Margot & The Nuclear So And So's - The Dust of Retreat

Artist: Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
Album: The Dust of Retreat
Genre: Indie/Sex-Folk/Scarf-Rock
Country of origin: United States
Year: 2006

Tracklisting:
1. A Sea Chanty of Sorts
2. Skeleton Key
3. Vampires In Blue Dresses
4. Quiet As A Mouse
5. Jen Is Bringin' The Drugs
6. Dress Me Like A Clown
7. On A Freezing Chicago Street
8. Paper Kitten Nightmare
9. Barfight Revolution, Power Violence
10. A Light On A Hill
11. Talk In Code
12. Bookworm

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's are an eight-piece band from Indianapolis, IN.

"Margot is as much about quietude as it is about energy, and its songs are intricately woven together into something much more familiar and cozy, in spite of the multitude of sounds used. And while the contributions to the songs feel collaborative, they’re more controlled than spontaneous, and center around the creative vision of songwriter Richard Edwards. Though Emily Watkins’s Rhodes piano and synths or Jesse Lee’s cello might grab the spotlight as an immediate focal point, it’s the character of the songs that Edwards writes that gives Margot its winter chill, world-weary beauty, and sad-eyed romanticism.

It’s a comfortable retro cool; the sensation generated by a really great thrift store on a late-autumn afternoon. The band has teasingly described itself as sex-folk and scarf-rock, the latter highlighting the knit-wear coziness of its indie aesthetic."-popmatters.com

Get it here.

Anti-Flag - A New Kind of Army

Artist: Anti-Flag
Album: A New Kind of Army
Genre: Punk
Country of origin: United States
Year: 1999

Tracklisting:
1. Tearing Everyone Down
2. Captain Anarchy
3. A New Kind of Army
4. That's Youth
5. No Apology
6. Got The Numbers
7. No Difference
8. I Don't Believe
9. Right On
10. What You Don't Know
11 . Free Nation?
12. Outbreak
13. Police Story
14. The Consumer's Song
15. This Is Not A Crass Song

Probably my most favorite Anti-Flag album ever.

Get it here.

Invincible - Shapeshifters

Artist: Invincible
Album: Shapeshifters
Genre: Rap/Hip-Hop
Country of origin: United States
Year: 2008

Tracklisting:
1. State of Emergency
2. Looongawaited
3. Sledgehammer!
4. People Not Places (w/ Abeer)
5. Spacious Skies
6. No Easy Answers
7. Deuce/Ypsi (w/ Buff1, SUN, PL)
8. Recognize (w/ Finale)
9. Ransom Note (w/ ANOMOLIES)
10. Grace Shift interlude (featuring Grace Lee Boggs)
11. ShapeShifters
12. Ropes (w/ Tiombe Lockhart)
13. Keep Goin (w/ Wordsworth and Indeed)
14. In The Mourning

"Invincible is one of the most talented emcees I've ever heard black or white, male or female..."
-Talib Kweli

Invincible is undeniably a rapper’s rapper, crafting dense, rapid-fire bars featuring lots of internal and multisyllabic rhymes. For hip hop fans, this is heaven, but for casual listeners, her music might be a little more challenging. There isn’t a lot of negative space on Shapeshifters; every bar is full, damn-near overflowing; even the hooks sometimes come across like short verses. Again, for the hardcore heads, this isn’t a problem, but don’t expect your little sister to be singing along to “Recognize” or “Locusts.”
Those who are able to unpack Invincible’s rhymes, however, will definitely be rewarded. While most emcees who utilize this style are content to just rap about rapping or simply rhyme cool-sounding words together, Invincible isn’t afraid to tackle meaningful concepts. Whether talking about the skeletons in the closet of her hometown, colonialism and imperialism, gentrification’s impact on Detroit, or how the loss of Detroit hip hop legends J-Dilla and Proof connect to the larger struggle, she never settles for pre-packaged formulas. -culturebully.com

http://www.emergencemusic.net/

Get Shapeshifters here.

So Many Dynamos - Flashlights

Artist: So Many Dynamos
Album: Flashlights
Genre: Pants Exploding Dance Rock/Chaotic Pop
Country of origin: United States
Year: 2006

Track Listing
1. Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
2. Search Party
3. Progress
4. Home Is Where The Box Wine Is
5. How High The Moon
6. In Every Direction
7. Inventing Gears
8. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
9. We Vibrate, We Do
10. In Our Sleep
11. Let's Move Mountains

“There’s this band that I love from East St. Louis, Illinois called So Many Dynamos, and they’re this heavy, fantastic, prog rock dance band. They’ve got their heads as much in the The Mahavishnu Orchestra as they do the Talking Heads. They’re really doing that bizarre fall on the floor dance band fusion thing, but hitting really hard. They’re fucking awesome!” - Chris Walla, Death Cab For Cutie

"Flashlights" is SMD's sophomore record. The band's unique brand of chaotic pop has been sharpened, refined. The songs are catchier, noisier, dancier, smarter, often weaving in and out, Frogger-style, between anthematic choruses and epileptic freakouts. They've harnessed the urgency of their live performances and also thrown some unexpected instruments into the fold (4 piece horn section, 30 piece choir, toy accordion, banjo, thumb piano, etc.)

So Many Dynamos are by far one of the best bands I've seen live. Their music is infectious and you can't help but break out into spastic gyrations whilst listening. Their lyrics are clever and intelligent.

Download this.
IMMEDIATELY.

Johnny Hobo & The Freight Trains - Live at the Office

Artist: Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains
Album: Live at the Office 03-03-2005
Genre: Folk-Punk/Anarcho-Punk
Country of origin: United States
Year: 2005

Track Listing:
01. The New Mexico Song
02. Put Arsenic in the Frosting Next Time
03. Harmony Parking Lot
04. Election Song
05. Acid Song
06. Church Hymn for the Condemned
07. Whiskey is my Kind of Lullaby
08. D.I.Y. Orgasms

Johnny Hobo and the Freight Trains hail from the tiny town of Brattleboro, Vermont. Their songs are filled with passion, energy and a good deal of contempt for government, religion, and themselves. They make many references to booze, cigarettes, and drugs. Underneath all of these vices, a good deal of socio-political analyzation is happening and makes for a very interesting album.

The band has broken up since this live performance was recorded.
Lead singer Pat The Bunny is currently in Wingnut Dishwasher's Union, another amazing band.
I'll post one of their albums very soon.

Download the Johnny Hobo album here.