Proggy-pop/post-hardcore outfit 31 Knots pull off the defining moment of a career on its fourth LP The Days and Nights of Everything Anywhere. The Portland trio meticulously circumvents repetition, changing pace and style on nearly every song on the album. Erratic rhythms, impeccably keen basslines and wiry guitars compose a foundation for heavy, unmerciful drums and the numerous other instruments brought into the studio for this one. Thankfully the mish-mash of everything is never too jumbled, leaving each instrument perfectly discernible. Joe Haege is quite the lyricist, and it’s unfortunate 31 Knots will probably never be known for that aspect—there’s too much going on with the music itself to turn attention to what he’s saying. Think a Fugazified Menomena with more technical proficiency, and here’s what you’ll come up with. [www.polyvinylrecords.com]

Tragedy is often a catalyst for many things. A fantastic rock album is not one of the first things that would come to most people's mind, but that is exactly what it did for Long Island, NY's Bayside. In the wake of the death of drummer John "Beatz" Holohan the band chose to press on and released one of the more moving live EPs I've heard in last year's Acoustic. But with The Walking Wounded, Bayside has proven that they've also become a better band. Choosing to not dwell on the sadness, they instead create what is actually the most uplifting album of their career (due, in large part, to frontman Anthony Raneri's recent marriage). It still sounds dark (thank you Morrissey) and melancholy, but still manages to move you. [www.myspace.com]

Dmonstrations create spastic, unpredictable, creative music somewhere between no-wave and math-rock. The lyrics are sometimes nonsensical but when considered a part of the whole, they back up the ludicrous nature of the music. Tetsunori Tawaraya wails on top of the disjointed song fragments while the other band members try their hardest to sound like the contents of a guitar store falling down a set of stairs. I’m oversimplifying things; a few of the songs are rather accessible. For instance, “Hair Pretzel” and “S.B.C.” could easily play on the most conservative college radio station but that still won’t help you make sense of the lyrics. If you like your rock and roll odd but energetic (Think Deerhoof and Ex-Models), you’ll enjoy Night Trrors, Shock! [www.myspace.com]

The title song on Sicbay's album, Suspicious Icons, starts with an overdistorted guitar run through a Marshall. It’s heavy on the low-end; a guitar sound that is easiest to describe as “ballsy.” The rest of the songs don’t have the pounding feeling that makes the title track so unique but some make up for it by being well-crafted. Take, for example, the Guided By Voices-influenced “The Rise of Phantom White.” It’s a well-written song in that it doesn’t rely on influence, it’s more like a respectable nod to those who came before them. There’s no cohesive thread to hold the album together and it suffers as a result. If you're a fan of Guided By Voices or if you like guitar-heavy rock, give Suspicious Icons a shot. [www.sicbay.com]

It’s good to see that bands are still ripping off--um--paying tribute to The Pixies. With the 1990’s now well behind us, “retro” may be a safe word to describe the bluesy garage sound of Tigers and Monkeys. Title track “Loose Lips” may be the most blatantly Pixies-inspired piece, in which lead singer Shonali Bhowmik invokes the spirits of both Black Francis AND Kim Deal. Her gritty yet appealing vocals serve the song and the rest of the album well. Refreshingly gimmick-free and just raw enough, NYC based Tigers and Monkeys adds the simple to the engaging and comes out a success. [www.tigersandmonkeys.com]

Few of Devin Smith’s 35 tracks eclipse the one-minute mark, making the dorm-room wonder of Cassette's Beautiful California a difficult listen. The crux of the album is to ponder a different idea, thought or feeling for each song, though it goes without saying that Smith can’t ruminate too much or too deeply in such brevity. Beautiful California is the result of sometimes-manic, often-erratic creation, and Smith toys with electronics, lo-fi folky stuff and poppy melody goodness. The experiment has its good and bad points; the intentions surrounding the album are met, and often surpassed, but by the time we’ve become enamored with one Smith’s musical leaves, the wind has already whisked it away. At worst, these songs serve as solutions for that annoying space that’s left over on mixtapes. 18, 19, 36 seconds empty? Cassette is the remedy. [www.atomisk.com]

