J. Roddy Walston and the Business are a real-deal, roots-conscious hard rock band in an era when such things are believed to have gone the way of the 8-track tape. Picture a band that captures the lean and glorious Southern arrogance of the early Black Crowes and the FTW attitude of Appetite for Destruction-era Guns N' Roses and you get one enjoyably butt-kicking surprise of an album.

A vintage sound meets modern problems release with a way too modest title. Right from the opening “I Need a Dollar” -- which could be passed off as unreleased Bill Withers, no problem -- the album offers grand things, providing listeners with that solid, but not polarizing, style of social commentary Withers perfected.

Crocodiles are a talented rock band with a strong sense of songwriting, for sure, but they're also very happy to be playing music, and that joy shines through on Sleep Forever. With the wall of static dialed back a notch, the songs breathe more, allowing for the Crocodiles to construct some of their most immediate material.

For the best part of a decade, Los Angeles native Ariel Rosenberg has been carving some of the most intoxicating music going, a reclusive pop surrealist whose corroded productions have led to a cult following that has often been difficult to keep up with. Now signed to 4AD, Ariel Pink s Haunted Graffiti release Before Today on June 8, 2010.

A true pioneer of genre-bending, Germany via U.S. artist How to Dress Well has been garnering endless crossover support from both the indie rock and hip-hop worlds. His style has been dubbed 'lo-fi R&B'. Love Remains is the debut full length following up a 7'' released in July 2010 aptly titled Ready For The World.

The sound is pure Americana; these 12 lyrically sophisticated yet direct songs, reflect a host of tense, lost, desperate, individuals dreaming the same dark dream, one that suggests that we are all growing tenser with the times. A former rodeo rider, he wears his influences proudly: Dylan, Van Zandt, Ely, Earle and Hubbard.

Hazy, dreamy and genre-defining, this collection of songs proves that the incredible amount of blog and press hype for Best Coast is more than warrented. "Crazy For You" makes a strong case for the ultimate summer record and record of the year.

This is still a Dr. Dog album and it's bound to put a smile on your face. These guys have a real knack for making classic-sounding rock & roll and Shame, Shame is the sound of a fine band really hitting its stride.

Recorded outside London and featuring the talents of her backing band Mumford & Sons. I Speak Because I Can reveals a new side to Laura Marling, its ten songs are inspired with a new richness, ripeness and sophistication. I Speak Because I Can showcases not only Marling's ability to tell one hell of a story, but her incredible guitar playing, which has grown more intricate since her first album.

Glasser is one woman, Cameron Mesirow. Her intimate, luxurious music resonated widely on last year's EP "Apply." For this new album, recorded in Los Angeles and Stockholm, "Ring" displays a newly rich vision of her post-pop sound. Laced with strings, woodwinds and simple, angelic vocal melodies, "Ring" has the universal lure of a lullaby and a hymn.

Yet perhaps in spite of themselves, the members of Wolf Parade--who also put in time with a handful of other bands, including Handsome Furs and Sunset Rubdown--are also improving as songwriters, crafting shapelier melodies and figuring out how to use rhythm to drive toward an emotional climax.

Here's to Taking It Easy is the culmination of the past three years. A grand statement, the album we dreamed Phosphorescent would make. Just 20 seconds into the album you hear something so immediate, so purposeful, no infectious, it's clear something special is underway. This is the Phosphorescent record made for any time, any season.

On their first disc in nine years, these indie-rock greats mix the anthemic tumult of their punky early Nineties with the realism and songcraft of their mature late Nineties to come up with a Blood on the Tracks for graying Converse kids.