GEORGE KILBY JR. Six Pack georgekilbyjr.com A jammer from way back, this Alabama-born, New York-based blues ’n’ roots vet must have loved cutting “Something I Can’t Find,” the first tune on this six-song EP to feature an extended guitar break. Kilby also gets an audible kick out of trucking country-style through Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love,” trading licks with banjoist Andy Goessling. But he’s even better on the four tighter tracks,... 

TODD MAY Rickenbacker Girls myspace.com/toddmay Rock nerds will read the title and think of the jangly guitars beloved by the Byrds, Tom Petty and countless power-pop bands. Those influences likely apply, but May is actually referencing Ohio’s Rickenbacker Air Force Base. Growing up nearby, he chatted up pilots’ daughters worldlier than he was, and here, he sings songs about girls in motion. May himself is constantly on the move, jumping from... 

BEING THERE Breaking Away facebook.com/beingthereband The thrill of being young and confused and knowing a few chords belongs to no decade or country, and in that sense, there’s nothing unusual about this London foursome. Like fellow U.K. group Yuck, whose self-titled 2011 debut marked something of an indie-rock paradigm shift, Being There does fuzzy, pleasantly disaffected ’90s-style alternative. The reference points are mostly American—Dinosaur... 

LACY JAMES Circle of Swallows mereminne.com When she’s not crafting the kinds of eclectic, electro-tinged earth-child folk fantasias heard on this, her second album, James choreographs her own modern dance troupe. That might explain songs like “Dancing out of the Dark” and lines like “dancing animals / entwining animals / in cuneiform and ruin,” though really, Swallows defies easy explanation. James sets bold, mystical lyrics to clattering... 

THE NIGHT MARCHERS  Allez Allez swamirecords.com John Reis is no dummy. As frontman for Rocket From the Crypt and Hot Snakes, the San Diego punk swami has wrecked stages around the world, and he knows his brand of garage rock is gnarlier and more inventive than most. Hence, “Loud, Dumb and Mean,” a highlight of his second Night Marchers album, is false modesty—a declaration of idiocy from a foursome whose warped, pointy riffs and skewed rhythms... 

JIMBO MATHUS White Buffalo jimbomathus.com Back in the ’90s, while leading Squirrel Nut Zippers, this Mississippi native scored a novelty hit with “Hell,” a hot-jazz tune that snuck onto alt-rock radio. A decade after the Zippers’ demise, Mathus isn’t doing anything quite as radical or conceptual. White Buffalo is a genre record, the genre being Southern—a sweaty, twangy sound informed by country, folk, gospel, soul and good ol’ rock... 

PARADOX Tales of the Weird myspace.com/paradoxbangers After a quarter-century of raging, give or take some periods of inactivity, Paradox is still spoiling for a fight. On their sixth album, the German thrash mainstays wage war against the government (“Brutalized”), the media (“Brainwashed”), mental illness (“Fragile Alliance”) and the idea of war itself (“Escalation”). They wield the typical heavy metal weapons—shamelessly brazen... 

ALY TADROS The Fits alytadros.com On her second album, Tadros is nothing if not elusive, a storyteller determined to kick dirt on her footprints and throw us off the trail. Then, she’s always been tough to pin down. The Texas native spent time in Egypt, Spain and Mexico before settling in Austin, and she brings to her harrowing fingerpicked jazz-noir songs echoes of each country. One minute, she’s vulnerable and needy, imploring, “Say that you’re... 

TUNDE OLANIRAN The Second Transgression tundeolaniran.com When Prince has nightmares, the background music—and you know there’s background music—probably sounds something like Tunde Olaniran’s dark and delirious 21st century R&B. On his second in a series of five EPs, the perpetually project-hopping singer-producer fits rap verses, soulful vocals and bizarre samples—those are Chinese schoolchildren on “Brown Boy”—over paranoid... 

