For us, 2011 was another year of taking in as much as we could and sharing the best with you. Next year, however, will be a homecoming of sorts, a return to rock-'n'-roll roots. We'll soon be able to share the projects that we have in store — across multiple mediums — but for now, dig into this rock-focused list of must-own albums.

And for more, revisit (or simply visit) our lists from 2010 and 2009:

100 Unheralded Albums from 2010
50 Unheralded Albums from 2009

Steven Drozd: The Heart Is A Drum Machine (The Score) (Twinkle Cash Co., 1/18/11)

Steven Drozd: "Born"

A multi-instrumentalist and the third-most-tenured member of The Flaming Lips, Steven Drozd marked his first official solo release early this year with the nearly instrumental accompaniment to the documentary The Heart is a Drum Machine.

The music shares a lot of characteristics with the Flaming Lips of the past dozen years – synthesized grooves, big rock beats, fuzz bass, airy keyboards, and different instrumental flourishes weaving in and out. But listeners are unlikely to confuse the two, and the score succeeds as a standalone album as well as a film accompaniment.

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: Tao of the Dead (Richter Scale Records / Superball Music, 2/8/11)

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead: "Weight of the Sun"

There has been no shortage of grand themes and allegories in the canon of Austin post-punk quintet …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. The band’s newest album, however, better matches its ambitious themes with its music, presenting an epic pair of pieces for Tao of the Dead.

The album recalls progressive albums of yore, from the likes of Rush and King Crimson, but channels them into easily digested movements. Stretches of heavy distortion and drum thrashing will appeal to the more metal-minded Trail of Dead fans, but there’s also plenty of hook-laden, radio-ready alternative rock.

Wires Under Tension: Light Science (Western Vinyl, 2/8/11)

Wires Under Tension: "Electricity Turns Them On"

Light Science is the exciting debut from Wires Under Tension, a duo comprised of violinist/multi-instrumentalist Christopher Tignor and drummer Theo Metz. With help from a few friends, including Jared Bell of Lymbyc Systym, the two combine live performance with electronic manipulation, sounding something like a progressive Dirty Three with horns, hip-hop beats, and post-rock guitar swells.

This seven-track release is a dense, fluid collection that retains consistency thanks to Metz’s steady rhythms. Electro-mechanical piano, clavinet, and synthesizers mesh with loops and samples to round out an impressive first release.

Pitom: Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes (Tzadik, 2/22/11)

Pitom: "Head in the Ground"

Combining heavy, fuzzy rock jams with Jewish melodies, Pitom is one of many projects from guitarist, bassist, and composer Yoshie Fruchter. Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes, the quartet's second release on Tzadik, follows the same path as its predecessor, but it does so with a bit more cohesion and restraint.

Built from the ground up with distorted bass and violin, the band's music carries similarities to that of Skeletonbreath and Miasma & The Carousel of Headless Horses. Whether driving a song with an infectious melody, commingling with the violin in the high end, or simply taking over a track with raw ability, Fruchter knows when to go full throttle (the punk power of "An Epic Encounter") or pull back (the dark slow jam of "A Resentful Repentance").

The Psychic Paramount: II (No Quarter, 2/22/11)

The Psychic Paramount: "RW"

Though relatively silent for the past six years, New York noise-rock trio The Psychic Paramount returned in February to release its first full-length since 2005. Effected guitar loops, devastating low-end grooves, and bashing rhythms again form the core of the band's sound, but II is a direct yet dynamic rock explosion.

Between the guitar, the cymbals, and the effects, the mid-range gets a constant workout. Those who are turned off by this kind of music may find it to be an exercise in patience, but the lengthier durations are a testament to the trio's skills at climax and denouement.

