Waking Ashland - The Well

Waking Ashland - The Well
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In the glorious wonderland of Southern California, Waking Ashland is synonymous with being a San Diego based “Piano Rock Band” with influences as disparate as Joe Jackson, Coldplay, Pixies, and Hüsker Dü – which should translate to you, Dear Record Lover, as a serious love of Ben Folds. Or does it? Bob Mould’s good pal, Lou Giordano, produced Waking Ashland’s breakthrough 2005 album, Composure, -- and on their new album, Wake, you can hear the Hüsker’s influence (along with Mr. Fold’s harmonies) on tracks like “Your Intentions” and “Change.” Pleasant So-Cal, Beach Boys-y vibes permeate Wake as well – something that Black Francis would certainly approve of (especially on the haunting “Sinking Is Swimming.” It’s all earnest, good and rocking – so check it out, why don’t ya?

Mother Mother - Touch Up

Mother Mother - Touch Up
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Mother Mother is a weird and wonderful band from Vancouver, Canada - another in a long line of Great White Northerners bent on taking the pop music crown away from The States. On Mother Mother's Touch Up, you'll find a collection of catchy songs encompassing a brand of post-modern pop music that defies formulaic approaches of contemporary songwriting. The genre promiscuity found on the album is held together by a signature sound of three unique voices that weave in and out of harmony and shared leads. Also vital to Mother Mother's music is its lyrical component, which describes in a wry, observational fashion the beautiful and beastly behavior of a socially inept world. Musically, the group is quite sharp, all having studied jazz and classical art forms. These traditional approaches combined with current pop and indie rock sensibilities make for a refreshing original sound, which is why Mother Mother is forging its own path in today's music scene. The live show is yet another component to the rising success of Mother Mother. With infectious stage chemistry and high energy, the five are able to recreate the essence of their recorded music while also bringing an element of spontaneity and abandon to each performance.

O.A.R. - Live From Madison Square Garden

O.A.R. - Live From Madison Square Garden
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In the eleven years since their inception O.A.R. has sold over a million records and has played just as many shows. Okay… maybe not that many, but it’s been a lot. They are touring band that makes most jam bands look positively lazy. Like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, they were the first bands to get record deal that strictly involved distribution, giving them complete autonomy to have complete control over their musical destiny. Their star is large enough that they can be heard as the theme music of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and have even played the show a number of times. But O.A.R.’s real mark of popularity is how they’ve continually been able to sell out Madison Square Garden and rock the asses off 25,000 fans. Such an event has been captured on the band's appropriately titled CD/DVD, Live From Madison Square Garden. Sure, they’ve got a new album on the way, but Live From Madison Square Garden is what they do best. Check it out.

Test Your Reflex - The Burning Hour

Test Your Reflex - The Burning Hour
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The story of Test Your Reflex begins in the rehearsal rooms of a teen center in Thousand Oaks, California and will probably end somewhere on the dance floor, the radio dial or on a mix tape passed between two people looking for something new and special to bestow upon each other. Together this diverse lot trumps much of the macho banality of current rock with sweeping keys, textured guitars and cathartic ballads and more importantly bring the craft of songwriting back to the alternative pop world in explosive doses. From the dreamy opener “I’m Not Sorry” to the anthemic “I Am Alive,” and the impossibly infectious first single “Pieces of the Sun,” The Burning Hour is a sublime synthesis of the accessible with the unexpected. All eleven tracks cleverly showcase the depth of this record on which every song will be someone’s favorite. It’s an album for anyone looking to escape from sadness, boredom or the everyday and step into a danceable, hum-able, heartfelt daydream. It’s the pop life seen through new eyes. And now, it’s yours.

Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior

Richard Thompson - Sweet Warrior
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Richard Thompson is a consummate singer, songwriter, and guitarist. His career stretches back to the late ’60s, when he was a founding member of the British folk-rock Fairport Convention. In the late ’70s, with his then-wife, Linda, he recorded Shoot Out the Lights, which regularly makes critics’ lists of the top ten records of all time. In the ’90s, he experienced another career renaissance with the album Rumor & Sigh and he remains an elder-statesman of alternative rock. And when he’s not making solo albums he’s collaborating with artists of every genre imaginable or writing film scores. To see Thompson perform solo acoustic is to see a true master at work – a masterful guitar player and storyteller who melds both sides of his brain as easily has he does his fingers and voice, or his heart and soul. So when the rare occasion to hear Thompson amplify his craft comes about, the listener should know that some magic is in store. Sweet Warrior, Thompson’s first electric album since 2003’s The Old Kit Bag, is a fiery collection of songs about loss and betrayal – two themes that are adequately intertwined in his critique of the Iraq war (from a soldier’s perspective”) entitled “Dad’s Gonna Kill Me.” Boo-ya!

Keren Ann - Keren Ann

Keren Ann - Keren Ann
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According to Wikipedia: “Keren Ann (born Keren Ann Zeidel in Caesarea, Israel, on March 10, 1974) is a recording artist / singer / songwriter / producer based largely in Paris, New York and Israel. She plays guitar, piano and clarinet and engineers and writes choir and musical arrangements. She is descended from Russian Jews on her father's side and is Javanese and Dutch on her mother's. She lived in Israel and in the Netherlands until the age of 11, when her family moved to France.” Don’t you feel boring? While no power I possess will make your life (or mine) more geographically exotic, I can wholeheartedly say that Keren Ann’s music will certainly make you feel cooler than you are (or may possibly be). . Like her sublime 2005 album, Nolita, Keren Ann makes music that’s atmospheric yet substantive – as if she’s creating a soundtrack for that oddly familiar place you’ve never been. This time around it’s an idyllic metropolis where Hope Sandoval could’ve sang on the third Velvet Underground record. Is it New York or Los Angles? Paris or New York? Who cares… Itinerancy never sounded so scrumptious.

Chris Cornell - Carry On

Chris Cornell - Carry On
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Chris Cornell is an immediately identifiable figure in rock music. But more than just a signature voice, or the front man in a series of genre-defining rock bands that you’ve probably heard on the radio once or twice (Soundgarden and Audioslave), Cornell is also a gifted songwriter who single handedly wrote many of the songs that he is associated with - songs that are instantly recognizable among rock fans. Cornell, along with his contemporaries in the early nineties rock scene (a genre you’ve probably heard on the radio once or twice called “Grunge”), changed the face of rock and pop music forever. Now, after earning two Grammy Awards, selling more than 20 million albums worldwide and paving the way for numerous other artists Cornell is now laying fresh asphalt for himself with the release of his solo album, Carry On. Chances are you’ve already heard “You Know My Name” in the opening credits of the last James Bond flick… Which might have you wondering if there’s doe-eyed crooner cooling the center of this smoldering alt-rocker. Could Cornell be the Chet Baker of the Grunge set?

Marilyn Manson - Eat Me Drink Me

Marilyn Manson - Eat Me Drink Me
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“Eat Me, Drink Me is very earnest and uncalculated and raw, in the sense that I know I’m fucked up, and I’m not really ashamed of it.” No shit? So said fun-loving make-up enthusiast Marilyn Manson in Rolling Stone way back in March. It’ll be four long years since his last studio album (Lest We Forget, which, incidentally, featured his highest charting single - a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”), the Religious Right’s reason to hate Popular Culture returns with Eat Me, Drink Me. Sure, art openings, soundtrack appearances, and personal circumstance have grabbed headlines for Manson in recent months, setting the stage for the release of Eat Me, Drink Me, but it’s the rock that keeps the kids coming back for more. Always the provocateur, in what may be the ultimate subversion of the code of aggro-rock, the songs are immediately catchy - all jagged guitar hooks, anthemic choruses, with an overlying glam-rock sheen. Lyrically Manson has never been more riveting, seemingly having enough to draw from in his own life and from society at large to present a fresh, snarling vision. Eat Me, Drink Me is unquestionably the artist’s most personal statement yet. Oh: And did you know he was that nerdy kid from The Wonder Years?