Ancestors: "Dust"

With its latest record, a three-track EP entitled Invisible White, LA-based quintet Ancestors shifted its focus from stoner metal to more experimental psych/classic-rock territory. The band didn't miss a step in the transition, garnering a This Week's Best Albums nod from us (read here).

It's a move that many bands contemplate after establishing a signature sound with which its fans become familiar. Do you play it safe and make the record everyone expects and will undoubtedly enjoy? Do you shoot for a hit record in hopes of gaining wealth and fame? Or do you push yourself to explore new territory without worrying about the response? Below, lead vocalist / guitarist Justin Maranga explains Ancestors' internal debate.

The Three Ways to Make Music
by Justin Maranga

There comes a time in the career of every band or musician when they have to make a choice. It is a choice that will heavily affect the future of their career. At this point, you may ask yourself what that choice is or find yourself trying to guess the possible options. Or perhaps you’re thinking, “Just get to the point already.” Well, as musicians, that’s precisely what we have to figure out. What is the point? What we as musicians must do is decide why we’re doing this and for whom we’re doing it.

So the way I see it, there are three ways we can go. The first option is that we’re doing it for ourselves; the second is that we’re doing it for the fans; and the third is that we’re doing it to attract as broad an audience as possible and hopefully will make enough money to survive (or more). Unfortunately, there is no right answer to these questions, and no matter what we choose, there are things to be lost and things to be gained. So let’s look at that, shall we?

It’s important to note that as artists, we stand to face criticism for our choice, no matter which way we go. So should we choose option number one, which is to make music for ourselves, the criticism is obvious. We may very well become the target of one of the music critic’s favorite phrases: “self-indulgent.” Dun dun dun! The hardest part of any form of art is trying to please yourself while simultaneously pleasing your audience. Of course, if you can weather the storm of criticism from fans, critics, and casual listeners who occasionally (or frequently) don’t understand what you’re trying to do, this choice undoubtedly promises to be the most personally fulfilling. And perhaps if you’re lucky, what resonates with you will resonate with listeners and it will prove to be financially fulfilling as well.

In my experience, as much as you want to do it for yourself, this can be a difficult choice to make. We (Ancestors) have chosen this route for ourselves, but not without some serious introspective discussion.  How do you forsake what you know to be the desires of your fans in favor of your own desire to grow as a musician? In our case, we just decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it in the form of an EP entitled Invisible White, for which we eliminated any sense of the word “heavy” from our music and completely changed our approach to songwriting and song construction. But regardless of the response, I find it hard to be disappointed with a product that we’re so proud of. In the end, no matter what the outcome, I think it’s worth it.

Moving on, the second choice is a fan favorite, for obvious reasons.  Fans like to think that it’s all about them — and rightly so.  As a music fan, I know that I’ve felt that way.  However, as a musician, how far must you go to placate your audience? And how can you do right by your audience without enduring the wrath of the music critic? The fans usually want the same album over and over again, because they’ve settled into that album. They want to hear more songs that sound similar without being exactly the same, and they want the production to sound the same because it’s what they’ve become accustomed to. If you make any changes, they have to get used to those changes, and let’s face it: fans fear change. Unfortunately, critics tend to look down on a band that can’t (at the very least) improve upon their sound or (at the most) reinvent the wheel with every successive release.

The problem with choice number two is that being in a band is like being president (stay with me here). You’ve got thousands of fans and each one has found something in your music that they like and want to hear more of. But there is no one united voice. How do you please thousands of people at the same time? In my opinion, all you can do is keep trying to better your music and hope that your fans will come with you. In my experience, you will likely lose some fans along the way. But these fair-weather fans are simply casualties of a war that cannot be won. And where you lose one fan, you’ll hopefully gain two more.

The third choice is the one that the old fans dread, but the masses rely on: the mass appeal and/or money choice. Don’t the fans understand that we need to eat? After all, we can’t go on tour if we have jobs and we can’t afford to eat if we have no jobs and no money! Woe is me: the familiar cry of the starving musician. So perhaps we have to sacrifice some of our integrity for a paycheck. It is not wrong; it’s a choice. Every musician fears the fans’ favorite rallying cry when they’re upset about the new direction that their favorite band has taken. I can hear it now: “They’ve sold out!” cries the angry fan as he puts on the new album that he just spent his hard-earned time downloading for free.

