Modest Mouse – No One’s First and You’re Next   4 out of 5 stars 

                Since 2004, Modest Mouse have been one of the most popular bands in mainstream rock music. I still find this a tad strange because Modest Mouse have always been one of those strangely brilliant, entirely original and outright quirky bands that you wouldn’t necessarily expect the spoon-fed, watered-down masses to leech onto. The two albums that led them to their heightened popularity, Good News For People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank are the inspiration for this new mini album entitled No One’s First and You’re Next, a collection of reworked tunes from both of those sessions that were left off their respective albums for one reason or another.

                Surprisingly enough, these songs all lumped together make a solid album, and you’d never guess that these were leftovers and/or rejects from other sessions. First single “Satellite Skin” is so good, in fact, that it makes you wonder why Brock and company didn’t see fit to hold it the same pantheon that mega hits “Hold On” and “Dashboard” were held up to. Second single “Autumn Beds” is a delightful, banjo-led stroll that is fun to bob along to. Tracks such as “Perpetual Motion Machine” and “King Rat” show that there were even more songs from Modest Mouse’s collaboration with The Dirty Dozen Brass Band back on Good News than we were led to believe. When a band has throwaways this good, it really goes to show that, pound-for-pound Modest Mouse (along with Wilco and Radiohead) may arguably be one of the most consistently rewarding bands of this decade.

Megafaun – Gather, Form & Fly   4 out of 5 stars

                Hailing from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, Megafaun are a team of three very talented musicians who used to back one Justin Vernon before he became the breakout hit Bon Iver. Just because these guys used to be Vernon’s band doesn’t mean they should be undersold or overlooked, however. Brothers Bradley and Phillip Cook make up the guitars, banjos and vocals while Joe Westerlund drums and plays all sorts of other instruments. Combined, they make one harmonious, yet at times complex and challenging group that rivals the likes of Bon Iver mixed with the noisier, experimental side of a Wilco or Akron/Family.

                Tracks such as “Kaufman’s Ballad” and “The Fade” show the mastery of harmony that the brothers share, while other songs such as “Impressions of the Past” and “Columns” show the more adventurous side of this three-piece that you don’t usually find in bands that play mostly a folk/bluegrass style. Megafaun even try their hand at a swampy blues style on the excellent “Solid Ground,” and they get female vocal help from Christy Smith on my favorite track, “The Longest Day,” which sounds like it could have come off of a Gillian Welch record. Gather, Form & Fly doesn’t quite equal the elegance that last years’ Bon Iver record gave us, but it certainly tries its best and does enough for me to highly recommend.

Magnolia Electric Co. – Josephine    4.5 out of 5 stars

                Josephine marks the 16th album that Jason Molina has made under his many guises (Songs: Ohia and his given name being the others), but it has never taken him this long to craft a follow-up. Why did it take three years for the prolific singer-songwriter to finally follow up 2006’s Fading Trails? It could be the fact that Molina released the strictly limited 2007 treasure trove box set Sojourner, which was four discs worth of outtakes, demos and unreleased material. It could also relate to the fact that, for the last year, Molina has been working on an album with Will Johnson of Centro-Matic and South San Gabriel.  But the big reason probably has to do with the tragic death of his bassist, Evan Farrell. Farrell sadly passed away due to massive smoke inhalation in his home due to a faulty furnace. The tragedy hit Molina particularly hard, and for the first time ever in Molina’s career, it took him years to put out a record.  Josephine is the somber tribute to his fallen friend, and the melancholy feel of the record comes through loud (well… quiet) and clear. The melancholy tone does nothing to hinder this record, however, because in all honesty, this is the second strongest album that Molina has crafted this decade.

                Since the title character pops up in the beginning, middle and end of the album, it’s hard to not imagine that Josephine is just a parallel for Farrell. The longing and sorrow that is sung towards the character makes you yearn right along with Molina. Lead track “O! Grace” with its passionate sax solo and “Little Sad Eyes” with its hard driving B-3 organ are new territory for Molina, and he handles them with style. “Rock of Ages” is so crystal clear in its delivery that you can’t help but be emotionally affected, and “Map of the Falling Sky’s” dark and powerful delivery drives the album home.  Josephine may be a solemn and sad record, but that doesn’t’ mean it isn’t incredible at almost every turn.  In a long and tenured career full of albums, Josephine is near the top of Molina’s great works and a fitting tribute to a band member that will be sorely missed.

