FEATURED ARTIST
The Futureheads
My how time flies.  After just two years, several US and European tours, and one finely crafted debut album, The Futureheads return with their exceptional second offering News and Tributes.  Ranging from dark and melodic ("Thursday"), to crunchy and raucous ("Return of the Berserker"), to just downright fun ("Skip to the End"/"Favours for Favours"), The Futureheads are making their furious mark in a quagmire of seemingly endless albums and faceless bands.  They’re back… and here to stay.
“Skip to the End” [MP3]
multiple songs [MySpace]

The Walkmen
“Louisiana” [MP3]

Asobi Seksu
“New Years” [MP3]
“Thursday” [MP3]

Russian Circles
“Death Rides a Horse” [MP3]

Tilly and the Wall
“Lost Girls” [MP3]

—PopMatters Staff

FEATURED ARTIST
Finian McKean
“You may recall Finian McKean as Finn Moore Gerety, half of the brains behind late ‘90s indie-rock band the Push Kings. McKean’s solo stuff retains that alt-pop bombast (in a good way!), and he’s celebrating a new record, Shades Are Drawn, on his own And Each For Only Recordings...” — Time Out New York
“Shades Are Drawn” [MP3]
“Oh, My Heart Is Heavy” [MP3]
multiple songs [MySpace]

Cat Power & Karen Elson
“I Love You (me either)” [windows | real]

Jarvis Cocker & Kid Loco
“I Just Came to Tell You That I’m Going” [windows | real]

The Radio Dept
“Pulling Our Weight” [MP3]
“A Window” [MP3]
“The Worst Taste in Music” [MP3]

Doveman
“Honey” [MP3]
“Teacup” [MP3]

—PopMatters Staff

FEATURED ARTIST
Casey Driessen
Driessen is an amazing young fiddler, who uses traditional bluegrass stylings as a launch pad to mesmerizing improvisational roots music.  He’s grounded in tradition, like Michael Doucet of Beausoleil, but has a broad imagination and ends up concocting a bluegrass/jazz hybrid that recalls some of the best work of Vassar Clements.  This 27-year-old, Berklee College of Music educated musician has already worked with many of the leading lights in bluegrass and country, including Steve Earle, Tim O’Brien, Lee Ann Womack, Béla Fleck, and Jim Lauderdale among many others.  3D is his much anticipated debut on Sugar Hill Records out on May 9 in the US.  (Sarah Zupko)
“Jerusalem’s Ridge” (A reworking of an old Bill Monroe tune off the new album, 3D) [MP3]
“My Uncle” (live recording with Steve Earle and Tim O’Brien) [MP3]
“Forked Deer” (duet with Chris Thile) [MP3]
“Working on a Building” (traditional bluegrass gospel song, often recorded by Bill Monroe and others) [MP3]
“Old Joe Clark” (duet with Greg Liszt) [MP3]
multiple songs [MySpace]

Park Attack
“Delta Smelter” [MP3]
“Tongue ‘n’ Groove” [MP3]

PAS/CAL
“Summer Is Almost Here” [MP3]

Tigarah
“Girl Fight” [MP3]

—PopMatters Staff

The Dr. Octagon Chronicles

Al Green
The Gray Kid Al Greezy remix [MP3]

Chapter 2: AL GREAZY

When we last left off, Mike Relm started the Decipher Series by breakin’ down the history of the infamous Dr Octagon. But still unclear on what this new material was intended to mean, OCD has gone to their list of interpreters to get to the root of it.

Meanwhile on the Left Coast…

A hot, gray Los Angeles afternoon finds Gray Kid chillin’ on Venice Beach. Mac on his lap, posting to his blog, the Kid is interrupted by a pop-up window. It’s OCD on the I.M.

OCD: We need your services a.s.a.p.
GrayKid5678: Is there dough involved?
OCD: None, this is for the sake of all mankind.
Graykid5678: What are you talking about?
OCD: The Return of Dr. Octagon is upon us.
GrayKid5678: Oh word?
OCD: Yeah, we need you to decipher the hidden meaning of an audio track entitled “Al Green.” We believe it was sent to us by Dr. Octagon.
GrayKid5678: I thought that dude got got…
OCD: Just accept the File Transfer and get to work Kid.
GrayKid5678: Now you’re all bossy like? Whatever, I’m about it, but you owe me one holmes…

As the file transfer completes, the Kid queues the track in his media player and slips his headphones on. He pauses to observe the scene around him. Beautiful women in bikinis, bodybuilders with goatees, kids with rainbow colored waterguns. All is well. Yet, the Kid feels uneasy. He hesitates, then presses play.

