Marah
If You Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry
(Yep Roc)
"Are you drunk?" "Yeah." What a fitting way to close the first cut off Marah's latest speedball roots LP, as vocalist/guitarist Dave Bielanko stumbles over beer cans and a boot-kicking barroom beat. Though they've been together for more than a decade, Philly's very own Wilco is still kicking out the working-man jams like one-time collaborator Bruce Springsteen — singing of being "dirt poor" while downing dollar drafts and washing crumb-caked dishes for dinner money ("The Dishwasher's Dream," which reeks of Bob Dylan and tobacco-tinged harmonica spittle). However, that doesn't mean this record repeats the same Replacements motif from track to track, like a barfly who tells the same 'Nam story nightly. The wilting flute-like melody of "City of Dreams" drops the quartet in some faraway forest and "So What if We're Outta Tune (With the Rest of the World)" is a simple and effective fuck-off to anyone who considers alt-country crap — as is this entire album, really.
--Andrew Parks
www.marah-usa.com

Valencia
This Could Be a Possibility
(i Surrender)
There isn't much to divulge about Valencia's debut, but that's a good thing in their case. For our post-Warped Tour world could use a straightforward throwback to early Saves the Day, to make the kids move alongside guilt-inducing, deep-fried melodies and hooks as persistent as a lonely MySpace friend who'd like to become your storybook lover. Whether or not these capable younglings make the move to modern rock radio or a major label is happenstance at this point, as it'll only take a listen to a few random tracks on this record to convince the suits of Valencia's marketability. It helps that they have an interesting backstory: vocalist Shane Henderson was an Eagles beer man, guitarist Brendan Walter was sued by the RIAA for file sharing, drummer Max Soria immigrated to the U.S. via a cargo ship from the Philippines, bassist George Ciukurescu worked in an Alaskan fish cannery once, and guitarist JD Perry skipped a full soccer scholarship to play the pop punk. Subtle songwriting touches make them stand out as well, like the cascading riffs and gun-turret drums of "Back Against the Wall" or the "la la la" harmonizing of "Tenth Street." Speaking of, proud locals with carabineer keychains will dig the unashamed "Philadelphia makes me whole" thrust of the track. It's certainly not for aging indie rockers, but if you're going to indulge in a set of prospective Hot Topic hits, you could do much, much worse.
--Andrew Parks
www.valenciamusic.net

The Blue Method
Kill the Music Vol. 1
(Blue Method)
Brian Williams is a big man with a big sound behind him. The weighty singer with the shushy baritone and casual falsetto (not to mention those acrobatic turns on valve trombone and trumpet) seems elegantly at ease with the Blaxploitative wahhh and toot of the Method. Kill the Music's cushiony, clean funk-gurgle combines the active ingredients of Average White Band, the dippy arrangements of the Family Stone and the trippy, sinewy melodies of Curtis Mayfield. When you're not busy being lulled into the sway of a cool ballad like "Haitian Sensation" (which makes a sudden switcheroo to quick, clickity funk), you're kneeling to the occasional church organ-led gospel riff of "Getonoutro" and the synth-shuffling Dixieland of "Backporch." Amen.
--A.D. Amorosi
www.thebluemethod.com

Mark Cosgrove
Sweet Reason
(FGM)
Mark Cosgrove comes with contemporary bluegrass cred: When dobro legend Jerry Douglas hits the road, Cosgrove is his flat-picker. Cosgrove includes several modern songs, like Gillian Welch's "Red Clay Halo," which let his former Lewis Brothers bandmate Peter Lorch lean in for some sweet tenor harmony and rhythm guitar. Cosgrove's real calling, though, is newgrass, that instrumental elaboration on the old styles with the hyper technique of modern players. "Good Medicine," an original theme that Cosgrove has been expanding upon for years, gets the full Nashville treatment with Bela Fleck on banjo and Sam Bush on mandolin. But the juiciest cuts are old fiddle tunes, the kind Cosgrove had to work deep into his muscle memory to become National Flatpicking champion. Cosgrove trades philosophy with other professors like Kenny Kosek (fiddle) and Tony Trischka (banjo), and taps local luminaries like bassist Larry Cohen and dobroist extraordinaire Jimmy Heffernan for lively musical comments as well.
--Mary Armstrong
www.mcosgrove.com

Matt Pond PA
Several Arrows Later
(Altitude)
So this is what happens when people stop living in the sixth borough and start getting real uncomfortable in the hip-or-hide confines of Williamsburg. Yes, it's true: Matt Pond left for Brooklyn a few years back. But before you demand the dropping of the PA in his band name, remember that Pond is a country boy at heart — a chowder-chomping New Englander to be exact. Consequently, he's constantly balancing two very different lives: that of a promising Brooklyn songwriter and someone who simply likes sandy shores and shady trees on the weekend.
Several Arrows Later is the keyhole into his overwrought internal struggles. As the album opens, an antisocial Pond is at a Saturday night house party, "leaning over to ask her/ pardon the intrusion/ could we leave before it gets bad/ I might smash up all the windows and set fire to the curtains." Whoa with the urban angst, buddy. Good thing these are still some of the most gorgeous songs Pond has penned to date. Guitarist Brian Pearl and producer Louie Lino helped sketch the songs out, and it shows as Pond's signature strings and autumnal indie rock is augmented with drum loops and crisscrossing guitar hooks. It gets a little too O.C. at times (no wonder the band has scored a couple scenes), but Pond's urban malaise is ultimately, yes, our gain.
--Andrew Parks
www.mattpondpa.com

Ditt Ditt Darium
From Coast to Coast
(self-released)
Alicia Björnsdotter Abrams is a recent transplant from Stockholm, arriving right after earning a degree in traditional Swedish music from the Royal Academy. For Ditt Ditt Darium, she's brought together three other alums of that program: another fiddler and two singers. From Coast to Coast is a live recording of their concert tour, so the sound is pure with no studio sweetening, though it's not purely Swedish. An English song, a French Canadian jig and few other worldly wanderers are seamlessly incorporated into the set. One particularly compelling medley, "Den Signade Dag," works the far edges of Swedish experience, starting with the spare singing of an Estonian hymn and moving into a sung lament supported by great swooping festoons of fiddles which finally burst forth into a joyful Shetland reel as the voices fade to silence. The CD is a musical tour of Sweden and its close neighbors for the armchair traveler.
--Mary Armstrong
www.aliciaabrams.info/DDD

Rolly Brown
This Vagrant Heart
(Aussie Dog)
With the first bars of This Vagrant Heart, Brown lets you know he's looking to regain the National Fingerpicking Guitar crown. The title tune is a Brown original, a catalyst for this all-acoustic celebration of fingerstyle guitar. He transports us to a candle-lit club, warm and intimate, soothing and relaxing. Brown declares this his jazz CD, letting him show off the fancy chord voicing he loves on standards from Monk, Porter and Rodgers and Hart. Several blues numbers break up the set with the string-bending calisthenics that make fingerpicked blues such great listening.
--Mary Armstrong
www.rollybrown.com

Todd Fraud
You Don't Even Know
(Rude) Todd Fraud wants you to know the musicians he's ripping off. The liner notes of You Don't Even Know contain a collage filled with albums from his record collection: Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town, Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True — a sea of classic albums that inspire Fraud and his upbeat, poppy rock. "The Change" is a craftily constructed breakup song: Acoustic guitars dance between arpeggiating piano and bouncy drums, all of which are played by the multitalented Fraudinator himself. You Don't Even Know is nothing new, but it's packed with songs you can bounce along to.

--James Saul
www.toddfraud.com