Some nice new stuff this week! Live Mogwai, promising new neo-soul, and oh yeah, NEW SUFJAN!!!!***AIRHORN****

Let’s get started with…

Mogwai, Special Moves – The legendary post-rockers release the first document of their much-ballyhooed, powerful live show. Here’s Ian Gittins:

With their intricate, nuance-heavy instrumentation, powerhouse riffs and mastery of the loud/soft dynamic, Mogwai have always been the most visceral and profound of live performers, and this forensically effective album aches with eloquent, insatiable yearning. They are best when they are at their most intense; painfully plangent opener “I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead” thuds hard into the emotional solar plexus, as does the thunderous, 11-minute, quasi-metal crowd favourite “Mogwai Fear Satan.”

Sufjan Stevens, All Delighted People — And with nothing more grandiloquent than a day-before announcement, Sufjan Stevens is back in the world. With an EP. An eight-song EP. Remember when Isaac Brock used to do those? Here’s Joe with more:

The first proper collection of Sufjan Stevens songs in five years starts small: just Stevens’s voice trembling over a gently lowing choir. It gets bigger eventually, adding strings and horns and timpani and gradually expanding to an 11-minute opus that takes on American superficiality while extensively quoting Simon & Garfunkel. How’s that for a comeback? … Despite the fact that its bookended by two songs that push past the 10-minute mark, All Delighted People is mostly Sufjan in Miniature, a refreshingly modest affair that doesn’t break its back trying to give Steve Reich a run for his money. Even conceptually, he’s shifted to short story mode, junking big concepts about history and geography in favor of personal narratives.

Andreya Triana, Lost Where I Belong – Smoky, starlit neo-soul from the promising new Ninja Tune chanteuse. Here’s Andrew Harrison:

The opening track of Andreya Triana’s first album should intrigue anyone who’s burnt out on mannered, fifth-generation soul impersonators. “Draw The Stars” is a beautiful, swirling, Marimba-driven thing that owes more to Minnie Riperton, Martina Topley-Bird or even the sensual techno of Plaid and Boards Of Canada than it does to the narrow canon that begins with Aretha but ends up with Mariah. If the rest of the album doesn’t fly quite so far from the source, it’s still an impressive debut, placing Triana’s gentle, insinuating voice in a twilight world where you’re as likely to run into a picked acoustic guitar or a solo violin as you are a subtle bassline or a dismantled breakbeat.

Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Rivers – Wigged-out, uncompromising art-folk from the Swedish husband-and-wife duo. Here’s Ian Gittins again:

The Swedish husband-and-wife team of Andreas Werliin and Mariam Wallentin have long crafted a precious, precocious music that hovers on the verge of silence, but on their third album, they up the ante considerably. Originally released earlier this year as two limited-edition vinyl EPs, Retina and Iris, Rivers is a water-themed concept album, of sorts, with the baroque melodrama of the five Retina tracks contrasting starkly with the hushed introspection of their Iris counterparts.

The married duo have always cleaved closely to the minimal-is-maximal school of songcraft, weaving textured tapestries from little more than Werliin’s quasi-militaristic drumming and Wallentin’s spectral larynx, but this time around they decamped to Iceland to recruit the services of Björk collaborators Valgeir Sigurdsson and Hildur Gudnadóttir and the 12-piece Schola Cantorum Reykjavik Chamber Choir. The results are often reminiscent of Björk’s vocally fiery, paganistic 2004 album Medúlla, with Wallentin’s yearning tones sounding simultaneously vivacious and vulnerable against the glacial drifts of tracks such as “Bleed Like There Was No Other Flood” and “Tiny Holes In This World,” while “The Wave” is a glorious wash of steel drums and timpani.

Alan Moore, The Unearthing – Possibly the day’s oddest and most fascinating release. Alan Moore, he of the graphic novel The Watchmen, V is for Vendetta, and many other of the comics world’s most revered and enduring characters and stories, narrates an original story, scored by left-field artists as diverse cLOUDDEAD, Doseone and Subtle of Anticon; Mike Patton; Stuart Braithwaite; and others.

Those are the headliners. What all have you found?

Hello all! This week is light on big names, but there are a few great things we should talk about. Starting off with:

Skream, Outside the Box – One of dubstep’s leading lights pushes the genre forward in about ten zillion new directions! Andy Battaglia writes:

Outside the Box takes bits of Skream’s past activity and crams them into one swelling statement of purpose. The style changes drastically, such that a more or less ordinary mid-tempo rap track (“8 Bit Baby”) can shift meaningfully into the haunted and haunting robot sulk of “CPU,” which sounds like Kraftwerk coming apart and limping across a desert in the mid-day sun .. There’s a geeky sense of excitement and curiosity in both his reaching and his over-reaching, and his ears are clearly open and attuned.

Sky Larkin, Kaleide – Brainy, brawny Leeds trio makes tense, taut 90s-style guitar-centered indie rock! Chris Roberts says:

Their second album, again recorded in Seattle with Sleater-Kinney producer John Goodmanson, pulls them further from the stylings of Sleeper and Elastica and closer to the blueprints established by Belly and The Breeders. Like their forebears, they revel in abrupt rhythm shifts, surprising (sometimes exhausting) song structures, and an ability to smuggle potentially pretentious lyrical intricacies in via aggressive riffing. On first listen, Kaleide is for banging your head to. Second time around, it proves to be food for the brain.

Various Artists, Afro Beat Airways: West African Shock Waves, Ghana and Togo 1972-1978 – Yup. From Analog Africa, the label that brought you the fantastic Orchestre Poly-Rytmo de Cotonou. Fluid, spine-slipping grooves that spiral into a hypnotic state without ever growing monotonous. Despite the busily rattling, 3-against-2 percussion and soulful heat, the vibe is not frenetic – every song here feels lithe, poised, and relaxed. This is my very unsurprising PICK OF THE DAY, Joe-style.

Les Savy Fav, Root For Ruin – Les Savy Fav haven’t really altered their plan of attack ever, but it has never stopped being compelling. After being a band for 13 years, they are still turning out clamorous, vital-sounding records of straight indie rock. Hard to imagine long-term fans of these guys being disappointed here.

These New Puritans, Hologram – New single and Salem remix from the grandiose and challenging 2010 standout Hidden.

Immortal, The Seventh Date Of Blashyrkh – You think your live album has a cool title? Guess what: it doesn’t anymore. Because legendary black metallers Immortal have named their latest live record The Seventh Date of Blashyrk, which is either a fairly obscure reference to a demon/succubus creature or the result of slamming your forearm down on the keyboard. Either way, a quick taste test of this makes it sound appropriately pulverizing.