I’ll be the first to admit that when I was still playing in the DIY music scene, I had no understanding of the role that money played in the business of running a band. I was just as guilty of shunning bands that had shifted gears in the interest of financial gain. Unfortunately, the harsh reality of this industry (and any other industry, really) is that it costs money to keep a band going. While I’ve never lived the life of a musician whose music pays the bills, I have friends (and bandmates, for that matter) who do live that life, and I’ve certainly gained enough insight into that life to say that I can’t blame those people for placing themselves in the position to play music for profit, regardless of what that music is. The same goes for a band that sees an opportunity to profit from their music and seizes that opportunity while it’s there. It’s simply a choice that the idealist fan / music lover might not approve of, but that the realist musician might reluctantly accept for lack of a reasonable alternative and a desire to be able to play music for a living.

As you can see, there’s no right or wrong answer here.  So why have I bothered to write about this, you ask?  Well, I think that it’s important for the discerning music fan to understand the musician’s side of things. Stick by that band you like when they make a move that you’re uncomfortable with. They did it for a reason, and perhaps if you press through your initial hesitance and join them for the ride, you’ll actually be pleased with their decision in the end. Oh yeah, and buy the record. It sounds better than the MP3 and it comes with artwork. I promise, you won’t regret it.

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: "By the Rippling Green"

No matter how progressive San Francisco may be, there are a few things about the City by the Bay that will never change. For one, you can always count on being enveloped in fog, even in the summer. For another, you will always find countless long-haired, tie-dyed relics from the ’60s loitering in the streets of the Haight-Ashbury district. And lastly, thanks to a 40-year-old tradition of a liberal community of musicians bucking convention and testing the limits of what rock music can do, San Francisco will always be responsible for some of the trippiest, hardest-grooving psychedelic rock in America.

Along with the likes of Echoplex wielder Comets on Fire, the folk raga of Six Organs of Admittance, and prog/post-rock band Crime In Choir, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound is defining a new generation of psychedelic rock in the Bay Area. Its own unique brand simultaneously nods to the heavy fuzz of Blue Cheer and the jangly, summery pop of The Byrds, while maintaining a spacious and exploratory groove all its own.

The band’s new album, When Sweet Sleep Returned, marks a shift away from the band’s improv-heavy, ’60s-influenced first record, Ekranoplan. With When Sweet Sleep Returned, the band has taken its sound into bolder and more spacious territory, while retaining some of its fuzzier aspects.

What sets When Sweet Sleep Returned apart from its peers is how delicately it balances atmospheric sonic textures with the catchiness of a classic rock song. It has a vintage feel in some regards, but tracks like “Drunken Leaves” and “Clive in the Lyre” are far removed from the sounds of the psychedelic era. According to front-man Charlie Saufley, giving each song its own unique identity was an essential component in creating the album.

“We wanted individual songs to have a character and soundscape all their own, rather than hone in on some idea of what we are supposed to sound like,” Saufley says. “Personally, I don’t have an interest in a really cohesive sound. It wasn’t a concept — there are left turns, zigs, and zags.”
 

"We wanted the songs to be so intricate that they couldn’t be vehicles for improvisation, especially in a live context. We wanted to make sure that this album was a more tuneful-sounding thing.”

When Sweet Sleep Returned is a more focused record, even if, sonically and stylistically, it varies widely. Yet this new effort also strikes a notable dichotomy between the group’s recorded output and its live presence, which is louder, more incendiary, and more concerned with improvisation. Saufley says that this aspect of the band’s persona isn’t bound to change any time soon.

“I’d be hesitant to say that we’d be keen on having the improvisation go away,” Saufley says. “One thing that’s been apparent in our history is that the live show and the recording process have taken divergent paths. As disciplined as we would like the live show to be, we wanted the songwriting to be there. We wanted the songs to be so intricate that they couldn’t be vehicles for improvisation, especially in a live context. We wanted to make sure that this album was a more tuneful-sounding thing.”