DeVotchKa: 100 Lovers (Anti-, 3/1/11)

DeVotchKa: "100 Other Lovers"

Following the fame from its Oscar-winning soundtrack for Little Miss Sunshine in 2006, Denver multi-instrumental quartet DeVotchKa has playfully tinkered with its sweeping, emotive sound. Though it already tossed together elements of folk, rock, Mexican, and Gypsy music, it remained united by the sullen croons and songwriting of frontman Nick Urata.

That unifying factor remains, but its newest album, 100 Lovers – its second post-Sunshine full-length – continues to expand the band’s scope. The material adds new and often subtle flavors to DeVotchKa’s repertoire. Uninitiated listeners might hear more of the same, but 100 Lovers is perfect for content fans – moving in new directions without a radical departure.

Stateless: Matilda (Ninja Tune, 3/1/11)

Stateless: "Ariel"

Matilda, Stateless' second full-length, showcases the British electro-rock group's continued maturity. Lead singer Chris James hits an impressive range of notes, from reverb-cloaked backing croons to soulful leads, atop an amalgamated mix of styles, sounds, and beats.

With contributions from The Balanescu Quartet, DJ Shadow, and Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), Matilda is stylistically inventive, with familiar worldly touchstones reworked into new contexts.

Grails: Deep Politics (Temporary Residence, 3/8/11)

Grails: "I Led Three Lives"

With cinematic soundscapes, Westernized Indian melodies, film-noir mystique, 1960s psychedelia, and crushing heaviness, Grails is an instrumental rarity. The Portland band's newest offering, Deep Politics, is an engaging and epic mix of acoustic intonations, indigenous sounds and melodies, spaghetti-western motifs, somber piano balladry, and more doom-filled, Eastern-infused stylistic transcendence.

And thanks in part to arrangements by Timba Harris, the mighty violinist from unparalleled genre annihilators Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3, Deep Politics vies to be Grails’ best album yet.

Parts & Labor: Constant Future (Jagjaguwar, 3/8/11)

Parts & Labor: "Constant Future"

After establishing itself early last decade as an interesting new name in noise rock, Parts & Labor delivered a flurry of releases over the span of just a few years. Since then, the band has scaled back to a trio built around the fuzzed guitar, bass, keyboard hooks, and tight rock rhythms.

Featuring some of the band's sturdiest songs yet, Constant Future is direct, potent, and catchy. Behind Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw's echoing, harmonized vocals are dirty, thick grooves that power the overlaid electronic freak-outs.

Adebisi Shank: This is the Second Album from a Band Called Adebisi Shank (Sargent House, 3/15/11)

Adebisi Shank: "Micro Machines"

Released to European acclaim in 2010, the aptly titled second album from Irish electro/math rockers Adebisi Shank achieved North American release this year thanks to the peerless Sargent House.

The management company / record label describes the trio as a blend of Fang Island’s shredding riffs with Battles’ electronic quirkiness and rhythmic playfulness. That description isn’t off the mark, but readers won’t get a sense of the band’s real abilities until they hear its hyper-melodic, polyrhythmic, and — most importantly — jubilant songs in full.

Second Album delivers a maelstrom of zany electronics, unusual distortions, and triumphant, rapidly ascending scales mixed with vintage synths, marimba, horns, and other accoutrements. This is all packaged between and around gloriously catchy and powerful rock riffs, resulting in a manic and buoyant sophomore effort.

Notable bands scheduled to perform include: Trash Talk, Parts & Labor, Davila 666, A Place to Bury Strangers, the Doomtree crew, Talkdemonic, Mexicans with Guns, and Kylesa. Seeing so many concerts, screenings, and panels normally comes at a pretty steep price, but we've teamed up with CMJ to give away two five-day passes. Total retail value of one pass alone is $495 and will give its bearer access to any event, provided that it's not sold out or at capacity.

To enter to win, fill out the form below by the end of Thursday, October 13. By entering your information, you'll also be signed up to receive ALARM's weekly E-mail newsletter, The ALARMIST.

cforms contact form by delicious:days

[Chromatic, our 400-page exploration of musicians and color, is out now. Order here!]

