New York’s Woods have quietly been releasing lo-fi records on tape, vinyl, cd, whatever to varying degrees of success, but their newest release Songs of Shame not only fully realizes all the power and charm that lo-fi can and used to offer but might be the best release so far this year. It recalls early Built To Spill albums such as 1994′s There’s Nothing Wrong With Love but mixed in are OhSees-esque haunting vocals and, yes, a Camper Van Beethoven lean on middle eastern vibes.

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In the tradition of Air France, Studio, The Tough Alliance, and other Swedish pop groups that have emerged in the last couple of years, newcomers jj have arrived to soundtrack the summer of 2009 with their first full length, and predictably, it’s bursting with sunny pop and beautiful melodies.

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Chapel Hill’s indie rock stalwarts Superchunk have felt more like an institution than a working band for the last, oh, decade or so. The Merge label started by Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance keeps busy releasing records by bigger and bigger names – Spoon, M Ward, Conor Oberst – as well as scooping up reuniting icons Dinosaur Jr. and American Music Club. Drummer Jon Wurster seems to be a semi-permanent fixture in the Mountain Goats these days. Of course McCaughan has been progressively more prolific with his once side-project and now main focus, Portastatic.

It felt, increasingly, as if the seeds were sown for Superchunk the band to be put to rest. Then a funny thing happened: Superchunk began playing benefit one off shows such as 2007′s Metro show and a few new songs started popping up in their sets. And, lo and behold, an EP of new (or at least newish) songs, Leaves In The Gutter, was released, and then followed soon after by the Crossed Wires 7″ single. With these new releases, a foundation was perhaps being built for a full fledged Superchunk re-awakening.

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Regardless of your opinion about Grizzly Bear’s latest effort, you have to give the band credit for trying. Love it or hate it, you can’t say the band didn’t give it their best shot. That’s because Veckatimest sounds like one of the most labored over and carefully composed albums in recent memory. Likely a response to the anticipation surrounding this album in the wake of the critical success of Yellow House, there isn’t a note on Veckatimest that sounds less than carefully considered.

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Photo Credit: Richard Giraldi

When Brooklyn art-rockers TV On The Radio hit Lollapalooza’s Budweiser stage in the north end of Chicago’s Grant Park as the sun descended behind the city’s skyline and the lake breeze picked up to put to rest a long day of heat. But as the crowd cooled, TOTR set the festival ablaze with a scorching set of irresistibly funky and vibrant art rock tunes.

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I won’t use the word “supergroup” merely for the sake of keeping things professional (let’s pretend I didn’t just actually use it right there). But it would be best if you keep the, ahem, supergroup idea in the back of your mind anyway. The Dead Weather’s Horehound is an album that utilizes the by-now-well-established musical prowess of White (did I mention he’s behind the drum set in this band?) and his fellow cohorts from The Raconteurs (Jack Lawrence) and Queens of the Stone Age (Dean Fertita) to make something essentially unspectacular, but nevertheless extremely easy to listen to and enjoy.

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It’s hard to shake a certain feeling of déjà vu while listening to Two Suns, Natasha Khan’s sophomore album under the Bat For Lashes moniker. Anyone who’s spent time with the works of pop songstress Kate Bush will feel an undeniable sense that they’ve heard these same forceful female vocals set to avant-pop harmonies before, and they wouldn’t be wrong.

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