The Marvelous Darlings‘ single “I Dont Wanna Go To The Party” rocks for two minutes and thirty seconds in a rush of pure and I mean PURE punk pop abandon. Very favorable comparison to Ramones, Clash, Cheap Trick and The Knack. Full on power pop angst-bliss! I love it I love it.

The Marvelous Darlings
“I dont wanna go to the party” (mp3)
from “I Don’t Wanna Go To The Party”
(Deranged Records)

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Ah, sweet power pop. Here we have some well crafted guitar chord bashing and vocal hooks that owe as much to Nirvana as to Cheap Trick. Ultimate Fakebook made a lot of noise for a three piece band from Manhattan, Kansas operating during the darkest days of the music industry. Here’s another neglected gem. In 2009 I have found and posted a bunch of ‘em here. Have a surf around, it beats the heck outta the your local corporate poo radio station, I guarantee you that much. But wait, Dorothy, there’s a Manhattan in Kansas? Now we know.

Ultimate Fakebook
“Wrestling Leap Year” (mp3)
from “Open Up and Say Awesome”
(Initial Records)

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Utterly bratty kick-butt garage punk from Be My Doppleganger, outta Evansville, Indiana – a gritty, rockin’ four piece pop punk outfit with an affinity for Cheap Trick and The Descendents. “I Need a Ride” is an outburst of guitars, hormone fueled teen angst, and self deprecating humor. Gr8 fun!

Be My Doppelganger
“I Need a Ride” (mp3)
from “Protect 2: A Benefit for the National Association to Protect Children”
(Geykido Comet Records)

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Excellent, trashy indie rock with a waltz beat from North Carolina’s own Spider Bags. This recording sounds as unpretentious and natural as a few guys bursting into song at a bar, but it’s also meticulously arranged and well performed. I love the talky-singy approach here, and the lyrics are superb. It’s a perfect marriage of professionalism and reckless abandon. And the chorus is glorious.

Spider Bags
“Que viva el rocanroll” (mp3)
from “Goodbye Cruel World, Hello Crueler World”
(Birdman Records)

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A punk rock song about a kitteh? A cool dark feline, creepin’ thru the night? A sleek slinky tom on the scene? Well, yeah. Kid Chaos is all about fun, and they don’t like preaching with their punk rock – all of which you can gather from this ridiculous and entertaining tale of adventure and mayhem. Essence o’ 3rd wave “ska” horns, growling guitars and a breakneck Rancid-esque tempo, provide the purrfect romping ground for our rogue hero, “Lee Vee The Cat.” Superfan is all smitten like a kitten.

Kid Chaos
“Lee Vee The Cat” (mp3)
from “Love In The Time Of Scurvy”
(Beatville Records)

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On the subject of “Fools Want Noise” by Oh My God, I have to start by simply saying, they’re right. These lyrics are brilliant – kind of a “Satisfaction” updated for the Idiocracy. Celebrate the downward spiral into high decibel mindlessness? Or rage against it? Can we do both? This song is loud, fast and brash, but unlike the cultural Twinkie-filler it confronts in horror, this is actually very smart. And it rocks, too. Damn fine work.

Oh My God
“Fools Want Noise” (mp3)
from “Fools Want Noise”
(Split Red)

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I always find the music of Film School so warm and pleasant. The simplest little progression can sound glorious in the hands of such skilled and sensitive players. This is soothing, medicinal music, however dark and melancholic, and there’s a certain genius to hitting that blend just right. “p.s.” is a big yet understated composition, rendered with a minimal Velvet Underground style rhythm section ethic, exquisite droney guitars, and obsessively well informed keyboard and string parts, all gathered around and tending to a poetic and precarious lyric like doctors and nurses around a mysterious patient. Beautiful work.