Though Sweet Sleep isn’t heavy in a conventional Sabbath Bloody Sabbath sense, there is most certainly an emphasis on dense textures and layered arrangements. Take a track like “Kolob Canyon,” which focuses on clean, melodic guitar sounds courtesy of Jefferson Marshall and heavenly vocal harmonies, but still piles on effect after effect, while a metallic, almost sitar-like sound buzzes beneath the harmonic bliss. The fact that the band was able to combine a raga-like drone and a pop melody into one track is a testament to the attention put into textures.

“We wanted to spend less time on structures and more on textures,” Saufley says. “We knew that there wasn’t going to be a lot of vocal howling. We wanted things to be more crafted, more tuneful. I’m really pleased with what we achieved with the vocals, creating a little more space, and some bolder, more overt musical themes and hooks without hiding behind chaos. The desire was to get away from the real overt heaviness, just because we would end up doing it anyway. When we’re in the studio, no matter how we end up intellectualizing it, we just go bat-shit and jump around like monkeys.”

Bohren & Der Club of Gore: Beileid (Ipecac)

Bohren & Der Club of Gore: "Zombies Never Die (Blues)"

With a mutual background in hardcore, grind, and other forms of extreme music, the members of Bohren & Der Club of Gore formed to begin a new "doom/horror jazz" experiment.  But when the German quartet came into its own in the early 1990s, its sounds weren't the types of brooding metal or bloodcurdling film scores that one might imagine.  Instead, ominous bass lines, spooky organ tones, guitar reverberations, and somber, elongated melodies formed the bulk of the band's "doom" elements.

Beileid, the group's latest, continues in the tradition of Twin Peaks- and Angelo Badalamenti-esque creepiness with deliberate tempos and jazzy intonations.  Vibraphone, Mellotron, and sax again build the slow-moving atmosphere in three lengthy tracks, the second of which is a darkened take on the song "Catch My Heart" by 1980s German hair-metallers Warlock.  At two-and-a-half times the length of the original, "Catch My Heart" is the balladic middle section of this 35-minute triptych, and it finds the incomparable Mike Patton turning the tones of Warlock lead singer Dorothee Pesch into deep vibratos.

The two originals stand out as well, but with melodies that feel like they're at quarter-speed, listeners require either patience or a love of unfolding ambience.

Pillars & Tongues: The Pass and Crossings (Endless Nest / Empty Cellar)

Pillars & Tongues: "The Making Graceful"

Led by interwoven, trance-inducing vocal dynamics and spiritual folk/chamber instrumentation, Pillars & Tongues achieves a surprising amount of power for merely a trio.  And thanks to the Chicago group's tireless touring schedule, underground explorers around the country have taken to its style, one that produces a great number of sonic textures.

With The Pass and Crossings, the trio again builds from the bellowing vocals of singer/percussionist Mark Trecka, the swirling melodies of violinist Beth Remis, and the bowed swells of upright bassist Evan Hydzik.  Harmonies, long-form repetitions, and sparse beats are crucial to the album's moments of buildup and release.  The result is a sonic spell, waiting to enchant those who hear it.

Thievery Corporation: Culture of Fear (ESL)

Thievery Corporation: "Culture of Fear" f. Mr. Lif

DJs Rob Garza and Eric Hilton comprise Thievery Corporation, a politically outspoken dub/lounge duo that has built a name for itself in Washington, DC with its world- and trip-hop-infused sounds.

Over the years, the two have incorporated a slew of politically minded collaborations into their albums.  The first on Culture of Fear features rapper and Def Jux alum Mr. Lif on the title track, which derides a never-changing security-alert system, the widening reach of the digital world, and shady bank loans.

Most of the duo's political messaging is left to interviews and guest spots, but song titles often hint at deeper issues or themes, and Culture of Fear does so with "Tower Seven" and "False Flag Dub."

Musically, the album is a bit more focused than some of its far-reaching predecessors, leaning on airy jams and minimalist bass grooves.  But it's still a down-tempo and occasionally funky and jazzy lounge mix, with sultry dub and trip-hop concoctions for other guest vocalists.  It's a mixture that doesn't grow tired despite the duo's many years together.

