SUNSET RUBDOWN :: Winged/Wicked Things
The woven lyrics and singular songwriting style heard in Sunset Rubdown invoke a mythological world, where magical narratives and tiny metaphors give shape to ordinary objects in the room; sometimes beautiful, sometimes beastly. The moniker was first born to bear the solo bedroom recordings of Spencer Krug, but has since evolved into a full-fledged band, involving the vital contributions of fellow Montreal residents Jordan Robson Cramer, Michael Doerksen, and Camilla Wynne Ingr. Now enter Sunset Rubdown's third full-length record, “Random Spirit Lover”, featuring twelve songs that bleed in and out of each other, mixing portents with theatrics, confusions with conversions. The dark glamour of the music beneath the half-baked revelations in rhyme creates a tone of high drama, blown-out and overt, but the stage is wild and the roles aren't clear, so the sincerity of the work and the spontaneity of the recordings can't help but shine through the formality of structure.

ENON :: Mirror On You
Enon is a band from Brooklyn and Philadelphia. John Schmersal (guitar, bass, synths, vocals), Toko Yasuda (bass, synths, vocals) and Matt Schulz (drums) have all been in a bunch of bands, and are still in a bunch of bands. But all that doesn't really matter, right? What does matter is that these three, together, are Enon, always, and they're always amazing. Some bands are content to develop a “trademark sound.” Enon continuously expands on every aspect of their music, managing to bring something new to the table with each release while still weaving a common thread through all of them.

BAND OF HORSES :: Is There A Ghost
For a lot of reasons, Cease to Begin is the perfect title for this new record. Not only do the songs themselves weave this theme through the record, but stopping and starting anew is also a reflection of the past year and a half for Band of Horses. Though they worked with producer Phil Ek again, as they did on Everything All the Time, much has changed between the fairly recent then and now. There have been band members who have come and gone, including Mat Brooke, who left the band to pursue other interests and his own band. For core members Ben Bridwell, Rob Hampton and Creighton Barrett, there has been a move from Seattle, WA to Mt. Pleasant, SC, a relocation that had been planned for some time so that they could all be closer to their families. And, close friends and family have come and gone—some far too early. Necessarily shot through with these experiences, the songs on Cease to Begin are strikingly beautiful, if less elliptical and more straightforward, with more sophisticated arrangements than the last record.

DASHBOARD CONFESSIONAL :: Thick As Thieves
This fall, critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Chris Carrabba will return to his roots with the release of The Shade of Poison Trees, Dashboard Confessional’s fifth album for longtime label Vagrant Records.  The album marks a notable return to the signature acoustic sound that Carrabba first developed on early Dashboard Confessional albums like 2000’s The Swiss Army Romance and 2001’s The Places You Have Come To Fear The Most. Recorded over 10 days in Florida with renowned producer Don Gilmore (Pearl Jam, Linkin Park), The Shade of Poison Trees is filled with the kind of earnest acoustic laments and smart, poetic lyrics that long ago turned Carrabba into a feverishly adored artist. While he continues to evolve as a songwriter throughout, the album is a significant return to the Dashboard of old, as well as a tip of the hat to fans that have spent the past nine years by his side.

Division Day :: Tigers
Division Day has been around since 2001, the summer in which the four lads (Ryan Wilson, Rohner Segnitz, Seb Bailey, and Kevin Lenhart) moved into a house in Santa Cruz, sound-proofed a bedroom, put together an EP, and played their first few shows. After that summer, it was back to school for 2 more years; Division Day performed now and then, and every summer they took up residence in new unglamorous practice spaces (garages, portable trailers, laundry rooms). It was in the final of these collegiate summers that the band wrote and recorded their second EP, The Mean Way In, working with engineer Alex Oana (Kid Dakota) at San Francisco’s Tiny Telephone studio. By 2005, Division Day had set to work writing their debut full-length, Beartrap Island which will be released next month.

KEVIN DREW :: Tbtf
If the lines between Kevin Drew: Broken Social Scene Founder and Kevin Drew: Solo Artist occasionally blur on Spirit If…, it’s simply because such distinctions are irrelevant in the bigger picture, and the songs on Spirit If… easily reconcile the contrast between the enormous and the intimate. For every gentle, snare-brushed turn like “Safety Bricks” or “Broke Me Up,” there’s a mutant, synth-freaked mash-up (“Big Love”), an open-freeway rock anthem (“Backed Out On The…”) or celebratory group hug (“Lucky Ones”). On top of every Broken Social Scene member making an appearance, the guest list just keeps getting bigger and bigger: this is, after all, the first album in the history of rock music to feature guest contributions from J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.), Scott Kannberg (Pavement), piano master Gonzales, Joules Scott-Key (Metric), Andrew Kenny (The American Analog Set), Dave Mitchell (Do Make Say Think) and, yes, even Canadian FM-radio icon Tom Cochrane.