from the band Crocodiles; Pete Yorn's new Brit Pop-inspired band The Olms; glossy electronica from the Australian group Alpine; pipe organ pop from Anna Von Hausswolff; the strange new sounds of John Vanderslice and experimental rock artist Dirty Beaches; the ridiculously charming and sweet harmonies of the sister duo Lily & Madeleine; and an epic jam from the Lawrence, KS rock group Hospital Ships.

Plus, hear the absurd (but so very true) story of how Bob injured his leg, and how he's getting around the new NPR offices without crutches.