Ancestors: Invisible White EP (Tee Pee)

Ancestors: "Invisible White"

Ancestors has a flair for the epic. You likely won’t find the progressive LA band making a standard 12-track record full of four-minute songs with traditional song structures. Its 2008 debut, Neptune With Fire (profiled here), wove together the fantastical storytelling of a band like Rush with modern doom metal.

And though its new album, Invisible White, adheres to that same slow-burning, long-form formula, it marks a distinct departure into more mellow, experimental territory, à la Pink Floyd. The three-song EP kicks off with the title track, a lilting, acoustic-guitar-and-piano dirge that introduces each new instrument with measured deliberation — violin, drums, organ — and culminates in a moving lament of the elusive “Invisible White.”

Ultimately, Ancestors is driven by the credo “play the kind of music you’d want to hear,” and venturing into previously unexplored territory seems as effortlessly rote as putting a new record on the turntable.

- Text by Kyle Gilkeson.

Honorable Mentions

The Atomic Bitchwax: The Local Fuzz (Tee Pee)

Ramin Djawadi: Game Of Thrones soundtrack (Varèse Sarabande)

Arnold Dreyblatt: Resonant Relations (Cantaloupe)

Handsome Furs: Sound Kapital (Sub Pop)

Jolie Holland: Pint of Blood (Anti-)

Isis: Live III 12.17.04

The Laureates: Spells

Sbtrkt: s/t (Young Turks / XL)

See-I: s/t (Fort Knox)

White Wives: Happeners (Adeline)

YACHT: Shangri-La (DFA Records)

Ancestors: "Neptune With Fire"

Sometimes things just seem too obvious. When Los Angeles five-piece Ancestors formed in 2006, its members were surprised that they couldn’t pinpoint a band that already had melded '70s progressive rock with the stoner/doom metal that erupted out of California during the 1990s. Regarding that, guitarist and lead singer Justin Maranga says, “They seem to go hand in hand, to the point where we were kind of shocked no one had combined them before, and we were wondering when someone was going to beat us to it.” But the band wasn’t devised with the intent to pioneer any particular new sound. Maranga puts it simply: “The important thing is to play the kind of music you’d want to hear.”

Along with Maranga, Ancestors includes bassist Nick Long, drummer Brandon Pierce, organist J. Christopher Watkins, and chief lyricist and ambient-noise expert Chico Foley, a London-by-way-of-Berlin transplant. Their two-song, nearly forty-minute debut, Neptune With Fire, is filled with dramatic twists and turns, sprawling guitar solos, and on the title track, a four-part narrative depicting a mythological King Neptune wrestling with the burden that comes with having unlimited power.

Maranga maintains that the band is suited by the style, which is partially inspired by Foley’s early observations upon relocating to Los Angeles. “We’re all fans of nerdy storytelling music,” Maranga says. “The traditional epic — Rush’s Hemispheres, King Crimson — I think that the music was begging for that kind of lyric.” Foley adds, “A whimsical style wouldn’t really go with our sound.”
 

“We’re all fans of nerdy storytelling music.  The traditional epic — Rush’s Hemispheres, King Crimson — I think that the music was begging for that kind of lyric.”

Ancestors' members long have been familiar faces at all-ages, vegan-friendly arts space The Smell, which is quickly building a national reputation, if not international, as a hub for up-and-coming, unique artists. “It’s one of the best DIY venues in the world,” Foley says. “In comparison with London, there is no way you can find a place to put on a DIY show. The police here really don’t give a shit about what goes on downtown.”

“That kind of ethic really appeals to people,” Maranga says. “It’s why venues like [legendary San Francisco Bay-area punk club] Gillman Street has held up over the years. People like the way it can be self-run, the way bands are picked, and the fact that bands can just go and play. People don’t like rules and being told what to do.” An added bonus is that bands are able to introduce their music to audiences that may not typically seek out metal or prog-rock groups on their own. “We’ve played shows with bands that we don’t fit so well with musically,” Maranga says, “but we’re all being influenced by the same stuff in different ways, and that somehow appeals to the same crowd.”

