sBach, 'sBACH' (Suicide Squeeze)

NES obsessive can't seem to put down the musical joystick.

Here's some déjà vu for fans of Hella guitarist Spencer Seim's Nintendo-spazz side project the Advantage and his solo half of Hella's 2005 double album Church Gone Wild/Chirpin' Hard (he was responsible for the latter disc).

Centro-matic/South San Gabriel, 'Dual Hawks' (Misra)

Gritty Texas rocker reconciles his twangy yin and yang.

Singer/songwriter Will Johnson masterminded this split double CD as a way to unite both of his decade-old bands. Centro-matic rounds out scraggly Southern rock with power pop, balancing neurotic pain and desperate joy on loose-limbed rockers such as "Twenty-Four" and "Quality Strange," framed by Johnson's gorgeously aching voice.

Excepter, 'Debt Dept.' (Paw Tracks)

The scary soundtrack that the paparazzi scum really deserve.

If Britney Spears channeled her bipolar instability into bizarre dance music, she still wouldn't sound as disoriented as this creepy Brooklyn ensemble. On their sixth album, distant, disembodied voices collide with hilariously lo-fi drum-machine crashes and rubbery synths.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, '13 Blues for Thirteen Moons' (Constellation)

And you thought the war was weighing on John McCain's mind.

Possibly spooked by the specter of global warming, this freakfolk spin-off from Godspeed You!

Caribou, 'Andorra' (Merge)

Canadian bedroom auteur follows his stoner-pop bliss.

The fourth Caribou album by multi-instrumentalist Dan Snaith (who has also recorded electronic music under the moniker Manitoba) sounds like it was hatched in a '60s West Coast haze where melodies billow up like bong smoke.

Wheat, 'Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square' (Empyrean)

Enigmatic and epic -- and they're not from Montreal!

After their minor 2003 hit "I Met a Girl" and a prolonged hiatus, this hooky Massachusetts band returns with its fourth and most rousing collection of heart-on-sleeve anthems.

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