Odds N Ends! – Here’s the weird/notable/fun-sounding stuff I just pulled up blind from going spelunking in Freshly Ripped:

Sørgekåpe, Sinnsrøver – Nordic Emo! This exists!

T and Masson, Smoke My Blues – Bleary, found-sound-experimental takes on roadhouse blues…like GonjaSufi if his main influence was Albert King.

Hillside Heroes, The Good Times Are Killing Me – Terrible cover art, generic artist name, modest Mouse-referencing album title, ready to dismiss it, but I click on the samples and…hey! This is nice! Perky, well-mannered, strummy British indie rock.

You!?!?!?

Happy Suburbs Day, everyone!

I don’t really need to tell you about the today’s biggest release, right? No? Good, because Joe has plenty to say about it:

It says something that a band who ended their last record looking for “a place where no cars go” have arrived at the exact opposite. There’s even a car on the cover. The Suburbs finds the band moving from the possibility of the eternal to the vacancy and drudgery of the temporal. Gone — mostly — are the moments of Musical High Drama. On The Suburbs, the mezzo-fortes are meted out sparingly. Instead, the bulk of the record operates at a steady chug, Win Butler trading his pained skyward yowl for low, earthbound moan. “Suburban War” rolls along tumbleweed-slow, just a pirouetting electric guitar and hushed vocal. “City With No Children,” the record’s most melodically triumphant moment, doesn’t even have a drum track — just finger-snaps and a far-off guitar part, always ready for the rush but fading out before it ever comes.

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Where The Messengers Meet: Despite their crazy backstory, this jangly, psychedelic-leaning band is not a gimmick, and their sophomore LP makes coherence out of chaos. Kyle Anderson says:

Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band aren’t an easy sell nor do they inspire a natural embrace. This is complicated music meant to be listened to multiple times and deconstructed piece by piece. The melodies are often buried in the middle of the mix, covered by guitar fuzz, strange vocal harmonies and the insistent beat of Marshall Verdoes. Arrangements are developed and abandoned, only to resurface again for the crescendo. Yet somehow, Where the Messengers Meet becomes a coherent whole — perhaps not as a traditional rock album, but certainly as a transcendence-seeking worldview. It requires a level of confidence and skill that not even their complicated back-story can eclipse.

Autolux, Transit Transit: A welcome return for San Fran dreampop group Autolux, releasing their first LP in six years. Our own Jayson Greene says:

The air-conditioned electropop throb of the plushly pretty “Highchair” is wispy-unto-evaporating, while the bad-trip psychedelia of “Supertoys” pitches its way slowly down a wobbly winding-staircase verse melody before the blankly repeated chorus of “It’s all right/ You’re okay/ Just let it be broken” finds the bottom with a thud. Autolux excel at gorgeous bad-feelings music, an impeccably cool soundtrack for that knifelike, numbing pain behind your eyes the morning after a long, draining night out.

Versus, On the Ones and Threes: Versus’s first release in a decade (!). Maura Johnston says:

The 10 songs that make up On the Ones and Threes are immensely satisfying, poking and prodding at the traditional guitar-bass-drum troika. They twist and turn in ways that are unexpected, with guitar screeches here and manic drum fills there; they reach points of absolute beauty, like on the girl group-shimmery “Into Blue,” but then strain against that ideal just enough to make a listener completely uncertain about what might happen next.

Candy Claws, Hidden Lands: Hazy, whirring, intricate, eco-friendly dreampop. eMusic’s Caitlin Dewey says:

Hidden Lands is a gorgeous work — creepy at times, but also organic and pleasantly counterintuitive. Songs like “Sunbeam Show” play out as hymns, rising and falling around a cued-up cascade of flute and horn samples. Meanwhile, “Silent Time of Earth” blooms with warmth, even as an eerie whirring noise circles in the background. It’s not exactly the stuff of science fiction, but it’s fascinating nonetheless.

Dr John and the Lower 911, Tribal: Dr. John comes full circle with his latest LP. eMusic’s Richard Gehr says:

Dr. John (aka Mac Rebennack) comes full circle on Tribal, fusing the New Orleans voodoo funk of his brilliant 1968 debut, Gris-Gris, with the pissed-off political provocations of his 2008 post-Katrina manifesto, The City That Care Forgot. Tribal also offers a grooving sampler of Crescent City sounds, especially in its particularly tasty top half. Something subtly surprising starts to happen four songs in: Beginning with R&B legend Allen Toussaint’s new “Change of Heart” and culminating in “Manoovas,” Rebennack uses four cranky-yet-funky love songs, all perhaps inspired by a single “hard-kicking bee-otch,” to reflect the spiritual world’s spin on everyday life in his neck of Louisiana.

El-P, Weareallgoigntoburninhellmegamixxx3: Another aggressive toast to a country constantly at war. Ben Westhoff says:

On El’s third volume in the series — a 45-minute instrumental suite of continuous hip-hop — he offers up another masculine, aggressive toast to his home-country’s quixotic, perpetual warmongering. Actually, for El, the leader of venerable, mostly-shuttered New York label Definitive Jux and one of the darkest, most penetrating artist/producers working, Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3 isn’t as bleak as it could be.

And some quick hits:

Ferraby Lionheart, The Jack of Hearts: L.A. singer/songwriter with the coolest name ever. Slick, laidback folk with smooth harmonies and lots of acoustic guitar.

Ducktails, Landscapes: Atmospheric, largely-instrumental chillwave.

Bun B, Trill O.G.: The third solo outing from this Houston legend.

Gate, A Republic of Sadness: More largely-instrumental atmospherics, courtesy of Ba Da Bing Records’ Gate.

Matthew Dear, Black City: Matthew Dear’s fourth solo LP; dark, layered electropop.

Dragonette, Mixin To Thrill: A remix-heavy EP from New Wave/synthpoppers Dragonette.

Today’s New Arrivals herald the arrivals of Paul McCartney’s solo and Wings catalog in the UK and the EU. Joe already ran down these records when they hit the site in the US, but I would feel personally remiss if I didn’t pitch in my own enthusiastic/under-informed two cents. From the still-underrated, pastoral proto-indie-pop masterpiece Ram to the Grammy-nominated, Nigel Godrich-produced song cycle Chaos and Creation in the Backyard of 2007, the legendary Macca’s run of post-Beatles records is deeper, richer, and more consistently intriguing than he’s ever given proper credit for. Start with Ram if you haven’t yet heard it. It is a revelation.

