Henrik Schwarz - The Grandfather Paradox

Henrik Schwarz-Ame-Dixon 50 years of minimalistic Music!

The Glimmer Twins - Serie Noire: Dark Pop and New Beat

Jean-Pierre Massiera - Midnight Massiera: The B-Music of Jean-Pierre Massiera

B-Music

Life On Earth - A Space Water Loop

The Unabombers - Electric Chair Saved My Life

Extrawelt - Schone Neue

Daniele Baldelli - Cosmic Sound/Baia Degli Angeli

Amorphous Androgynous - A Monstrous Psychodelic Bubble

F.S.O.L.

Prins Thomas - Live at Robert Johnson

Andy Votel - Twisted Nerve

10th Anniversary Mix

Gaslamp Killer - All Killer

finders keepers 1-20 Mixed

The Sight Below - Glider

Nite Jewel - Nite Jewel

italians do it better

Pinch - Underwater Dancehall

instrumental

Distance - Repercussions/Chestplate

OYUN HAVASI! VOL. # 1

selections by DJ Mahssa

FindersKeepers.Com/B-Music

Milky Disco

vol. 1 vol. 2

Now Forever - I Know I'm Supposed To Want

El Michels Affair - Enter the 37th Chamber

Anagram Jam - Anagram Jam

TANDY LOVE & MAD SMOOTH

Tiger Sushi Presents - More G.D.M.

A Shot In the Dark

tennesse jive 1945-55

Various Artists - B-Music: Drive in, Turn on, Freak Out

b-music

Soul Jazz Records Singles 2008-2009

John Hill - Six Moons of Jupiter

Nymphomania

VOL #1 VOL #2 VOL #3

Looney Tunes Vol. #7

coming soon

Sweet Movie

Pushing his themes of sexual liberation to their boiling point, Yugoslavian art-house provocateur Dušan Makavejev followed his international sensation WR: Mysteries of the Organism with this full-throated shriek in the face of bourgeois complacency and movie watching. Sweet Movie tackles the limits of personal and political freedom with kaleidoscopic feverishness, shuttling viewers from a gynecological beauty pageant to a grotesque food orgy with scatological, taboo-shattering glee. With its lewd abandon and sketch-comedy perversity, Sweet Movie became both a cult staple and exemplar of the envelope pushing of 1970s cinema.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

Though Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs is usually cited as the first full-length animated feature, it is actually The Adventures of Prince Achmed which has a better case to make (excepting some possibly apocryphal Argentinian projects which have been lost). Yet one can see why it has been overlooked in the history books. Aside from the fact that it flopped on its premiere and took 50 years to recoup its cost, Prince Achmed was not a Disney film - in fact, it was not even American (and was silent to boot!). The German feature (at 67 minutes, it's longer than Dumbo) was also the brainchild of a woman, Lotte Reiniger, who worked into her eighties producing films in her own unique style - which brings us to the final point. The Adventures of Prince Achmed was not created using conventional cel animation but was instead meticulously assembled through the use of shadow puppets - the entire film takes place in intricate, astonishingly crafted silhouettes.

Tex Avery

cartoons

tip:  ..<<..AMOEBA MAIL ORDER..!>>
,,,,,,,,"amoeba mail order",,,,,,

Cold Cave - Etsel & Ruby

Wes Eisbold (Give Up The Ghost, Some Girls), Caralee McElroy (Xiu Xiu) and Co. make noisy yet pretty Joy Division/Chris & Cosey-esque Jams. Also check out Cold Cave’s CD compilation of early material entitled Cremations.

The Big Pink - Velvet

A new slice-of-heaven totally worthy of the 4AD imprint. Alan Moulder-produced psychedelic shoegaze-pop with doped-out loops and dazed Beach Boy harmonies with a smidge of Perry Farrell’s yowl. Also check out the new 7” "Stop The World," and look out for the full-length coming in the fall. My Favorite New Band.

Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs

French band Amesoeurs (featuring Neige of Alcest and Mortifera) is totally a dream band for me, making musical alchemy with most of my favorite musical genres. Dream Pop and Shoegaze shimmer seamlessly into floods of rotten Black Metal, Death Rock and Grrrl Punk - sometimes in the same song.