Film School
“p.s.” (mp3)
from “Alwaysnever”
(Amazing Grease Records)

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Vic Chesnutt’s craft is at such a high level, between lyrics and voice and accompaniment, that listening to his songs one can forget oneself and become entirely transported into the musical picture. “Chain” from his latest album, is a soft cinematic masterpiece, each instrument a character, conversing and dancing ethereally with the protagonist/singer, illuminating a scene far more nuanced and colorful that pop music is expected to be. Perhaps this is why Mr. Chesnutt’s reputation amongst pop stars is so well established – to list his famous admirers would be something of a cliché at this point – while his own fame among the general public is still relatively limited. The quality of this work is so self evident all I can suggest is, download it and have a listen. And if you’re wondering if the rest of the album, and indeed the rest of the output from this artist is as original and beautiful as this, this answer is yeah, it is.

Vic Chesnutt
“Chain” (mp3)
from “At the Cut”
(Constellation)

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In the best tradition of modern Americana, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada’s Ox delivers an unhurried, wide as the sky ode to futility. The guitar work here is stellar, shiny and stark, accompanying a delicate lyric that could fall down so easily in one misplaced word, but it never does. Gorgeous harmonies and a full, superb lead vocal, lift this from a simple lament to something far more glorious. I don’t often find myself in the mood these days, for sad country music, but when I do, it has to be this good.

Ox
“Burnout” (mp3)
from “Burnout”
(Weewerk)

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Song titles say a lot. Band names, too. So, if I find a song called “The Faint Smell of Moss” by a band called Dark Meat off an album called “Truce Opium,” I will immediately download it with a certain glee, hoping it lives up to those lovely words! And I wouldn’t waste your time, dears, if it didn’t. But indeed, a fertile scent of nature is invoked, a soothing narcotic bliss induced, through a sexy rhythm faithfully rendered by a band of real live psychedelic noir road animals from Athens, Georgia. It pleases me that such a band as this exists in 2009, sounding as they do, like an early Jefferson Airplane went off its scheduled course, arrived in the Himalayas with flowers in hair and bells on feet and had an orgy. Reverb-y guitars and glorious male-female vocal harmonies are carried aloft by superb rock drumming, an old school “invisible” bass player (one of my favorite kinds) and – stop the presses! – a lead melody played on that most misunderstood and maligned of wind instruments, the Recorder. These people are crazy. Genius work.

Dark Meat
“The Faint Smell of Moss” (mp3)
from “Truce Opium”
(Emergency Umbrella)

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Easily mistaken for a “jam band” at first listen, The Mother Hips are on closer inspection a tight, country flavored rock unit in the tradition of The Band and other 60’s and 70’s masters of song arrangement and organic, live combo playing. Plopped as they were by fate in the early 90’s, the Hips’ sweet guitar serenades and soulful harmonies were in contrast to the flood of Nirvana sound-alikes which came to dominate the airwaves then. Signed to Rick Rubin’s American Records for a while, then back to indie life, these generous and talented musicians remained true to their art through it all, never straying from their vision nor trying for to fit into any style but their own. Commendable, but more importantly, their music is gr8. This single, “One Way Out” is from their most recent album, “Pacific Dust,” and it’s a gem.

The Mother Hips
“One Way Out” (mp3)
from “Pacific Dust”
(Camera Records)

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A band name like that can be the headline of my post, sure, why not? Here is some alterna-pop that is a cut above the noise. Edgy and minutely arranged, “Heart Surgery” by The Aimless Never Miss weds prog rock sensibilities like odd time signatures and angular, syncopated riffs, with a more contemporary emo-ternative lyrical approach. Emoternative? But yes! The guitars and vocals on this track are quite beautiful. The pieces all come together to evoke a unique feeling that is delicious yet hard to describe. Ultimately, that is what original art accomplishes, isn’t it? Lovely work from this Cotati spawned, San Francisco / Oakland based California band.

The Aimless Never Miss
“Heart Surgery” (mp3)
from “Tran EP”
(500 Records)

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Extra trippy guitar pop from the Sonic Youth side of Husker Dü approximately. Luscious psychedelic vocals and a Devo meets King Crimson arrangement make this worthy of both New Wave and Prog Rock tags. Unusual. Lovely. Strange. Check it out.