A distribution SNAFU delayed the release of Neptune with Fire in the United States until Fall 2008, but the album had been available for purchase in Europe for several months prior. In the meantime, Ancestors has been hard at work developing new material. “There is going to be less mythological premise, and a more humanized context of you and me as opposed to story," Foley says. "The last album was us becoming us, and now we are beginning to fulfill our potential."

Baroness: Blue Record (Relapse)

Staying within a chromatic theme, Georgian (US) metal quartet Baroness follows the success of its Red Album with Blue Record, a disc, like its predecessor, that's chock full of riffs.

Through 12 tracks, Southern psychedelia exists amid down-tuned chugs and both vocal gruffness and harmonies. More harmonies, in the form of high-note guitar leads, rain upon a no-nonsense foundation of rhythms.

Blue Record is a riff lover's delight, but tracks such as "Steel That Sleeps the Eye" more resemble Fleet Foxes than Mastodon, and the classic disco/dance syncopation appears on "Swollen and Halo." As a result, Blue Record is an engaging addition to a promising catalog.

Sole and the Skyrider Band: Plastique (Fake Four)

The 2007 self-titled disc from Sole and the Skyrider Band marked a turning point in the career of rapper Tim Holland, a mainstay of the Anticon crew whose style reflects the label's moody sounds. The self-titled disc merged Sole's alt raps and production with live musicians, and though it was a sound "debut," this second foray into life as a group is immensely more evolved.

Plastique is delicately constructed, with breakbeats that give way to somber string vibratos and pizzicatos, dense atmospherics, and ghostly samples. Guitars weave in and out of a mix that brims with layers. All totaled, Plastique sounds like another step in the logical progression of hip hop.

Shawn Lee & Clutchy Hopkins: Fascinating Fingers (Ubiquity)

Uber-eclectic electro-funk multi-instrumentalist Shawn Lee joins forces once more with Clutchy Hopkins, a musician of international mystery, for down-tempo jams that call on lounge vibes, minimalist grooves, and backing strings.

Fans of each musician should dig Fascinating Fingers, the latest collaboration between two men whose sounds mesh with ease.

Honorable mentions:

Del The Funky Homosapien: Parallel Uni-Verses (Gold Dust)
The Flaming Lips: Embryonic (Warner Bros.)
Lightning Bolt: Earthly Delights (Load)
Imaad Wasif: The Voidist (Tee Pee)

Staff Benda Bilili

Channeling the voices of the disenfranchised into playful rumba melodies, this tenacious band of paraplegic Congolese musicians captures beautiful music and colorful vocals on its debut album, Trés Trés Fort.

Primarily a group of men in their 50s, Staff Benda Bilili also features the virtuosity of Roger Landu, a street kid with a "perfect ear" whose handmade satongé, a lute-like instrument, spouts out emotive high-pitched vibrations.

Throughout the album, mid-tempo guitar and lute strings amplify to energetic rumba rhythms, as folksy anecdotes unfold in Lingala and French. The album holds tranquil tracks like "Sala Keba," frantic, mambo-esque numbers like "Moziki," and rapid percolators like "Avramandole."  The group's story is inspirational, but its musical ability makes the story compelling.

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: When Sweet Sleep Returned (Tee Pee)

Amidst the strong psychedelic-rock scene in the Bay Area, Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound creates a unique brand that simultaneously nods to the heavy fuzz of Blue Cheer and the jangly, summery pop of The Byrds while maintaining a spacious and exploratory groove all its own.

The band's new album, When Sweet Sleep Returned, marks a shift away from the band's improv-heavy, '60s-influenced first record, Ekranoplan. On this album, the band has taken its sound into bolder and more spacious territory while retaining some of its fuzzier aspects.

Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: "Two Birds Sang"
Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound: \"Two Birds Sang\"

Bronnt Industries Kapital: Hard for Justice (Get Physical)

Layering sublime, harmonized synthesizers and organic instrumentation over straightforward dance beats, Hard for Justice is the lissome new album from English IDM producer/multi-instrumentalist Guy Bartell.

Contrasting some of his earlier work that centered on beat arrangements, moods, and effects, Hard for Justice is driven by melody and musical prowess. It won't blow away tech heads, but it's a hypnotizing effort that doesn't get stale from track to track.

