Various Artists - Well Hung: 20 Funk-Rock Eruptions from Beneath Communist Hungary, Vol.1

The folks over at Finders Keepers never fail to blow my mind. This collection of hard-rawkin' fuzzy funk from 1970's Hungary is definitely my best score from the World section this year. Get it for the Iron Curtain cutie Kati Kovacs and Magyar siren of song Sarolta Zalatnay. Igen!

The Lonely Island - Incredibad

Because I just can't hear "Jizz In My Pants" enough.  The CD comes with a DVD too!

True Blood: The Complete First Season

This is how all Californians wish the Deep South would be...hot, sexy, crawling with vampires, and populated with girls who drive mint 70s era AMC Gremlins and Honda Civics. Ok, I realize that I'm probably not speaking for all Californians, but this vampire soap opera really encompasses everything I look for in escapism. Dark Shadows never quite went there, but True Blood does.

Let The Right One In

Yes, vampires are everywhere this year, but this is a truly different take on the lore. Perhaps just as much about the psychology of outsiders as it is about blood and guts, this Swedish drama/thriller/horror/coming-of-age story tells a bleak, cold tale with a lot of color.

Deathspell Omega - Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Chaining The Katechon

"It is a vain Earth. A vision, final, of deceit. There can be no refuge In this grotesque liquid flowing Where shapes melt into each other Where cause becomes consequence. To err with the insane In hostile immensities How legitimate is the faith into despair?"

S.V.E.S.T. - Veritas Diaboli Manet in Aeternum: Le Diable Est Ma Raison

"Sa crainte d'une solitude insupportable, happant tout espoir au sein d'une terreur cosmique, sans age et sans visage, detourne le regard de tes cruelles verites."

Katharsis - Fourth Reich

"Our throats becometh an open grayve; we'll use our sperm to deceive.  The venom of asps is to be under our lipps; we'll be armed with lyonne teethe."

Nightbringer - Death and the Black Work

"I nail the Raven's Head upon the oak at the crossroads of death And see with hollowed eyes what the earth has swallowed I hear the cries of what still rots within its belly I smell decay and the spoiling of the flesh, the incense of the dead And I behold the Gate. All secrets first lie below."

Teitanblood - Seven Chalices

"... in a moment they turn'd Wide the Celestial soile & saw beneath Th' originals of nature in their crude Conception: Sulphurous & Nitrous Foame They found, they mingl'd..."

Thee Oh Sees - Help

I'm not gonna try to get all flowery with this album because that would pretty much go against the whole aesthetic of it. Basically it's just a solid pop/psych/garage album picking up where The Troggs left off 40 something years ago...but in NO way is it a throwback. It's instantly catchy, every song quickly grows on you after each listen, and the genius of it is the simplicity in the sense that John Dwyer and company know exactly what makes a perfect pop song, and don't add any unnecessary filler. Each song is just fuckin' solid and the overall production has that analogue warmth to it. Comfort food for the ears. Get it. Seriously, look at that cover art and tell me it's not bad-ass. C'mon!!!

Grass Widow - Grass Widow

Let me first start out by saying that there is a ridiculous amount of awesome Bay Area bands releasing albums right now. Maybe there has been for a while and I was just too much of a chud to take notice (a VERY strong possibility), but regardless, there IS, and this is one that rose to the top for me. I'd say a large part of that is because they have the sort of line-up you don't see a whole hell of a lot of: guitar, bass, drums (and the occasional trumpet) played by three ladies who can ALL sing and put that to use with some really great multi-part vocal harmonies. Catchy, beautiful and with some heavy instrumental breakdowns. If I had to say ONE thing bad it could only be that the album's too short. But then again, that only leaves you wanting more.

Harvey Milk - Life...The Best Game In Town

So the actual album came out on CD a year ago, but they just finally got around to letting it out on vinyl. It was worth the wait though. This album is so good and sooo addictive. Drums that sound like John Bonham using your face as a fuckin' kick drum, crunchy guitars, bass and vocals that go from soft and choirboy-like to guttural roars that would make a lion shit his proverbial pants. And the melodies he sings are one of the elements that keeps you coming back. You know how some songs have those hooks that you're just waiting to come in, and when they do you get chills and then play the song all over so you can feel it again? Yeah, half the album is like that. If they put the tracks "Decades" and "Motown" out as a 7" single, it would probably NEVER leave my turntable!