Here is a rundown of ALL the McCartney records we received this weekend:

Paul McCartney:
Ram
Red Rose Speedway
Tug of War
Flaming Pie
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Unplugged

Wings:
Wings Greatest
London Town
Back to the Egg
Wings At the Speed of Sound

Elsewhere, it’s a bit of a light day, but that doesn’t mean (it NEVER means!) that nothing intriguing or worth your while sneaked in. On the contrary:

Pastor T.L.Barrett and the Youth For Christ Choir, Like A Ship (Without A Sail) – There will be a review of this up tomorrow from someone far more knowledgeable than I. But basically: It’s from reissue kings Light in the Attic, it’s a gospel soul classic with more than a hint of funk, it has some of the most hauntingly pure-voiced singing I’ve heard in a minute. Like a cool glass of iced tea.

Various, Ghosts from the Basement: Lost Songs, Dreams and Folkadelia from the Vaults of Village Thing, 1970-74 – A fantastic collection of the forgotten experimental folk scene centered around Village Thing Records. Anti- and freak-folkers, meet your granddads: hazy, opium-smoke-tinted folk music warped by psychedelics, with gnarled Celtic and Appalachian roots poking through. Fascinating.

Miyagi, Electrosaurus – Laid-back, harmony-rich, California folk-pop. Fans of the Byrds or fans of bands that are fans of the Byrds will surely enjoy. Track 1 is straight-up Notorious Byrd Bros..

On (Reworked By Fennesz), Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not – Shimmering, freeform ambient. To make an easy crack, I’m not sure, on first listen, I can actually hear the thing that DOES have form; but I hear plenty of the thing that doesn’t. Still, formless doesn’t mean it doesn’t make an impression — this somehow manages to soothe and unsettle at once.

What do you got?

Every Tuesday, the mix is fairly predictable: a number of long-anticipated new arrivals and a smattering of cool surprises. Today, however, we’ve got the reverse: there are a smattering of known quantities, and a whole barrage of under-the-radar stuff that sounds extremely promising. We’ll do the big stuff up here, the small stuff after the jump.

I will warn you: there is a lot. A feast for curious ears, some might say. I might say. I did say. Anyway.

The Avalanches, Since I Left You: This one gets bold, italics, everything. A modern classic. This has been unavailable digitally for years due to various disputes but, oh my God, it showed up today, and it sounds just as incredible as it did ten years ago. Soaring, soulful, un-toppable, everything that could possibly be right about sound-collage music. If you somehow do now own this, this is the record you need to buy today.

Wavves, Kind of the Beach: I pronounce his name so that it rhymes with “Aaaah,” and sometimes I like to shake my fist at the sky and just yell, “WAVVES!” in anger. I wasn’t buying the last one, but he’s stepped up his game on King of the Beach. eMusic’s Vvijith Assar says:

King Of The Beach gives the caked-on grime a much-needed power wash, and the change is remarkable — now the hostility cribbed from Nirvana and Yo La Tengo’s textural influences — previously obscured by distortion — ring through clearly. The signal-to-noise ratio has improved in a metaphorical sense as well — on Beach, Williams builds choruses by repeating moments that, in the past would have been fleeting. Most of them boast a newfound percussive propulsion, thanks to the recent addition of Jay Reatard’s former rhythm section.

School of Seven Bells, Disconnect from Desire: Second record from justly-beloved ethereal-pop outfit that remind me (and no one else) of Curve. Kinda. And a bunch of other bands from that era. Anyway. I should leave the talking to eMusic’s Alex Reynolds:

Disconnect From Desire, kicks off with the best My Bloody Valentine homage in years: squealing-banshee synth samples, futuristic, industrial sonics and droning, fuzzed-out guitar riffs. But this Brooklyn trio — featuring identical twin singers Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis — are more than just shoegaze purists; they’re one of the most exciting electronic-pop bands around, and they prove their mettle with a collection of 10 tuneful tracks that mix the forward-thinking sensibilities of Radiohead with the goth-romance of Joy Division.

Al Green, Love Ritual: WHOAH. Al Green rarities from the prime years, 1968 – 1976. Finding any information about this compilation online has been difficult to the point of being out-and-out puzzling. What gives? As you might expect, the music here is fantastic.

Admiral Radley, I Heart California: New project from Jayson Lytle and Aaron Burtch from Grandaddy and Ariana Murray and Aaron Espinoza from Earlimart. I haven’t listened to this yet, but eMusic’s Kyle Anderson loves it. He writes:

The album is a buffet of druggy guitar and aching melodies. While the hooks err more on the side of Earlimart’s latter day work (they definitely match the strength of the hooks on 2007’s overlooked Mentor Tormentor), the genre-bending schizophrenia is pure Lytle. The title track is an Elton John-piano-fueled ’70s AM radio relic, while “Sunburn Kids” turns MGMT’s freaked-out studio funk on its ear and “Lonesome Co.” manifests as a lazy alt-country jam.

Chatham County Line, Wildwood: eMusic faves Chatham County Line return. Our Peter Blackstock says:

Wildwood is squarely in keeping with the North Carolina ensemble’s four previous efforts, owing as much to folk-rock tunefulness as to bluegrass traditionalism. Banjo, mandolin, fiddle, upright bass and guitar help to lay down the foundation, but the key component of the quartet’s identity has always been its vocal approach. While high lonesome has its place in their aesthetic (as is clear when leader Dave Wilson reaches for the stratosphere at the end of the sorrowful “Alone In New York”), their singing is generally more likely to recall the SoCal ’70s country-rock heyday (as on “Crop Comes In”), or perhaps the backwoods soulfulness of The Band (see “Saturdays And Sundays”).

Crowded House, Intriguer: Hey now, heeyyy now. I always thought Crowded House were unfairly considered One Hit Wonders — Neil Finn is not a flash-in-the-pan, he’s a solid songwriter with a knack for subtle hooks. eMusic’s Melissa Maerz writes:

On their sixth album, [Crowded House] don’t really need the whole world anymore — they just want to play for one another. At least that’s the cozy vibe one gets from Intriguer, an intimate, old-friends set put together by Finn, his long-time collaborators Nick Seymour (bass) and Mark Hart (keys/guitar), and a few family members. Finn’s wife Sharon and son Liam even lend ethereal vocals and psychedelic guitar, respectively, to the highlight “Isolation,” which floats on ’50s-style earth-angel dreaminess. Much of the charm lies in the minor details, like the Korg microsynth on “Saturday Sun” or Liam’s pastoral guitar on “Falling Dove.”

