Smashing Pumpkins, Oceania (EMI/Martha's Music)
While the latest record by Smashing Pumpkins — which now consists of Billy Corgan and a bunch of hired guns who aren't James Iha — isn't as atrocious as 2007's triumph of the swill Zeitgeist, it doesn't even begin to approach the old-school-Pumpkins heights it so desperately shoots for. In truth, Oceania isn't a terrible record — it's just not a particularly memorable one, mostly just filling time with moody dream rock while occasionally hitting nostalgic sweet spots. LC
Aesop Rock, Skelethon (Rhymesayers Entertainment)
Whenever alt-hip-hopper Aesop Rock releases a new record, you can count on cerebral, insightful, acerbic, nimble flows over dark, catchy tracks. But with samples and beats that sound more like post-rocky mash-ups from TV on the Radio, Björk and latter-day Radiohead than anything you're liable to hear in the rest of the rap world — not to mention some of Aesop's best, most unapologetically confident rhymes since Labor Days and a vocal assist or two from longtime buddy, anti-folk heroine and Moldy Peach Kimya Dawson — Skelethon (AR's first LP in five years) is a must-have for underground rap fanatics and lightweights alike. DPR
Elizabeth Cook, Gospel Plow (31 Tigers)
When roots acts take gospel excursions, they often draw on the African-American musical traditions that are close kin to jump blues and R&B. Leave it to Elizabeth Cook to absolutely own gospel of the rawboned, historically Anglo-American Southern gospel and bluegrass variety — plus a Velvet Underground cover — in a way that's both nervy and ecstatically earth-bound. JH
Icky Blossoms, Icky Blossoms (Saddle Creek)
Nebraska's Icky Blossoms are from cornhusker country, but their tightly wound dance-punk is very, very New York. Producer Dave Sitek (of TV on the Radio) claims as inspirations the hyperventilating thwack of his own band, the erotica of Prince's Dirty Mind and the untoward clutter of NYC nightlife. MTR
Phil Hummer and the White Falcons, The Brink (self-released)
The inimitable Phil Hummer enlists goons various and sundry — wife Ray Doll and Deer Tick's John McCauley, plus Kenny Vaughan and the crew at Cosmic Thug Productions — for some almost classy, definitely drunk rockabilly hooliganism. It's exactly like that moment when you wake up from a drunken nap only to discover you're punching your buddy. SLM
Japandroids, Celebration Rock(Polyvinyl Record Co.)
Celebration Rock isn't just the name of the sophomore effort by Japandroids — it's the mission statement for the entire record. Over the course of 35 minutes, the Canadian duo rails against the hellishness of adult responsibility and generally drenches the whole YOLO thing in oceans of distortion, reverb and sing-along choruses, making for an intense and often poetic album that will be lodged in my car's CD player all summer long — if not longer. LC
Hacienda, Shakedown (Collective Sounds)
The stamp of Black Key and Nashville-based producer Dan Auerbach is definitely all over Shakedown — from the fuzzy thump and cooing background vocals of opener "Veronica" to the dreamy psychedelia of closer "Pilot in the Sky," not to mention the sundry guitar and organ tones in between. But Hacienda has their own thing going on, with vocal hooks that are as classic Top 40 as they are mainstream-bucking garage rock and an absolutely killer summer jam with "Savage." DPR
Shovels and Rope, O' Be Joyful (Dualtone)Â
It definitely matters to the feel of O' Be Joyful that Cary Ann Hearst and Michael Trent — aka Shovels and Rope — are a husband-and-wife singer-songwriter duo, only it doesn't matter in the way you'd think. Instead of always sounding like they're singing to each other, they tease a sweaty, side-by-side, down-home rock 'n' roll ruckus out of their bond, not to mention a good many robust hooks and spark-throwing harmonies. JH
Hot Chip, In Our Heads (Domino)
On their latest revisit to 1984, retro-funk band Hot Chip gets in with a sketchy crowd — say, the Saudis who tried to gangbang Jules in St. Elmo's Fire. The off-putting "Night and Day" sounds like Fuckpony, but "Look at Where We Are" and "Ends of the Earth" are palatable enough to burn the disco out. MTR
Through the Sparks, Alamalibu (Skybucket Records)
Not gonna lie: I'm kind of obsessed with Birmingham, Ala.'s Skybucket Records, especially this EP from Through the Sparks. It's a perfectly gauzy, practically glammy slab of summer rock that manages to evoke Mott the Hoople, mojitos and marijuana-laced comestibles, staying super-loose without getting sloppy. SLM
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