Music

The Australian folk-rock band Husky takes its name from frontman and chief songwriter Husky Gawenda, whose croon soars over the group's artfully crafted instrumentals. Husky is the first Aussie band signed to Sub Pop Records — and, with its lush harmonies and thoughtfully crafted lyrics, it fits right in with its labelmates and indie-folk contemporaries in Fleet Foxes.

If you've been watching the HBO series Treme with us, welcome back.

If you're new here, welcome in the first place. WBGO's Josh Jackson, a New Orleans native, and I have been watching the music-saturated program set in post-Katrina New Orleans for two years now. After every episode, we try to establish some context for the many musical references and live performances the show features.

Texas troubadour Ray Wylie Hubbard makes his 11th appearance on Mountain Stage, recorded live on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown. Hubbard first found success after writing "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mothers," which became a beer-joint jukebox anthem some 40 years before anyone thought about singing the praises of a Solo cup. A high-school classmate of Mountain Stage host Larry Groce, Hubbard even played with him in a band for a while.

Following a series of tapes and 7-inch singles, Love Is Love // Return to Dust is the first full-length by Code Orange Kids, and it's an untamed, unpredictable beast of a hardcore record. With its members just out of high school, perhaps the hardcore/doom/noise/post-rock shuffle-play chaos of the young Pittsburgh band is a sign of where we're at in heavy music — fewer boundaries, more ways to crush eardrums. But it's one thing to acknowledge your influences and another to destroy them altogether.

Early fans of Mumford & Sons' debut album, Sigh No More, had to wait a while for the London band's second release. Marcus Mumford, Country Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane spent the last three years traveling the world and playing to increasingly huge crowds as their popularity bloomed.

Albums made by collections of professional studio players once had a bad reputation with the traditional rock audience. Such works were supposedly arid and chilly — more like the results of a board meeting than the recorded adventure of an organic group of fabulous friends. Some music fans may still feel that way, but they are few. Nowadays, a tight-knit gaggle of session musicians like the Analog Players Society gets points from traditionalists simply because the music is made by flesh and blood.

Germany's Oktoberfest — that annual celebration of all things lager — kicked off on Sept. 22 in Munich, the festival's birthplace. In honor of the 200-year tradition, NPR Music and opbmusic.org in Portland (America's microbrew capital) team up to present a limited-time music channel devoted entirely to songs about beer.