Grails: Deep Politics (Temporary Residence)

Grails: "I Led Three Lives"

With cinematic soundscapes, Westernized Indian melodies, film-noir mystique, 1960s psychedelia, and crushing heaviness, Grails is an instrumental rarity. The Portland band's last album, Doomsdayer's Holiday, offered a stark contrast to its predecessors with increased heaviness, but its newest offering, Deep Politics, offers a better cross-section of the band as a whole.

It’s an engaging and epic mix of acoustic intonations, indigenous sounds and melodies, spaghetti-western motifs, somber piano balladry, and more doom-filled, Eastern-infused stylistic transcendence. With arrangements by Timba Harris, the mighty violinist from unparalleled genre annihilators Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3, Deep Politics vies to be Grails’ best album yet.

Parts & Labor: Constant Future (Jagjaguwar)

Parts & Labor: "Constant Future"

After establishing itself early last decade as an interesting new name in noise rock, Parts & Labor delivered a flurry of releases over the span of just a few years.  During that period, the band replaced a drummer and expanded from a trio to a quartet and delivered its most recent full-length album, Receivers, an album of "collage art" that was created with the help of fan-submitted found sounds.

Since then, the band has scaled back to a trio built around the fuzzed guitar, bass, and keyboard hooks of Dan Friel and B.J. Warshaw.  The three — including the tight rock rhythms of drummer Joe Wong — spent two years working on new material and amassed more than 40 songs, 12 of which were selected for its newest album, Constant Future.

Featuring some of the band's sturdiest songs yet, Constant Future is direct, potent, and catchy.  Behind Friel and Warshaw's echoing, harmonized vocals are dirty, thick grooves that power the overlaid electronic freak-outs.  These humming eccentricities continue to give the band an extra dimension, but it's the continued improvement in Friel and Warshaw's sing-along vocals that makes Constant Future a real success.

The Human Abstract: Digital Veil (E1)

With its first two albums for Hopeless Records, The Human Abstract presented a variety of metalcore that left critics wanting — with vocals that might have made them cringe.  But after a move to E1, the addition of vocalist Travis Richter, and the return of co-founder / guitarist / pianist A.J. Minette, the quintet has made a noteworthy transformation to something heavier and more brutal yet more dynamic and melodic.

The opening track of the group's third full-length, just two minutes long, is an epic pronouncement of the band's new direction, with a classical-guitar lead-in that builds to a wailing blast of mid-tempo harmonies.  From there, the material works into rapid guitar scaling, double-kick triplets, and feral growling with moments of soaring (though melodramatic) vocals, piano interludes, and powerful breakdowns.

Yet for as much as the melodramatic moments may make some wince, the underlying musicianship — both in technical prowess and song-craft — is enough to look the other way.  While infusing classical melodies into progressive/tech/death metal, Digital Veil brims with killer riffs and dynamics, reflecting the band's great balance.

Vijay Iyer with Prasanna & Nitin Mitta: Tirtha (ACT Music + Vision)

Vijay Iyer with Prasanna & Nitin Mitta: "Duality"

Pianist Vijay Iyer is best known for his nimble jazz creations, and though most of his work is in that canon, his career has stretched into orchestral commissions, an ongoing project with experimental MC Mike Ladd, and random collaborations in the hip-hop/electronic world with Dead Prez, DJ Spooky, Karsh Kale, Das Racist, and many others.

His latest project, Tirtha, is a trio with world-fusion guitarist Prasanna and tabla master Nitin Mitta.  The group's debut material most easily is recognized as jazz — often meandering into the free, discordant variety — but it just as frequently redirects its collective energy into elements of progressive fusion, North and South Indian classical, and piano-driven bebop.

Prasanna's guitar is most malleable, usually responsible for shifting between Indian and jazz styles but also reflecting other cultures, such as the seemingly African intonation on "Falsehood."  The biggest detraction might be the seldom-changing timbre of the tabla, but that too is an important element in bridging hemispheres.

