Philly six-piece Audible recently released their latest EP “Isolette”, which as of this writing you can still download for free here – but move fast, as I’ve been assured that’s only temporary. In fact, you might want to do that now, and have these great new tunes as a companion for the review. Go ahead. I’ll wait for you.

Have a little music group and can’t decide on a name? Lucky for you, we’ve thought up a bunch of ORIGINAL BAND NAMES just for you. To take one of our fabulous free monikers, just write in the “Comments” and tell us why you deserve it and where you’re from. Rock On!

CD: Pain Is A Reliable Signal

When we last checked in with Sam Jacobs, we were reviewing the latest release from LiPSTIK – the EP “There Is Only One Thing”. At the time, work on the follow-up full length was already underway – and it has finally arrived, along with a name change for the group [...]

Topics: Gene Ween, Pirate Bay File Sharing, Eating Humans, Conan & Late Night TV, SXSW, Music Festivals, That Dumb Journey Song, Al Pacino Stinks, Sci-Fi Philly! Playlist: The Spinto Band, O Pioneers!!!, Fiction Family, Heartless Bastards and Dog Day.

Prog rock is back! And that’s a good thing, love these guys.

Website: www.trailofdead.com

New CD: The Century of Self

Cursive

The pride of Omaha is back and Tim Kasher’s voice has never sounded better. Beautiful!

Download: “From The Hips” [MP3]

Website: www.cursivearmy.com

Vally Lodge

Heaping helping of power pop served with a side of awesomeness.

Download: Baby It’s a Shame [MP3]

Website: www.valleylodgemusic.com

Lukestar

Highly-inventive and super catchy indie rock from Oslo, Norway.

Download: White Shade [MP3]

Website: www.lukestar.com

What are your music guilty pleasures? Best Comment wins a book. Please comment on website. Every so often something sneaks through that many might consider “odd,” “not what I expected,” or “okay, this is so weak!” In the spirit of sharing, here are some chinks in my rarely-battered platemail armor (I got hit points to spare, my friends).

See all 4 sets here. “Each set features four cards depicting quirky Flora illustrations from the 1940s and 1950s. The first three sets feature music-themed images, and the fourth features a tree with a bird in flight in alternating colors. The cards, which were hand-printed by Yee-Haw Industrial Letterpress, Knoxville TN, are packaged with kraft [...]

Guest: Beer talk with John Ceccatti. Topics: Beer, What’s in Beer?, Cheap Beers vs. Quality Beers, Head Soccer, Czechs LOVE beer, Todd’s Wrong Beer Info, Session Beers, Beer Flights, Philly Breweries and Bars, Jeff’s blackout in Belgium, Eating bags of Barley and Malt. Playlist: The Actual Facts, Parts & Labor, Shugo Tokumaru, Auxes, Passion Pit. [...]

Chicago-based photographer Lee Klawans just informed us that he was the man behind the iconic picture of Marnie Stern that we used for our CD review of her latest release – which led us to take a look at his other material (like the great shot of Company of Thieves at the Metro shown above). [...]