Blue Giant, Blue Giant: Blue Giant are alumni of our eMusic Selects program but, in truth, they were stars before they ever got to us. Comprised of members of Viva Voce and the Decemberists, the apply the tunefulness of both bands to this country-rock project. eMusic’s Amanda Petrusich writes:

Blue Giant’s scrappy indie-rock is surprisingly countrified, a collection of knee-slapping, low-country laments infused with pedal-steel yawns and indebted, at least in part, to Gram Parsons’s enduring notion of “cosmic American music.” [They're] very much a West Coast band, and its endlessly addictive, self-titled debut mostly avoids the gothic foreboding — creeping kudzu, poisoned whisky, rising rivers — that animates its southern counterparts. There’s plenty of earned heartbreak here (“When my love is gone, it’s gone for good,” Kevin Robinson promises), but tracks like “Clean the Clock” and “Blue Sunshine” are also open, ecstatic stompers, as bright and burnished as the Pacific Ocean.

Kenny Rogers, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition: Last night, TBS showed the Seinfeld rerun where a Kenny Rogers Roasters opened up across the street from Kramer’s apartment and he couldn’t sleep because of the blinding red light from the sign, so he traded apartments with Jerry, which caused Jerry to start acting like Kramer, and which caused me to ask, “What the fuck ever happened to Kenny Rogers’ Roasters?” That was just one of many strange enterprises Rogers was involved in — the other was this (kinda?) alt-country/psych-country outfit that spawned a cult favorite, “I Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In” (not on here) and “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (on here). Definitely going to check this out today.

Carissa’s Weird, They’ll Only Miss You When You Leave: You may not have heard of Carissa’s Weird, but you absolutely have heard of the band they became: Band of Horses. This is Bridwell and Brooke at their chamber-pop finest, plying gentle melodies against lush orchestration. Can I go ahead and say that I like Carissa’s Weird a lot more than BOH? Take a spin through these delicate tunes and see if you don’t agree.

The Spires, Curved Space: This is great! California band does a kind of ragged, reverb-drenched pop music that swaddles easy-to-love choruses in buckets of echo. Really really great.

Busy Signal, D.O.B.: Busy Signal isn’t really below-the-radar, though he may be unfamiliar to eMusic Members. He’s a dancehall superstar, whose records are specifically engineered for summer. A quick spin through his latest finds him still doing fine work, dishing up breakneck dancehall tunes pepperd with quick singing and percolating rhythms.

Nicki Minaj, Sucka Free: I was super disappointed when I finally heard Nicki Minaj’s chart-topping love song, because it is nothing like the Minaj I’d grown to adore over the course of her badass, endlessly inventive mixtapes. This is a much better snapshot of Nicki, though it’s missing a number of her best songs. Still, her delivery and her deft ability to slip from one persona to the next, make this worth your time.

Stat Quo, Statlanta: Finally. This record was supposed to come out forever ago — like, 2003 — but got shelved and pushed back and rerouted due to the fact that record labels routinely panic and refuse to sell records if a single doesn’t take off on radio. Smart thinking, people! Good news is that it’s out today and, from a brief spin through, it definitely sounds like it was worth the wait: hard, determined, deliberate rapping with sturdy production. Recommended!

D.O. Misiani, The King of History: Classic 1970’s Benga Beats: If it’s Stern’s it’s gotta be good. And, boy oh boy, is it. eMusic’s Chris Nickson writes:

Benga, which became the music of Kenya, was the invention of D. O. Misiani, the King of History himself, and the leader of Shirati Jazz. Back in the 1960s, he’d created the new style by plundering Congolese rumba for the vibrant, multi-layered guitar work, South African mbaqanga for the deliciously active and elastic bass work, and put them with the lush singing of his native Luo tribe. It was a fresh, potent mix that he relentlessly honed to perfection and it made Shirati Jazz the most popular band in their homeland. The songs normally start off with a snappy guitar riff as introduction, followed by voices over lulling guitar work. Then, with the singing out of the way, the instruments get down to the serious business, galloping into double time as the guitars trade short, frantic phrases.

Futurebirds, Hampton’s Lullaby: Futurebirds are a group from Athens who ply something they call “cosmic country” — and a quick sample of these songs finds that description pretty much on the money. I think people here will really like this: weeping pedal steel, heavy atmospherics, ragged percussion and lonesome singing.

Big Troubles, Drastic and Difficult: Big Troubles’ Alex Craig used to intern in eMusic’s editorial department, so maybe I’m a little biased, but I love his band, and this four-song single splits the difference between industrial-strength scuzz and sweet, searching melodies.

Ernie Smith, The Best of Ernie Smith: Excellent compilation from VP profiling Smith, a singer that splits the difference between doo-wop and reggae. The songs here are all light, romantic and lovely.

El Guincho, Piratas De Sudamerica EP: Style-hopping collage artist returns with this brief EP that packs all of his various impulses in one tidy package. eMusic’s Caitlin Dewey says:

Like his first two albums, 2006’s Folías and 2007’s Alegranza!, Piratas draws heavily on Tropicália and Afro-Cuban influences, shading the gurgling psych-pop of Animal Collective’s “My Girls” with samba rhythm and rumba groove. But while El Guincho may have once been interested in dazzling us with his endless array of world music samples and his ability to make something new of the old, his focus here has reversed: you’ll hear some chanting and chirping on the kaleidoscopic “Cuerpo Sin Alma” and some Roland collages on “Frutas del Caney,” but El Guincho clearly wants to embrace these Latin American classics, not reinvent them.

Mitchell Museum, The Peters Port Memorial Service: No idea who this band is, but it sounds terrific: sweet singing against truly busted instrumentation: lots of groans and grunting, but the melodies are strong and solid. Cockeyed guitar pop — very cool.

Mystery Jets, Serotonin: New from the good people at Beggars’. Our Craig McClean says:

Serotonin, true to its name, delivers a straight rush of uplift and joy. The album is assembled from a patchwork of influences, but it manages to be considerably more than the sum of its parts — mostly because all of those parts are thrilling: “Its Too Late To Talk,” which rises to the blue sky on soaring harmonies and chiming chords, is Surf’s Up-period Beach Boys. “The Girl Is Gone” builds another wall of vocal overlap, this time throwing thunderclap drums into the mix. “Show Me The Light” is studded with an improbable — but wildly entertaining — disco throb. “Flash A Hungry Smile” is a particular joy, a real headphone treat: a torrent of psych keyboards ushering in artful and skipping British New Wave songcraft, and more sun-kissed West Coast singing. Surfin’ XTC anyone?

Gifts from Enola, Gifts from Enola: I’ve been singing the praises of the Mylene Sheath label for some time now, so I won’t do that yet again. All I’ll say is: they have, yet again, found a band that terrifically fuses the quiet/loud intensity of post-rock with the blistering aesthetic of metal. Fans of Explosions in the Sky should enjoy.