Birds & Batteries
“TV Commericals” (mp3)
from “Nature vs. Nature”
(Birds and Batteries)

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One of the cooler regional hits of 1982 was the lo-fi garage punk of “Radio Moscow” by a Southern California band called Kent State (formerly Red Brigade). They played every punk venue on the west coast and then some, adding a twist to American hardcore music that was more Troggs than Sex Pistols. Rodney Bingenheimer played this song heavily on The ROQ, and even made it the lead off track on one of his famed compilation LP’s. The lyrics are such a time capsule – pure cold war angst plus a needed dose of irreverent humor. More yummy goodness from Posh Boy Music.

Kent State
“Radio Moscow” (mp3)
from “The Future Looks Brightest – Rarities and Orphans Volume 1″
(Posh Boy Music)

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And how do we like our emo? Why, with kick ass power pop hooks and punk pop aggression and yearning teen angst on that razor’s edge between bliss and despair, thank you, how else? This song has it all. In fact, “Lukewarm” by New End Original has been one of my faves in this genre since it first popped up on the MP3 Jackpot radar a few years back. The band was a sort of supergroup, composed of refugees from some very loved and respected underground rock bands – namely Onelinedrawing, Far, Chamberlain and Texas Is The Reason. NEO burned hot out of the gate, recording a monster debut album which they had the charming audacity to name after the best selling album of all time.

New End Original
“Lukewarm” (mp3)
from “Thriller”
(Jade Tree)

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And what for the interstate drive to the ‘rents house for turkeyopalypse? Big rock, sweeties, big, loud, top-down, preferably decadent glam goth, can we do that? Thank you. Living 80’s zeitgeist Flesh For Lulu has re-recorded some of their classic material, with more modern production values, and created a record which is bound to introduce them to new starry eyed romantics the world over. “Baby Hurricane” is just the kind of thing I love from this band – huge guitar powerchord-scapes remind of Mott the Hoople and T-Rex, as smoky English power pop vocals melt down into a sort of heartbroken lustful bliss. Spectacular.

Flesh For Lulu
“Baby Hurricane” (mp3)
from “Best Of (Re-Recorded)”
(Corporate Risk Products)

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Enter at your own risk, “The Lost Album” by 13th Chime on Sacred Bones Records. “Sarah’s Got a Chainsaw” is not so much the bloodbath the title might suggest, but instead a raucous and beautifully recorded note from the grave from this driving goth-esq Texas band. Gr8 80’s flavored reverb’d out vocals bounce around on an urgent guitar bass and drum bed that hints of Joy Division, Gang Of Four and The Cramps. Superb.

13th Chime
“Sarah’s Got A Chainsaw” (mp3)
from “The Lost Album”
(Sacred Bones Records)

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Southern California’s beloved surf punker pioneers Agent Orange have rocked for over three decades, and they continue to tour and deliver a gr8 live show. This song from their brilliant 1981 album “Living in Darkness”- recently re-released digitally by Posh Boy Music – is a good taste of their innovative guitar work and unique collision of power pop, surf and punk. The lyrics to “Everything Turns to Grey” are brilliant, at once idealistic and resigned. A classic song from a classic LP. Surfs up!

Agent Orange
“Everything Turns to Grey” (mp3)
from “Living in Darkness”
(Posh Boy Music)

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Beginning with a sweet and ponderous bell intro that hints of Balinese Gamelan music, Sleep Whale’s “Cotton Curls” evolves into a weaving, waving, softly delicious dream. Rather extreme filters and other effects on the vocals add to the originality of the piece, rather than distract from it. Intriguing and foreign, while strangely accessible and distinctly human. Also, I have to say arbitrarily, really perfect early autumn Sunday afternoon music. So it goes up today! Enjoy.

Sleep Whale
“Cotton Curls” (mp3)
from “Houseboat”
(Western Vinyl)

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A nice big psychedelic musical conflagration from some moddy boys called Bombs from Toronto, Canada. Kinda like Oasis meets the Godfathers! A cool rocker from their eponymous EP, with some gr8 wah-wah guitar work and a yearning, echo drenched vocal. I like it.

