Listening Post: New Music

After hosting (or, co-hosting, as it were) that Monkey Mix I, true to my word, loaded up on a lot of suggestions.
Here are my super brief thoughts:

Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows - Excellent. Death Country. High energy. Like ...and You Will Know us by the Trail of Dead, only with melodies and a point of view. Get it.

Brian Borcherdt - Coyotes - Minimalist to a fault. This very quiet and dark album from the Canadian Borcherdt is better served to our mood. This is NOT light Sunday driving music. However, if you've just lost a loved one, or killed a loved one, or are driving all alone on a lonely highway in the middle of the night, this might be the perfect album for you.

Jon-Rae & The River - Knows what you Need - Holy Hell! This is a barn-burning, gospel tinged, big rock, barn-burning great time rekkid!
There isn't a clunker on this beast. If you like a little country-tinge in your rock, but a little fire in the belly and a lotta fire down below, this is the album for you.
Get it. Get it now. (my facebook review)

The Whigs - Mission Control - Fan-flipping tastic Indie Rock. No, not that Twee shit you think of when you hear Indie. This stuff really pounds.

Final Fantasy - Has a Good Home - Terrible band name. Melodic, if precious violin-centric music.

The Thermals - Now We Can See - Not as good as their previous outing but still pretty tight. If you start here you won't be disappointed. But you should start with The Body, The Blood & the Machine.

The Veils - Sun Gangs - Might be my new favorite. Moody, almost dystopian at times. Unrelenting.

Tinted Windows - Tinted Windows - Uninspired power pop from 4 people who could do a lot better.

What the...? - You Have No Idea - Neat little 3 chord power pop from Georgia. A rollicking good album.

No links. I got most of this from eMusic. Some from iTunes. Some from elsewhere. You should seek it out yourself. If you get one, make it the Jon-Rae & the River. Or Mountain Meadows. I'm in a roots rock mood.