GREGG AUGUST Four by Six greggaugust.com Two bands—a quartet and sextet, as the title implies—give life to this bassist-composer’s singular sound. August digs the choppy start-stop riffs, but he leaves space to swing, encouraging his cohorts to do likewise. Jazz newbies, take heart: The stroll down “Strange Street” ain’t so strange.  Read More →

TED RUSSELL KAMP Night Owl tedrussellkamp.com All the best 21st century troubadours live in L.A., and this alt-country Cali cowboy is as good as any. Kamp’s loose drawl makes him sound slightly haggard—maybe even tipsy—and that works for both the sad ballads and boozy barroom hoots.  Read More →

JAMAICAN QUEENS Wormfood jamaicanqueens.com Hip-hop production has grown pretty inventive in recent years, and Detroit duo Adam Pressley and Ryan Spencer—formerly of the band Prussia—have been paying attention. Here, starchy indie rock meets the woozy bump of modern rap, neither sound spoiling the party.  Read More →

DUOLOGUE Song & Dance duologuemusic.co.uk As U.K. kids reared on Radiohead, Muse and Coldplay come of age, count on hearing more bands like this London quintet. Just don’t expect the same mastery of melancholy stadium pop and glitchy electro-rock. Emotional and experimental, Song & Dance is an impressive debut.  Read More →

X-TIVITY FACTOR Hard and Powerful xtivityfactor.com Manuel Marino makes electronic music under many guises, and as X-tivity Factor, he delivers driving beats and synth lines with a slightly noirish New Wave sheen. Had the folks behind the Drive soundtrack wanted aggressive, not atmospheric, Marino might have been their man.  Read More →

VICTOR WOOTEN The bass virtuoso follows his own path to musical innovation    Over the course of eight solo records, and many others he’s recorded as a member of progressive bluegrass band Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Victor Wooten has shown he’s rarely content to play by the rules. As one of today’s most innovative musicians, he’s furthered the evolution of bass from traditional role of backing rhythm to front and center as a lead instrument.... 

BOBBY BARE Darker Than Light bobbybaredarkerthanlight.com When a fella’s been recording for as long as Bobby Bare has, he gets to thinking about history—not so much his own, but the centuries’ worth of strange and wondrous songs that make up the American folk and country canon. Fifty years on from his first hit, the 77-year-old Bare picks a wide range of classics, everything from Dust Bowl laments (“Going Down the Road [I Ain’t Going to... 

JOHN CALE Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood john-cale.com Having tried every other genre imaginable—his spectrum spans avant-garde classical to the proto-punk of the Velvet Underground—John Cale has finally made his goth-pop album. With its tense beats and spooky electronics, Shifty Adventures suggests Cale has been on a serious Depeche Mode or Joy Division kick. His drab singing recalls the latter’s Ian Curtis—if not Paul Banks, frontman for... 

TURBO FRUITS Butter turbofruits.com When the going gets tough—too many long nights and drunken fights—Turbo Fruits get going. “Motorcycle, please take my problems away,” frontman Jonas Stein sings on “Harley Dollar Bill$,” leaving hopelessness in his dust. On their third album, these Nashville bashers drink, gamble, play with guns and get their hearts broken, but they find redemption where they can—sometimes on the open road, mostly... 

MONARCH Amber Waves of Cain monarch-the-band.com As Monarch surveys their kingdom—newfangled cities beset with old-timey problems, populated by single moms, drug addicts and Joe Six-Packs—they can’t help but smile. The L.A. quintet plays smart, tragicomic country rock—all reverb, twang, shuffling beats and spur-sharp wit. As frontman Jay Sosnicki spins his sorry tales, he neither pities nor mocks the folks he sings about. He knows the world... 

WHITEHORSE The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss whitehorsemusic.ca Whenever a married couple sings about the “seven-year itch,” there’s a tendency to think the worst: trouble in paradise. But Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland, the husband-and-wife duo behind this dark and stormy Canadian twang-pop duo, haven’t made a breakup record. Their full-length debut is all about keeping things spicy, and while the acoustic ballad “Mismatched... 

UNKNOWN COMPONENT Blood v. Electricity unknowncomponent.com Like Kurt Cobain with a keyboard or Trent Reznor with a cooler head, Keith Lynch, the lone Iowan behind Unknown Component, channels his hopes and fears into bummed-out synth-pop. He loves his faux string and choral sounds—touches that turn his home studio into a gothic cathedral—but judging by his mumbled delivery and searching lyrics, he’s not super enthused about much else. “Nowhere... 