PS I Love You, EP: Another band I’d never heard of before, but sounds great — bright jangle of guitars and pained, pouting vocals. Check it.

Pigeons, Si Faustine: Another one on the excellent Olde English Spelling Bee label, this one kind of indie-folk-pop, tender female vocals and slight, spare instrumentation. Super engaging on first sample.

Play Guitar, Play Guitar: Volume seems a bit low, but this is pretty terrific guitar-based indie, lots of slack guitar strumming and everyman vocals — reminds me of the old days! Really like this.

Tall Tales & the Silver Lining, Fall In: This is nice! Really small music, front-porch folky with drawling vocals and keen melodic sensibilities.

Glasser, Apply EP: Glasser were featured on our Selected & Collected compilation. Here are 3 lovely songs from the ghostly electropop group fleshed out with a ton of remixes. Really like this.

Grasscut, 1 Inch, ½ Mile: Really lovely, subdued, electronic based chill-out music (not to be confused with fucking “chillout” music). Our Andrew Harrison says it much better than I can:

[Grasscut] builds ornate edifices of analogue synths, live drums and cellos, singing voices and dub effects around a selection of real-world snapshots: Hilaire Belloc and Ezra Pound reading their poetry, his own mother remembering the poverty of 1946 or just friends talking nonsense in the street. The resultant music is ambient and it isn’t; it’s breaks, and it isn’t. Chiefly, it’s poignant, pastoral electronic pop which Phillips and his bass-and-keyboards colleague Marcus O’Dair have rewired so thoroughly that it fits somewhere between Radiohead, Orbital and the film music of Clint Mansell (once of Pop Will Eat Itself and now writing scores for Moon and the movies of Darren Aronofsky).

The Innocence Mission, My Room in the Trees: The Innocence Mission used to be one of my favorite bands ever, and a quick spin through their newest reveals they haven’t lost any of what made me love them in the first place. Karen Peris still has a whisper-quiet voice, and it floats featherlike above husband Don’s delicate fingerpicking. So lovely.

Prisoners, Back in the USSA: SmogVeil is a very good garage label that doesn’t get as much love as it should. This is the debut from Cleveland’s Prisoners, and it sounds snide and sneering and has a wealth of grimy guitars to match. And couldn’t Cleveland use a little good news?

Miss TK & the Revenge, The Ocean Likes to Party, Too: This is some of the worst cover art I’ve ever seen in my life, but the music isn’t bad! Kind of ’80s post-electro with pouty vocals — I hear this and I picture legwarmers and jelly bracelets and teased hair. Lots of synths. Pretty decent.

Cineplexx, “Tiger Trap”: Cineplexx is, apparently, one Sebastian Litmanovich. The music on this single is lovely: floating, ethereal, bright bands of sound, gently surging percussion and high-arcing vocals. Check it out.

Jammer, Jahmanji: Where’s Alex when you need him? Jabbering grime — mile-a-minute vocals over top of heat-warped electronics.

Gallhammer, Gloomy Lights: Brutal, punishing, ice cold black metal from Japan. I just threw this one in here for me. Sorry.

Soilwork, The Panic Broadcast: This one is also for me. Look, Joe, the new one from Swedish metal band Soilwork! Awesome, Joe, thanks!

Wolvhammer, Black Marketeers of World War III: While I’m at it: awesome stoner/doom metal from Mnpls, formidable and rollicking. Going on my iPod tonight.

Zoroaster, Zoroaster: Nasty psych-metal, slow tempos, inventive arrangements, heavy and slow. Vocals are especially interesting: sound like a voice beamed in from another dimension.

Big new titles today in the UK and EU! The most divisive MIA record ever, School of Seven Bells, the return of Martina Topley-Bird, mother-and-daughter folk from Eliza Carthy and her mom Norma Waterston, and tons more. Let’s start with:

MIA, /\/\ /\ Y /\ – MIA is the kind of pop figure who doesn’t seem to feel comfortable unless she’s positive she’s irritating somebody; when people around her start praising her too highly, it seems to only provoke her more. Thus, this record. Which will probably make everyone angry. Messy, loud, purposefully abrasive, schizophrenic, this is in some ways her most provocative record yet. Chelsea Brady writes:

On /\/\/\Y/\ all of M.I.A.’s multiple personalities get aired out: paranoid raver (cautionary nursery rhyme “The Message”), digi-pop-star (deliciously slick “XXXO”), dancehall toaster (bouncy love song “It Takes Muscle”), and astro stoner (blippy daydream “Space”). The Diplo-produced “Tell Me Why” woozes like a delirious Animal Collective jam, while the hardcore “Born Free” rides an urgent Suicide sample as M.I.A.’s voice booms from beyond, like it’s being broadcast from the PA system of a menacing prison.The cultural grab-bag can rub ears raw, but discomfort isn’t a side effect of M.I.A.’s music, it’s a prerequisite.

The Coral, Butterfly House – Youthful British psych-poppers return older, wiser. In a review that will go live tomorrow, Paul Moody writes:

Put it down to two years road-testing new material or the steadying influence of producer John Leckie (responsible for The Stone Roses debut and XTC’s spoof psych outfit Dukes Of Statosphear) but their sixth album find them recapturing some of the exuberance of their debut. Their sonic treasure chest remains largely the same (essentially The Yardbirds, Love and Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac), but a decade together has given the band a new cold-eyed ruthlessness. ‘She’s Comin’ Around’ and ‘Two Faces’ are finely tuned psych-pop nuggets, all shimmering guitars and clipped drums, while Morricone-esque opening ‘More Than a Lover’ and a Byrds-inspired ‘Roving Jewel’ suggest impressive musical muscles now lurk beneath their retro threads.

School of Seven Bells, Disconnect From Desire – The dreamy shoegaze electronica of School of Seven Bells is back! Alex Reynolds writes:

School of Seven Bells’ excellent second album, Disconnect From Desire, kicks off with the best My Bloody Valentine homage in years: squealing-banshee synth samples, futuristic, industrial sonics and droning, fuzzed-out guitar riffs. But this Brooklyn trio — featuring identical twin singers Alejandra and Claudia Deheza and ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis — are more than just shoegaze purists; they’re one of the most exciting electronic-pop bands around, and they prove their mettle with a collection of 10 tuneful tracks that mix the forward-thinking sensibilities of Radiohead with the goth-romance of Joy Division.