Honorable Mentions

Agnostic Front: My Life, My Way (Nuclear Blast)

Ahleuchatistas: Location Location (Open Letter)

Augury: Concealed reissue (Sonic Unyon)

A Hawk and a Hacksaw: Cervantine (Langspielplatte / LM3 / Dupli-cation)

Jib Kidder: Library Catalog Music Series Vol. 11: Music for Hypnotized Minds (Asthmatic Kitty)

Juv: s/t (Miasmah)

REKS: R.E.K.S. (Showoff)

Ryat: Avant Gold & Avant Gold Remixed

Saille: Irreversible Decay (code666)

The Sway Machinery: The House of Friendly Ghosts, Volume 1 (JDub Records)

Kurt Vile: Smoke Ring for My Halo (Matador)

Wye Oak: Civilian (Merge)

[Have you pledged yet? Don't forget to visit the Kickstarter page for Chromatic: The Crossroads of Color and Music, our next book that profiles independent musicians and artists who explore color in unorthodox ways.]

Parts & Labor: "Constant Future"

In 20 years, we will wistfully misremember that all of indie rock sounded like a handful of reliable, definitive bands. It will be tempting to include Parts & Labor in that pleasant exercise of self-delusion. Then again, it wont make our memories any easier to process or simplify.

The electro-rock group's co-founders, Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw, write lots of lyrical phrases that don't express a simple opinion or definite image but are tempting to repeat like aphorisms. On the chorus of "A Thousand Roads," one of the best songs and finest examples of what they've achieved on the new album Constant Future, they conjure up one of many fragmentary but astutely realized landscapes: "Come on, praise the progress made, the sharpened grays of a thousand roads / all delays, no lazy days, the latent phase of a thousand roads."

It may be about touring-band life, or how America seems to measure its worth in paved surfaces. Because it's not didactic or preachy, though, it can gradually sink in and play with your head, with the internal rhymes and alliterations indicating that there's some coherent thought running through it that can't wait to get out.

Parts & Labor's music also sounds like it reads. Friel's electronics crawl through the songs like power-line hum given life and dimension, but the hooks, punk-shout-along-worthy choruses, and Joe Wong's drums keep insisting that it's going to make sense to your instincts.

If you cherish former drummer Christopher Weingarten going ape-shit all over "Vision Of Repair" on Mapmaker, or the mid-tempo lead-out that "Solemn Show World" gave the bigger, windier Receivers, you won't have to really give up either for Constant Future opener "Fake Names." The electronic layers of  Receivers sometimes weighs the songs down, and the band gracefully avoids that effect here. The keyboards and occasional bursts of happy static chatter build in concise, separate, neat threads, varying their collective mass enough that you never mistake it for just a drone. Again, a choppy splatter of words doesn't encumber Friel and Warshaw from belting them out in a rousing chorus: "Bones will show right through the seams of last year's new elective surgeries."

If the overall flow of Constant Future is a little too steady at first listen, it's partially because each song puts the same amount of emphasis on the same qualities. Each one keeps up about the same level of syllable-to-syllable wordplay and the same level of interplay between the keyboard hooks and the drums. Each individual track tries to say just enough, and then, in many instances, simply comes to a full stop at the end of a line. Even "Pure Annihilation," which opens slowly with the twin heart-breakers "I know every inch of your shadow / I know all of the warmth in your wake," ends up feeling just as wrapped up and confident as the punchy "Bright White" and "Echo Chamber."