RICK HOLMSTROM Cruel Sunrise rickholmstrom.com Through his association with Mavis Staples, who he’s backed onstage and on record, this blues-rock vet has gotten to know Jeff Tweedy, Billy Bragg and Neko Case—songwriters who cast traditional music in nontraditional lights. Here, Holmstrom does likewise, using back-alley guitar riffs and pop-Americana hooks to power cautiously optimistic songs about chasing down dreams. Things don’t always work... 

BONNIE BISHOP Free bonniebishop.com Bonnie Bishop’s latest could almost be a Kelly Clarkson record, only this raspy-voiced Nashville belter writes or co-writes all of her own country-soul jams. The opening trio of “Keep Using Me,” “Shrinking Violet” and “Free” are you-go-girl female empowerment anthems, and in a way, so is “Bad Seed,” co-written by legendary songsmith Al Anderson. That one centers on a politician’s daughter who... 

STACIAN Songs for Cadets stacian.bandcamp.com The really out-there pop music has never been limited to the coasts. Just as Detroit gave us eerily robotic early techno and Minneapolis spawned Prince—once Top 40’s chief experimentalist—Milwaukee has produced Stacian, aka Dania Luck. Keen on sci-fi imagery and primitive synth programming, this one-woman band fills her full-length debut with hypnotic minor-key riffs and harsh mechanized beats. Way... 

SLAM DONAHUE Hemlock Tea slamdonahue.com Sunshine pop for Brooklyn basement dwellers: There’s the tagline for this duo’s debut EP. Singer and guitarist David Otto has the soulful rasp and melodic sense of Them-era Van Morrison, and with the help of producer Ayad Al Adhamy, who’s pulled off similar retro-modern feats with Passion Pit, he sounds simultaneously young and used up, wide-eyed and red-eyed. “I’ll drop anything for fun,” he sings... 

EARLY GRAVES Red Horse earlygraves.com Without a lyric sheet, it’s impossible to say for sure, but the first word on the third album from these high-precision, higher-speed San Francisco metal mavens seems to be “death.” That would be appropriate, as new singer John Strachan fills a void left by founder Makh Daniels, who died in a 2010 van accident. Strachan and his steel-wool larynx keep pace with the band’s gnashing charge, and whether “Death... 

CRUSHED OUT Want to Give crushedoutmusic.com Jack White will leave behind boxcars of boss records, but his real legacy may be the male-female guitar-drum duo, a rock ’n’ roll model he virtually invented with the White Stripes. The latest—and one of the greatest—to follow his coed thud ’n’ thrash lead are Crushed Out, the husband-and-wife team of Frank Hoier and Moselle Spiller. These lovebirds dig Buddy Holly, the Ramones and most likely... 

BRICKWALL JACKSON Just Life brickwalljacksonband.com In life, this rock-tinged Virginia country-pop duo tells us, “There is no right or wrong way.” True, but as they celebrate the good stuff (four-wheel drive, spunky self-assurance) and make sense of the bad (miscarriages, heartbreak, sick children), it’s hard to argue with their methods.  Read More →

AMY GORE AND HER VALENTINES In Love thisisamygore.com Keeping one foot in the garage, poised to stomp on a fuzz box, the former leader of Detroit’s Gore Gore Girls joyrides through rootsy rock, country and even ’80s-style pop, a la Scandal’s “Goodbye to You.” The chorus on “Blackout” is bright enough to light the Silverdome.  Read More →

HABIB KOITE AND ERIC BIBB Brothers in Bamako habibkoite.com “Tombouctou” is your standard wandering blues—American bluesman Bibb and West Africa’s Koite have simply wandered very far afield. They’re caravanning through Mali, tracing the roots of modern music, and as with the other 12 songs, they hit on something fluid, uplifting and beyond time and place.  Read More →