Bronnt Industries Kapital: "Streets of Fury"
Bronnt Industries Kapital: \"Streets of Fury\"

Balkan Beat Box: Nu Made (Remixes) (JDub)

Led by Ori Kaplan (ex-Gogol Bordello) and Tamir Muskat (Firewater), this Brooklyn outfit fuses Gypsy, Mediterranean, Jewish, and Arabic music with pulsing dance beats and other new-school sounds, not dissimilar in theme to Caribbean dancehall.

Nu Made lets others remix Balkan Beat Box's remix style, allowing for new takes on the group's mash-up of old instruments and structures with new technology and attitude.  Despite this album's misleading name (BBB's last album was titled Nu Med), the source material on Nu Made spans the band's catalog.

Balkan Beat Box: "Adir Adirim (Nickodemus Remix)"
Balkan Beat Box: \"Adir Adirim (Nickodemus Remix)\"

Warsaw Village Band: Infinity (Barbes)

With a seemingly self-summarizing band name, Warsaw Village Band sounds much like one would expect.  But on top of a healthy dose of Polish folk and droning vocal harmonies, the sextet adds elements of Klezmer music, polyrhythm, and even turntablism.  Infinity will mostly appeal to fans of traditional music, but it could win over new fans with a bit of crossover.

Before recording a new album this spring, Converge will play a handful of shows, mostly during a week in March. Head to Deathwish Inc. for the full list.

Norwegian jazz/Balkan/surf group Farmers Market will perform with the Stravanger Symphony Orchestra for the country's MaiJazz festival in May.

A seventh album from Sunn O))), titled Monoliths & Dimensions, will be released May 18 on Southern Lord. The album includes guest appearances from Eyvind Kang, Julian Priester, Oren Ambarchi, Jessika Kenney, and Dylan Carlson.

Ethnically inspired electro-acoustic arists Balkan Beat Box are issuing a remix album, Nu Made, through JDub Records on April 7.

Tombs has posted its entire Relapse debut, Winter Hours, online to be streamed at www.winterhours.info.

Jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas will release a new album with his Brass Ecstasy group, titled Spirit Moves, later this spring.

The Brooklyn studio of Daptone Records, home of Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings and The Budos Band, was robbed on Monday. A list of stolen or damaged items can be seen here, and if you see this stuff online somewhere, holler at Daptone.

Brutal hardcore group Ed Gein is practicing again after a year and a half of inactivity. The group plans to start writing new material and play some scattered shows.

Long-form UK rock experimentalists Crippled Black Phoenix will tour the US for two weeks at the beginning of April.

Jaguar Love is no longer playing with drummer Jay Clark (former guitarist of Pretty Girls Make Graves). The band currently is a two-piece with a drum machine and will debut this new lineup for an Australian tour.

An Albatross still needs a guitarist to tour this summer! Get in touch if you're talented, friendly, and can travel to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless and Witch begin a nine-day tour of the Northeastern US and Canada today.

Stoner-metal outfit Witch has announced tour dates starting in late February with Tee Pee Records labelmates Earthless. Head to Tee Pee for the list.

Due to illness, Afrobeat star Femi Kuti has canceled his North American tour that was set to begin on Wednesday, January 7.

In anticipation of Bromst, his new full-length album due on March 24, Dan Deacon has posted "Get Older," one of the album's tracks, on imeem. Deacon also has a split 12" with electronic brethren Adventure coming out on January 27.

Converge and Supermachiner (side project with vocalist Jacob Bannon and guitarist Kurt Ballou) each have a new album in store for 2009.

Bannon's new experimental project, Irons, has a split 12" with Pulling Teeth also due in 2009. Bannon's label, Deathwish Inc., has a glut of releases planned for this year.

Chinese-American composer Wu Fei will perform on January 16, 17, and 18 in China to celebrate the recent release of her new album, Yuan, on Tzadik. Details can be found at her website.

Watch the brief trailer for Mastodon's new album, Crack the Skye, at the band's website.

Fifty free pairs of tickets are being given away to Kronos Quartet's performance of Terry Riley's Sun Rings in France on January 16. To request a pair of tickets (by Monday, January 12), e-mail announcements@kronosquartet.org, with the subject line "Paris Sun Rings – MySpace", including your name and e-mail address in the body of your message.

