Once again we’ve got some dandy giveaways to give away…

Grab a copy of Dawes “Nothing is Wrong”

and you’ll get a free copy of their “Suitcase EP”

With Arctic Monkeys “Suck It and See” CD $11.99    LP $ 18.97

you’ll get a nifty, numbered, letterpress poster

With Depeche Mode “Remixes 2: ’81-’11″ 3-CD $29.96

you shall receive an indie store exclusive 12″ vinyl

And with Bob Marley’s “Live Forever” CD $16.99 (his LAST recorded concert in 1980)

score a three pack of Marley pins

and a free puppy!!! tonight only!

(child and ice cream not included) …but we’ve got oodles of the other stuff come and see!!

Battles – Gloss Drop
In a sense, Battles is the double-aughts version of a progressive rock band, featuring virtuoso musicianship pretty much unheard of in indie rock circles. All that was missing were lyrics about gnomes and fairies and the ilk. Battles was a band that was looking backward as much as they were looking forward, and it all began to make a heck of a lot more sense to me under that reflective prism.

That brings us to the sophomore album and yes, I had to wonder where Battles would go from Mirrored. That record captured a particular style of post rock-cum-prog, and my fear was that there would be a temptation to repeat the formula and do the same thing twice. Happily, with Gloss Drop, this is not really the case, although the driving musicianship and some of the trademark whimsy of Mirrored shines through. Gloss Drop is not merely a sequel to Mirrored, it’s an album in its own right, one that incorporates world music on a somewhat prominent basis, and one that sees the band move more in a pop-oriented direction. Read the Full Review on Pop Matters

Arctic Monkeys – Suck It and See
[Suck It and See] takes as its starting point Humbug’s least representative track, Cornerstone, a sighing, richly melodic lament at odds with the lurching, Josh Homme-produced darkness evident elsewhere. The result is the first Arctic Monkeys album that tries to ensnare the listener with its tunes, rather than guitar riffs or Turner’s lyrics. Oddly, what its mid-tempo stew of thick basslines, feedback-laden guitar lines, churning chord progressions and thumping drums occasionally recalls – presumably unwittingly – is the ooh-look-at-the-cosh-boys Morrissey of the mid-90s, though anyone who feels their spirits understandably sinking at the mention of that particular juncture of Morrissey’s career should note that the contents of Suck It and See are noticeably tighter, lighter on their feet and infinitely more fun than anything on Southpaw Grammar. Read the full review on The Guardian UK

Tyler, The Creator – Goblin
There is no need to introduce this man at all. You should know his name, his crew, his height, his favourite food and, especially, the name of his enormously awaited sophomore album. He expects you to, because the first entry in his Goblin journal is detailed with a furiously direct account of the hurricane of Odd Future references that has consumed Twitter and every second webpage on the internet in the past few months. It’s as if Tyler is narrating his own career in a third-person perspective. At the forefront of an eerily hellish beat, he calls out his critics, attacks the nay-sayers and compiles all his angry tweets (they’re more like ticks really – he just says what he wants, when he wants) against ‘White America’ into the 6:49 he has assigned himself: “N****s getting offended/They don’t wanna fuck ‘cos I do not fuck with religion/Well see that’s my decision you fuckers don’t have to listen/Here, put this middle finger in your ear.” Read the track by track review on Hip Hop Isn’t Dead it’s just Sleeping.

A band like Yo La Tengo really illustrates how unreliable one’s concept of time can be. My brain can’t grasp the fact that they formed the same year as Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s first album came out. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re talking 1984. Ronald Regan won his second election by carrying 49 states, Ghostbusters was second-highest grossing film of the year and Jaroslav Seifert won the Nobel Prize for literature. That’s twenty-two years before the Arctic Monkey’s debut album came out. (Who’s feeling old?) I’m only beating this dead horse because I’m fascinated.

Yo La Tengo’s age is striking because none of their stuff sounds dated and they seem to always release albums that are very, very good. They’re like an indie rock Dorian Gray, except that instead of an ever-more grotesque portrait in an attic they have an ever-more robust back catalog. Even lesser titles like Summer Sun are fine albums. Popular Songs, their latest, while falling short of the magnificence of I Can Hear Beating As One or And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out, is one of their better albums. Not bad for a trio of old fogies.