THE REBEL LIGHT The Rebel Light therebellight.com On their debut EP, these L.A. indie-pop hopefuls announce themselves with guitars, pianos, strings, horns and synths. Amazingly, there are only three of them. With their big music and ideas (sample line: “All my heroes are dead”), they could be headed someplace, well, big.  Read More →

DOMENICO Cine Privê domenicolancellotti.com.br Your dad likes bossa nova and space age bachelor-pad music. You dig Radiohead. This Brazilian singer-composer brings peace to your weirdo family, playing groovy lounge jazz with an experimental bent. Dig the ray guns on “Hugo Carvana,” something George and Jane Jetson might have rocked on their honeymoon.  Read More →

DON FELDER With his first solo project in decades, a former Eagle soars again   It’s 9 a.m. on the west coast and Don Felder is a bit drowsy. “Too early,” he says. “I’ll let you know how I’m doing after my second cup of tea.” Tea? A far cry from the indulgent excesses of his near three-decade rock star tenure with the Eagles—the band that brought him fame, fortune and no shortage of conflict prior to his abrupt termination in... 

THE WORLD FAMOUS HEADLINERS World Famous Headliners worldfamousheadliners.com How do you know Big Al Anderson still loves his job? Leading this Nashville supergroup, the 65-year-old sounds younger than he did on “No Good to Cry,” the garage nugget he cut in 1967 with the Wildweeds, the Connecticut band he fronted before serving 22 years with cult heroes NRBQ. In fact, singing and playing guitar is no longer Anderson’s main gig. Since the 1990s,... 

MASTA ACE MA_Doom: Son of Yvonne mastaace.com In the flashback skit that begins this hip-hop nostalgia trip, young Duval Clear rechristens himself Masta Ace. The Brooklyn MC has used that tag for nearly a quarter century, influencing scores of better known rappers, but this album’s subtitle, Son of Yvonne, is perhaps the meaningful pseudonym. After all, it was Duval’s mom’s record collection—romanticized on “Ninteen Seventy Something”—that... 

RAFIQ BHATIA Yes It Will rafiqbhatia.com On his full-length debut, guitarist and composer Rafiq Bhatia presides over jagged jazz jams that don’t always feature guitar and seldom feel particularly composed. True, his sharp, spiraling runs are all over “Background Music”—a song with far too many dynamic shifts to justify its self-deprecating name. Ditto “Try” and “Endogenous Oscillators.” But on the seven-plus-minute centerpiece “Annihilator... 

SKYLINE DRIVE Topanga Ranch Motel skylinedrive.me Bless the acoustic guitar—the go-to instrument for rock ’n’ rollers looking to reinvent themselves as troubadours. Among the latest to unplug and rejoice is Skyline Drive main man Derek Thomas, formerly of experimental L.A. rockers 60 Watt Kid. On Topanga Ranch Motel, there’s nothing remotely innovative—just rootsy strumming, craggy singing, woe-is-me sentiments and the seriously sad pedal... 

HARLAN Night Loop thestillbeat.com This Southern duo has everything it needs to make edgy electro-pop for urbane Northerners. There are static-electric synth sounds, restless beats, reverb-rich vocals, cryptic lyrics, and the kinds of bluesy guitar riffs Depeche Mode uses to conjure the mystical dread of the Mississippi Delta. Only this isn’t music for nightclubs. Multi-instrumentalists John Norris and Scott Campbell aim more for planetariums, campfires... 

45 GRAVE Pick Your Poison 45grave.net One generation’s devil’s music is another’s easy listening, and while the return of L.A. “death-rock” pioneers 45 Grave—back after a 27-year hiatus—won’t mean much to today’s bloody-eared extreme-metal fanatics, there’s plenty here to recommend. Like a West Coast cross between the Misfits and New York Dolls, the band does trampy, campy psychedelic bar rock, gobbling up Halloween clichés like... 

KENDRA MORRIS Banshee kendramorrismusic.com Having spent nearly 10 years on the New York City scene, fronting an all-girl band before going solo, this Florida native is too poised and focused to warrant the “American Amy Winehouse” tag she’ll inevitably receive. That said, there are similarities. Like her late U.K. counterpart, Morris is a cool, tattooed retro-soul sister who came of age in the hip-hop era. On her debut, she links Billie Holiday... 