The Working Title's debut LP, About-Face, is truly a triumph and one of the most underrated albums of 2006. Released to little fanfare off of Universal Records, the band has done well opening for such up-and-coming acts as Mae and the Goo Goo Dolls. About-Face is simply indie rock at its finest, whether it be through the tight instrumentation and drumming by Ross Taylor or the unique vocal stylings of frontman Joel Hamilton, The Working Title find their niche from track one on their way to a very solid album. Standout tracks include EP carry-overs "Something She Said" and "There Is None," along with new tunes "Nothing Less Radiant," "The Crash" and "Under the Ground," which has slowly become one of my favorite songs of all time. The entire album, though, is very strong and is one that should be heard by anyone who appreciates good music. [www.theworkingtitle.com]

They say the third album of a band's career is often a defining moment. In the case of Tooth & Nail vets Anberlin, this is more than the case. With Cities, the band has released their best and most satisfying work to date. Amazingly, and most impressively, the album manages to be so many things at once. It contains some of the darkest songs the band has ever produced ("Dismantle.Repair." and lead single "Godspeed"), but at the same time, churns out some of the most beautiful as well ("The Unwinding Cable Car," "Inevitable," and awe-inspiring closer "(*Fin)"). That the band has somehow found the line between unrelenting rock and haunting, yet often gorgeous melodies is a true testament to how far they've come. They excel at dynamics, too, which gives the record an almost epic feel, most evident in the spectacular "(*Fin)." To put it bluntly, this is a fantastic record, that should find its way to the top of many year's end lists when the time comes. It is truly the first important album of its kind to come out in 2007. [www.anberlin.com]

New York as of late: angular rock and roll, cynical frontman, handclaps, pop hooks. Bridges and Powerlines: check, check, check, check. There’s nothing about this album that immediately pops out at you, it leans towards the run-of-the-mill. There doesn’t seem to be life-experience to back up the bleak feeling some of the songs emulate. The bouncy bridge in the song “New Mistake” evokes early-Dressy Bessy to the point of giving a hint of the sound the band would excel with as hard-edged pop does not seem to be their forte. Bridges and Powerlines know pop, that much is obvious, but they should embrace their pop inklings instead of trying to match the status quo. [bridgesandpowerlines.com]

If the best thing Steve Stills ever did was crib “For What It’s Worth” for Buffalo Springfield, the worst thing he ever did was tell his son that striking one note guitar riffs and topical lyrics was the devil’s music. Or we can assume that the 31 year-old Chris Stills did everything in his power to make his music even less threatening than his father’s. Either way, his live EP When the Pain Dies Down: Live in Paris is a bilingual exercise in French-American relations that’s as inoffensive and unmemorable as a foreign diplomat making small talk with Laura Bush. Turns out Chris not only cut his hair, but he’s writing for the same crowd that was forbidden from listening to his dad’s band back in ’69. The record opens with the title track, the song most eligible for anything more than grocery store loudspeakers, and then only sort of. His voice finds the right combination of melody and melancholy, but the drums are impossibly tight, and his piano, while well played, is almost purely mechanical. The rest of the album fits for acoustic Jeff Buckley rips, a cover of The Band’s “The Weight” done entirely in French, and a couple neat little rockers for the kids. It’s all pretty formless really, and Stills’ only mode of recourse is that every once in a while he gets excited, and amps the power in his voice to accentuate a word or bring home a chorus. But even those charged bit of raucous defiance don’t manage more than small bits of spray paint on an otherwise blank canvas, and the son of the great Stephen Stills finds himself right next to Rod Stewart in the easy listening section. This is what musical talent looks like when it’s got nothing to do and people to please. [www.v2.fr]

