Beware Fashionable Women - Beware Fashionable Women

Keith: Poppy, dark indie rock with the soul of the 50's. Parts of Beach Boys, Posies, Dave Clark 5, Looper.
Laurie: Smart, crisp power pop. Best when not being Ben Folds.
Danny: Fun-loving pop. Good stuff.
Chris: Remarkably cool rock. Cool, dad, cool. Let's go! A bit o' punk. Fun lyrics.

Elvin Bishop - The Blues Rolls On

Keith: Bishop still plays some hot blues. His voice has not aged well, but his playing is still spectacular.
Laurie: Sing the blues… don't sing about singing the blues. With all the guests, Elvin's tolerable.
Danny: Blues, unoriginal blues.
Chris: Awesome guest list. Bluesy blues from Bluesville, man.

Built By Snow - Mega

Keith: Gritty, thick analog synths under some extremely catchy/non-catchy pop. Awesome sounds, great songs, excellent lyrics.
Laurie: New wave electronics and kick-ass guitars. Some Violent Femmes badassity.
Danny: Fun math rock w/ plenty of Rentals & The Cars.
Chris: Atari noises rule! 9 out of 10 Members Only jackets.

Jesse Dee - Bittersweet Batch

Keith: Very soulful indie rock… Brett Dennen and Ray LaMontagne rolled into a more Motown package.
Laurie: The D stands for Damn! It's Jackie Wilson! Feels good. Soul with tight stove pipes.
Danny: Van Morrison-ish, Commitments, Matt Guitar Murphy. Thank you, Amy Winehouse.
Chris: Tamla soul that bops and hops and rocks. Great horn sections and catchy tunes. Infectious.

The DoneFors - How To Have Sex With Canadians

Keith: Indie Astrid Gilberto without Samba but includes incongruent jazzy vocal lines. Tony Childs?
Laurie: I can see hipsters in corduroy sports jackets completely failing to score with this.
Danny: Iron Wine Velvet Sebastien w/ funk bass.
Chris: Jazzy, pop nonsense, but not nearly as maddening as Steely Dan… Ear Jello w/ celery in it.

The (International) Noise Conspiracy - The Cross Of My Calling

Keith: Some of the bite has been replaced with amazing musicianship and Farfisa… bye-bye punk rock.
Laurie: Weird Doors intro. Early 70's soul vibe. Surprisingly dull. Like Ted McGinley replaced someone.
Danny: Awesome. Touch of Joe Jackson.
Chris: Dateline: hardcore Swede's turn into 60's psychedelic rockers. Edge disappears into haze of beauty.
Tracy: Sounds like the band that's on that What's Happening? show when Re-Run bootlegged the concert.

Jackdawg - Jackdawg

Keith: Former members of CCR & Doobies re-visit bad 80's rock… Chorus'd guitars and the wrong synths… I'm a bit disappointed.
Laurie: Acceptable Hollies. Henley Mellencamp blues rock. Thanks for sucking the soul out of Wild Nights.
Danny: The Fabulous Thunderbirds meet Richard Marx.
Chris: This is possibly almost all that was wrong with 80's rock… all over again. Over-processed everything. Robert Palmer, anyone?

Lustra - What You Need & What You Get

Keith: Edgy rock music… Toadies style, but harder and brasher. Great guitars, thudding bass, low-key vocals.
Laurie: Soul Asylum, humorless except one song. They steal lyrics like Dog The Bounty Hunter pens.
Danny: Emo, emo, emo… but Dave doesn't think so.
Chris: Very modern West coast-sounding production. Foo Fighters, Dramarama, Lemonheads. Straight-ahead good rock.

Pronto - All Is Golden

Keith: Wilco alumni releases a record of poppy gems… excellent sounds, tremendous playing, great melodies.
Laurie: Hails to when singer-songwriters didn't have to be singers. Mild pop.
Danny: Fun-spirited Welcome Back Kotter stuff.
Chris: Billy Friggin' Joel, dude… definitely better though. Awesome keyboards sounds.

Scott Pinkmountain & The Golden Bolts Of Tone - The Full Sun

Keith: Noisy, inconceivable rock music built on great tones, but lacking in rigid structure. Great noise though.
Laurie: Michael Stipe after five years in Oregon. Violently depressing. Also, tuning up an orchestra. Please record responsibly.
Danny: Just as panty-tastic as the name suggests.
Chris: Noir! Grooving in a cave with a cabbage.

The Singhs - Supersaturated

Keith: Soaring pop music with all the greatness. Awesome tones, great melodies, superb harmonies. Very much talent.
Laurie: There's naked chicks in the liner notes and the pages are sticky. The white Commodores.
Danny: Sexy pop, updated new wave stuff.
Chris: Slick. Well developed. Boston! Ben Folds Five.

The Threes - Head Voices

Keith: If X was an indie band with no punk spirit, they might sound like this. Or not.
Laurie: Hippy, proggy, folky, fascinating stuff. This is how to have sex with Canadians.
Danny: Unquestionably the winner tonight. Interesting production, vocals & arrangements all over the map.
Chris: Weirdly produced pop songs with touches of darkness and madness. Red pill or blue pill?

Thunders - The Sympathetic Oscillations EP

Keith: Like Achtung Baby In A Priest Driven Ambulance with the Jesus And Mary Chain.
Laurie: As in Johnny? Yeah, plus Stiv Bators fronting the Bunnymen. That's how you RAWK!
Danny: Mudhoney, MC5, Iggy Pop - Good stuff!
Chris: Synth-heavy motor-city rock… Gritty, ballsy, cool. Disturbingly, awesomely, droningly, slow.

Ed Vallance - The Modern Life

Keith: Travis-like acoustic pop… smooth and soulful vocals and likeable music.
Laurie: Girly pop with nice instrumentation… not bad for scoring in corduroy jackets.
Danny: Easy-going Shins-like stuff.
Chris: Bowie-ish pop, but much mo' unassuming. Cool production. I want more.