Bombs
“Empty Noise” (mp3)
from “Bombs – EP”
(Mint 400 Records)

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Here’s San Francisco indie rock champs Oranger with one of their more than orange explorations of colorful guitar tone and mysteriously overwhelmingly satisfying vocal hooks. Yum.

Oranger
“Eggtooth” (mp3)
from “Doorway To Norway”
(Amazing Grease Records)

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Taking lo-fi art to another level, Brooklyn’s Japanther sees evil, hears evil and speaks evil, while blurting out distorted perversions of rock n’ roll music. From the “Skuffed Up My Huffy” album, “See Evil” is fun, strange, entertaining and very short. A Huffy is a bicycle, by the way. If ya didn’t know. It’s an American made bicycle, and just about every kid in the USA has at some point ridden and probably skuffed up a huffy. Take this tune for a spin around the block. I dare ya’s.

Japanther
“See Evil” (mp3)
from “Skuffed Up My Huffy”
(We Are Busy Bodies)

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Ah, love at first play. The splendidly named Kissing Party’s minimalist, dark romantic bliss pop gem, “I Just Want to Get Out of This Body” floats my boat like pain killers over a broken heart.  Goth-y 80’s English gloom-glamour meets present day Denver, Colorado angst, and speaks of cre8ive defiance in the face of vast cultural isolation. What could be wrong? Hand claps and bells complement the Joy Division-simple beats and guitars beautifully, lifting lustful lonely vocals above the fray to a shining peak where uncertainty becomes something to be sure of. All in 2 minutes 17! Yay.

Kissing Party
“I Just Want to Get Out of This Body” (mp3)
from “The Hate Album”
(Massive Music)

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The Tits? Why yes, Dorothy. Raw rock n’ roll from a garage of grease and sweat in Nashville? But yes again! Though Nashville does have a lesser known  history of gr8 rock and roll, it is certainly not the music the city is most famous for. The Tits sound more like a motor city post-MC5 muscle car fueled teenage outburst than anything from the Grand Ole Opry of old or new.  This rocks balls. And it needs to be said, forgive me.. MORE COWBELL!!

The Tits
“Get Up!” (mp3)
from “Jesus Says Relax”
(SPAT! Records)

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Sometimes you love something just because you love it. This song makes me feel good. Is that reason enough? I think so. “Come Out, Come Out” is an instantly memorable hook-fest with a pounding 4 on the floor beat, wide open female vocal harmonies, and a creamy layer cake of guitar genius. Yum.

I Was Totally Destroying It
“Come Out, Come Out” (mp3)
from “Horror Vacui”
(Greyday Records)

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Truly some of the freshest and funniest indie angst-y rock happening right now is coming from an odd little band out of the UK called Sarandon. Named after the actress? Due to unsettled memories of her quivering voice and half undressed body in the Rocky Horror Picture Show? One can only speculate. But listen, do, to their ferocious rendering of The Membranes‘ post punk classic (yes dears, there is such a thing now), “Spike Milligan’s Tape Recorder.” This is, I’m afraid, about as hip as you can possibly get with guitars and drums in 2009. Repeated listens may cause spontaneous ironic mustaches. What’s the drummer eating for breakfast, I wonder? Excellent track.

Sarandon
“Spike Milligan’s Tape Recorder” (mp3)
from “Spike Milligan’s Tape Recorder”
(Slumberland)

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Occasionally we’ll hear someone refer to an artist or work of art as “sick and wrong,” but seldom do we encounter a vendor of filth so deserving of that distinction as one GG Allin, rest his deranged soul. Named “Jesus Christ” by his abusive, insane father, legend has it the name “GG” came about because his brother couldn’t pronounce “Jesus Christ” and it sort of came out “jeejee” and it stuck. Enough has been said about Allin’s shocking antics. What is not as notorious is the fact that he actually created some good songs along the way. Here’s an anthem of sorts, of a man living on the “Outskirts of Life” and you can be sure he lived every word of. Don’t try this at home, kids. He did it so you don’t have to.