Wye Oak – The Knot   4.5 out of 5 stars 

                The first time I ever encountered this up-and-coming band from Baltimore, I saw them open for Merge label-mates Shearwater, and they completely blew them out of the water. Lead singer/guitarist Jenn Wasner’s vocals are staggering, ranging somewhere between a newcomer like Jessica Lea Mayfield and legends like Kim Deal from The Pixies/The Breeders and Kristin Hersh of Throwing Muses. Her command of feedback along with boyfriend/drummer/keyboard player Andy Stack make this two-piece seem much bigger than they are.

                Wye Oak aren’t the first band to do the two-piece, guy/girl thing (see The White Stripes, Mates of State, etc.), but only two albums in, The Knot proves that Wasner and Stack are going to be major players in the music scene for years to come. Building on top of their 2008 debut, If Children, which featured a wall of sound built exclusively around guitar squall, drums and keyboards, The Knot adds a few more subtle layers to their already impressive array. Tracks such as “For Prayer” add a blistering pedal steel to the mix while “Siamese” and “I Want for Nothing” add gorgeous violins to Wasner’s haunting delivery. The Knot’s greatest attribute, though, is the hook in each and every song. Every hook here is so memorable that it’ll have you humming different tunes from it for days on end. Not a bad song to be found in this batch of ten, The Knot is Wye Oak’s coming-out party as one of the best new bands to surface in the last couple of years.

YACHT  – See Mystery Lights     2.5 out of 5 stars

                YACHT is the male half of the indie-electronic act The Blow, and See Mystery Lights is Jona Bechtolt’s first album for the mega-respected Dance label DFA which, in fact, is run by uber-cool guy James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem, and it’s the third album total for YACHT. Got all that? Good. There is a hipster quiz at the end of this review, so be sure to take notes. In all seriousness, though, this is the first YACHT record in a couple years, and Bechtolt was lucky enough to land the opening slot on Phoenix’s much anticipated Autumn U.S. Tour, so I thought See Mystery Lights would be worth checking out. Well, unfortunately, I was only partially right because See Mystery Lights is a bit of a disappointment.

                If there is one thing that Bechtolt gets right here, it’s the beats and overall production. See Mystery Lights sounds like a million bucks. Unfortunately, it just sounds a little too stale at times when it comes to lyrics and the repetitive nature of them. On nearly every track, Bechtolt has a hook he’ll repeat vocally over and over to the point where it makes you want to skip to the next track to avoid the monotony. Unfortunately, you can only hit the skip button ten times on this record and then you’re back to the beginning.  Nothing past opener “Ring the Bell” and the Auto-Tune-heavy “I’m in Love With A Ripper” are worth even mentioning, so tread cautiously while checking out YACHT’s See Mystery Lights if you’re looking for a new electronic album to enjoy this month.    

Julian Plenti – Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper    3.5 out of 5 stars  

                Julian Plenti is actually the not-so-secret alias of Paul Banks, the lead singer of indie-rock darlings Interpol. Oddly enough, Banks’ Plenti persona has been around longer than his much more famous band. Banks used to perform as Plenti around New York City a decade ago in leaner days, and while the boys from Interpol are taking some much needed time off, Banks has decided to resurrect his former self, and Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper is his alter ego’s long-in-the-works debut.

                Not surprisingly, Julian Plenti is… Skyscraper sounds pretty much like an Interpol record, such as the song “Games for Days” which even has Interpol drummer Sam Forgarino featured. But there are a few instances where Banks throws in a few curveballs to keep listeners on their toes. “Unwind,” with its upbeat trumpets and keyboards is far from expected from a guy who has been called Ian Curtis from Joy Division’s doppelganger more than a few hundred thousand times. The acoustic “On the Esplanade” has a majestic beauty to it that not many Interpol songs have ever come close to reaching.  There are a few clunkers here, though, that keeps Skyscraper from being as essential as Interpol’s first two albums. “Fun That We Have” is a track whose verses and chorus seem to be two entirely different songs mashed together in a way that just seems awkward. And “Girl on the Sporting News” is all around just one of the worst songs that Banks has ever crafted, Interpol or otherwise. But Skyscraper has more here to like than to not like, and just like Interpol’s last record, Julian Plenti has enough good stuff to get us by until we hopefully get something as classic as Interpol’s first two albums.