My local music quest continues! I went to high school with the drummer for Hidden Hospitals. Everyone in the band is good looking. They were very well rehearsed, energetic and professional. It was a boys night, though. Not a single lady among four bands.

Rumor is that Pancho has retired. Now this place is called “Township.” It is different in the following ways: (1) the palm trees on the wall have been painted over with a gray-purple paint job; (2) they are serving fancy and expensive beers (they still have Old Milwaukee for $2, though); (3) Pancho isn’t behind the bar doing tricks and rocking out! Still. this is a good local venue.

The Sometimes Family is a pitch-perfect neo soul project fronted by the wicked talented songwriter, singer and guitarist Rebecca Sometimes. It was such fun to see her great band play on Schuba’s nice stage. Check out the slightly sad, way dancy track “Pockets and Peppermint.”

It seems as though everyone I know is playing a show in the next couple of months. Let’s see how many of these I can make it to. I’m gonna try my darndest. Here’s your calendar of events:

1-21: Go Time! at Horseshoe
1-23: Sometimes Family at Schubas
1-28: Paper Thick Walls at Congress Theater
2-3: Hidden Hospitals at Poncho’s
2-9: Everlene at Double Door
2-11: Don’t Speak at Goose Island
2-23: Natalie Grace Alford at VFW
2-24: Puritan Pine at Gallery Cabaret
3-30: Shift at The Mutiny
3-30: Love and Radiation at Transistor

10. Those Darlins — Screws Get Loose

This album makes me giggle. I love the rude brashness of this band’s country-inflected surf punk. These are funny, boozy songs about the difficulty of obtaining anti-depressants, the annoyance of being pursued by a boy whom you think of as a buddy, and eating. It’s not intellectual, but it is super fun party music.

09. Wild Flag — Wild Flag

This is a righteous mission statement from iconic musicians Mary Timony, Carrie Brownstein, Janet Weiss and Rebecca Cole, who joined forces this year to remind us to get excited about guitars. There’s a ton of love and energy pumping through this record.

08. PJ Harvey — Let England Shake

She’s back and as soul-shaking as ever. This darkness takes you off guard. The songs have a sweetness to them, but when PJ sings a bleak line such as: “let me walk through the stinking alleys to the music of drunken beatings” in that gorgeously harsh voice of hers, it’s genuinely menacing and disturbing. This is PJ’s unmatched, inimitable brilliance in full force.

07. Real Estate — Days

Statistically, I shouldn’t like this. It’s gentle, bro-fronted indie rock; the kind of thing I declared myself “over” once people started going gaga over bland, boring music like Fleet Foxes and Band of Horses. But this is different. It’s the song writing and the artful, melodic lead guitar that make this a lovely listen.

06. St. Vincent — Strange Mercy

The violence of Annie Clark’s guitar playing twists your guts. It’s creative, different and most importantly, unreservedly technical, which too few women care about these days.

05. Pains of Being Pure at Heart — Belong

This sophomore outing from these twee shoegazers is fun, shiny and heartfelt with strong choruses, big fuzzy guitars, and sincere lyrics.

04. Coasting — You’re Never Going Back

I was destined to fall in love with this from the get-go. It’s a two-girl power duo with small, self-contained songs boasting strong melodies, pretty harmonies, power-pop energy and a hefty dose of reverb. This stuff charms me beyond belief and I’m powerless to resist this album. My favorite song is “For Hours”. When I played it for my brother, he said, “it sounds like something you wrote.”

03. Dum Dum Girls — Only in Dreams

This is the second album from an all-girl band led by the impossibly stylish guitarist/ singer/ songwriter Kristin Gundred (nom de tune DeeDee). It’s distorted and catchy and fun as can be. But what really stands out for me are the wonderful lyrics. Gundred tackles some very heavy stuff here — the death of her mother and long periods of separation from her husband — with such sweetness and intelligence. I admire her songwriting so much, and I connect with this one on that emotional level. Perhaps the only knock on this album is the very repetitive drumming.