GG Allin
“Outskirts of Life” (mp3)
from “Carnival Of Excess”
(PONK Media)

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Here’s a driving slab of garage power pop to spin with the top down and the volume up. Grindy guitar dissonance and sexy dark vocals propel this testosterone fueled rock and roll outburst from The Fantastiques into the fan-o-sphere. Very tight and promising work from this band from of all places, Minsk, Belarus. Yet another reason to love the Interwebs. Check it out!

The Fantastiques
“The Dog Is Blind” (mp3)
from “My 1st Car”
(24 Hour Service Station)

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Count Von Count. Performing “Daddy Bong Legs.” Totally buggin. There’s a demented vocal in there somewhere, processed to hell and back, to go with the sick guitar rape and drum buggery. This is the sort of artist the PMRC (remember them?) was formed in vain to thwart. The little “parental advisory” stickers quickly became effective sales tools for perverted and deranged material. I trust Count Von Count will duly earn their warning sticker. Fun stuff.

Count Von Count
“Daddy Bong Legs” (mp3)
from “Heyasshole”
(Punk Rock Payroll)

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Not just crazy, not merely insane, but crazy crazy insane. There’s a difference. Check it out. This is a clever, quirky pop song about being mad about someone. Not a new concept really but one which will never grow old. The laugh sample and whistling and humming on this track might be enough to have you committed involuntarily, but if not, the duet vocal will finish the job. Listen at your own risk. Second thought, you’d better not. Nothing to see here. Move along. Oh dear, you’re downloading. Ok, the nice young men will be there in their lab coats to collect you shortly.

ApSci
“Crazy Crazy Insane” (mp3)
from “Best Crisis Ever”
(Quannum Projects)

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This band is a trip. Their bio is entertaining in itself, but it would only amount to a cute story if it the music didn’t rock so. “Easy,” the lead off track from Deer Tick’s latest full length, “Born on Flag Day,” features some brave, intuitive combo playing and lovely instrumental work. Chief tick John Joseph McCauley III sings with a wild man’s spirit and effortlessly good pitch, which isn’t something you hear in your average drunken indie garage band. The lyrics are engaging and intriguing, and these ticks have excellent guitar tones, too. So what’s not to like? Have a listen.

Deer Tick
“Easy” (mp3)
from “Born on Flag Day”
(Partisan Records)

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True Brian Wilson love is shown here by Choir of Young Believers – aka young Danish singer-songwriter and producer, Jannis Noya Makrigiannis. Actually this sounds like a blend of Air (the French poptronica duo) and Pet Sounds, spiked with sweetly cynical lyrics reminiscent of The Pixies. The towering vocal harmonies really do sound like a choir of believers – quite a trick from a solo artist. Gorgeous work.

Choir of Young Believers
“Action/Reaction” (mp3)
from “This is for the White in Your Eyes – Bonus Track Version”
(Ghostly International)

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Somewhere in a roadhouse with dusty red velvet curtains, on an old redwood cabaret stage, for an audience of ghosts next to a country highway to nowhere, The Growlers begin to play. In a swirl of reverb and tinsel, the zombified spirit of Elvis dirty dances with Marilyn, as Hunter Thompson smokes through a diamond studded cigarette holder with Marlene Dietrich. Nearby the old cold river flows, perpetually, indifferent to the souls it carries to the ocean, long after the road is silent. What is music, other than a mind altering substance? If so, this is gr8 music!

The Growlers
“Old Cold River” (mp3)
from “Are You In Or Out?”
(Everloving)

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Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, now living and performing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ben Kyle is an old school song smith whose music echoes his transatlantic journey. There’s so much heart in this track, it practically bleeds out the speakers. An accomplished vocalist with gr8 songs, teamed up with a dynamic and sensitive backup band that breathes his every line like it’s their own, well, this is the sort of stuff stars are made of.

Romantica
“Queen of Hearts” (mp3)
from “America”
(2024 Records)

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There are things heavenly and dark about this single. As a pulsing bass and drum line backs an elegant, haunting vocal arrangement, dreams merge into waking and the light changes all at once. Is it dusk? Is it dawn? This sounds like the smell of rain.