Bassist/guitarist Reed Mathis, a founding member of 15 years, has left Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey to pursue other endeavors. The group has a lineup with two new members that will perform for scheduled shows in January and February.

Founding drummer Pat Pengelly has quit Bedouin Soundclash, making the group, for now, a duo with Jay Malinowski and Eon Sinclair. The group's February tour dates will remain intact.

These Arms are Snakes has announced a month-long US tour, primarily hitting the Midwest and East Coast, that begins in late February.

Madlib has a new disc for his Beat Konducta series — Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6 — that will be released February 10 on Stones Throw.

Danish weirdo rockers Powersolo will release their new album, Bloodskinbones, on February 23.

Via an interview with band manager Peter Mensch, the BBC reports that the instrumental members of Led Zeppelin — Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and Jason Bonham (son of John Bonham) — are looking to tour and record a new album without Robert Plant. The article says that it is unknown whether the group will continue under the famous name, but in a separate interview with Mensch on musicradar.com, the manager emphatically states that "Led Zeppelin are over."

Apple is finally doing away with DRM protection (short for digital rights management) on its iTunes music files.

Tonight, punk ensemble World/Inferno Friendship Society will perform a special one-off gig at New York's Webster Hall. The show, a multi-media operetta based on the life of Peter Lorre, is part of the Under The Radar Festival.

This nine-song, thirty-minute carnival is the most complete and true expression of An Albatross ever put to tape.

The band's trademark mixture of 1970s psychedelia, hardcore, modern rock, and synthesized circus music is most realized through the progressive, epic, trippy, metal tunes on this third full-length album. Layers of strings, horns, flute, and organs-and a lengthy spoken-word passage-make this more than your father's An Albatross.

Sao Paulo Underground: The Principle of Intrusive Relationships (Aesthetics)

Led by composer / cornet player Rob Mazurek, the mastermind behind Exploding Star Orchestra, this Brazilian version of Chicago Underground focuses more on rhythm for its second full-length.

The echoing, delayed cornet of Rob Mazurek and the boundary-less beats of drummer Mauricio Takara are augmented by a pair of additional percussionists as well as space-age electronics. This was overlooked last week, but we don't think that you'll mind us adding it seven days late.

Sao Paulo Underground: "Pulmões"
Sao Paulo Underground: \"Pulmões\"

RTX: JJ Got Live RaTX (Drag City)

Led by Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux fame, RTX's second full-length amplifies the band's trademark blend of psychedelic rock and late '80s LA metal. Over the haze and arena-ready riffs, Herrema snarls her way through blistering tracks like opening number "You Should Shut Up" and the swaggering "Birthday Song."

RTX: "Cheap Wine Time"
RTX: \"Cheap Wine Time\"

Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping [Dig] (Polyvinyl)

From lo-fi indie pop to gender-bending glam rock, we've learned to expect the unexpected with Of Montreal, and with its sunny, eclectic dance pop, the group's ninth album has proven no exception.

There are furious hammered dulcimer riffs that give way to hazy psych-pop dissonance and multi-tracked vocal ululations ("Nonpareil of Favor"). There are heartbroken piano ballads ("Touched Something's Hollow") that shift into celebratory horn riffs and twin-lead-guitar arena rock ("An Eluardian Instance"). It's abrupt and jarring, and that's the whole point.

Pit er Pat: High Time (Thrill Jockey)

Poly-genre minimalist three-piece Pit er Pat weaves through indie rock, dub, haunting grooves and much more on High Time, the group's third full-length for Thrill Jockey. Traditional instrumentation is mixed with modern electronics and a rock base, and a talented guest panel of Dylan Ryan (Bronze, Herculaneum), trombonist Nick Broste (Mucca Pazza) and flutist Nate Lepine lends its talents.

Pit er Pat: "Evacuation Days"
Pit er Pat: \"Evacuation Days\"

Night Horse: The Dark Won't Hide You (Tee Pee)

Comprised of members of LA-based epic-metal quintet Ancestors and psych rockers Bluebird, Night Horse presents a Southern-rock-tinged boogie — one that is the perfect soundtrack for downing numerous shots of whiskey and dancing your ass off.