"If it wasn't for good love gone bad, there wouldn't be no songs." The late Jim Spencer, godfather of Milwaukee's music scene, said that before he shuffled off and inspired the first Violent Femmes LP, which is dedicated to him. Castle Project, performed and written by Ryan Ostiguy, proves the theory. It's eleven songs by one guy with a little help from his friends. And about, you guessed it, good love gone bad. It's kind of like Sir Paul without the rest of the knighted Beatles or Wings. It reminds me of String Driven Thing, an obscure Scottish band I once saw open for Lou Reed. They specialized in something called Scots-Presbyterian Depresso-Rock. Diaries Of A Broken Heart features such "upbeat" titles as "Celebrate The End," "In Frustration," "Waste" and "Apologies." Ostiguy puts it this way in "The Airways" when he sings: "I don't know much about love..." then goes on about it for eleven songs and a whole lotta minutes. The inner sleeve's picture of Ostiguy, beneath the "diaries" booklet, says it all. It reads "I'm Dead To You" under his funereal portrait. By the time you hear it all you might think Ryan Ostiguy wrote all those songs Jim Spencer was talking about. So, have a good listen, but stay away from the Golden Gate after you do. [www.castleproject.com]

Britain’s Goldrush has released one of indie rock’s first must-have albums of 2007, The Heart is the Place. Bristling with catchy melodies, fuzzed out guitars and insightful lyrics, this album sees Goldrush paying tribute to their influences (Flaming Lips, Wilco), while at the same time forging their own musical path. Key tracks include “Everyone of Us” and “Heaven’s My Destination.” FYI: If you really want to get the full effect of this album, grab a pair of headphones and plug them in. The layers of guitars will blow you away. [www.goldrush.mu]

Master Lerche looks like he took a phantom punch to the old breadbasket on the cover of his latest. It must be the backdraft from the searing rock n’ roll. What, you ask? Has Lerche gone the way of Garth Brooks, freakishly masquerading as the engimatic (or pathetic) Chris Gaines, or perhaps to a lesser extent Ryan Adams’ poseur-lite Rock N Roll? No, Lerche may be turning up the distortion and simplifying the song structure a bit, but he is still the unmistakably affable and sometimes linguistically befuddled Norwegian crooner. Phantom Punch may not be his banner material, but it doesn’t fall on its face either. Next up: Sondre Lerche and the Faces Down take on disco… [www.sondrelerche.com]

This aptly-titled album is the auditory version of smoking opium with the Cheshire Cat. It's a collection of songs chosen by the band and intended for true fans. Tracks include “Razor Blade,” the b-Side to “Bull In the Heather” off of Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, and a 25-minute version of “The Diamond Sea,” taken from Washing Machine. As a whole the compilation represents puzzle pieces from throughout Sonic Youth’s lengthy history, and is a testament to the band’s no Wave and post-punk roots. While veteran fans will rejoice in the band’s trademark soundscapes and mysterious guitars, virgins may find this album disconcerting. Each track has the all-consuming feeling that demands attention, if not only to try and unravel which sound is melting into which. Only three of the songs on this album contain lyrics, and the rest require some combination of patience, drug-induced euphoria, and/or pseudo-sophistication. [www.sonicyouth.com]

The Sound Inside is trying to get out, but all that Breaks Co-Op is doing is setting it up for someone else to take. For a series of light and slight tracks, this album has an astonishingly large number of styles and influences from around the world, but the emotion is missing. The message of "The Otherside" is what Michael Franti's been preaching for some time now, and the melody of "Last Night" might as well be a more subdued version of REM's "Everybody Hurts." Tracks like "Duet" merge the ambient sounds of rain with the oriental feel of a harp, and "Question of Freedom" goes way retro with the distorted jazz chic, but both these songs seem like better samples than songs, and they're waiting for someone to step up. The music is strong enough to make this release above-average, but aside from some accomplished acoustic tracks like "A Place for You," the album is more atmospheric (hear the twinkles of a high-pitched keyboard on "Twilight") than engaging. [www.breaksco-op.com]

The start of Exposition, the new album by Wax on Radio, is great. But if you keep listening past the second track, "Time Will Bind Us To The Guilt of Commitment," the point at which Mikey Russell's voices goes from controlled to screeching, then you either really like progressive jam sessions or you've got to take the wax out of your ears. There are obvious parallels to The Mars Volta, but they don't have the instrumental chops or experimental skill of that band, and their subject material is grounded too much in depressingly stark and bare-boned lyrics. The only thing that holds it all together is Harrison Taylor's pinpoint bass; otherwise it's just a lot of distorted nonsense. If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, but adding a minute of crickets chirping to the end of a song ("When in Rome...") isn't music. It's ambient blather. Wax on Radio would do far better to stick with the more acoustically sound rhythms of their first and best track, "Today I Became a Realist." [www.waxonradio.com]