Tor Lundvall - Sleeping & Hiding

A “come down” album in the vein of Slowdive’s Pygmilion. Pure Floating.

Jessie Evans - Is It Fire?

After the grimacing audio-terror of Subtonix and The Vanishing, Ms. Evans went on to the dark euro-disco abandon and minimal-wave of Autonervous. Now just a few short years later, Jessie pulls up in the party bus, invites you in, and heads south of the border - eventually hitting a ferry to the tropics. Fellow celebrators include damn-fine time keepers and booty-shakers Toby Dammit (Swans, Iggy Pop), and Budgie (Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Creatures), horn-blower Martin Wenk (Calexico), The Extra-Action Marching Band, and an International Children’s choir (!). Production and mixing duties were handled by Thomas Stern (Einstürzende Neubauten, Crime and The City Solution) in Berlin and Pepe Mogt (Nortec Collective) in Tijauna. A totally rhythmic-and-primal, trance-state meditation on the joy in life. Smoking! Boom-bopa-bap-boom! Smoking!

Rome - Flowers From Exile

The extremely prolific, Luxembourg-based dark-wave duo’s most accessible, textured and varied album to date. Intricate neofolk arrangements of Flamenco guitar, eerie subtle synths, and strings around ordered beats, percussion, and spoken-word samples. Gothic-leaning, longingly romantic balladry with Leonard Cohen-via-Andrew Eldritch vocals. Top Notch!

Various Artists - This Is Happening Without Your Permission

A tribute 12” to Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear by three great northwestern bands. Concept: each band covers one BK song and one HB song. The best tracks coming from Triumph Of Lethargy Skinned Alive To Death which reunites some usual culprits - Spencer Moody, Dann Gallucci (Murder City Devils) and Andrea Zollo (Pretty Girls Make Graves). Swell Liner notes by Quitty (Tight Bros, Behead The Prophet)! Plus, killer artwork sending up Jane’s Addiction iconic Nothing’s Shocking cover art.

The State: The Complete Series

Simply one of the best sketch-shows ever! All five seasons, FINALLY available on DVD! Several cast members went on to write and star in Reno 911 and, hilarious as that show is, The State is still the better. Damn near everyone on the show went on to bigger things. Classic and Essential! $240 worth of pudding!

tip: Bands To Watch For:  Feral Kross, Former Ghosts

Hot Chip - A Bugged Out Mix

This DJ mix features my two favorite bands...Wolfgang Voigt's Gas and The Michael McDonalds.

Magik Markers - Balf Quarry

Didn't hit me as hard as Boss, but I might dig it more now. I'm from Indiana and I like that there's a song about Hoosiers on here.

Eat Skull - Wild & Inside

Dope pop songs, crap production. The first tune is on a constant loop in my ride.

Tyvek - Tyvek

Resisted this gang of blog bros for a long time, but then I heard "Building Burning" and couldn't stay away. These Michiganders incorporate all the good elements of the various "raw musics" into something that resembles fun.

Karen Dalton - It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best

Finally reissued on vinyl. Totally well done package. Mostly glad I didn't pay $250 for that OG copy that came in a couple months.

tip: Keep it brief, y'all.

:Of The Wand & The Moon: - Sonnenheim

This is one of my favorite albums EVER, easily so in recent memory...Mystical, dark, majestic, yet deep & restrained Danish neofolk that truly transcends. Unbelievably so, but better than DEATH IN JUNE. I'm not kidding. No. Really. Better than DEATH IN JUNE!!! (I also recommend the earlier album Lucifer.)

Allerseelen - Neuschwabenland (Reissue) & Hallstatt (2007)

Austria's ALLERSEELEN creates cold, dark, militantly organized and disciplined yet delicate and introspective music. Very unique, very different, very intro, very EURO. It feels like ARYAN SOUL music to me - many might disagree.