02. Cults — Cults

This is album is a lemonade on a hot day. The songcraft is impeccable. Every one of these ten effortless, vintage pop numbers is jammed with hooks that you’ll remember with one listen and never be able to forget. Take this to the beach and forget all your troubles.

01. Yuck — Yuck

This one summons images for me — highways, breezy days, flannel shirts, unwashed hair. Yuck is the poster child for the 90s revival that’s going on right now. But it’s more than pastiche. These are wonderfully written songs that perfectly marry grit with melody, youthful carelessness with youthful passion, rocking out with getting straight to the point. I love the guitars on this album so much: they’re the kid brother of Steven Malkmus and Ira Kaplan. More than anything, I love Yuck for sparking that feeling in me this year. That feeling that I used to love so much about music: that I was witnessing something special, new, meaningful and mine.

I make no secret of my embarrassing love for top-40 music. Lately, I’ve been playing with my midi keyboard and Garage Band to try to emulate some of the studio tricks that dominate pop radio. So, here’s the terrible road that project has led me down. I sat down yesterday and decided, fuck it, I’m going to write a Brittany Spears song.

No Lights, No Sound by adelen

I’ve been making a lot of laptop music lately. Here is a little unfinished love song that I’m working on. I need to hire an American Idol girl to sing it for me.

Talk about the Weather by adelen

I came across a few other neat tunes that you might like.

Kodacrome
Brooklyn-based Kodacrome is an energetic laptop duo along the lines of Metric. I really like Elissa Pociask’s sly alto vocals — totally Emily Haines style. They have good songs with great beats. They are playing the Hideout on January 5, 2012. I’m planning to check them out and get my dance on.

Grimes
Grimes is a Canadian girl named Claire Boucher, who composed and recorded her entire album in Garage Band. I love her for that. She has a high, super girly voice, which I normally wouldn’t dig, but she uses it well. Her self-directed video for “Vanessa” looks like a fun, creepy dance party.

The first song is called “Easy” and that’s a good descriptor for how this album sounds: gently, sweetly easy. This is a classic indie rock record. Your sounds-like name checks are Pavement (loose, jangly guitars), The Shins (precisely constructed melodies), poppier Broken Social Scene (wistful lyrics sung gently). The last song “All the Same” is so pretty. The lead guitar and vocal melodies are perfect; they give me that little chilly feeling in my spine. The guitar playing is so nice throughout the record. The only real knock on this is that the vocals lack personality.

I don’t know how great this really is. I have huge expectations for this band, given how much I love Mary Timony and Sleater-Kinney. But this isn’t really blowing my mind like I wish it were. Mark says it gives him anxiety. I kind of feel that it doesn’t give me enough anxiety. Sleater-Kinney was angry and righteous and frantic. Mary Timony’s solo stuff and Helium were sci-fi swirling guitar with weird magical lyrics. This is kind of a mid point between the two that doesn’t really ever reach the fever pitch I wish it would. That’s not to say that it’s not good. It is. It just doesn’t fulfill my (admittedly too-high) expectations.

The best parts are the harmonies lent by Rebecca Cole and Janet Weiss. “Endless Talk” has such a sweet, fun chorus. “Future Crimes” has a nice groove and fist-pumping lyrics (“If you’re gonna keep me up all night, then you better learn to love this fire. If you’re gonna give up the fight, then I’m gonna call you a liar.”) “Electric Band” is an appealing blend of coy and ballsy. The drumming is fantastic throughout.

“Glass Tambourine” uses the members’ strengths to their best collective effect — Mary’s dreamy, druggy alto; Janet and Rebecca’s girly harmonies; Carrie’s lead guitar melodies. I love the bridge on that song: Rebecca’s snaky keyboard counter-melody with the slow build up of guitar and drums, the woozy chant-sing, the police sirens.

There are a couple of clunkers. “Boom” falls flat. Carrie’s vocals sound kind of like a caricature; the recording lacks dynamic range. Same with “Short Version.”

Despite the shortcomings, this record and band are exciting. Mary Timony and Carrie Brownstein are my personal lady guitar heroes. Their collaboration provides a thrill in and of itself.