The album's title points to excitement and anticipation, yet the title track has an air of being left behind. "Good luck, constant future, I think I will stay and rest / let the wagons pass me by, never look them in the eye / good luck, constant future, always heading west." The phrase "constant future" plays out through the song as a devouring creature fueled by endless unfulfilled promises. Yet the tone of the song, if a little bitter, is never accusatory in a cheap or bratty way. For all the worn-out shit-scapes that it sees around itself, Parts & Labor attack with a hearty morale. Anyone just looking over the lyric sheet would expect an album that's sour with abandonment and deceit. Instead, the songs turn that bleakness and pessimism into encouragement.

Really, "encouraging" is the best word for what Parts & Labor brings to music. Constant Future perfectly encapsulates the band's sound and ethos, and it revisits many sides that listeners have already heard. Yet there's no taking for granted the ever-stronger songwriting, the surplus of ideas, and the increased sense of clarity here. Even as it turns plastic-surgery patients into verbal chum on "Skin And Bones" ("what a hell it must be, laughing infinitely"), the band can't help but sound optimistic and hungry.

Thank You

Thank You: "1-2-3 Bad"

Thank You's third album, Golden Worry, proves that the Baltimore trio is a band worth rooting for, and one that's a step closer to making clear what it wants.

Like a few other recent albums to come out of Baltimore — namely, Pontytail's Ice Cream Spiritual and Dan Deacon's Bromst — Golden Worry stages a good-faith meeting between experimental impulses and an enthusiasm for amiable hooks. This hasn't always been the case with Thank You. On the band's last album, Terrible Two, its obsession with rhythm threatened to dry up the guitars, keys, and vocals into a tuneless murk.

Thank You has a compact feel that sometimes works for it and sometimes against it. The drums clamber actively on top of the song, often taking the lead but not always filling up the low end, and the guitars work up a noise-rhythm complement that, while often aggressive, doesn't pursue a lot of fun back-and-forth with the percussion. As for vocals, only sometimes there and only sometimes coherent, they're another constant variable in an open-ended format. It might help to know that Thrill Jockey's bio for Thank You credits each member simply with "everything."

Unlike those Ponytail and Dan Deacon records, Golden Worry runs the risk of sounding a bit stringy. To continue an admittedly arbitrary comparison, Ponytail's Ice Cream Spiritual draws out its moments of climax for as long as possible, pounding and whipping those moments into ever-higher states of beaming tension. Thank You seems more interested in what goes on under, behind, before, and around the climax.

"1-2-3 Bad" starts the album off at a gallop, yet soon the dual guitars are picking apart the beat and melody, continually driving the song to calmer places instead of crazier ones.  New drummer Emmanuel Nicolaidis' playing on "1-2-3 Bad" has all the assertive hyperactivity of previous Thank You drum workouts, but it does a much better job of actively playing to the melody that the guitars are setting down. In their turn, the guitars keep giving him something solid with which to play.

In fact, even during the most scraggly bouts of fast picking on "Birth Reunion," the guitar parts keep it together, grounding the whole album in both accessibility and discipline. The chords on "Pathetic Magic" are a little more dissonant, and they still hammer into the drums with a punchy sense of purpose. Half of the time, it's exactly what a noisy post-punk song should be, and for the rest it's building on mid-tempo, refreshingly open-sounding tumbles through syncopation. The flow between the song's intro and its middle is a credit to the control and collaborative instincts that Thank You brings to its beat-tweaking ambitions.

The record is at its best, though, when challenging its own palette of sounds. The lead synth melody of "Strange All" squelches and wobbles on and off the beat, putting just the right amount of drag on the song and making its overall progression more rewarding. Halfway in, the track slows down and reconfigures, giving the drummer more room to display some wit — playing twitchy patterns against a calmer mood, or flinging his fills against a second, chromatically crawly synth hook.  At times, "Strange All" recalls Parts & Labor's brilliance at channeling hooks through half-decayed sonics.