Liechtenstein
“All At Once” (mp3)
from “Survival Strategies In A Modern World”
(Slumberland)

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Like a love letter from the ’80s in the form of a song, “Rotten Apples” by Voxhaul Broadcast is juicy sweet and partially fermented. The Cure meets some kinda new-wave-a-billy like Stray Cats al’a Roman Holliday, when in walks The Smiths with a Violent Femmes record? I think so! Lovely, passionate and silly, like the ’80s, the gr8est decade to ever suck. Enjoy.

Voxhaul Broadcast
“Rotten Apples” (mp3)
from “Rotten Apples”
(Retone Records)

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Taking their cues from Joy Division, David Bowie and myriad 80’s goth masters, The Dark Romantics are a band that sounds exactly as their name suggests. Weighing in at the mythical perfect pop song length of 2:50, “Another Song For Another Night” has all the pieces. This is a spotless arrangement of an original contemporary gothic rock gem. Oh the things one finds while rooting around the dusty rooms in the vast mansions of the Intertubes!

The Dark Romantics
“Another Song For Another Night” (mp3)
from “Some Midnight Kissin’”
(Lujo Records)

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One band that has really caught my attention this year is the correctly named SuperHeavyGoatAss. They play heavy metal like it’s heavy, not like a spastic speedy hair-spray and spandex fireball, but more like a seething, boiling crater of lava. To a man, SHGA are virtuoso players, and their combo work has that beyond-tight quality that happens when an artistic vision is shared passionately by everyone in a band. No surprise, I guess, for as their myspace bio points out, they recently got off a 60,000 year tour. Their songs are unpretentious yet deep, fun yet apocalyptic, original yet familiar. Long may they rock.

SuperHeavyGoatAss
“Lasting Kind” (mp3)
from “60,000 Years”
(Arclight Records)

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With a mighty dose of Beatles love, and heaping helpings of college radio lust, The Apples In Stereo bring the sound of a summer stroll with a spring in your step on the way to your sweetie’s house on a sunny day. You can almost smell the trees where “The Bird That You Can’t See” sing joyously, as you forget your troubles and bounce along in the unmistakable direction of bliss. This is carefree pop fun, and my stars, there sure is a need for some more of that in this world!

The Apples In Stereo
“The Bird That You Can’t See” (mp3)
from “#1 Hits Explosion”
(The Apples in stereo)

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Since forming in 1998, San Diego’s Pinback has built their widespread indie cred and fan base on artfully composed, intelligent and highly original music. Entitled simply “B,” this track from their  2003 “Offcell” EP is a masterpiece of  imagination – about as much of a journey as you can pack into a five minute piece. Hard to classify, yet readily accessible. Like a dream put to music.

Pinback
“B” (mp3)
from “Offcell”
(Absolutely Kosher)

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Stupemendous ultra-über delicious dreamy power pop! This song may be sung from the perspective of reviewer or reviewed, but we don’t care, we are too busy reveling in it. Lovely and strange, with Beatle-esque (I’m sorry there’s just no other way of putting it!) chordal genius, and hormone-rich girl-guy harmonies. It pleases me.

The Botticellis
“The Reviewer” (mp3)
from “Old Home Movies”
(Antenna Farm Records)

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What is pop music for, if it isn’t for pushing the boundaries of sexual stereotypes, gender roles and other things we can have fun with at night, and deconstruct in college classes in the morning? Swiss boarding school escapees Sawoff Shotgun – Susanna aka Lola Python, Sonia aka Bess Brown and Monica aka Kala Bebe – have a debut album to be reckoned with in ‘Never mind the Botox, here comes the Sawoff Shotgun.’ The icy-hot sexy-funny electro-trash single “Stereosexuality” is bound to be downloaded and enjoyed a bazillion times and in as many positions.

