In my mind, nothing will ever top Black Sheep Boy, but with “The Stand-Ins” coming out in a couple of weeks, Okkervil River is doing a good job on challenging that.  Of the songs that I have heard, the production has really come through.  Strings and other instruments make it much more ochestral than normal.  Will Scheff’s vocals as always are very melodic and packed with cunning lyrics.  Whether it can top Black Sheep Boy or not?  You be the judge.

Okkervil River - Lost Coastlines

Preorder Okkervil River’s Upcoming Full-Length “The Stand-Ins” out September 9th

Mogwai is finally coming out with a new album for the first time in a few years.  They also haven’t toured in a very long time and are currently about to embark on a US-wide tour.  The Hawk Is Howling seems to be another step forward for them as we have heard a few tracks from the recent Batcat EP.  The song itself “Batcat” had a lot more of a grungy feel to it, but the song from the forthcoming album that has been released shows a lot less darkness and more of a song that you can actually bob your head to.  See for yourself.

Mogwai - The Sun Smells Too Loud

Preorder Mogwai’s Upcoming Full-length “The Hawk Is Howling” on Amazon.com

I never really was a huge fan of Days Away while they were a band, but then I noticed that Good Old War came around, which features Tim and Keith of the former Days Away.  Good Old War gives off a great folk feeling from the acoustic guitars and light drumming.  But the vocals are what differentiate from other acoustic folk acts.  Anyone who listened to Days Away may know that Keither was a pretty oustanding voice and to match it with these acoustics really makes it stand out that much more.  The vocals are so dynamic in a lot of the songs, especially in “Window”.  Some of them are even Beach Boys-esque.  Anthony Green is also very close with this band, as they have recorded his most recent solo album “Avalon”.  Any fans of all the latter, I highly suggest checking out Good Old War.

Good Old War - Window

Buy Good Old War’s debut full-length “Only Way To Be Alone” on Amazon.com

Yet another friend of mine has a band that is quickly gaining popularity, at least around Chicago.  Empires is a soulful “indie-rock” band that is getting a lot of attention lately.  They just released a full-length, for free mind you, and had their record release show which went excellent.  They vocals are easily my favorite part of this band because there is a lot of emotion behind them.  Some songs may sound like The Spill Canvas and I’m not going to say whether that’s a good or bad thing.  Take it as it is.  If you don’t like the rest of the album, I know you’ll like the intro track because it’s hard not to.

Empires - Spit The Dark

Download Empires Entire Full-Length “Howl” Free at Weareempires.com

All it took was finding an amazing wallpaper on Google images to look up Grand Island on myspace, and I thank God that I did.  After hearing one song I was immediately hooked and had to hear their other songs.  I guess you could group them with that garage rock genre filled with the Raconteurs and the Strokes and such.  But this band has some serious pop.  Every song has such energy in it.  The vocals are phenomenal and random horns and keys just jump out.  I can’t say enough awesome stuff about these fellows from Oslo.  The song I have posted is from their older album “Say No To Sin”, but they just released a new full-length a few months ago.

Grand Island - Us Annexed

Purchase Grand Island’s New Album Boys & Brutes on Amazon.com

With a brand new release off Better Looking Records, Meho Plaza delivers a unique sound creating noisy 8-bit synth patterns with echoing vocals.  They are really a tough band to compare to others, but I’ll give it a shot and say this is for fans of Q & Not U and The Dismemberment Plan.  Some songs have great structure and grooving choruses and others are heavy, noisy bits.  They just released their album on May 6th, so take a listen.

Meho Plaza - The Beach

Purchase Meho Plaza’s Self-Titled Full-Length on Amazon.com

StumbleUpon is so awesome for little things like this. If you do not have it on your Firefox, I suggest getting it immediately. This is a little animation of a paper Nintendo DS thing. I don’t know, watch it. It’s entertaining, at least for 1:09.

httpv://youtube.com/watch?v=g3-L5xbT78A

Formerly of the great No Knife, Ryan Ferguson is now working on some solo work.  It’s great news because No Knife was awesome and hearing his voice on top of some nice acoustic song is great.  It’s a nice change of pace for him, too.  His first release was back in 2005 with a EP that gave him immediate recognition and included a song as a lead track for EA Sport’s The Sims 2. For Ryan, it’s almost a flawless transition going from aggressive, fast-paced music to acoustic, feel-good pop music.  Take a listen.

Ryan Ferguson - Kill My Confidence

Buy Ryan Ferguson’s Debut Full-Length Only Trying To Help on Amazon.com

Out of all the bands I have found out about through random myspace profile hopping, I think that This Will Destroy You is the one I’m most happy I found. They have an incredibly goofy name, but in the midst of this giant post-rock craze, they really stand out to me. What they are able to do is find some really great melodies and allow them to progress so well. Sure, to a lot of you they may just sound like another Explosions In The Sky copycat, but give ‘em a chance. They stand out on their own in my mind.

p.s. - I’ve watched a view YouTube videos and I would LOVE to see these guys play live.

This Will Destroy You - They Move On Never Ending Tracks Of Light

Purchase This Will Destroy You’s self-titled sophomore album on Amazon.com

I would be such a cheese if I posted my friends band on my first post for invisible limb, but I’m going to do it anyway because Why Intercept is a genuinely good band from Chicago. I personally have been waiting hear some new recordings for some time now and now that I have finally heard the album it is some pretty fantastic stuff. The album was produced and recorded by Paul Malinowski (ex-Shiner). This band is pretty much for fans of Russian Circles and Cave-In, circa Jupiter/Antenna. They are currently pressing hard copies and will be available shortly, just keep checking their myspace. The song posted is best exemplifies their sound.

Why Intercept - The Far Northwest