Forget everything you think you know about Milwaukee bands. Call Me Lightning bludgeons any notions of beer, cheese, and bad sports teams by releasing one of the dirtiest punk rock albums in recent memory.

Anything that sounds original in 2007 should get instant credit. However, originality does not always equal a great product. This is the case with Bunny Rabbit.

Situated under the wide brim of the indie-pop umbrella are three lads from Sunderland who call themselves Field Music. Their second full-length, Tones of Town (Memphis Industries), is inventive and hard to describe.

As it turns out, first impressions really aren’t everything. For example, my first impression of Luxury (Sonic Unyon) by The Nein was “Wow, this is some serious amateur-hour crap.” But you know what? I was pretty much wrong on this one.

While many of today’s best retro acts are busy recreating the Britpop and post-punk of the ‘80s, Southern Culture on the Skids has taken it back even further and mastered the art of late ‘60s dirty Southern rock. After a two-decade-long career of penning their own tunes, SCOTS has compiled a collection of covers on Countypolitan Favorite (Yep Roc) that plays like a lesson in the roots of Americana.

One of the values of the Information Age is the growing interest in obscure and unreleased music from the past. The hard work of music archivists and specialized labels has sparked a cottage industry of re-releases like If This World Were Mine (Daptone) by Bob & Gene.

After releasing the critically celebrated ambient noise album, Lambent Material, Portland composer Matthew Cooper showed the full range of Eluvium’s aesthetic. An Accidental Memory in the Case of Death was a classically-minded instrumental approach to Cooper’s minimalist drones. Though he’s since returned to Lambent’s sonic palate, Copia again embraces his gentler side.

To many people, Trans Am is that band that turned down a half-million dollars because they didn’t want one of their songs used in a Hummer commercial. It was ironic that the car maker would choose a track from their last album Liberation, a reaction to the increasing presence of militarism and fear in their hometown of Washington D.C., as the theme song for a commercialized military vehicle. Despite the purported politics, however, Trans Am’s music sounds tailor-made for a 30-second blipvert, and would definitely have moved some urban assault vehicles to our nation’s stock-brokers and soccer moms.

It’s been more than three years since the High Llamas last put out a CD. In that time, the music industry has become even more fractured, and blogs have garnered the power to make or break a band. This could be a good thing for the High Llamas, always a favorite of critics, never a favorite of record stores.

As heavy music pioneer Justin Broadrick ages, his music projects become more accessible. After helping to spark the inception of grindcore as a member of Napalm Death and industrial as a member of Godflesh, he founded Jesu, a trio whose sound fused the pulverizing riffs of Broadrick’s past with more hook-led motifs, in 2005.