It's not that Thank You is always going right for excitement — again, the album explores plenty of other moods — but one thing that dulls the excitement of its progress on Golden Worry is the vocals. Just like everything else here, the singing has a new-found focus, adding extra layers of both rhythm and harmony, especially the crisscrossing and overlapping vocal parts on "1-2-3 Bad." The problem is the actual sound of the voices, which seem hesitant to take on much tonal character. They're also hesitant to annoy or to hog the attention, thankfully, so it's not as if this points to some deep flaw in the band.

Golden Worry is yet another well-rounded bout of sweaty art rock that, if anything, should take more chances with its vocals. This is hardly a damning factor in this genre, just something that really could use some work. The vocals on Clipd Beaks' 2010 album To Realize can come off as thin and groggy, but they don't pull down the album as a whole. It'd be nice to hear the vocals match the ambition and character of all the other elements in the mix.

Of course, the usual expectations of character and beefy dynamics can lead you astray on Golden Worry. Thank You not only takes a clearer approach to songwriting here, but makes it hold up across all six tracks. Some of us more traditional-minded rock listeners will have to adjust our internal EQs for a bit for this record — and really not that much. More often than not, we'll be glad we did.

Quintron and Miss Pussycat performing at The Trunk Space. Photo courtesy of venue.

Name: The Trunk Space
Founded: April 2004
Location: 1506 NW Grand Ave., Phoenix, AZ
Booking contact: JRC via thetrunkspace@yahoo.com.
We recommend including your website/MySpace link, date(s) you would like to play, a description of your sound, and your philosophy in the e-mail too.
Q&A with: JRC, co-owner, curator of art, booker, and sound technician

What type of bands do you book?
We specialize in avant-garde, experimental, and non-commercial folk forms of music. We are also very interested in hosting touring theater acts, film fests, and artwork.

Why did you want to open a DIY venue?
The Trunk Space started as an art gallery, but it made no sense to us to have 1,100 square feet and only use the walls. We saw a need for our town to support non-traditional music and performance, which is our passion, and we just started booking acts.

Is your venue grounded on any ideals?
I'm not sure if they're ideals, but some rules we live by are: be easy to work with, be inclusive, and just because it's not "popular" doesn't mean that it isn't good or valuable. Having said that, we tend to avoid pop and rock acts because we are trying to encourage more experimental work.

What kind of crowd do you attract?
We attract a pretty diverse crowd, mostly teens to late 20s, but there's also a good mix of adults and folks from a wide spectrum of cultures: GLBQT, Latin, vegans, culture jammers, DIY punks, suburbanites, and "old school loves of the underground."

How has the venue been an attribute to a community?
People tend to think of us as the "go-to gang" for anything that doesn't fit in anywhere else. We're not exactly punk, rock, or folk-types. We try to keep a very friendly and unpretentious attitude to what we do.

Also, none of us is really into drinking or drugs; the music and art aren't an excuse for us to have a party. We're very serious about it, so the rest of the scene here may think we're a little square, but we are dedicated and sincere.

Have you been met with any challenges running a DIY venue?
Paying the rent is always hard. Because we don't live in the space and try to give as much back to the performers as possible, some months are pretty difficult.

We are always pushing to spread the word about what we're doing to the largest number of people possible, so overcoming people's expectations can be tough. Making them see the value in a culture that has developed in their own backyards is hard when most of us grew up on diets of TV, commercial radio, and mall fashion.

Aside from live music, do you host any other events or programs in your space?
Yes! We also host two nights of long-form improv each month (www.phoeniximprov.com), a live talk show, occasional classes on a variety of topics, circus sideshows, and burlesque reviews.

Are there any significant musical acts or artists that have drawn a crowd or had a significant performance?
From the local pool, the bands Father's Day and Andrew Jackson Jihad are really coming into their own and getting some national attention. There is also Soft Shoulder, Haunted Cologne, Stephen Steinbrink (AKA French Quarter).

From outside of town, we've been the first people in PHX to give shows to Parts & Labor, Matt & Kim, Larry "Wildman" Fischer, Quintron, Jason Webley, No Age, Baby Dee, and a lot more. They might not have all been huge shows, but they meant a lot to us and the people involved.

