Oregon’s Thermals are back for their third full-length release on Subpop. What started as a garage outfit that recorded their first full-length entirely on 8-track tape has turned into a blistering powerhouse of huge sounding guitars and drums.

If you’re hip, you’ll be familiar with a band called Bellini that put out a CD not too long ago on Temporary Residence. However, if you’re ultra hip, you’ll be familiar with Uzeda, a group based in Italy consisting of the same guitarist and vocalist as Bellini, whose last full-length was 1998’s Different Section Wires.

Chad VanGaalen’s sophomore effort, Skelliconnection, swings open a lot like a Sufjan Stevens record, soft, sweet, purring with a deep groove and the hum of multi-layered vocal tracks. Add to that the punch-up changes and emotive lyrics of an Elliot Smith-type, and Skelliconnection starts to come alive.

The Arab Strap. A multipurpose sexual device. Often comprising of soft leather and metal rings, this age-old invention of sexual exploration sensually wraps its soft leather, belt-like body about the penis in an attempt to prolong and sustain the erection.

Listening to Fernando’s latest is an exercise in both patience and discovery. Although he excels at offering some über-brilliant pop rock gems, a la Teenage Fanclub or, hell, The Beatles for that matter, the act is just as proficient at stalling its own momentum by drowning its album’s roster with too many dreary ballads and meandering melodies.

If there was ever a time for good ole throwback hip hop, 2006 is it. However, the usually dependable Jurassic 5 do not quite quench the thirst like they’re usually known to do. On their third LP, Feedback, the group strays from tradition and give us an album with mixed results and feelings.

Hailing from California and conceived in upstate NY, the Rosewood Thieves‘ debut, From the Decker House, reeks of Lennon, Dylan, The Band, and the glorious early ’70s as seen through the lenses of a twenty-year-old kid who has to look back thirty years to find kinship with the sounds in his head.

In the early to mid-’90s there was a crew that brought nothing but hard rhymes and grimy beats. Collectively they were known as the Boot Camp Clik; independently, they included the likes of Black Moon, Heltah Skeltah, O.G.C., and Smif-N-Wessun.

The sophomore EP from Texas’ Bosque Brown (a royal sounding moniker behind which Mara Lee Miller resides) is a touching and soft, yet short sampling of her small town folk songs.

The exquisite Honeysuckle kicks off with smoky songstress Suzie Kerstgens proclaiming, “This is for everyone.” And truth be told, the part English, part German album is. Eighties nostalgia seekers will revel in the New Order and Faint smatterings of “Gold” and the krautrocky “My Secret.”

Of all the unlikely sub-genres to gain notoriety as of late, the female indie pop star searching for her inner Emmylou Harris gang has gotten tremendously bloated. Jenny Lewis’ Rabbit Fur Coat opened the floodgates for coy chanteuses who are dying to don cowboy hats, and that’s not a good thing.

If the March release of a new Mogwai record makes you feel as though life is just a little bit too happy-go-lucky, and you feel like there is just not enough depressing sense of imminent doom in your life, bop on out to the record store again to pick up the new instrumental masterpiece from Japan’s Mono.