D.O. Misiani and Shirati Jazz, The King Of History – Classic 1970s Benga Beats From Kenya: I’m just going to let Chris Nickson speak on this one (his review will also be up tomorrow):

Benga, which became the music of Kenya, was the invention of D. O. Misiani, the King of History himself, and the leader of Shirati Jazz. Back in the 1960s, he’d created the new style by plundering Congolese rumba for the vibrant, multi-layered guitar work, South African mbaqanga for the deliciously active and elastic bass work, and put them with the lush singing of his native Luo tribe. It was a fresh, potent mix that he relentlessly honed to perfection and it made Shirati Jazz the most popular band in their homeland.

Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson, Gift – Gorgeously lived-in and direct folk music from Eliza Carthy and her folk-titan mother Norma Waterson. Rob Young writes:

Although Carthy regularly works with her parents in the group Waterson:Carthy, Gift is, surprisingly, her first collaboration with her mother. If there’s a concept behind Gift, it’s the importance of family — the ties that bind and the tragedies of separation. It’s a family sing-along, with contributions from cousins Oliver Knight (guitar, cello), Marry Waterson (singing), dad Martin, and old friends like Danny Thompson (bass) and Martin Simpson (banjo). Much of Gift sounds like a spontaneous, intimate exchange of songs and stories garnered from two lifetimes of musical travels.

Admiral Radley, I Heart California – Jason Lytle, of Granddaddy, is back with a new band that also features former Granddaddy bandmate Aaron Burtch and Aaron Espinoza. Lovely, loping, downbeat mope-pop.

Martina Topley-Bird, Some Place Simple – The smoky-voiced trip-hop muse returns sounding as alluring as ever.

It’s a light week for new records in the UK.. But even on a light week, there are surprises. In the absence of marquee names, we get some promising up-and-comers. Here’s a look:

Mystery Jets, Serotonin – South Londoners return sounding more confident. Craig McLean writes:

Serotonin, true to its name, delivers a straight rush of uplift and joy. The album is assembled from a patchwork of influences, but it manages to be considerably more than the sum of its parts — mostly because all of those parts are thrilling: “Its Too Late To Talk,” which rises to the blue sky on soaring harmonies and chiming chords, is Surf’s Up-period Beach Boys. “The Girl Is Gone” builds another wall of vocal overlap, this time throwing thunderclap drums into the mix. “Show Me The Light” is studded with an improbable — but wildly entertaining — disco throb. “Flash A Hungry Smile” is a particular joy, a real headphone treat: a torrent of psych keyboards ushering in artful and skipping British New Wave songcraft, and more sun-kissed West Coast singing. Surfin’ XTC anyone?

Betty and The Werewolves, Tea Time Favourites – This is my pick of the day. Brash, infectious, and fun crash-pop from three girls and a guy from London. I sez:

Scrappier than their peers in Standard Fare, who released this year’s charmingly wide-eyed The Noyelle Beat, and brasher than fellow scenesters Allo Darlins, Betty & The Werewolves nail the under-explored spot where The Runaways meet Tallulah Gosh. Lead Betty Laura McMahon is equally adept at brassy shouting (see the yelping sing-along chorus to “Eustace Station” of “I don’t want dinner and a movie/I just want someone to move me”) and breathy wistfulness, as on the contemplative “Good as Gold”. In the best indie-pop tradition, she makes slyly observed pop out of the mundane stuff around her … The result combines the sweet neurosis of Love Is All, the gum-popping cool of Vivian Girls, and the confrontational edge of the Long Blondes into an irresistible and pitch-perfect indie-pop debut.

Noun, Holy Hell – Witchy, Patti Smith-channeling punk/folk with gnarled edges left poking out on purpose — this is an intriguing project featuring Screaming Females’ Mariss Paternoster.

Various Artists, Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa – A fascinating collection of exactly what the title implies: sun-kissed polyrhythms given an 80s-electro sheen. On Honest Jon’s, which, to my knowledge, has never put out a bad record.

Cherry Ghost, Beneath This Burning Shoreline – Darkly cinematic alt-rock tinged with Nick Cave ranginess and bleak gorgeousness of In Rainbows-era Radiohead.

Kingdom of Sorrow, Behind the Blackest Tears – In case you hadn’t gathered from the album title/cover art/song titles, this is not bhangra. New metal from Relapse, heavy on the snaky, bar-rock wah-wah guitar leads and Saint Vitus biker vocals. Good stuff.

Feeder, Renegades – Vaguely bloozy modern rock with Idlewild-anthemic choruses and lots of late-90s distortion sludge.

Singles, 7-inches, and EPs
Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Say No To Love – The low-key, late-summer shimmer of the Pains’ latest single, “Say No To Love” is here. We love these dudes/dudette, but to call us “biased” is an understatement.

Black Lips/Pierced Arrows, Scion A/V Garage – Black Lips / Pierced Arrows – Split single from Black Lips and Pierced Arrows. “Best Napkin I Ever Had,” the Black Lips song, sounds exactly like a Black Lips song, and a good one at that, while Pierced Arrows’ gets a little crust-punkier with it.

Geologist, White Mud Creek – New single from Geologist! Sounds like a Brooklyn freak-folk demo being played from the bottom of a coal mine.

Hey guys! Welcome to the new week in music. Here’s a rundown of some of the most exciting and interesting things that hit the UK site today.

Various Artists, Soundway Presents: The World Ends – Afro Rock and Psychedelia in 1970s Nigeria – Incredible. Seriously, just incredible. Soundways have long been one of our favorite labels, and they just outdid themselves. This survey of Nigerian psychedelic rock is almost certainly the reissue of the year. Joe posts about this below, so I won’t repeat what he says. But we have this on ***two-week exclusive***. You should maybe get this. Like maybe now.

Various Artists, Brownswood Electric – The latest crate-digging adventure from Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood label brings the cutting-edge electronica! Tim Noakes writes:

One of the year’s most exciting collections, Brownswood Electric moves in a less jazzy direction than previous Peterson-powered releases, focusing instead on producers who prefer to get their kicks from MIDI bass controllers rather than Fender Rhodes.

As we’ve come to expect from Brownswood Recordings, the quality threshold never dips, yet the sound evolves more drastically than, say, the Bubblers series, crisscrossing from one underground club scene to another … Like all of the best mixes, it takes you on a journey — but cuts out the DJ’s ego.

Also, be sure to check out the guided discography we put together in honor of this release. Brownswood has been doing excellent work since 2006, and we thought it was high time to spotlight that. Check out our eMusic Loves Brownswood Records feature for an in-depth look.