Sawoff Shotgun
“Stereosexuality” (mp3)
from “Never Mind the Botox, Here Comes the Sawoff Shotgun”
(sevenahalf records)

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Young Scottish quartet We Were Promised Jetpacks uses a traditional two guitars, bass and drums formula, to create something far from ordinary. Like their brilliant Fat Cat labelmates Frightened Rabbit, the Jetpacks mine the depths of bleakness to bring up artifacts of surprising beauty. “Ships With Holes Will Sink” lurches bodily at its subject matter and wrestles it to the ground, in a sort of epic battle between vitality and futility. The lyrics, depending on your mood, could be hilarious, or truly frightening. Regardless, this is original work, rich in passion, intelligence, and a certain courage, that I find myself returning to as it reveals a little more each time. Now, about those Jetpacks..

We Were Promised Jetpacks
“Ships With Holes Will Sink” (mp3)
from “These Four Walls”
(Fat Cat Records)

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Graham Lindsey’s latest album, “We Are All Alone in This Together” is one of the freshest country records to come along in recent memory – a hard left and several states away from your standard Nashville fare. Lindsey’s first brush with fame came at the tender age of 12 as a member of the punk novelty trio, Old Skull, and he has since grown into a full fledged singer-songwriter with a distinct and original voice. On “Old Roger,” the troubadour’s punk roots shine through as clearly as his love for Bob Dylan and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot. A gritty work of great imagination.

Graham Lindsey
“Old Roger” (mp3)
from “We Are All Alone in This Together”
(SPACEBAR Recordings)

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Wow. Someone reached deep for this one. Whether it sprang from the voice of experience, or simply an awake songwriter, “Find Your Own Dumpster” is “Brother Can You Spare A Dime” for post-industrial America. Every line is precious. Musically, it sounds like Nirvana staggering drunk through a Hendrix record with Camper Van Beethoven in tow, howling along. Gritty, relevant work from Austin’s Bankrupt and the Borrowers. No bailout here I expect, but this is definitely too big to fail!

Bankrupt and the Borrowers
“Dumpster” (mp3)
from “Beers on the Bible”
(SPAT! Records)

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The Golden Dogs are having their day. This Toronto band loves their indie rock, and they’ve been tearing it up from Berlin to London to Halifax to Vancouver to New York to Los Angeles (shall I go on?) and they are coming to your house, so make cookies. They’ve opened for an A-list of namedroppable acts that their bio rightfully drops, and their music is irreverent, muscular and fresh. Check out this hi-energy live mp3.

The Golden Dogs
“Burst” (mp3)
from “Lester – Burst (Live)”
(The Shadow Cabinet)

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Amazing Grease Records pressed only 500 copies of Sunless Day’s 7″ vinyl single “Want It,” but the mp3 has since crawled the googletubes to international appreciation amongst rock connoisseurs of every stripe. Have a listen and you’ll know why. Save this in your “kick ass rockin’ indie anthems” folder. First brought to my attention by the Noise Pop festival, the song stands out in any rock playlist and would be a radio hit if “hit” radio had not become a dead blob of cold icky goo.

Sunless Day
“Want It” (mp3)
from “Electric Ahhh…”
(Amazing Grease Records)

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Without gimmicks or slick production tricks, Australia’s Revelators win the old school way: with great composition and performance. It’s nice to hear music like this – so rooted in American country, blues and rock – stand out today, and sound original and contemporary in its own right. Real high quality stuff here.

The Revelators
“When the Spell Is Broken” (mp3)
from “The Revelators”
(Head Records)

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Berkeley’s ska nutters The Uptones have a gr8 promo track on Fun Fun Fun Recordings’ “MP3 Jackpot Winners”  compilation. Check out Ridiculous and the whole album, it’s stuffed with power pop goodness, most of it produced by my friend Matthew King Kaufman of Beserkley Records fame.

The Uptones
“Ridiculous” (mp3)
from “Skankin’ Foolz Unite!”
(Fun Fun Fun Recordings)

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Somewhere in the Milky Way between Pink Floyd and Portishead there is a mysterious shining comet with guitars and a beautiful wailing female lead vocal, soaring across the night sky. ALyX’s debut is strong and accomplished, more the work of a veteran than a newcomer. Somehow I expect gr8 things from this stylish Texas songstress.

Alyx
“Bluest Skies” (mp3)
from “ALyX! – EP”
(Intravenous Records)

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