Reinvigorated by the wonderful Condo Fucks project earlier this year, Popular Songs is an album sprawling in length and scope. At over seventy-minutes, the band showcases all their strengths, alternating between fuzzy jams, low-fi grooves, upbeat rockers and sparse, atmospheric numbers, all with the seamless cohesion we’ve some to expect from these Hobokens. If there’s any criticism to be made, it’s that occasional moments on the album are perhaps a bit too reminiscent of older songs, but not nearly to the extent of the aforementioned near-misstep Summer Sun. There are plenty of fresh moments here and Yo La Tengo fans should be nothing short of elated with the latest offering from this enduring and endearing trio.

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug

Kids grow up so quickly these days. In 2005, Arctic Monkeys were a supernaturally talented teenage quartet from Sheffield, detailing youthful high jinks with a sarcastic wit and cocky insight as tartly evocative of time and place as the Smiths in 80s Manchester or the Jam in 70s Woking. Now, three albums in, they’re sporting long hair and Black Sabbath T-shirts, the interview chat moving from in-jokes to Jimi Hendrix’s impressive musicianship. The pitch for Humbug couldn’t scream “maturity” any more loudly if the record came with free pipe and slippers.

Evolution has been in the air since last year, when singer Alex Turner unveiled his side-project, 60s pastiche the Last Shadow Puppets. Some of its extravagant armoury – strings, galloping rhythms – lingers here, but other changes are more fundamental. With seven of the 10 tracks produced by Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, the transition is from pop to rock, snap and vigour weighed down by a preoccupation with muscle and heft. (Read the Full Review)

Mew -No More Stories

The frenetic percussion and unorthodox time signature of the opening track “Introducing Palace Players” eventually gives way to an upbeat, soaring dance beat and jangly guitars that go on to dominate the rest of the song. The lyrics have an air of optimism to them, which represents a switch from the typically morose vocals Jonas Bjerre usually delivers. As the band is now recording as a three-piece following the departure of bassist Johan Wohlert, and producer Rich Costey is again manning the production on the new album (he also produced the bands breakthrough record Frengers), these new songs manage to maintain the grandiose sound and scope of Mew’s earlier material without ever overreaching. This approach is evident on the propulsive “Repeaterbeater,” which is a driving, seething track that seems to be over far too quickly but oddly ends at just the right time. It is that quirky paradox that not only makes Mew a tough band to classify, but also a tough band to describe. The jarring guitars at the start and finish of “Repeaterbeater” belie the epic, original nature of the track’s other two and a half minutes. And after hearing these two songs, as good as they are, I still have no real idea what the full-length will sound like. (Read the Full Review)

Municipal Waste – Massive Aggressive

Ahhhh yes, more thrash. After more than a week of being laid out from strep throat and ear infections galore, I am now psyched to listen to the new Municipal Waste album, Massive Aggressive (is anyone else totally enamored by the delightful titles this band comes up with for their songs and albums? I almost want to giggle with glee everytime I check out the traklisting of a new album). I can’t tell you how hard it is to be a huge fan of metal and NOT be able to listen to your favorites because your ears can’t handle anything more than repeats of the Cosby Show on TV. I digress though, the new Municipal Waste is one album I have been eagerly anticipating for much of the year. The band’s last two albums have received regular rotation on my playlist, and me being a thrash junkie puts them at a higher standard than perhaps some other forms of metal. With that in mind, I hope I don’t turn you off when I say that Massive Aggressive isn’t what I’d exactly been hoping for. Is it good? Yes, but it’s not the monumental follow up to The Art of Partying I had been anticipating. (Read the Full Review)

Matisyahu – Light

The first thing that ran through my head when I first watched Matisyahu (born Matthew Miller) perform his first single “King Without A Crown” back in 2006, sounded like this: “Hmm…a Hasidic Jew rapping religiously over rock/reggae songs…a quite ingenious gimmick.” In such a random fusion of styles, the unusual frontman delineated messages of peace and faith to everyone in the vicinity. I, personally, kept focused on the thought that he looked very peculiar – so peculiar in fact that naturally, such curiosity caused quite a large deal of people to become fans, and those fans to buy the album that really catapulted Matisyahu into the spotlight, Youth. I learn more and more about Miller and his dirt poor past – how he fell into the label of ‘high school drop-out’. This isn’t such a far cry for artists in any sense, but there was no doubt an exotic twist in this case because that artist happens to be a Judaic hip-hopper on a never-ending quest to find God. Donning a broad-brimmed black hat and throwing a yarmulke over his head, Matisyahu is back after a two year break to uplift the downtrodden with his brigade of inspirational lyrics and head bobbing dancehall breakbeats with his third studio album. (Read the Full Review)