Gnaw Their Tongues - Die Mutter Wahlt Das Todtenkleidchen

The most evilest, apocalypticest, overwhelmingest, mind-shatteringest, nightmare-sludgiest dissonant symphonic blackmetal-noisiest musickal release in recorded history, AND it's on my own (micro)label. AND I didn't have to pay for this ad. But you WILL have to pay for this CD. Grrr. All other G.T.T. releases are hotly recommended for freaks, the new one coming soon on Crucial Blast!

Mortualia - Mortualia

Solo suicidal black metal from Finland, from one of the members of Horna/Sargeist/etc. named Shatraug. It's raw, it's epic, it's creepy, it's beautiful, it's morbid, it's heart warming, it's inhuman, it's emo, it's blues, it's very much one of the DEFINITIVE DEPRESSIVE BLACK METAL albums I've encountered. Seek out the Canadian WURM's Aux Portes De L'Agonie release as well - and take it from there...

Burial Hex - Initiations

VERY SCARY. VERY scary sounding. It's also very good... But more importantly, it's extremely scary.

Aura Noir - Hades Rise

From what I've heard & from what I could tell, this was LAST YEAR'S BEST (BLACK) METAL ALBUM. YOU research it, YOU seek it out, YOU find out for yourself. You're welcome.

Die Krupps - Volle Kraft Voraus! (Reissue)

Like D.A.F.??? Like early Neubauten? Like vintage, tight-ass, aggressive ELECTRO-PUNK??? THIS IS IT!!! It's entirely German. It's flawless. It's from 1982. It's amazing & I recommend it to you. It makes me want to dance and wear tight black leather apparel. I DON'T. Neither. YET.

tip: I recommend open mindedness.
I also recommend riding your bicycle.
http://www.u-8-c.com

Cat Dancers (2007)

A documentary of Ron and Joy Holiday, a couple that was one of the first exotic tiger entertainment acts. They knew Siegfried and Roy before they were Siegfried and Roy. Making a life after dancing in Radio City Music Hall for years, they moved to Florida to start their dream of cat dancing. Eventually owning and training up to 8 tigers, this documentary takes a wild twist and leaves the audience in tears. The life they led was truly their own. Inspiring, unique and dares the viewer to follow their dreams no matter what the consequence.

True Blood: The Complete First Season and Eastbound & Down: The Complete First Season!!!

After canceling Deadwood, ending The Sopranos, HBO was on my shit list...Thank you for bringing some excellent shows back on the radar. True Blood is based on the Sookie Stackhouse fiction novels by Charlaine Harris. Set in the deep South in Louisiana, it's a time when vampires have "come out of the closet" and are trying to be mainstream with humans thanks to a Japanese company that mass produces synthetic blood they can survive on, but....it's like being a meat eater and then only being able to survive off soy burgers for the rest of your life! So imagine the antics that ensue when vampires, shape shifters, and a killer are on the loose...

Eastbound & Down...Two words, Kenny Powers! One of the best characters to hit the screen in years. Danny McBride plays a Major League Baseball pitcher that's kicked out of the majors due to his insufficient pitching arm and overbearing personality (not to mention drugs and alcohol abuse). He returns home to the South to take a position at the local elementary school as the P.E. teacher. Night after night of boozing up and reliving the glory days with an adoring sidekick and some of his old buddies he realizes he's got nothing, not even the girl of his dreams who's engaged to the principal of the elementary school!!! Too funny!!

Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008)

This film was made by legendary Z town boy Stacy Peralta. It's a first hand look at the conditions that led to decades of violence in South Central Los Angeles. Narrated by Forrest Whitaker, it gives you an up close and extremely personal look at the constant war that is being waged. More African Americans have been killed in gang related killings than in any other capacity. It's amazing to see how people live, survive loss after loss, and yet still stay hopeful that maybe one day they will stop waging war on each other and focus on fighting the system thanks to various community outreach progams. Get involved at www.cripsandbloodsmovie.com

The Hangover

Finally, in theaters now is...The Hangover. Seriously, go see this film. Made by the guys who made Old School, it's nonstop laughter. Really, a 60-year-old couple was sitting next to me when I saw this movie and they laughed their asses off!!! Raunchy, witty, adventurous, everything included to have a blast at the movies!!

