Hidden Towers
“Gleaming the Cube” (Defiled Under: Music)
Falling somewhere between modern stoner rock and wineskin-soaked ’70s bombast, “Gleaming the Cube” is guaranteed not only to fuck you up, but to fuck you up good.

Marilyn Manson
“You’re So Vain” (Sony)
The God of Fuck gives an old Carly Simon classic an industrial-strafed makeover. Somewhere, a terrified Warren Beatty is locked in a dark room, quietly rocking back and forth.

A$AP Rocky
“Fuckin’ Problems” (RCA)
That’s right. A$AP Rocky has some fuckin’ problems. And you will too after one spin of this hip-hop lethal weapon: namely, you won’t be able to get it out of your fucking head.

Bill Ryder-Jones
“He Took You in His Arms” (Double Six)
On this timeless-sounding piano-and-guitars weeper, Bill Ryder-Jones is accusing someone of having done something with someone else. We don’t know what, but the man’s feeling bad and he doesn’t care who knows.

Föllakzoid
“Rio” (Sacred Bones)
Whoa. After seven-and-a-half minutes of hypnotically shuffling drums, brain-buzzing synths, and gloriously tortured guitars, all we want to know is what the hell they’re smoking down in Chile, and can we have some?

Two Hours Traffic
“I Don’t Want 2 Want U” (Bumstead)
Straight from the garage, Two Hours Traffic almost outdoes Dum Dum Girls with this reverb-drenched bit of pure ’60s retro-pop.

Woodpigeon
“The Saddest Music in the World” (Boompa)
It doesn’t quite live up to its billing, but with lyrics like “I’m singing out in vain/Howling like the train/But you’re not listening,” this melancholy folk-pop jangler comes damn close.

Antwon
“Automatic” (Independent)
Producer Friendzone looped a gorgeous Sigur Rós piano line so Bay Area rapper Antwon could drop lyrics about popping pills and getting pussy over it. Because why not. Sigh.

Jim Jones Revue
“Where Da Money Go?” (Punk Rock Blues)
It’s not every day you hear someone rocking the keys like he’s trying to outdo Jerry Lee Lewis. As for the rest of the song, let’s just say the record label’s name pretty much tells the tale.

Houses
“Beginnings” (Downtown)
Dexter Tortoriello and Megan Messina prove themselves masters of both two-part harmony and the epic build on the lush, atmospheric, and thoroughly devastating “Beginnings”.

Jimbo Mathus
“Tennessee Walker Mare” (Fat Possum)
Alt-country electro blues that smells like tobacco-field dirt and spilled roadhouse beer. Which is to say the real thing, not some manufactured bullshit from a boardroom.