There’s finally a good reason to look forward to January. International pop/world musicians Dengue Fever are starting 2008 out right with their anticipated third full-length album Venus on Earth, set for release on January 22.

Recording on archaic equipment from the 1930s, Los Angeles quartet Health creates a massively imposing wall of fuzz and murk that ranges from frenzied noise rock freak-outs (“Girl Attorney”) to echoing non-syllabic chants of “Lost Time.”

One of two inaugural records to be released by Korn guitarist James Schaffer’s independent label Emotional Syphon Recordings, Butterfly Pinned is a warped odyssey of atmospheric sound.

It’s easy to find a friend these days in the continually rising and mesmerizing sound of electro-indie folksters Grizzly Bear. And the band, known for its tantalizing instrumentals and transparent emotions within harmonies, has now put together a compilation of old and new, fittingly titled — you guessed it — Friend.

Those that recognize the name of cellist Alison Chesley — the woman behind the designation Helen Money — may do so because she was a founding member of Sony Records power poppers Verbow. And though she remains busy as a collaborator and studio musician, Chesley has used the name to debut solo material that is rooted in much of her rock past.

Can it really be six years since the last proper Les Savy Fav LP? They’ve kept us so satiated with the brilliant singles that eventually became Inches and their spasms of ferocious touring, we hardly noticed. Let’s Stay Friends was worth the wait, and the art-punk quartet has created perhaps their most mature music to date.

Paul Motian, born in 1931, has been a professional jazz drummer for over fifty years. Beginning his career with a stint in the Bill Evans Trio from ‘59-’64, Motian has played with a veritable who’s who of jazz, including Thelonious Monk, Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, Paul Bley, and Keith Jarrett.

Brooklyn’s Akron/Family have been releasing albums steadily and frequently since their debut in 2005, with their last full-length being the diverse, polarized art rock album Meek Warrior. On that release, they partially abandoned their tribal folk rock sound for a head-spinning trip through Krautrock, psych rock, and pure noise over the course of only seven tracks.

Chicago’s Mannequin Men have been spitting out snarling rock ‘n’ roll since 2003. The guitar-driven quartet has followed-up its self-released debut album, Showbiz Witch, with a more focused release.

Halfway through writing his new record, Matthew Houck, the mastermind behind the indie folk project Phosphorescent, left his hometown of Athens, Georgia to see what New York had to offer. As it turns out, the move offered the musician isolation, and Pride, out October 23 on Dead Oceans, is the first Phosphorescent album with Houck on every instrument.