Water Liars create songs of novelesque visions. Straightforward, bucolic and romantic imagery of a breakfast-catering kitchen and a clean bed serve as the setting for "Linens."

People Get Ready is an art-pop quartet out of Brooklyn, New York prone to making music videos laden with nebulous subject matter. Such vagary allows for the reimagining of the phrase "art pop."

Sun shines fierce on Kansas City's Country Club Plaza. The business district bustles with affluent types and prom-goers.

As night descends on Kansas City and Middle of the Map Fest, St. Louis' Dots Not Feathers and their assorted company of boyfriends and friends wait outside the Riot Room for load-in. It is 6:30 p.m. before the crew hauls its gear on and around the stage.

After a seven-hour sojourn with stops at Williamsburg's Crane's Country Store, the inimitable Ozarkland and Columbia, Mo. for alcoholic slushies from Tropical Liqueurs, the crew of Stephen Baier and Nick Blackburn of Dots Not Feather, Joel Burton of Bear Hive and myself find our hotel room in the Hilton Garden Inn.

An expedient introduction: Middle of the Map Festival's genesis began post-the Record Machine, a record label owned and operated by Missouri native Nathan Reusch.

The Demo feels like a church's basement. Visitors to the club enter another dimension where worship is optional since a basement avoids the light of day.

A line of 50 people stood before the entrance of the Firebird some time around 8:30 p.m. Steeped in the well-known buzz of "stoked," they chatted amicably amongst themselves and fellow waiters.

Youth Lagoon
"Wondrous Bughouse"
Fat Possum

Youth Lagoon's second album, "Wondrous Bughouse," captures the mercurial cerebrum of a 20-something thinker with aural examples of torturous moments in young adulthood. In lieu of conversation, Trevor Powers will exorcise his chronic anxiety by making records with vistas of psychedelic musical plains. These pathways to Powers' mind funnel in the ambience of the Cocteau Twins and mysticism of Tangerine Dream.

On a dreary February night, Stephen Baier moves through Shock City Studios. Dots Not Feathers' central songwriter has to be reminded to slow down: His brisk shuffle hurtles him back towards the studio where Ryan Myers, Jessica Haley, Katie Brookings, Nick Blackburn and Chris Dickey await his return.