Do you have a favorite anecdote regarding your venue?
It's too long to recount here, but the night Jason Webley tamed a whole room of old-school punks, and got them to sing along to his sea shanties. It really crystallized what we want Trunk Space to be.

Do you plan on expanding or modifying your venue in the future?
We don't own our space, so if we could find the perfect place, we'd consider moving, but we're really happy where we are. Also, we're constantly upgrading our sound system.

What advice could you give those who are interested in opening their own venue?
Do it because you love it.  If it's something about money or ego, you will probably not be happy and eventually become disliked.

What events do you have coming up?
On Valentine's Day, we're hosting the "Pretty Things Peep Show" from LA. March will be packed with lots of great SXSW touring bands. In April on Saturday the 25^th, we'll be hosting the "REAL" Coachella: an all day music and performance fest with tons of local and regional bands.

The Trunk Space: www.thetrunkspace.com

Shining (Norway)

Thursday, October 23

Pillars and Tongues, Remindring @ The Hideout

Somber vocal harmonies emanate from aptly named Pillars and Tongues, an experimental trio whose creations exhibit mystical influences. As Remindring, multi-talented bassist Josh Abrams (Town & Country, Nicole Mitchell's Black Earth Ensemble) lays out looped soundscapes with Emmett Kelly and Frank Rosaly.

Fucked Up @ Reggie's Rock Club

Punk-rock misdirection artists Fucked Up hit Chicago two weeks after the release of The Chemistry of Common Life, the group's follow-up full-length to Hidden World. This time around, Fucked Up's material moves through more variety of atmosphere than your standard punk/hardcore, with peaceful, otherworldly intros and layers and layers of guitar. There's less stop-start fury than Hidden World-more sheets of sound-so it will be interesting to see how this vigorous live act performs.

Coliseum starts North American and Japanese tour dates

Louisville hardcore staples Coliseum begin five weeks of performances today, hitting many cities in the USA as well as a few in Canada and Japan. The group doesn't hit Chicago until Nov. 15, but there's a good chance that it will be your city in the near future.

Friday, October 24

Ears & Eyes Festival @ The Hideout

With three outstanding weekend shows at The Hideout, independent jazz/avant-garde label Ears & Eyes Records celebrates its third annual Ears & Eyes Festival. The performances feature groups on the Ears & Eyes roster as well as other local standouts and friends of the label, and one such outside artist, Brooklyn's Parts & Labor, headlines this first night with a catchy mix of indie rock and electronics.

The six-artist, six-hour show also includes bass-and-drums rock duo Black Ladies and free-rock guitarist Tobin Summerfield, but the biggest highlight might be the collaboration between Sunfish Ensemble guitarist David Daniell and Tortoise cofounder/bassist Doug McCombs.

Voodoo Experience begins @ New Orleans' City Park

With a massive three-day lineup that can only really be explored at thetenthritual.com, New Orleans' Voodoo Experience celebrates its 10^th anniversary. If you're in the Big Easy on Friday, the fest's first day, be sure to catch DeVotchKa, Reverend Horton Heat, The Gutter Twins, Man Man, Extra Action Marching Band, and Andre Williams.

Shining (and other picks) at CMJ Music Marathon & Film Festival

There are hundreds of bands playing at the dozens of CMJ venues on Friday, the festival's second-to-last day, but we had to single out Norway's Shining at Cake Shop (and again at Knitting Factor on Saturday). The post-prog jazz-rock experimentalists return to New York, one of three cities on their first US tour earlier this year, and it might be a while before they return. If you're in NYC, do yourself a favor and check them out (and pick up Grindstone on Rune Grammofon).

The night's other highlights include sBACH, An Albatross, Akimbo, Phosphorescent, Sole and the Skyrider Band, and Broken Social Scene.

Keep reading…