JANIS MARTIN The Blanco Sessions cowislandmusic.com Rockabilly pioneer Janis Martin—dubbed “the female Elvis” during her brief ’50s heyday—died in 2007, but not before teaming with producer Rosie Flores, one of the genre’s finest revivalists, for one final session. After Martin’s death, Flores struggled for years to shop the album, and she ultimately financed this release via a Kickstarter campaign. The result is a bittersweet 11-song... 

RUBY VELLE & THE SOULPHONICS It’s About Time facebook.com/soulphonics The title doesn’t lie: It is about time, and that time is the golden age of soul and R&B. We’re talking Motown, Stax and young Aretha, but rather than mimic any single artist or classic label stable, Ruby and her suit-clad sidemen roll a decade of music into one nattily dressed package. That means a mix of JFK-era love songs—check out the “(Love Is Like a) Heat... 

SUSAN CATTANEO Little Big Sky susancattaneo.com Students at Boston’s Berklee College of Music have a fine teacher in Susan Cattaneo, part-time faculty of the songwriting department. On this EP, she leads a crack Nashville squad through seven pro-built country tunes. Whether stomping (“Let the Music Deliver Me”) or pining (“A Place Called Love”), she places each verse, chorus and bridge exactly where it belongs. Like any master crafter, Cattaneo... 

DISPATCH Circles Around the Sun dispatchmusic.com This insanely popular New England band’s first album in 12 years takes its name from the leadoff track—an underdog story that may be a parable for Dispatch itself. As the song opens, doctors rocket a sickly child into space, and after a few years in orbit, he returns “with a smile as big as the whole world.” Formed in Vermont, this markedly un-hip trio logged mad miles in the ’90s, becoming... 

TUMBLEWEED WANDERERS So Long tumbleweedwanderers.com Are those echoes of Sugar Ray’s “Fly” in “Take It Back,” the closest the Wanderers come on their debut album to penning a summer jam? Could be—the members of this San Fran Americana quintet are children of the ’90s, even if they’d like to pretend otherwise. “This ain’t ’69 / you’ve gotta change your mind,” frontman Jeremy Lyon sings on the soulful “Take It Back,” only... 

PINEY GIR Geronimo! pineygir.com Raised by a Pentecostal minister, Gir failed at speaking in tongues—unless you count “tang-ticky tang-tang-tang-tang,” one of the nonsense phrases she’ll throw into her smiley ’60s-style pop songs. Her sheltered upbringing hasn’t left her naive—just sweet and hopeful, even when life bursts her balloon.  Read More →

LOWTALKER The Marathon EP myspace.com/lowtalkermusic Properly channeled, the rage required to play hardcore can also produce music like this: earnest, surging, scream-along rock for tattooed dudes in touch with their feelings. It gets pretty heavy, but love of classic Midwestern punk keeps this Milwaukee foursome from steamrolling the listener.  Read More →

JOE FIEDLER’S BIG SACKBUT Joe Fiedler’s Big Sackbut joefiedler.com Three trombonists and a tuba player walk into a studio. It has the makings of a joke, but bandleader Fiedler plays it straight, fitting intricate melodies and inventive solos around Marcus Rojas’ anchoring tuba. On “Calle Luna, Calle Sol,” he even makes the t-bone sound sexy. Take that, saxophone.  Read More →

GRACE PETTIS Two Birds gracepettis.com Landing somewhere between old-school country and Top 40 folk-rock, Pettis pens detailed songs about lovers on the mend and young musicians on the move. Through these vignettes, she offers glimpses of her own personality, revealing herself to be an observer and a dreamer—a winning combo.  Read More →

BIRDS OF CHICAGO Birds of Chicago birdsofchicago.com It’s not quite Rod Stewart-meets-Billie Holiday—and that’s probably for the best—but husky-voiced JT Nero and silky-smooth Allison Russell lead a kind of Americana equivalent. They deliver barefoot, butt-shaking country-rock uplift and somber folk meditations, never skimping on poetry.  Read More →