Toronto-born Scott Lanaway decided to take everything he loved about music, melt it down, and create his own silver bullet. “Mergers & Acquisitions” is the fruit of this labor. Granted this is sophomore release, it still feels like a birth. The songs and sounds contained are so well thought-out, planned, and composed that it feels like it was the work of a debut simply because the majority of songwriter’s best songs are created as their first body of work rather than their second or later efforts. “Oprah, God Wants You to Have a Private Jet” shows Lanaway doesn’t need to be cornered amid the subject matter of his songs that are often mind-wandering noodles and thoughts of love, death, time, the mind, and everything in between. His textures are sprinkled with electronica and acoustic vibes that are just unbelievable and uninhibited. He bares his soul, unafraid to let anyone in to peer in curiosity at what this creature is thinking and doing. Beautiful, please pick it up and tell him I sent you.

Phil Western and Mark Spybey together again! Well at least for two tracks that is. Dead Voices on Air, one of Spybey’s many projects, once again takes us to new and exotic locations. Amid their album photography on the digipak we’re whisked to far-off Argentina amid the beautiful landscape of Patagonia taken by Argentinean artist Marco Roberti. In addition to his collaboration with Western, Spybey enlists American-Serbian singer Ivana Salipur to assist on the title track, a track that is inspired by the Serbian poet Desanka Maksimovic, a poet perhaps most famous for poems regarding the atrocities committed by German soldiers during World War II. The album is Dead Voice on Air’s 14^th and their 2^nd collection released on seminal Lens Records. Songs range from ethnic world ambience to experimental to pure relaxing ambient. I’m constantly amazed at how Spybey and likeminded audiences are able to create such intense ambient pieces that just ooze attention-grabbing passion. Yet another notch on the proverbial belt of essential for DVOA.

Produced by Lou Giordano (Plain White T’s, Taking Back Sunday), “Phoenix” is another notch in Just Surrender’s belt. As a group that has explored the nuances of pop-punk and emotional hardcore over the past four years as they have toured relentlessly with two releases that have sold upwards of 40,000 copies, Just Surrender put their laser focus on crafting an album that would further expand their fanbase. With both vocalists featured throughout with perfect layering, “Phoenix” is an admittedly guilty pleasure of the type of emotional rock that now dominates the Warped Tour. While other bands seem to stall amid the clichés and mall-punk normalcy, Just Surrender seems to shrug that off.

Okay pretty much any band can have my immediate attention when they start their album off with huge tom and snare rolls. “The Living Breathing Organ Summer” just gets better from then on, improving on avant-garde indie punk. Boasting a surprise around each corner, Child Bite sucker punches you with a funk-oriented soul that is so quirky you can imagine this being a band that is frequented by the likes of Mike Patton and The Jesus Lizard. Eclectic and freakin’ weird, Child Bite is certainly going to be an acquired taste for many people. The Detroit-based band is yet further proof that a crappy economy can have profoundly good effects sometimes – only unemployed maniacs who are craving the prescription drugs they can no longer afford would put pen to paper and come up with lyrics this fucking maniacal.

Those of you searching for the score to those dreamy indie flicks you’ve seen cinematic unknown geniuses conjure up over the years – well this is it. “About Everything and More” is the sophomore follow-up to the fantastic “Holofon” by Dorena. An outfit based out of Sweden, Dorena carves their niche with superb and intelligent instrumental indie pop music that seems simple but quickly becomes holistically visionary and diverse. Deep Elm Records, once again, has defined the movement of instrumental pop music by having the likes of Moving Mountains, Dorena and Goonies Never Say Die on their roster. Guitars pop and weave like a bantamweight division champ in the middle of the ring. Melodic nuances dance patterns in the icy wintry cold that Dorena evokes. And in case you were wondering – there are lyrics and vocals spotlighted throughout “About Everything and More” but this is certainly an instrumental-first approach as the vocals are just another instrument that helps move along the emotional enormity of each song’s structure. The odd and quirky synth pop of “We’ll Never Meet This Young Again” is just incredible as it then cascades into a bedroom guitar plucking only to be then re-cast as a symphonic journey that lights the way for the downtrodden and misguided. Fantastic songwriting with a strong sense of purpose and a calm wit about it, “About Everything and More” is a definite must-have for any music fan.

