July 10, 2008 – Georgia punk peaches Deerhunter have announced the details of their much anticipated follow-up to 2007's lauded fuzz-fest Cryptograms. The album, dubbed Microcastle and slated for release on Oct. 28, comes less than one year after Bradford Cox and his cohorts announced an indefinite hiatus after two years of touring behind Cryptograms. In the interim we heard from frontman Cox via his hyper-personal solo outlet Atlas Sound and even saw the boys open for the Smashing Pumpkins on a few dates this summer. Now, the down-South kids are packing up for a cross-country jaunt with Corgan's '90s alt-rock contemporaries Nine Inch Nails in a coveted supporting slot ideal for promoting the new disc, which was recorded over only one week at Rare Book Studios in New York. Microcastle tracklist: 1. Cover Me (Slowly)2. Agoraphobia3. Never Stops4. Little Kids5. Microcastle6. Calvary Scars7.

July 7, 2008 – What? The indie rock apple never falls too far from the Saddle Creek tree, and Son Ambulance sit in a similar fruit bowl as their Nebraskan contemporaries. Singer-songwriter Joseph Knapp's pet project blends the moody acoustic stylings of underground icon Nick Drake with the poppier moments of Omaha's own prodigal son Conor Oberst, with whom Knapp split the Oh Holy Fools EP in 2001. Son Ambulance flirt with a Shins-like bounce on the woozy, organ-drenched "Horizons" and '70s psychedelic-lite vibes on "Juliet's Son the Renegade," both from the forthcoming Someone Else's Déjà Vu, due July 8. Who? Indie-pop project Son Ambulance, the brainchild of cornhusker Joseph Knapp.

July 2, 2008 – A new release from Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha has become the stuff of legend. But now, after years of rumors and stalled projects with the likes of DJ Shadow and EL-P, the fruit of the politically charged rocker's labor finally arrives in the form of One Day as a Lion -- a partnership with ex-Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore -- and the project's eponymous debut EP, out July 22 via Epitaph imprint Anti-. Named after the imagery in an iconic photo from famed Chicano shutterbug George Rodriguez, One Day as a Lion play by the mantra, "It's better to live one day as a lion than a thousand years as a lamb." And with de la Rocha on both vocals and keyboards and a skin-punisher like Theodore behind the kit, ferociousness is to be expected. One Day as a Lion tracklisting: 1. "Wild International"2. "Ocean View"3. "Last Letter" 4. "If You Fear Dying" 5.

January 18, 2008 – Who? The love child of two multi-talented,multi-tasking eclectics, Hello, Blue Roses pairs visualartist/vocalist/flautist Sydney Vermont with her scraggly-hairedsweetheart, artsy singer/songwriter Dan Bejar (Destroyer, NewPornographers, Swan Lake), to make up this charming duo. Their intimacybeget a distinctive and engrossing debut album, complete with the awww-inspiring title, The Portrait Is Finished And I Have Failed to Capture Your Beauty... due Jan. 22 via the Locust label. What's the Deal? Like a Sonny & Cher for the hippest sectors of the Great WhiteNorth, these Vancouverites are anything but frigid, delivering 14 warmembers of by-the-fire folk fitted for the lovelorn literati.

January 18, 2008 – Do you ever wish you were a famous songwriter? Well, so didthousands of Americans who, starting in the 1950s, began mailing theiroriginal words to grubby record labels and actually paid a fee to havetheir lyrics set to music. These "song-poems" might never have made astar of every (or any) John Public or Susie Q, but it did leave someundeniably fascinating pop culture relics. On the American Song-Poem'sChristmas album Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four?, amateur lyricists treated us to such not-so-classics as "Randy, the Lil' Elf" and "Santa Came on a Nuclear Missile." Now, reviving the phenomenon without the scam-artist ramifications, NYC rockers Robbers on High Streetget jolly with a new rendition of "Seasons Greetings," originallyperformed for the American Song-Poem collection.

January 18, 2008 – Before becoming a wedded Harvard grad, Weezer's Rivers Cuomobanged out post-grunge, fuzzy pop bliss with playful naivety -- atradition that Brooklyn trio Right On Dynamite are more than happy tomaintain. Like 1994's Weezer (The Blue Album), "Won't Let ItGo" is a welcome reprieve from brooding and over-serious rock,showcasing Right On Dynamite's poised and snappy manner. Deliveringhigh spirits in handclaps and slight xylophone dings, the track'sgleeful sound is effortless, while clear, crisp power chords are set toa low rumble. Eventually a section of undeniable oh oh ohsignites into a squealing guitar freak-out only to be quickly smoothedby the reprise of the simple verse melody. Lyrically, the trackaddresses a short fuse and the testing of patience but the contagiouschorus insists that "it's not your fault" if this Dynamite blows.

January 18, 2008 – Singer/songwriter Meredith Braggis incontestably well read, but his greatest gift is the conversationalsubtlety with which he weaves an educational tale. Like hishyper-literate contemporaries the Decemberists and their frontman ColinMeloy, Bragg would rather pour over history books than his own personaldiary. But instead of Meloy's theatricality, Bragg adopts theearnestness of Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, with only acousticguitar strums and his steady voice -- a stipulation of his entire LP Silver Sonya -- to communicate chronicles of times past. On"Plinian" Bragg tells the tragic story of the legendary volcaniceruption of Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79 through the eyes of Pliny theYounger, an Ancient Roman writer whose famed uncle and namesake Plinythe Elder died in the explosions.

January 18, 2008 – Last time out, the Whigs landed a blow with the barroom brawler Give 'Em All a Fat Lip.Now, fans of the "swing first, ask questions later" scufflin' Southernethos will be glad to know the Athens, GA trio are back with the chipstill on their shoulder. The Whigs hail from onetime indie-rock haventhe University of Georgia, but with their alt-country twist, all oftheir roots bleed through, sounding stuck between the stations ofcollege radio and classic rock. On "Right Hand on My Heart," the Whigs'Parker Gispert channels My Morning Jacket's Jim James and takes hissatin tone to a sandpaper surface. The kick-drum jabs and the cymbalssting, but the sucker punch is the wall of guitars -- bright,triumphant, and yet still growling.

January 18, 2008 – Patience is apparently not a virtue in the world of singer/songwriter Rafter Roberts. With his second full-length, Sex Death Cassette,locked and loaded for release on Jan. 22 via Asthmatic Kitty, Rafterhas already moved on -- and with a purpose. "I'm trying to write andrecord a full song every day," he tells SPIN.com. "I finished Sex Death Cassette a while ago, and even though it's not out yet, I'm just really feeling like making new stuff." Ona particularly mischievous day, Rafter honed in on his would-be viceand wrote "Drugs," a slinking and hazy number where kid-like laser gunelectronics are challenged by thorny lyrical admissions. "I wish I diddrugs," Roberts confesses in a quick murmur.

January 18, 2008 – Favorites of the Fresno, CA underground, Rademacher pridethemselves on small band values that seem almost archaic in theInternet age. Cross-country tours in a van helped propagate threehomemade EPs and earned the band a shot at studio time with a realproducer. Now with Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza (Kim Deal, Elliot Smith) spotting them, Rademacher have attempted Stunts,their first LP. Luckily, quite practiced compared to today's crop ofindie rock newcomers, broader first impressions bode well for thequartet. Exhibit A is a non-album demo exclusive, "WhatHappened to Yr Friends," that displays Rademacher's breadth as theycraft a truly earnest and epic track. Meanwhile, Stunts sample"If U Got Some Magic" displays an astute wit when asking, "If you knowthe city, then why can't you find a place to get your hair cut?" Noticethe growth without surrender.