Grade: A | Genre: Alternative Rock
Summary: No matter how you cut it, this music is awesome. It manages to somehow cheer you up, so it's perfect for when you're in a bad mood. It's also perfect if you're in a good mood.

Before I got this in the mail, my exposure to Secret Machines was pretty limited. I had their bizarre September 000 album (which is good, but not nearly as good as this), and I knew they were originally from Dallas. I realized a while ago that Texan indie bands are much better than anybody would expect them to be, so I told myself I should check them out. Unfortunately, there's an impossibly large amount of music out there and I have a limited amount of America bucks and Internet. I'm glad the mail still works, because I probably never would have gotten around to listening to this if it didn't. That would have been a crying shame, because it's real good.

Grade: B | Genre: Modern Rock
Summary: The Eraser is a nice day trip to spacious vistas that have become dusty in memory, but I'm really hungry for a real excursion into the new Radiohead.

Radiohead has always proved to be a curious creature on the modern rock scene. They entered as purveyors of the youthful grunge movement with radio staple "Creep," only to yank their sound by the leash into the electro-rock of The Bends and one of rock's greatest moments OK Computer. They would seemingly take on the helm of the Beatles of their generation with the quirky innovative genius of Kid A. Since then they have continued to forge the path into the esoteric and strange with little regard to their fan base or their overall place in music. Some would say innovators like this need not answer for their adventures into the land of the bizarre. They needn't carry any semblance of convention or need to tow the line that rock tries to strong-arm them to take. Yet as the blur of obscurity continues to muddy their sound, the listener finds it harder and harder to connect with these brilliant geniuses, try as we might. The rumor is that the forthcoming Radiohead effort is a thankful return to the dirges of rock they abandoned circa-The Bends. It's still largely under wraps at the moment so we can do little more than spin our speculative wheels. While they were prepping the world for their new direction, lead singer Thom Yorke had some music of his own itching in his head that was plotting its escape. Electronic blips flitter about as Yorke revisits the darker looks of Kid A in the fine release The Eraser.

Grade: A- | Genre: Rock/Pop/Dance
Summary: A Fever You Can't Sweat Out marries rocktastic beats with a dance floor that refuses to silence the pulse of gyrating bodies. These songs are the fuel to the fire.

Rock may try on as many different variations as Michael Jackson's face, but you can always guarantee it will never be too far removed from its kissing cousin addictive pop. Be it Foo Fighters or recent radio fodder Fall Out Boy, creating that surefire radio hook is the key to cementing your tune in the minds of the fickle music listening public. Usually I lampoon these ruthless media hounds for feeding the soulless music machine, but every so often you run across an artist that wrestles this pale formula to the ground to grind up some quality where you were certain that none existed. The smart band that has done the unthinkable is Las Vegas quartet Panic! at the Disco. They are the first band signed to Pete Wentz's (Fall Out Boy) Decaydance Records, and their debut effort A Fever You Can't Sweat Out marries rocktastic beats with a dance floor that refuses to silence the pulse of gyrating bodies. These songs are the fuel to the fire.

Grade: A | Genre: "The production is progressive, but the reason is retro. The chords are cold-blooded murder. I named it neo-necro." (From "Necromancer")
Summary: For now, Gnarls Barkley will just be the newest and most eccentric act to stir your musical senses. They are primed to break the mold like Gorillaz did and should be on your radar. My only complaint...what took so long?

Review: DJ Danger Mouse became infamous for brilliantly mixing Jay-Z's Black Album over The Beatles White Album. With support from Jay Z himself, The Grey Album (free download), as it is appropriately called, buzzed the underground and created a strong cult following that included trend setters like Gorillaz who tapped Mouse to produce the follow up to their self-titled debut. The end product, Demon Days, torched the competition and created wannabes out of those that everyone wanted to be.

Now, DJ Danger Mouse teams with Cee Lo, from the "Dirty South's" Goodie Mob, to create Gnarls Barkely. Both are respected in their own right individually, but when you combine the two, you get an epidemic of gnarly beats over retro vocals that feel postmodern at the same time. Imagine Marvin Gaye heading up Outkast at their most inventive and you're only three quarters of the way to what Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere has become.

Grade: C- | Genre: Alternative Rock
Summary: Wild painters flailing about, Teddy Ruxpin morphed into a boy and endless blathering about sheer nothingness. How did this sure thing show go so wrong?

Date: April 25, 2006
Location: Atlanta, GA
Blue Merle was a great band just peeking onto the musical horizon before they came to an untimely end. You could say they were aping Coldplay's sound, but couldn't you say the same of Stone Temple Pilots to Pearl Jam and John Mayer to Dave Matthews when they first hit the scene. They were a talented group with great potential, and it's sad to see them fizzle out after one brief album. After missing Blue Merle's swing through Atlanta countless times, I finally got a free evening to checkout lead singer, Lucas Reynolds, playing an intimate show at Smith's Olde Bar. Smith's holds in the neighborhood of 300 people so that's quite a change from the venues three times this size that the collective played when they made their way through Atlanta. I was pretty jazzed about the possibilities inherent in this show. Little did I know about the bizarre world I was about to cross over into. Wild painters flailing about, Teddy Ruxpin morphed into a boy and endless blathering about sheer nothingness. How did this sure thing show go so wrong?

Grade: A | Genre: Brit Punk/Pop
Summary: Whatever People Say I Am, That Is What I Am Not is a first class ticket to life in all its dirty, fast paced charm. Lets hope the filthy riches of success, that the music buying public are showering them with, doesn't make these blue collar chaps forget what made them hungry to begin with.

The new punk is alive and thriving in rock. Just look at the explosive popularity of bands like the Killers and Franz Ferdinand if you are fishing for proof. These hard-hitting popsters come packing nostalgic lunchboxes and a newborn's love for the Clash. Many bands have latched onto these lucrative coattails, hoping to cash in on this ticket to honeys and the bling. Inevitably, we hit saturation point where we've just heard enough. They need to prop a sign up saying go sell crazy some place else cause we're all full. Then we have a band come along called the Arctic Monkeys. Funky name aside, they are plying their bleeding guitars and drum assault in this same space, but it sounds amazingly fresh and exciting. Almost like the revolution was waiting for a new scrappy hero to take it to the next level. These indie rockers are definitely taking the music world by storm. Their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That Is What I Am Not cracked the UK and the Australian charts at number 1 in its first week of release. This accomplishment is unheard of from a band without a major label backing them with a barrage of advertising and paying DJs under the table to make their newest golden boy into a household name. They did it the old fashion way through touring, building a fanbase via the Internet and playing catchy as hell music that has to be passed along to a friend.

Grade: B+ | Genre: Alt-Country
Summary: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood marks Neko Case's most accomplished album recorded to date. It's fat in its maturity and drunk with its love for the music.

How many people can say they've been permanently blackballed from playing the Grand Ole Opry for being obscene? The historic venue that launched such country legends as Hank Williams and Patsy Cline slapped that distinction on one Neko Case back in 2001 when she finished her set topless. The fiery haired beauty says she wasn't trying to court controversy with her breast-baring move. A girl gets hot up there under the spotlights. Since the headlining event, Case has gone on to cement a solid solo career, singing her own unique blend of country, blues and gospel heisted from a time long past. She's also doubling up vocal responsibilities as the lead female vocalist of the super group the New Pornographers, an entity starting to make some major waves of its own. Soon Neko will probably get jammed in a crossroads where she's forced to choose between the quirky loops of the Pornographers or devoting herself completely to her burgeoning solo work. Until then we'll chug both of them down our ears and try not to loiter our thoughts too long on pondering such a day.