This self-titled EP by Phoenix-based Snake! Snake! Snakes! made it to #46 on the CMJ charts. Produced by Bob Hoag (The Format, Joel Plaskett, Dear and the Headlights), the album sparkles with light melodies awash in lush atmospheres, strong vocals, and domineering choruses. “City on Fire” opens the album with a fantastic building chorus armed with huge anthems and vocals stirred with punctuating percussion and moody instrumentation. Precise melodies and dramatic arrangements make it easy for people to mumble words like Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, and Interpol but don’t get caught up in the comparisons because nothing about this dynamic group is stereotypical or expected. Danceable rhythms douse you with knee bouncing mania. The vocals are special as are each fabulously arranged song. This is the future of the college pop music scene.

I’ve been reviewing and watching the career of Suzy Callahan for several years now. And I gotta admit, she just keeps getting better and better. “Big, Helpless Sleep” starts off with a folksy banjo line on “Don’t Even Be Nice” and then comes in Suzy’s signature swooning vocals. Poignant and thoughtful lyrics are sprinkled throughout the album. Just when you have a favorite song, you find yourself in love with another and then another and so on. Many musicians struggle to find their voice, often creating forgettable tunes or after they have written a gem struggle to follow it up with an equally great song. Not so with Suzy Callahan; her brand of indie pop-rock is mature, smart and most of all damn likable. Isn’t it time for her to stop being dubbed “under the radar” and be acknowledged as the pop genius she is?

You wonder if the twin brothers Blaze and Reid Bateh and their longtime friend William Brookshire decided to name their band after the beetle, the groundnut, or the ethnic group in Mali. Well however they were inspired to self-identify as Bambara, the group is certain to inspire some indie noise acts out there. “Dog Ear Days” is a manic EP of creepy compositions made up of feedback, distortion, beats, airiness and noise, and lots of delay. Thrilling and suspenseful, each song seems to build on the last further tightening their grasp around your entire body. While everyone else seems to focus first on melody and then build from the ground up, it seems as if Bambara’s approach is more visceral with an intelligent ear honed to crafting a cinematic and moody backdrop and then Lego-ing the various pieces together unlike most of their fellow Athens, Georgia based bands.

Hands down best press sheet I’ve ever been given. Instead of the usual bullshit discussing who they sound like, what obscure band their members were a part of, and filled to the brim with adjectives and prerogative of music nationalities, this one was a story. A story of a young man who was on the phone with his then-girlfriend, the conversation lasted for over 2 hours and this young man had to piss. Badly. And he tried to hold it not wanting her to hear him and yet somehow unable to simply escape for a quick moment. He rushed to the bathroom finally and was just about to make it, only to pee himself. She says just as he’s doing it that she needed to get off the phone because dinner was ready. What devastation and annoyance must have, excuse the pun, flowed over him. So you probably are glad that this story made its way to you. Now you want to know, “so what, what of the music”? Well let me assure you that’s just as great of a story; this one told through the voice of art-punk and chaotic yet measured angular indie rock. Screamed vocals, hummed melodies, strict breakdowns, and layered filthy guitars, “Teeth Union” by the funnily titled Ice, Sea, Dead People is a fast and violent slap-in-the-face. So many post-hardcore groups are doing this or that, but not focused on truly creating an epic masterpiece. Not so with this British-based group. “Teeth Union” is fucking essential cranium blasts.

Helloween, long known as one of Germany’s best melodic metal bands to have ever existed, was proud to assemble a huge masterpiece of their songs alongside the 70-piece Prague Symphonic Orchestra, the choirs of the Gregorian singers, pianist Matthew Ulmer, vocalist Harriet Ohlsson (Hellsong), and saxophonist Albie Donnelly (Supercharge). Armed with fantastic arrangements that are simply mind-boggling, “Unarmed: Best of 25th Anniversary” is the perfect gift back to their longtime fans. A group that has toured alongside metal’s most elite such as Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, Dio, Anthrax, Exodus, Helloween has also sold over five million records with 14 Gold and 6 Platinum awards globally. The band could have done this and phoned it in but that’s not their style; indeed the album boasts all new arrangements that are just as complex and compelling as the originals. Fantastic!