David Cook
David Cook
RCA Records

David Cook’s eponymous debut is a disappointment of Nickelbackian proportions.

His post-“Idol” pomp lacks any circumstance. Cook was the riskiest contestant on the show, unafraid to take chances with novel arrangements of classic songs. Clearly, it worked for him.

The Noise FM
Dream of the Attack

A couple of years ago The Killers, Franz Ferdinand and Interpol all struck at the same time, and boy was that iron hot. The so-called post-punk revival was the right sound at the right time and did exactly what all short-lived genres do, which is to make a big splash but cause few waves.

These bands were similar to the ultra-trendy girl in the attention-grabbing outfits who everyone notices. And just like that hipster who causes such a scene, they came with the same unattractive baggage, namely the arrogance of one who’s aware of just how incredibly cool she is.

Black Christmas
By Way of Decay
Bad Age Records

Some people would rather poke their eyes out with pointed sticks than sit through an instrumental record. They proclaim the songs would benefit immensely from some voice action. True, there are instrumental-only acts that essentially make the equivalent of background music. But there are other bands that breathe so much life into their songs they can’t be ignored, such as Lawrence’s Black Christmas.

It’s all about the guitars. The drums are there to propel the songs forward. They remind you you’re listening to a rock band. But the guitars — and a smattering of clear, echoing piano — take the place of any voices that might be missed on the band’s debut LP, By Way of Decay. At times heavy and rhythmic, other times sweet like chimes, the guitars proclaim, cry, sigh and wail.

Caesura
Abstract Clarity 

Local band Caesura’s debut LP, Abstract Clarity, offers a dozen tracks of heavy alt-rock with progressive and metal overtones. Hewing to no specific genre, the album dances between a variety of influences all falling under the increasingly diverse post-grunge rubric.

The winners of Heavy Frequency Magazine’s award for 2008’s best new band crank out serpentine guitar lines and alternating melodious/screaming melodies. There’s more than a little Tool in its DNA, along with heavy doses of Stone Temple Pilots’ pop aspirations and Thursday’s menace.

Hammerlord
Hammerlord 
Init Records

The mark of any true metal band is within the senses. Can you hear axes grinding and drumsticks pounding? Can you feel tremors as throaty vocals reverberate through your body? Can you smell droplets of sweat flinging around a mosh pit? Can you see the blood dripping from calloused fingers?

Can you taste the metal?

Gringo Star
All Y’all 
My Anxious Mouth Records

The hype machine has been working overtime in promoting Gringo Star’s debut, All Y’all. After an incredible performance at this year’s CMJ music festival, All Y’all proves the band’s no fluke. Fourteen tracks filled with swagger and spit. Few bands are able to bolt out of the starting gate with this much fire under their bellies and not get burned.

Though Gringo Star could have easily been another band with a somewhat-clever name, the band members make music as if their backs are up against the wall. They lay down the songs with a garage-sounding ruckus of missed notes and feedback and never rewind and attempt to clean it up. There’s no time for making it sound pretty when you’re busy tearing it apart.

That’s not to say the music is messy or hard to listen to. If anything, it’s complemented by the band’s loose style and shoot-from-the-hip recording ability. Songs like “Come on Now” mix up the rough and bare sound with hand claps and fleshed out melodies. It’s the kind of music that feels at home as you drive across a desert with a vulture riding shotgun.

Other songs, such as “Up and Down” and the title track, “All Y’all,” inspire foot stomping as they make excellent use of backbeat and fierce guitar playing.

Split Lip Rayfield
I’ll Be Around

Just like anything else, music gets tired, too. Sometimes it needs a shake-up to get the juices flowing again. Similar to what the Reverend Horton Heat did to rockabilly, Split Lip Rayfield has been working to make over bluegrass with a much-needed injection of punk-rock energy. The Wichita, Kan.-based band isn’t cranking up the Marshall stacks — the trio still plays traditional bluegrass instruments like banjos and mandolins — but the unmistakable ghosts of Joe Strummer and Joey Ramone are all over its latest release, I’ll Be Around. 

If you’d never heard the band, on first spin you might be tempted to group Split Lip Rayfield with any number of revivalist alt-country/bluegrass acts. Opening track “Rig or Cross” starts with a pretty standard banjo riff before the vocalists emerge, delivering harmonies with a decidedly Southern bent that remind you of a late-August church service in a whitewashed shack with no AC.  

Sobriquet
The Setting Sun

Get this straight: Nobody can ever charge Lawrence’s Sobriquet with a lack of ambition. The band’s debut, The Setting Sun, is a sprawling, extraordinarily earnest concept album with epic themes of war, love and redemption, and tracks that reach the eight-minute mark.

There’s even a spoken-word prologue as a general musters his troops for bloody battle, setting the stage for an apocalyptic setting with Ren-Faire trimmings. Today’s average indie release doesn’t share much in common with “Braveheart.”

Interstates
Run Run
The Record Machine

People outside of the Midwest are always shocked to hear that there’s anything worth doing in Kansas City. Anything worth seeing. Anything worth listening to. Well, surprise, surprise, there’s a thriving arts and music community in this so-called Cowtown. So it’s not so shocking to hear Kentucky may have a decent music scene as well, in Louisville.

And out of that oft-overlooked metropolis crawls Interstates. No, more like explodes, with their debut album, Run Run.

Little Joy
Little Joy
Rough Trade

The Strokes are on hiatus, and most of the band members have decided to pursue solo projects. First was Albert Hammond Jr., then Nikolai Fraiture’s Nickel Eye, and now drummer Fabrizio Moretti gives us Little Joy.

Instead of trying to create a Strokes-esque vibe, he teamed up with Rodrigo Amarante, the singer and guitarist of Los Hermanos, to attempt a retro sound. Little Joy invokes bossa nova, Hawaiian guitar strumming and a sprinkle of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, a mix that makes for an adorable album. While short in length, it has lots of charm and wears plenty of influences on its sleeve.