Nickodemus - Sun People

A beat driven blend of world music drawing on Afro beat, Latin, Balkan, and Middle Eastern influences. Recommended for fans of Quantic, Thievery Corporation, Kid Gusto & Natural Self.

Quantic & His Combo Barbaro - Traditions In Transition

Quantic returns with Traditions In Transition recorded at his studio in Cali, Columbia. The album features several string arrangements from Brazilian composer Arthur Verocai and a guest spot from Heliocentrics drummer Malcolm Catto. Recommended for fans of Bronx River Parkway, Afronaught, Arthur Verocai and world music compilations from Honest Jon's & Soundway Records.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - Hypnotic Brass Ensemble

Chicago's Hypnotic Brass Ensemble returns with their debut album for the Honest Jon's label. Having previously worked with artists such as Tony Allen, Mos Def & Erykah Badu, their newest work features guest appearances from RHCP's bassist Flea and drummer Malcolm Catto. Recommended for fans of the Hot 8 Brass Band, the Rebirth Brass Band, and Phil Ranelin.

Karizma - A Mind of It's Own Vol. 2 - the Upgrade

Baltimore House legend Karizma drops a diverse collection of beats, drawing on influences ranging from Detroit House, Baltimore Club, London Broken Beat and classic Hip-Hop beat craft. Check the technique. For fans of Dennis Ferrer, Jazzanova, Bugz In the Attic, J Dilla, DJ Spinna & Yosaku.

Rye Rye - Go! Pop! Bang!

Following the success of her work with Blaqstarr on his club hit "Shake It to the Ground" and M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes" remix, the young Baltimore club queen returns with a full album of gritty underground club tunes. Go! Pop! Bang! features production from Diplo, Count & Sinden, Blaqstarr, N.W.A.'s Arabian Prince, & old school electro king Egyptian Lover. Recommended for fans of M.I.A., Buraka Som Sistema, Santigold & Scottie B.

Esser - Braveface

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

Thieves Like Us - Play Music

Patrick Wolf - Bachelor (Battle One)

Deastro - Moondagger

Placebo - Battle for the Sun

Juan MacLean - Future Will Come

Little Boots - Hands

Bowerbirds - Upper Air

Jack Penate - Everything Is New

Doves - Kingdom Of Rust

It's been four long years since their last album Some Cities in 2005, but the unsung saviors of British rock are back. Doves make their triumphant return with Kingdom Of Rust, an expertly-crafted collection of the band's most passionate and exciting music to date. Opening with the thunderous, Kraftwerk and Blade Runner-inspired "Jetstream," ethereal vocals mix with soaring guitars and an electronica-treated backdrop to make for one of Doves' most daring musical creations. Following is the album's first single "Kingdom Of Rust," which the band describes as "a Lancashire spaghetti western." A fitting statement, as a galloping countryish beat builds with sweeping strings, and lead singer Jimi Goodwin sings of the search for lost love. It's melancholic and euphoric, it's anthemic and touching...it's classic Doves (the music video for the song is especially poignant). "The Outsiders" is a propulsive, explosive, Krautrock-inspired rocker, and is one of the band's punchiest and grandiose tracks, while second single "Winter Hill" is a summery love song that's as epic as U2. The recurring theme of travel and longing hits a remarkable peak with "10:03," a song about the desire to be homeward bound. Musically, "10:03" begins as a doo-wop-esque ballad, before turning on itself and erupting midway through as a combustive, runaway train of a song. "The Greatest Denier" is a big, atmospheric anthem in waiting, and "Birds Flew Backwards" is a sparse, haunting ballad, backed by a spooky cello and ghostly dilruba. The expansive "Spellbound" rings as a paean to an elusive lover, and features one of the band's typically beautiful swells in the chorus. What follows is the leftfield electronica number "Compulsion," with its booming, thumping beat and snaky bassline, the song harkens back to the band's days at The Hacienda as Madchester house music outfit Sub Sub. Following track, "House Of Mirrors," recalls the Some Cities rocker "Sky Starts Falling" with jarring effects, echoey guitars and Jimi's fiery, impassioned (and even paranoid) vocals. Album closer "Lifelines" ends Kingdom Of Rust on one of the band's most Britpop-esque, life-affirming notes. Jimi's non-defeatist, head-and-heart-strong delivery of the line "Somebody's giving in, but I'm not" rings with joyous momentum as the music builds into an amazing finale.

