California Guitar Trio, Whitewater -- typically wonderfully delivery from these folks. Mostly acoustic guitar trio material, but the occasional track has some of it processed to sound like a loud screaming electric guitar, which is always amusing to hear, but even more disconcerting to watch live (I've seen them several times). The last track is a hybrid of "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and "Riders on the Storm" -- it starts out going back and forth, but somewhere inbetween the beginning and the end attempts to meld the two. Don't know if it works, but definitely worth a listen.

Dead Soul Tribe, January Tree -- very hard rockin' number from these guys, recommended to fans of Dream Theater.

The Fucking Am, Gold -- The Fucking Champs and Trans Am, again. More what you'd expect from this outfit than their previous joint venture, more riffin'. (And don't give me crap about the name of the band, that's the name of the band. It's not my fault. Indie has a chip on its shoulder.)

Particle, Launchpad -- very cool instrumental "funktronic" jammin' along the lines of Primus, Ozric Tentacles, and perhaps a funkier, less psychedelic Porcupine Tree.

Golden Boy with Miss Kitten, Or -- "electroclash". I kind of hate Miss Kitten's fake-sounding French accent/inability to speak English and terrible lyrics, but she's so cute:

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And I totally dig this electroclash movement. It's sort of a punk reaction to Kraftwerk. "We want to be Kraftwerk, so we got their synthesizers, but we don't have their ability."

Tears for Fears, Everybody Loves a Happy Ending -- you know, I am completely burned out on the Beatles, but I love this album. There's something fresh-sounding about it, despite its obvious Beatles influences, and also despite the fact that it picks up right where Seeds of Love left off. Flowing like water doesn't hurt, neither. And they're much better songwriters.

Fever, Pink on Pink -- no-wave-type EP, I dig.

World Party, Egyptology and A Brief History of... -- I forgot how much this guy sounds like Mick Jagger, but again...much better songwriters than the Rolling Stones.

LOTW: Lyube (don't know how to enter Russian letters, see site), a CD that my friend Mark gave me, not sure if it's Kombat or something else, I'll have to catch up on some of their more recent recordings. Somewhere between New Model Army (in terms of protest songs, call-response type feelings of solidarity, and willingness to experiment) and Chris Rea/Leonard Cohen traditionalism (no not their voices -- although the voice of the lead singer is really good). It's all in Russian, though, so if you're into lyrics, be forewarned.