New Releases

The Deal: Charlotte quartet Brandon Kirkley & The Firecrackers independently releases six-song EP, What We Thought We Knew.

The Good: The band offers up pop-rock tunes on its debut. "One to None" has a radio-friendly groove to it and building chorus that you can easily see might be a live staple in their set. Singer Kirkley shows a bit of range in his vocals on "You Don't Know" with moments of falsetto and a bit of that rock 'n' roll power scream. The harmonica gave a nice touch on "Sunset City."

By the time she released her sixth solo album -- Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea -- Polly Jean Harvey had pretty much stretched her sound in every direction it could logically go.

1992's Dry was her fully formed indie-encapsulating debut; 1993's Rid of Me her Steve Albini-produced exploration of caterwauling noise; 4-Track Demos her raw, immediate bedroom snapshot; 1995's To Bring You My Love her confident, theatrical blues masterstroke; 1998's Is This Desire? her electronica-dabbling incorporation of folk-rock touches. What was left but to streamline her sound, spruce up the recording studio and record a steamy slab of hook-driven pop-rock?

Over 18 years and eight studio albums, Pearl Jam has proven itself to be far and away the most durable band to come from the original grunge movement. (Also the best, I would argue.) Nirvana trumps them on mystique and cultural impact, mostly because Kurt Cobain blew his brains out, but Pearl Jam had the courage to experiment, to risk failure, to grow up and shed the voice-of-a-generation pressure, to persevere.

The Deal: Primus bassist Les Claypool releases his latest solo album, spawned from video game and motion picture work.

The Good: Instead of Claypool solely focusing on the video game song "Mushroom Men" and songs from the motion picture Pig Hunt, he decided to keep writing and release an album. The bassist extraordinaire has forged on down the path of weird noises as he continues to experiment with unusual tones and instruments. "Red State Girl" is an easy dig at Republicans and those who like them. "Bite Out Of Life" comes from a jam session that he did with Gogol Bordello's Eugene Hutz - probably before last year's Bonnaroo Super Jam with the two. There's a definite heavy influence of Hutz on the track and may be the album's best track. One can only assume that "What Would Sir George Martin Do" is a reference to the "fifth Beatle." Funky drumming and vocal effects give "Primed by 29" a hint of the Primus Claypool of old.

Raw power, groove and dirge guide Zoroaster into the farthest reaches of the cosmos with its third offering, Voice of Saturn. The album traverses a vast terrain of noise, rhythms and distortion that peers into the dark matter of the universe for inspiration rather than the depths of hell.