World Cafe on The Gateway KWMU2

After a nine-year hiatus, the venerable rock band Camper Van Beethoven has returned with its eighth studio album, La Costa Perdida. Thematically, the record revolves around midlife nostalgia and the group's California roots.

Erin McKeown's new album, Manifestra, is a self-released, fan-funded vehicle for some of her personal and political folk-rock songs. She collaborated with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow for "Baghdad to the Bayou" — Maddow wrote the words, which McKeown then fashioned into a song — while "In God We Trust," "The Politician" and "The Jailer" find the singer speaking out about the death penalty, foreign policy and income inequality.

When she was 21, Sera Cahoone moved from Denver to Seattle to support artists like Carissa's Wierd, Band of Horses and Patrick Park. By 2006, she was focusing on her own solo work and releasing her self-titled debut album.

Formed in 2008, Pickwick members Galen Disston, Michael and Garrett Parker, Cassady Lillstrom, Alex Westcoat, and Kory Kruckenberg forged a path toward neo-soul and in 2011 released a compilation of music from three of their EPs. The result was Myths, released one single at a time on 7" vinyl, which put the band on the map and became one of the most popular albums of the year in Seattle.

Bat for Lashes, a.k.a. British singer and multi-instrumentalist Natasha Khan, has recorded three albums, and the first two received nominations for the Mercury Prize. Her most recent record, The Haunted Man, came out in October and has already been a considerable success, both commercially and with critics.