Various Artists, Kitsuné x Ponystep Mixed By Jerry Bouthier – Roisin Murphy, Two Door Cinema Club, Lindstrom, Booka Shade, and more on the latest Kitsuné comp, this one a team-up with London’s Ponystep label.

Olof Arnalds, Innundir Skinni – New Olof! Here is a taste of what you can expect from the Icelandic indie-folk sensation and eMusic fave’s upcoming full-length, the long-awaited follow-up to 2009’s sublimely gorgeous Við Og Við

Stac, Turn That Light Out – This sounds great. Stac has a gorgeously supple voice, and on this debut it ranges from indie-folk wispy to chanteuse smoky to soulfully earthy and grainy. It’s powerful stuff, and the backing music is exactly right: suffused with 45-analog warmth and sensitive accompaniment

Underworld, Scribble – Red-hot new single from Underworld on eMusic!

Chaz Jankel, The Submarine Has Surfaced – Chaz Jankel, the one-time keyboard player and co-songwriter for Ian Dury and Blockheads, returns with his first solo record in ten years.

Various Artists, Summer Is Here! Festival Seasoning – A nice sampler from the folks at Cherry Red, and it’s pretty all over the place: some Marc Almond, some Momus, some Marc Bolan — y’know, the usual.

Bonobo feat. Andreya Triana, Stay the Same – Lush, low-key single from Bonobo’s sterling 2010 Black Sands.

Terrence Dixon, Room 310 – A couple of nicely spaced-out techno jams from native Detroiter and scene stalwart Terrence Dixon.

Jordi Savall, Le Concert Spirituel au temps de Louis XV – Another record from the master of the viola de gamba and one-man early-music powerhouse Jordi Savall: this man is unstoppable, really. Look at that artist page!

The Narcoleptic Dancers, Not Evident EP – Winsome girl/guy indie-pop, full of watery chimes and shuffling acoustic guitars: cheery, twee, and breezy.

What else did you come across?

A whole slew of titles that were originally scheduled to come out tomorrow were bumped back a day, so that means that New Music Tuesday came a day early this week for US folks. I’m gonna go through the US titles, and then I’m going to call out a handful of UK-only stuff that hit the site. Let’s get to it:

US ONLY

Macy Gray, The Sellout – R and B’s freakiest diva returns with the cheekily titled The Sellout. Melissa Maerz writes:

The Sell-Out bravely rejects much of the neo-soul stylings that made her famous. I Instead, she’s rocking out with Slash on the rousing stadium anthem “Kissed It,” and purring her way through a roots-rock sing-along with “Beauty in the World.” Yes, she still makes odd choices, like dragging in Bobby Brown for the slow jam “Real Love,” Whitney and good taste be damned. But her oddball antics just show what makes her so great: From her distinct vocals to her fierce tumbleweed hair, she’s a beast who won’t be tamed.

Stars, The Five Ghosts – Majestic baroque indie-poppers return with their first full-length since 2007’s In Our Bedroom After the War. 2005’s now-classic Set Yourself On Fire overflowed with urgent, straightforward emotion; The Five Ghosts is definitely a more muted affair. Still very pretty, though. Stars fans, what say you?

Sia, We Are Born – Sia has got the TV-soundtrack folk-pop game locked down. All of these songs already sound like they’re floating on the back of Apple commercials. Her pipes are supple and soulful, though, and there is no denying the catchiness of this stuff. Also: dancier than I would have expected!

Kele, Boxer – Solo record from Kele Okereke, lead wailer for Bloc Party. This sounds, on first listen, like the “electronically influenced” solo album a lot of rock frontmen get around to making; hard to tell if much of the strident melodic push that makes Bloc Party fun/worthwhile made it on here. “Tenderoni” is gauzy and pretty, and “Everything You Wanted” sounds like excellent OMD-style pop.

Cyndi Lauper, Memphis Blues – Exactly as advertised! One of the greatest, brightest voices in pop goes gritty and smoky. Sounds GREAT.

OTHER STUFF:

Oneohtrix Point Never, Returnal – Gorgeously freeform psychedelic electronic music; drone-heavy and deeply sensual and tactile. The album is mostly just molded synths rippling and voices gabbling, swirling in an indiscriminate middle distance, but it is extremely hypnotic and surprisingly beautiful.

The Delays, Star Tiger, Star Ariel – New record from Brit-rockers The Delays finds them moving arena-ward. Ian Gittins writes:

Put simply, Star Tiger, Star Ariel is less jangle, more power chords, with tracks such as the pulsing “Shanghaied” evoking both the Killers and early, Boy-era U2, while “Rhapsody” and “Unsung” mimic the soft-rock rhythms and pretty synth doodles of Snow Patrol or Keane and “In Brilliant Sunshine” rocks out like a more erudite take on ’80s AOR. This may point towards a sell-out but it’s not: The Delays still sketch out their layered, intricate song-essays with their trademark tender loving care, and vocalist Greg Gilbert’s plaintive falsetto retains its siren charm on stand-out tracks like the haunting “Rhapsody.” Whether the mainstream embraces them or not, Delays remain a band of many splendours.

Robert Hood, Omega – I called this out last week in the UK new arrivals, but here it is in the US. Allow me to awkwardly quote myself:

The latest from Detroit hard techno pioneer is based loosely around the classic sci-fi cult flick Omega Man. The film is a good conceptual match for Hood’s brand of techno; there is an eerie, arid stillness in his music, even as it propulses blankly forward. Worms under your skin in a profoundly insinuating way.

Stiff Little Fingers, Fingered – Live Stiff Little Fingers! These guys made one of my favorite punk records of all time (up there, anyway!) with Inflammable Material, and a good chunk of the best of that record — “Alternative Ulster,” “Suspect Device,” “Wasted Life” — is on this firebomb of a live recording. From the good folks at Anagram, who seem to have a bottomless stash of astonishingly well-recorded live shows from the golden era of punk rock.

Black Devil Disco Club, DUB – New Black Devil Disco Club! Parisian geniuses return with more sonically warped, humid disco dubs.

Enuff Z’Nuff, Dissonance – These guys were a tail-end to-the-hair-metal-era hard rock band, and they were swallowed up in the utter implosion of that sickly scene despite being a really solid Cheap Trick-style hard rock outfit. A similar thing happened to Firehouse, whose “Don’t Treat Me Bad” I will still rep for. There are some really great power-pop tunes on here: check out “Joni Lynn” if you don’t believe me! The lead singer has the grainy, nasal Robin Zander whine thing down pat. I secretly believe that Enuff Z’Nuff was the unknown inspiration for Stone Temple Pilots’ criminally underrated Tiny Music From the Vatican Gift Shop.