Nadja - When I See The Sun Always Shines On TV

Yeah, this is a covers album, and 90% of the time that's a cop-out for an artist whose creative well is dry at the moment. But between his work under the Nadja moniker and his other solo releases, Aidan Baker drops an album about as often as he drops off his rent check. So that's not so much the case here. What more, this isn't a collection of covers that sound like the original versions. It's basically a damn good mix-tape sent through a doom/drone/sludge machine. My Bloody Valentine, Codeine, Swans and Elliott Smith just to name a few. "Only Shallow" by MBV is slowed down and heavier, "Pea" by Codeine gets the same heavy treatment, and since Baker's singing style is already similar to Codeine's Steve Immerwahr, it instantly feels familiar. And Elliott Smith? Since Elliott's vocals were so one-of-a-kind (and nearly impossible and pointless for any artist to touch), Nadja slows everything down, drenches his own vocals in echo and reverb, and buries them under lush walls of sound. Instead of trying to copy the original version, he makes it his own crushing, sad, dark, and ultimately beautiful piece.

Loop - "World In Your Eyes" and "A Gilded Eternity" reissues

When we last met here, we were talking about the reissues of Loop's Heaven's End and Fade Out.  Well here's round two - a reissue of their last album and a three-disc collection of 12"'s. More of the same (in a good way...a very good way) from this unfortunately short-lived group. Dreamy, druggy, and droney swirls of garage/shoegaze/psych. The adjectives go on and on, but if you are at all a fan of any of those three genres, you really need to hear them for yourself. A MUST for fans of Spaceman3-esque space rock.

tip: Listen to more John Prine, The Telescopes and go here --> myspace.com/borneonoises

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Deer Tick - Born On Flag Day

Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels

Neko Case - Middle Cyclone

Thermals - Now We Can See

Adam Balbo - FIX

www.myspace.com/adambalbo

The Fancy Dan Band - BORN FANCY

www.myspace.com/fancydanband

Tip Top Trio - TIP TOP TRIO

www.myspace.com/tiptoptrio

The Rebel - Mouthwatering Claustrophobic Changes!

Mayyors - Marines Dot Com LP

The Fresh & Onlys - The Fresh & Onlys

Brilliant Colors - "Highly Evolved" / "Takes So Little"

Brainbombs - Fucking Mess

The Shadow Ring - Life Review (1993-2003)

Ride for Revenge - Wisdom of the Few

Pet Shop Boys - Yes

Stranded

This is a fascinating documentary on the Andes plane crash of a soccer team. It is told by the surviving members. They are on an expedition to go back to the sight of the crash and relive memories of that horrible ordeal. What drove them to become cannibalistic and the ramifications of that.

Oumou Sangare - Seya

True Blood: The Complete First Season

Sookie, Sookie I love you!

Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe

glasser - Apply

This is some of the most beautiful, soothing music I've ever heard. Glasser is a young woman named Cameron Mesirow who composes songs using Garage Band. She has a sort of regular-pretty voice and uses it in a really fearless, awesome way. Her singing style reminds me a little bit of Mira Bilotte from White Magic, and a little bit of Medulla-era Bjork. The three songs on this EP are all amazing;  one is a tribal jam, another a lullabye, and the third a little bit spookier and darker. The B side has remixes of all of these songs by people like Lucky Dragons. Thid truepanther 12" has an amazing silk screened color wheel cover by Tauba Auerbach. Also, supposedly, glasser performs live with a dance troupe called Body City. I seriously cannot wait to see her live!

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Your Funeral...My Trial Reissue

Nick Cave is my Number One.

Grass Widow - Grass Widow

Intricate, pretty post-punk with cobwebby, intertwining female vocals. Grass Widow are from San Francisco and they are great! There's a trumpet, three-part harmonies, and everyone involved has a gorgeous voice.

Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

This band reminds me of the lyrics, "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to." Tracyanne Campbell's observations are so sharp and closely observed, I feel like she'd probably be writing novels if she weren't in this band. And her voice is super pretty. The music is hugely orchestrated and epic, in a 1950s sort of way. Camera Obscura started out as the female version of Belle & Sebastian, but they've transcended that and have found their own sound. And it is good.