The bass loop, the guitar stabs, the piano keys – the Kid is mesmerized. The hair on his neck jump to attention, his pupils harden and his veins begin to bulge. When the vocal drops, the Kid gasps and glances up. A large, hairy man dressed in traditional Pakistani garb stands before him. The man places his sweaty arms on the Kid’s shoulders, staring him down with eyes glowing neon green. The man speaks, oddly enough, with an urban American accent, “All you motherfuckers trying to be Al Green… Suckers, pack your shit!”

The Kid snatches his headphones off and shakes his head vigorously to snap out of the hallucination. The strange man gone, everything around him appears to be normal. Yet, convinced that something sinister is afoot, the Kid gets to work. He cuts and pastes and patches and scratches until the sun sets, until the investigative analysis is complete. He emails the results, the raw essence of the audio distilled via his skills as a pop chemist, off to OCD.

Now that business has been taken care of, the Kid smacks his lips contemplating the thought of slurping down a cool cerveza to relax with after all the day’s excitement. His left hand reaches into his pocket to pull out funds to turn this dream into a reality. He freezes.

“Yo! Where’s my money clip?”

Until next time…

Al Green (The Gray Kid Al Greezy remix)

For more on the Gray Kid...

Previous Chapters:
Mike Relm 20-minute Return of Dr Octagon megamix

The Return of Dr Octagon hits stores June 27th.

—PopMatters Staff

FEATURED MYSPACE ARTIST
Milburn Indie / Punk / Ska from Sheffield, UK
“Showroom XFM live session” [MP3]
“Storm in a Teacup” [MP3]
more tracks [MySpace]

Zero 7
“Throw It All Away” [real | windows]

Theory of a Deadman
video: “Santa Monica” [windows | quicktime]

Marykate O’Neill
“Stay” [MP3]
“Things Are Too Good (They’re Bound to Go Bad)” [MP3]
“Traffic Jam” [MP3]
more songs [MP3]

Mates of State
“Fraud in the 80s” [MP3]

The Stills
“Destroyer” [MP3]

—PopMatters Staff

Elf Power--"An Old Familiar Scene"
From Back to the Web on Rykodisc
Elf Power has returned with their seventh full length album, Back to the Web, a darkly orchestrated folk rock masterpiece. Back to the Web is a haunting, twisting journey, where 12-string acoustic guitars, violins and cellos weave strange and lovely melodies.


Shifter --"Butter"
From Shifter on spinART Records
Two Australian school friends achieve their life long dream of forming a band that screams Cheap Trick and resonates with the harmonies of The Sweet, all over raw ‘n’ rowdy, ‘70s-like rock ‘n’ roll. American icons Blondie hand pick the band to open for ‘em when they tour Australia and their off on an amazing tour.


Minus the Bear --"Hooray"
From Menos El Oso on Suicide Squeeze Records
Recorded over a three-month period in early 2005, Menos El Oso (Spanish for “Minus the Bear") finds the Seattle boys moving fully into the production helm of their own music, with the resulting exploration allowing the band to more critically analyze, edit, and communicate their ideas. With Menos El Oso, the band’s focus on musical and personal growth continues. It’s a multi-dimensional ride through endearment, confusion and melody.

Calexico-- "Cruel"
From Garden Ruin on Quarterstick Records
Garden Ruin takes into account the enlarged line up of the band, its multicultural roots, the band’s growing input into the songwriting and arrangement process, the arrival of a producer, new domestic arrangements, international affairs, broadening horizons, developing ambitions and changing scenery. Garden Ruin is definitely not the sound of a band standing still.


Hot IQs -- "Firecracker"
From An Argument Between the Brain and Feet on spinART Records
Blend classic pop, fuzzed-out rock, and hints of edgy lounge and you have Denver’s premier rockers, Hot IQs. With a sound that cites influences from the Pixies, the Kinks, to Archers of Loaf, and possibly the Holiday Inn Lounge Singers’ Association of America, Hot IQs put the indie-rock chocolate in your disco peanut butter.


Pretty Girls Make Graves -- "The Nocturnal House"
From Élan Vital on Matador
The Seattle quintet’s follow-up to the universally acclaimed The New Romance, and their first album since the addition of keyboardist Leona Marrs, is by far Pretty Girls Make Graves’ most ambitious, multifarious and scorching to date. Produced by Colin Stewart (Black Mountain, Destroyer), Élan Vital provides the band with a bigger, bolder canvas with which to weave their magic.

—PopMatters Staff