UK ONLY:

Grasscut, 1 Inch, ½ Mile – Hauntingly pretty pastoral electronic pop. Andrew Harrison, in his excellent review, writes:

The chill boom of the early ’00s trapped moody electronica in some notional coffee bar, providing little more than cheap reverie on demand. Grasscut, the project of British movie music composer Andrew Phillips, takes the contrary view that found sounds aren’t there to be massaged into a flattering and user-friendly shape, but deserve to be investigated until they give up at least a ghost of a meaning underneath.

His album, which takes its title from a map-maker’s scale, builds ornate edifices of analogue synths, live drums and cellos, singing voices and dub effects around a selection of real-world snapshots: Hilaire Belloc and Ezra Pound reading their poetry, his own mother remembering the poverty of 1946 or just friends talking nonsense in the street. The resultant music is ambient and it isn’t; it’s breaks, and it isn’t. Chiefly, it’s poignant, pastoral electronic pop which Phillips and his bass-and-keyboards colleague Marcus O’Dair have rewired so thoroughly that it fits somewhere between Radiohead, Orbital and the film music of Clint Mansell.

James Yuill, Movement In A Storm – Cheeky, deadpan electro-pop with a thumping, four-on-the-floor disco heart.

Jim Moray, In Modern History – Jim Moray pushes his pub-folk template even further into pop territory, toning down some of the eclecticism he has brought to the scene, and with In Modern History, he offers his most traditional release thus far.

Cerys Matthews, TIR – The quirky-sweet, former lead singer of Catatonia returns with a labor of love: TIR album unearths ancient folk tunes, some from the Victorian era, some hymns, and some just obscure scraps of folklore, and records them freshly and simply. This is lovely.

What did you find?

Hey, look, it’s Thursday and about 6 million classic records dropped on the site! Holy shit! Surprises abound in this collection of Warner odds and ends — there are way too many records to do justice here, so let’s not waste time, shall we?

Love, Forever Changes – Immortally classic paranoid-hippie prophecy orchestral rock record! If you’ve never heard this, I am a jealous man — this is an essential “missing piece of the puzzle” record from the 1960s, one that puts a lot of better-known music in its wake in its proper perspective. Arthur Lee’s gorgeously aching folk tenor belies just how much distrust and paranoia and misanthropy and bitter and sarcasm was coursing through his veins – a lot of 1960s hippie-rock records had songs defying conformity, but few of them were as acrid as “The Red Telephone.” And yet, there’s a yearning core to the album: “And More Again” is a pleading, disarmingly straightforward love song, and “Alone Again More” turns on the soaring declaration “I think people are the greatest fun.” Really, enough from me — this is a classic.

MC5, Kick Out the Jams – Roaring, apocalyptic proto-punk, or the very first punk band, depending on who you ask. Here’s the inimitable Lenny Kaye with his take:

Kick Out The Jams makes a divine noise, a frontal assault that takes no prisoners. From Brother J.C. Crawford’s opening exhortation to the Five’s falsetto launch into Ted Taylor’s “Rambling Rose,” a deep you-are-there reading of John Lee Hooker’s “Motor City Is Burning,” group sing-a-longs like “Rama Lama Fa Fa Fa” and “Borderline” (originally the b-side of their debut single) and their light-year’s improvisation on a Sun Ra lyric, “Starship,” the pulsating high-energy level is relentless … Kick Out The Jams remains the essential throwdown “testimonial,” when the band harnessed the power of loud and proud, and rock ‘n’ roll was readying to change the world, one decibel at a time.

Television, Marquee Moon and Adventure — More proto-punk classics! Marquee Moon, if you don’t already know, is one of the greatest guitar albums of all time.

Billy Bragg and Wilco, Mermaid Ave: Vol I and Vol. II – Billy Bragg and Wilco’s by-now classic re-imaginings of Woody Guthrie’s poems and unwritten songs. Vol. I is the more essential of the two, but really, if you have any love for Wilco, Billy, OR Woody Guthrie, you need both.

Afghan Whigs, Gentlemen – Psychosexually pitch-black, confessional, howling ball of self-loathing from Greg Dulli and friends! This record isn’t fun, but it is essential. Maura Johnston has this to say in her incredible review:

Gentlemen is, by turns, astonishing and harrowing, putting to tape depictions of people falling out of love from what seem like hundredth-story windows … Like engaging in a fight with an ex-lover that just keeps going without any rhyme, reason or end in sight, listening to Gentlemen can feel like being punched in the gut repeatedly for its duration. The only difference is that the Whigs’ expert musicianship and Dulli’s unflinching willingness to play the cad allow for genuine catharsis as a result.

Stereolab, Emperor Tomato Ketchup and Margerine Eclipse – Two essential Stereolab records; one, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, is considered by pretty much everyone to be their defining statement, and the other, Margerine Eclipse, an underrated later-period record.

Handsome Boy Modeling School, So How’s Your Girl – Quirky indie-rap classic from Prince Paul and Dan the Automator! Essential, essential jams on here. We also got the White People.

Luna, Pup Tent, Luna Park, Penthouse, Bewitched, and Slide – Almost every Luna record ever! I might let Joe chime in on this one, as I’m not knowledgeable on Luna, but I do know that Penthouse has a glorious cover of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot’s “Bonnie and Clyde,” as sung by Dean Wareham and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadler.

They Might Be Giants, Flood – “Birdhouse in Your Soul.” “Istanbul.” “Particle Man.” “We Want A Rock.” If you were ever a nerd in eighth grade, you probably know at least one of these songs word for fucking word. Me? Well, let’s just say that summer I went away to nerd camp was a big one for me, and “Birdhouse in Your Soul” is forever embedded in the very base of my lizard brain.

10,000 Maniacs, The Wishing Well and Blind Man’s Zoo – Oh man, it just go SO LATE-80S LIBERAL ARTS GRAD in here! Natalie Merchant and her band of Maniacs chiming and twirling on two of their beloved studio albums.

Nada Surf, High Low – Hey, look Nada Surf fans! WE GOT THE ONE WITH “POPULAR” ON IT!

Phish, Junta, Lawn Boy, Hoist, Slip, Stitch, Pass, Rift – I can’t honestly claim to have any personal affection for these dudes, but I know plenty of people who do. In fact, I’m willing to bet that there’s at least one person in our department who can rep for Phish. The question is: WHO WILL THAT PERSON BE?? (Note: we also got Trey Anastasio’s Plasma today.)

There’s so much more — Sister of Mercy, Kraftwerk, Harry Chapin, Everything But the Girl — but I am running out of steam. And so I pass the baton to you, dear subscribers: what did YOU find??