My limited exposure to soundtracks over the past couple years leaves me with the impression that Hollywood still has its black heart set on nabbing the hipster kids—but for as many times as that archer has set his sights on the target, he has yet to nail the bulls-eye. In this case, it seems like more a search for those who were hip during Nirvana's reign, with many of the artists presented here well into their third decade of living. Catch and Release showcases a lot of “indie” bands on major labels; The Magic Numbers, Gomez, Doves, and Death Cab For Cutie all submit songs taken from recent records, while The Lemonhead’s classic “My Drug Buddy,” released 15 years ago, is an odd inclusion among the almost-exclusively post-millennial tracklisting. Anyway, the record does bring some new blood to the mix, though it tends to be pretty typical, Triple-A material. Steve Durand, Peter MacLaggan, and the Scrubs-tacular Joshua Radin couldn’t be considered innovative in the slightest, but their standard singer-songwriter woes suit what’s most likely a standard Hollywood romantic comedy (read: shitty). Regardless, do people even buy soundtracks these days? There’s enough trouble in getting a person to actually pay for his or her favorite artists’ albums, but music from a Jennifer Garner film?! Even Paul Westerberg's "Let the Bad Times Roll" can't save this one. [www.sony.com]

Classic Case's new album, Losing At Life, is the type of modern rock that should be playing on the radio these days. But its hint of hardcore stylings and the fact that it's on indie label Fearless will keep it far away from the airwaves and we'll be left listening to the "musical" stylings of Hinder (alas...). That being said, Losing At Life is a strong record from a talented band. The melodies are good (though the vocals, honestly, are its weakest point) and the instrumentation is solid. It is certainly nothing groundbreaking, but worth checking out if you're looking for a good rock album that's better than most of what the pop radio world has to offer. [www.myspace.com]

Black Snakes Moan On A Plane? No, that was Samuel L. Jackson's last film. This one is more appropriately subtitled: "Samuel L. Jackons Sings The Blues. And he does and not badly at that. The company he keeps doesn't hurt either--Christina Ricci, co-star; and, more importantly, the North Mississippi Allstars, Son House, Jesse Mae Hemphill, R.L. Burnside, Charlie Musselwhite, Outrageous Cherry and Precious Bryant! More about the latter later, but first, having Charlie Musselwhite on your album gets you an A+ plus for starters, at least on those cuts. But Precious Bryant--she's a national resource. Anyone remember Elizabeth Cotton? Precious Bryant has her own record, maybe even two. Go get them now! So, the music is not an issue. Samuel L. Jackson sings the blues far better than Bruce Willis or Stephen Seagal ever will. Yet there is the issue of the movie's mixed motif of slavery and bdsm, or is that bdsm and slavery? In any case, Christina Ricci does not sing "Chains." But maybe she should have. "That's Where The Blues Started," Son House sings near the end of the soundtrack. Have you ever been to the Delta Country? Have you seen its sky touch its earth with nothing, absolutely nothing, in between? There you can go down to the "Crossroads" and who knows what will happen? You could fall down on your knees. Haven't seen the movie. Don't have to. I've got the soundtrack. [www.newwestrecords.com]

The self-titled debut full-length from Los Angeles-based Slow Motion Reign is an arena-ready collection of polished, electric-guitar-driven rock from a band that sounds raised by '90s corporate radio. Released on System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian’s Serjical Records (SMR couldn’t sound less like System and they don’t politicize their lyrics), Slow Motion Reign are exceptional musicians, but their sound, both vocally and instrumentally, is far too slick. Drab lyrics are punctuated by poppy melodies over massive guitar/keyboard arrangements, and the lone memorable moments are during the album’s spacier interludes. While the record fails to intrigue, Slow Motion Reign’s non-threatening, accessible sound could easily find success on today’s MTV. [www.slowmotionreign.com]