The best of the month of October as chosen by Culture Bully contributors.

Michigan was relatively straightforward when compared to its much ballyhooed follow up, Illinois, but the album packs quite a punch.

For all the attention paid to multiple Canadian indie rock bands, there is one that has seemingly slipped through the cracks: Plants and Animals.

When the lead single “a happening” from L.A.’s hyperstory hit my stereo, I was intrigued to find that, among other, more traditional pop institutions, I heard a little bit of the Damon Albarn side project Gorillaz.

Even for people like myself who absolutely loved portions of his debut, I think it is safe to say that no one expected something so amazing out of James Murphy when he released Sound of Silver.

The album ultimately succeeds because the band writes great, scuzzy rock and roll songs and plays the hell out of them. When you got that down, you don’t need any of the extra stuff.

The group, working with minimal parts that operated at extremely high levels of proficiencies, again reminded me why I like them so much and left an energetic Turf Club crowd in awe of their marvelous abilities.

While “Cliffhanger” doesn’t show her great singing as well as other songs on Fighter, it best represents the unbridled energy and powerful sound the band has created on their debut for local label Guilt Ridden Pop.

With Love Comes Close, Cold Cave mixes in elements of noisy rock and dance music on an extremely strong album. The dancier portions of the album never venture into, say, Cut Copy territory, but still pack loads of melodies into an array of scuzzy arrangements.

Photo and video coverage of Shahs & Whitesand/Badlands’ performance at Minneapolis’ 7th St. Entry.

If this record indeed stands as their swan song, they would be hard pressed to end on a better note.

Some will simply be happy that this supremely talented group of friends, who toured under the same moniker a few years back, are finally putting some songs to wax. Others, myself included, will take a step back from the record and come away with the feeling that the group’s self titled debut is little more than a patchwork quilt of songs that would serve no better than B-Sides for their main outfits.