Ever since their 2000 debut Lost Souls, Doves have become virtually synonymous with brooding, passionate, euphoric music, made by three extraordinary musicians with an everyman-poet charm, and Kingdom Of Rust is no exception. It's an instant classic, and undoubtedly one of the absolute best albums of 2009.

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

Following up her Mercury Prize-nominated debut album Fur And Gold, the beautiful and talented Natasha Khan (a.k.a. Bat For Lashes) presents Two Suns, a mystic, arresting record that once again touches upon an astounding array of musical genres - from rock to soul to world to electronica to new age, even - and sounds even more passionate than the said debut album. For all its genre-hopping, no single track is more unclassifiable or indescribably beautiful than the album opener "Glass," a dramatic, propulsive kick-start that recalls the best moments and high drama of Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love album. As Natasha's voice climbs ever-higher, it's devastating and it's triumphant, sometimes all within the same breath. It calls out and commands your attention. Following hot on the heels of "Glass" is "Sleep Alone," a sinister and funky singalong, and the aching, gentle cosmic ballad "Moon And Moon." The album's fourth track and first single, "Daniel," is another in the most-arresting tracks in Natasha's arsenal. Dark '80s electro synthesizers meet bombastic washes of strings for one of the catchiest singles of the year. The album's second single, "Pearl's Dream," concerns a love song and the alter ego of Pearl, and is one of Bat For Lashes' most confident and poppiest moments. The sparse, brooding closer, "The Big Sleep," (a duet with chanteur formidable Scott Walker) casts quite a dark shadow, insomuch that the silence that follows when the album is over feels twice as haunting. Two Suns proves many things: among them, that Natasha Khan had the magic and muscle to push herself to even bigger and better things, that Fur And Gold's beauty and charm was no fluke, and that she now has TWO perfect records under her belt.

Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream

Dressed like Adam Ant and singing like it's the '80s again, Empire Of The Sun is the incredible Australian duo of Luke Steele (musician extraordinaire from The Sleepy Jackson) and Nick Littlemore (one-half of the kaleidoscopic dance music group Pnau). The duo's debut album Walking On A Dream was released in late 2008 in their home country, but finally made its way onto domestic shores in April. The Empire's undeniably catchy pop hooks are never more clearer and insistent than on the first singles, "Walking On A Dream" and "We Are The People," as well as the electroacoustic opener "Standing On The Shore," the cheesy funk of "Swordfish Hotkiss Night," the beautiful instrumental "Country," and album closer "Without You," which is the total slow-dance song at the prom night scene of a John Hughes movie. The charm of the Empire comes not only from its light-hearted synthpop that recalls those mostly-forgotten '80s bands, but also in its aesthetic appeal - the duo's colorful and ornate Oriental outfits, their fantasy world/Star Wars movie poster-inspired album cover and artwork, and their music videos, which feature Luke and Nick in exotic locations - which thus far have included Shanghai ("Walking On A Dream"), Mexico (including the surreal gardens of Sir Edward James at Las Pozas and the festival for 'Dia de los Muertos' for "We Are The People"), and their hometown of Perth, Western Australia (the completely over-the-top "Standing On The Shore"). The brilliantly incessant pop of Empire Of The Sun is great fun, here to put a little sunshine in your life.