Grails: Doomsdayer's Holiday (Temporary Residence Limited)

Fusing Indian music, 1970s film noir, and psychedelic sounds into heavy acoustic and electric rock, Portland's Grails are a wonderful anomaly. Doomsdayer's Holiday, as its name implies, cranks the group's heaviness beyond recent levels without losing its haunting, compelling melodies.

Grails: \"Reincarnation Blues\"

Earthless: Live At Roadburn (Tee Pee)
At the 2008 edition of the annual Roadburn Festival in Holland (spring break for anyone into heavy underground rock), San Diego psych-rock trio Earthless gave an impromptu headlining performance for 2,000 fans, having originally been scheduled at a venue one-tenth the size. Not only did its hypnotic, four-song, hour-and-a-half set blow away the crowd, but on recording it beautifully captures the energy and magnitude of the stellar live show.

Young Widows: Old Wounds (Temporary Residence Limited)

Old Wounds is the second album from Louisville rockers Young Widows since transforming from Breather Resist. Sporting an extra dose of heaviness, the disc opens with "Took a Turn," slowly building around a gritty, garage-floor bass riff before bursting with post-rock drums, multi-layered guitars, and reverberated shouts.

Throughout, the album changes tone and time at will like a lumbering, newly un-caged beast, while a primordial jungle pulse beats itself into a frenzy just below the crust.

Young Widows: \"Old Skin\"

Jolie Holland: The Living and The Dead (Anti-)
On her third solo album, Texas-born songstress Jolie Holland blends a variety of regional American folk styles. Topped with creamy vocals and bittersweet lyrics, tracks such as dark-toned "Fox In Its Hole" and wistful "Love Henry" make a long-lasting impression.

Jolie Holland: "Old Fashion Morphine"

Fucked Up: The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)

The newest full-length from punk contrarians Fucked Up moves through more variety of atmosphere than standard punk/hardcore, with peaceful, otherworldly intros and layers and layers of guitar-more than seventy guitar tracks at one point (or so they say…).

There's less stop-start fury than 2006 release Hidden World-more sheets of sound. "Golden Seal" sounds like a darker Sigur Rós, or even Jean Michel Jarre.

Fucked Up: \"No Epiphany\"

Marnie Stern: This Is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That Is That (Kill Rock Stars)

Backed again by untamed drumming beast Zach Hill, guitarist/singer Marnie Stern issues her sophomore effort with more frantic, high-pitched fret work, quirky vocals, and – through the carefully constructed din – catchy melodies.

Marnie Stern: \"Transformer\"

Hauschka: Ferndorf (FatCat)

German pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann, here known as Hauschka, uses a decade of classical studies as his musical foundation. With that, home-rigged piano effects, and additional acoustic and electric instruments, he combines structural influences of electronica and classical minimalism to create a beautiful minor-key oeuvre.

Hauschka: \"No Wind Today\"

East Coast Avengers: Prison Planet (Brick)

Featuring the outspoken sociopolitical lyrics of rappers Trademarc and Esoteric, East Coast Avengers are more than just skilled rhymers that take aim at rightwing water carriers. The group pastes stirring Romantic violin melodies and portentous soundtrack clips over head-nodding beats, setting an appropriate mood for its imperative lyrical content.

ECA has already taken plenty of heat in the corporate media for releasing the track "Kill Bill O'Reilly," so let's give the group some love.

East Coast Avengers: \"Kill Bill O\'Reilly\"

Desalvo: Mood Poisoner (Rock Action)

Released on Mogwai's Rock Action label, Mood Poisoner may just have influenced the heavy grooves on its label owners' recent record. Based in Glasgow, Desalvo sound as though the Jesus Lizard were a modern hardcore/metal band.

Sun Ra and His Solar Arkestra: Secrets Of The Sun (Atavistic)

A re-mastered and long-lost relic of the Sun Ra vault, Secrets of the Sun is now available from Atavistic 46 years after its release on Saturn Records. And if being available for the first time on CD isn't enough, how does a 17-minute unreleased track sound?