THE DIRTY PROJECTORS :: No More
Over three full-lengths, an EP, and five different live bands in four years, David Longstreth has created in Dirty Projectors a body of music of original and variegated beauty. The breadth of his talents as a songwriter, arranger, bandleader and singer call to mind Prince, Joni Mitchell, and Bjork. His constantly evolving sound—both live and on record—the sheer intensity of the music, and the originality of his voice set him apart. Among modern music makers, he is a maverick: a loner and a rebel. From beginning to end, Dirty Projectors' new offering, Rise Above, is a reimagining of Black Flag's seminal 1981 record Damaged. It is not a covers record. Longstreth attempted to rewrite his favorite adolescent album word for word, from memory.

ARCHITECTURE IN HELSINKI :: Heart It Races
Architecture in Helsinki is: Cameron Bird, James Cecil, Gus Franklin, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry and Kellie Sutherland. They randomly play: bass, drums, congas, percussion, synthesizers, trombone, guitars and samples. We rejoin our heroes, this six-piece outfit of musical chameleons, formed in Melbourne but now scattered across the globe, as they hit the ground running with their third album, Places Like This. It could not be more removed from their previous album, In Case We Die (2005). Fizzing with electrical currents, channeling calypso rhythms and tropicalia flavors with lashings of percussion a-go-go, the new songs pack a kaleidoscopic punch that is little short of breathtaking. Pop effervescence hasn’t sounded this fresh in ages.

PINBACK :: From Nothing to Nowhere
Around here, we embrace the mystery of life—coyotes and all. So allow us to present this new record from San Diego’s finest, Pinback. Comprised of two core members, the prolific Armistead Burwell Smith IV (Zach) and the inexhaustible Rob Crow, the band began in 1998 when the guys took a break from their various other projects (3 Mile Pilot for Zach and Thingy and Heavy Vegetable for Rob). Autumn of the Seraphs is Pinback’s fourth full-length record, and second on Touch and Go. This record pushes forward and upward. Its melodies are more dynamic and aggressive, while still gently pulling you back in again and again. While entirely recorded in the band’s home studios once again, this record is tighter, the drumming more immediate and crisp. Those duties were shared by Mario Rubalcaba (Rocket from the Crypt) and Chris Prescott (No Knife), and it’s a marked difference from Pinback’s previous releases.

AESOP ROCK :: None Shall Pass
Created over a two- year period following his last release, None Shall Pass unravels retrospectively, documenting not only much personal change Aesop experienced over these years, but also scenes and stories indicative of all ages of life. This album touches on the experiences all humans encounter as they reach the age of adulthood: being judged independently, moving to a new place, the relationships that one builds with others no matter how big or small. Snapshots of life from all viewpoints are brought to the forefront here; “39 Thieves” tells the tale of high school mischief, “The Harbor is Yours” embodies the viewpoint of a children’s story, “Fumes” examines the ever-too-common story of relationships gone sour due to drug abuse. Forgoing the typical stance of braggadocio everpresent in underground and mainstream hip-hop alike, Aesop Rock investigates and examines himself and others on this album, likening the title phrase to the inevitable judgment that everyone must encounter by their peers based solely on their actions.

ISLANDS :: Ethics + Molars
Islands sprouted out of the kindred x-ray vision of Nick Diamonds and J'aime Tambeur, two rag-tag youths from the weird side of the tracks. Previously, they'd worked together in sludge-crust band The Unicorns and, after some time apart, met up in L.A. on the set of Woody Allen's film "Melinda Melinda Melinda". Unexpectedly, they'd both been separately cast in the pivotal restaurant scene, in small walk-on roles opposite each other. Their fierce competitive spirits kept the two from getting too close, but once the final cut of the film surfaced and they found both of their parts had been left on the cutting room floor, their dormant friendship had been rekindled, cloaked in mutual pity and despondency. After much deliberation, they agreed to return to the snowy climes of Montreal and jump headfirst into the often heartbreaking world of music.

THE BLACK LIPS :: Cold Hands
The Black Lips' fifth album, and first studio album for VICE, is titled Good Bad, Not Evil. The album was produced by the band in their hometown of Atlanta, at The Living Room studios, aided by the band’s friend Ed Rawls, a bartender at the nearby Drunken Unicorn bar (just around the corner from where fellow Atlantans Outkast work). The album ranges from dirty psychedelic blues songs about Holy World War 3 “Veni Vidi Vicci,” outright pop hits like “Katrina” (written the night the band found out that the Hurricane of the same name had devastated New Orleans), and “Bad Kids” (based around certain band members’ experiences with juvenile detention centres). There’s also the bruised, tender album closer “Transcendental Light,” a song written by Ian about discovering his mother’s body.

EULOGIES :: One Man
Albums, like the various camera angles of the funeral eulogy, are like scenes of a movie. They are the writer’s chance to tell a story ten times over, from ten different angles, to ten different melodies. Eulogies’ Walker does just this on the band’s debut self-titled collection. With his voice dipped in reverb, he gently reminds us of the pre-histrionic honesty of Elvis at Sun Studios. With Chris Reynolds’ drums pulsating at his back, Tim Hutton’s typewriter-like bass notes keeping things uncomplicated, Walker lays out his 13 scenes.

BISHOP ALLEN :: Rain
2006 was a big year for Bishop Allen. The band recorded and self-released an EP every month of the year. Fifty-eight songs later, they completed one of the most ambitious recording projects in recent memory. With the EPs, Bishop Allen's pop smarts sound timeless, escaping the indie-pop idiom and revealing a language informed by the Kinks, Dylan, and the Zombies. Bishop Allen was truly DIY, recording and releasing their own records and booking their own tours. But it was never Bishop Allen's intent to forgo a label for the long term, and in early 2007 the band struck a partnership with Dead Oceans. The first fruit of this relationship is Bishop Allen's sophomore album, The Broken String. If Bishop Allen made a huge musical jump from the 2003 debut to the 2006 EPs, the band made a quantum leap on The Broken String. Of its 12 songs, nine are reworked tracks from the EPs and two are previously unreleased. These are not just re-recordings: Bishop Allen has stepped out of the home studio and created definitive versions of songs that were originally conceived within the constraints of a monthly deadline.

LIARS :: Plaster Cast of Everything
Liars have never been a band comfortable with staying in one place for very long. Geographically, personally and most of all musically, each successive album that they release comes with a new agenda, a new heritage, a new set of reference points and a new way of thinking about music. So, after the multimedia multi-tasking of 2006’s Drum’s Not Dead—each track of which came accompanied with three exclusive short films—Liars have returned with their most stripped-back and direct album yet. Simply titled Liars, their fourth full-length (recorded in Berlin and LA and mixed in London by Erasure and Depeche Mode producer Gareth Jones) abandons the thirty-minute sound collages called things like “This Dust That Makes The Mud” of old in favour of a set of the band’s most conventional and powerful songs yet—although as a band with a reputation forged on thirty minute sound collages called things like ‘This Dust That Makes The Mud’, Liars’ recent career swerve is as delightfully surprising as ever.