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

Scottish pop group Camera Obscura has done it again. Their new album, My Maudlin Career, continues to build on the sweetly transcending chamber pop of their previous albums, with lead singer Tracyanne Campbell's syrupy, soothing vocals and painfully honest lyrics up at the fore. Opener "French Navy" and closer "Honey In The Sun" burst as two of the band's catchiest songs ever written, with joyous, shimmering strings and horns in tow. Between tracks 1 and 11, My Maudlin Career is a mixed bag of uptempo pop songs and slow ballads, which makes for enchanting listening. The heartbroken ballads "Away With Murder" and "Forests & Sands" stand out with their lazy saunters - resonating with distant drums and downbeat country guitars, and shining with their heart-on-sleeve lyrics (the former's opening lines "How many times have you told me you want to die?/How many times have you told me now that you've tried?" and the latter's tearful defeat of "It feels like none of this is real/I'll pretend that my heart and my head are well"). The painful lyrics are never as brazen than on "Other Towns & Cities," whose final line, "You mean nothing to me tonight," is made even more haunting thanks, in part, to the ghostly music that accompanies it. My Maudlin Career is one of many great, charming records of solace. File along with Belle & Sebastian, Broken Social Scene, and French cabaret music.

The Big Pink - "Velvet" and "Stop The World" 7"

The Big Pink is a fascinating new electro rock duo from East London. As the winners of the prestigious NME Philip Hall Radar Award for best new act in 2009, lifelong friends and multi-instrumentalists Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell (who had only released one single before their big win--their super-limited edition debut single "Too Young To Love" in October 2008) unleashed their dark, edgy brand of shoegazer electronica, lovingly - and amusingly - referred to as "pink noise." As their notoriety began to spread, the duo recorded the lush, blissed-out pop of "Velvet," their first single on famed British label 4AD, released in April 2009. "Velvet" hooks with ambient energy while generating the brash walls of feedback displayed on "Too Young To Love," but it's Robbie Furze's vocal delivery that steals the show, expressing the hopelessness and uncertainty that sometimes comes with matters of the heart ("You call out my name for the love you need/Which you won't find in me"), with an aching vulnerability that comes from an undoubted voice of experience, ending in a sorrowful resignation ("But now my love, no promises/I won't go falling in love"). It's a beautiful thrill, with just the right amount of buoyancy submerged in its dark tempest. The B-side, "An Introduction To Awareness," is a sonic haze of a song, recalling Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's scuzzy shoegaze with a nimble hint of a Western showdown soundtrack. Coupled with classic-era 4AD sepia-toned cover artwork, "Velvet" is a brilliant step in the right direction for this promising new group.

The duo's third single "Stop The World," co-produced by Paul Epworth, was released in late June 2009. A little less ether and a lot more indie rock than before, "Stop The World" kicks off with plodding drum beats and a bassline worthy of Interpol. The song truly takes off as the chorus erupts, something as euphoric and yet more powerful than the band has ever done before...it virtually screams "ANTHEMIC." It's a credit to such a fresh new band to continuously outdo themselves with each new release. At this rate, there's no reason why The Big Pink won't be the biggest band of 2009. They've certainly got the arsenal to prove it.

The full-length debut album is set for release in the fall!

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle

In dropping his longtime moniker Smog--or (Smog)--Bill Callahan strayed away from Smog by being more Smog than before, and by not being Smog at all. His deadpan vocal delivery and ornate, direct lyrics still intact, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is the second album from Bill away from the alias of Smog (and his thirteenth studio album overall). "Jim Cain," one of Bill's most beautiful masterworks since the Wild Love album, opens Eagle with a gentle string arrangement and simple acoustic guitar, coupled with Bill's almost autobiographical lyrical-storytelling. "Eid Ma Clack Shaw" combines one of his most zany song titles with some of his most zany lyrics in a brooding four-and-a-half minutes, and "The Wind And The Dove" is one of his spookiest compositions yet. Another of Bill's most beautiful songs is "My Friend," which builds slowly on a booming swell of guitars and horns, and closing epic "Faith/Void," which sprawls almost 10 minutes on one of his most cinematic musical moments. Sometimes jangly, sometimes sedate, and always passionate, Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle is another masterpiece in a canon of work spanning over 20 years and 13 albums (not to mention his prolific output of EPs and singles as well). That's no small feat for an artist with 13 solid gold trophies on his shelf. But there he is, Bill Callahan.

Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers

Manic Street Preachers' story is a triumphant but tragic one. Founding member and main lyricist Richey James Edwards mysteriously disappeared on February 1, 1995. His car was found near the Severn Bridge near Bristol, England - a bridge notorious for suicides - but Richey was not found, and has never been seen or heard from since. The three remaining Manics - lead singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield, bassist Nicky Wire, and drummer Sean Moore - decided to carry on without their missing friend, and subsequently found commercial success in the wake of tragedy.

Fast forward some 14 years later. With Richey's status changed from "missing person" to "presumed dead" last November, the Manics took the folder of lyrics that Richey left behind and set out to place music to the words, and the result is Journal For Plague Lovers, an explicit sequel to the band's 1994 magnum opus The Holy Bible (the last testament of Richey, and also undoubtedly the darkest album in the band's oeuvre). While The Holy Bible was a disturbing, despairing album fueled by a young band burning with piss and vinegar and all the blood and bile words of a seriously depressed man on the edge (Richey), Journal For Plague Lovers is fueled by a seasoned bunch of friends finally acknowledging their loss and paying tribute to their fallen comrade - and, naturally, with the same piss and vinegar coursing through their veins. The opener "Peeled Apples" revisits the same self-deprecating nuances of The Holy Bible tracks "4st 7lb" and "Of Walking Abortion," namely in the lyrics (the particularly shocking "Bruises on my hands from digging my nails out"), and kicking off with a sludgy bassline and James Dean Bradfield's trademark snarls and screams. The slower and lushly orchestrated "This Joke Sport Severed" harkens to the Manics post-Richey/circa-1996, with one of the band's most beautiful arrangements. The leisurely pace is quickly followed up by the blistering arena rock of the title track and the vicious "She Bathed Herself in a Bath of Bleach." The album comes together on the Nicky Wire-sung last track, "William's Last Words," which reads like a suicide note, but ends the album with a hopeful fond farewell (that is, until the raucous hidden track "Bag Lady" bursts through the silence!). Given that time can never erase the deepest of scars but can help soothe the worst of wounds, it seems the band have finally found peace with the loss of Richey. It's his spirit that flows through Journal For Plague Lovers, everlasting. 4REAL.

The Coast - Expatriate

The debut album from The Coast was released in the band's homeland of Canada in April 2008, but finally saw a stateside release in May 2009. Expatriate is soaring, passionate indie rock that more than surpassed expectations from the band's self-titled debut EP in 2006 (which is a perfectly downbeat late-night driving record). Album opener and first single "Tightrope," with its joyous "Hey hey you!" shout-outs, is a jaunty and shimmering tune that introduces the band's more playful side; by contrast, the beautifully dramatic "The Moon Is Dead" soars with its harmonized choruses, and is more than just a little bit influenced by The Verve. The album's mid-section slows down the tempo, but still retains the emotional surges without sacrificing the catchiness of the more upbeat numbers (such as "Ceremony Guns," which builds on a combination of subtle indie pop with velvety trumpet interludes before combusting in a U2-circa-1980 eruption, and then lightly rolls away with the ebb). Intense drumming, hooky guitars, and Ben Spurr's yearning, Richard Ashcroft-esque vocals radiate across all eleven tracks of the album. Heavy-hearted but never overwrought, Expatriate is a gem of a record from one of Toronto's youngest, best, and brightest.

Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels

Lost Channels, the fourth LP from Canadian folk band Great Lake Swimmers, is another hypnotic, autumnal collection that draws inspiration equally from slowcore pioneer Mark Kozelek and his endeavors (as a solo musician, and as leader of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon), as well as the early-'90s pastoral balladry of R.E.M. (ahem, "Losing My Religion"). Lead singer Tony Dekker's soothing, plaintive voice perfectly blends with the jaunty folk rock of tunes "Palmistry," "Pulling on a Line," and "Still," as well as on the dreary, melancholy album highlights "Everything Is Moving So Fast" and "Stealing Tomorrow" (which has to be the band's most beautiful ballad to date). Fans of Sun Kil Moon, Fleet Foxes, and Iron + Wine will find much to love in Great Lake Swimmers.