Boredoms, 'Super Roots #9' (Thrill Jockey)

Japanese punk legends still trying to make drum circles cool.

Until now a pricey import, this one-song, 40-minute document of a Christmas Eve 2004 gig finds Boredoms leader Yamataka Eye taking a harder, faster path to the third eye he's been fixated on since 1999's Vision Creation Newsun.

Subtle, 'ExitingARM' (Lex)

Playful hip-hop geeks show you every toy in their box.

What in the hell does ExitingARM mean?

Local H, '12 Angry Months' (Shout! Factory)

The world's greatest fake grunge band still have the pop chops.

A dozen years and one drummer removed from their copacetic Nirvanabe nugget "Bound for the Floor," Scott Lucas' Illinois-bred bubble-grunge duo are still loudest and prettiest when hitching their power chords to power pop. This time, though, there's a concept: One title per month, all revolving around an ugly breakup.

Kidz in the Hall, 'The In Crowd' (Duck Down)

Ivy Leaguers spur nostalgia for polka dots and Ballys.

This Chicago duo, who met as undergrads at the University of Pennsylvania, hearken back to the preppy, '80s hip-hop of Leaders of the New School and Kwam é.

Duffy, 'Rockferry' (Mercury)

Bittersweet siren teams up with Britpop vet.

Like Amy Winehouse, fellow U.K. chart-topper Aimee Duffy is a white soul singer with '60s styling. Like the mother of all Brit soul birds Dusty Springfield, this young Welsh woman is fond of peroxide and mascara. Yet among the many appealing things about Duffy is that she's very much her own person -- a big-voiced smalltown girl who expresses herself with rare dignity.

Death Cab For Cutie, 'Narrow Stairs' (Atlantic)

Breakup bard confidently details love's travails.

From afar, Death Cab for Cutie don't seem to have evolved very much over seven albums: The Seattle band still explore love's tender, bruiseable side with Ben Gibbard's sometimes delicate, sometimes forceful vocals set to sometimes delicate, sometimes forceful indie rock.

Syndicate content