A Sunny Day in Glasgow make pop music that is as mysterious as it is beautiful.

While I would be remiss to say any of their output is stone cold classic material, the tracks on Quality Control show a group that was a great example of how the stellar parts equal a strong whole with the group.

I’m quite a bit late to the game on this one, but I couldn’t help wanting to write about the excellent song “Coffee” by the Brooklyn based band Motel Motel.

Much like the CD, the show ended up being just fine, but I couldn’t help but feeling a little bit underwhelmed from this much hyped about group.

While I can firmly say that I hope this isn’t the direction the Strokes go, Phrazes for the Young is a strong statement by an artist who clearly isn’t afraid to take chances.

Even if you “didn’t like” Some Loud Thunder because Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were passe, you can come back now; this album is really good.

When bands have a debut record as dramatic and far reaching as Fanfarlo’s excellent Reservoir, you are always at risk for a letdown when you see the songs performed in the live setting. Luckily for the surprisingly full Triple Rock Social Club Wednesday night, Fanfarlo met and exceed any expectations with a thrilling 50 minute set.

In a world filled with pompous, no talent people willing to do just about anything to get attention, it is something like Clear Skies Over Black River, a touching and personal album given away for free, that really deserves our attention.

There are many reasons this album succeeds, but in the end it comes down to the fact that the band, like the xx, is doing more with less. In stripping all the fat, while leaving just the necessary components, Warpaint has created one of the best debut albums of this year.

The group’s 2008 release, Dear Science, found the group producing some of the most wide eyed and forward thinking music of their career.

For a band whose first album I really liked, Art Brut’s shtick has worn a little thin and exposed a band that’s seemingly repeating the same joke over and over.

Everything changed when Craig Finn returned to the scene with his new musical charges the Hold Steady. While his original group, the amazing Lifter Puller, began to fade out in the late-’90s before Finn moved to NYC, the Hold Steady took no time to catch on with the masses.