Building on the dynamic multi-instrumentalism of their 2005 debut, Tree City, Robbers on High Street deliver their delightfully ambitious follow up, Grand Animals. The NYC craftsmen are in full form, expanding on their textured and lively melodies that manage to excel epic proportions while reaching for the heartstrings, too.

It's an age-old pop culture plot: the bully with a hidden heart of gold. Everyone knows even the boldest bad boys can get the blues -- and on The GO's fourth LP Howl on the Haunted Beat You Ride, the brash quartet's signature raucous energy takes a backseat to lo-fi, off-kilter harmonies riding shotgun.

Brighton-based music man Monster Bobby is somewhat of a rock'n'roll Renaissance man. Having championed British Sea Power and Electric Soft Parade during their early days, Monster Bobby also acts as the house DJ for all Pipettes gigs, but now the musician is ready to move out from behind the shadows of his protégés for his very own gig as a singer/songwriter.

When you're young, it's hard for your brain go to any less than a million miles an hour. Thankfully, Portland, Oregon's Blitzen Trapper relies on this A.D.D.-like aesthetic of working outside of the box, for they often blur the musical lines between folk, funk, and utter freakiness.

What do you get when you mix three brooding British brats with a flashy foreign fiasco of funk?