Peach Kelli Pop: Best band named after a Redd Kross song?
Peach Kelli Pop: Best band named after a Redd Kross song? Mint Records

Peach Kelli Pop, "Fat Cat 13" (Mint). Sugared-up, power-pop-punk cuteness reaches some kind of apex with LA's Peach Kelli Pop. That it clocks in at under two minutes makes "Fat Cat 13" all the more precious. It's the Wire circa Pink Flag/Ramones approach to songwriting: Get to the fucking point with torqued melodiousness, reiterate your theme concisely a few times, and then fade out in a cymbal splash, leaving the listener wanting more of that sweet, sweet earworminess. This song comes from Peach Kelli Pop's album, Gentle Leader (out May 25).

Dave B, “David” (self-released). Seattle rapper/vocalist Dave B reveals his legit loverman persona on "David," and as a Dave who has special feelings about being called "David," I find this track to be very relatable. Beyond that nomenclature connection, "David" exudes Gaye-esque "Sexual Healing" vibes, replete with robust finger-snaps and a languid guitar motif that hints at post-coital bliss. Dave B's voice vibrates with lustful panache, his flow a lithe conduit of seduction.

Jan Jelinek, "Yoko Ono, you were born into a rich, aristocratic family in Tokyo. Do you see that in yourself?" (Faitiche). Zwischen is one of German producer Jan Jelinek's stranger recordings, using interstitial bits of interviews ("silences, pauses for breath and hesitations in which the interviewees utter non-semantic sound particles," as the liner notes indicate) with 12 famous musicians, philosophers, composers, and artists as key elements in his subtly discombobulating electronic collages. "Yoko Ono..." finds Jelinek at his most disruptive and mischievous. He's always been a master of radically recontextualing samples, but the results usually have been more kosmische. On Zwischen, Jelinek is working in a more microcosmic scale, and by foregrounding the parts of speech that we tend to filter out, he's making us scrutinize the odd tics that inhabit even geniuses' (and Lady Gaga's) speech patterns. It's maddening and intriguing in equal measure.

Alfredo Thiermann & Tres Warren, “Land in the Sky” (BYM). A summit meeting between Föllakzoid's Alfredo Thiermann and Psychic Ills' Tres Warren, Land in the Sky deviates from the players' main bands' motorik-heavy and blissed-out boogie-rock by exploring the possibilities of minimalist piano and spare yet spacious guitar. The album's title track is an exemplary piece of big-sky meditation, hovering in the rarefied vicinity of Harold Budd and Spiritualized at their mellowest. Warren cites Bruce Langhorne's The Hired Hand soundtrack as an inspiration, and that work's wistful longing is apparent, as well. Look into their atmospheric improvisations; deep relaxation awaits you.

Entourage, “Tarbox Poltergeist (alt take)” (Tompkins Square). You should probably explore any artist who's been sampled by Four Tet, so that's one easy entryway into Entourage, who created outlier pastoral-chamber music on the Folkways label during the '70s that should appeal to fans of Between, Third Ear Band, and Oregon. “Tarbox Poltergeist (alt take)” casts a phantasmal spell as it whorls and spangles over verdant countryside with a melancholy stateliness. Check out the 3xCD/1xLP archival release Ceremony of Dreams: Studio Sessions & Outtakes, 1972-1977 for further illumination.

Noteworthy April 27 album releases: Janelle Monáe, Dirty Computer (Atlantic/Wondaland/Bad Boy); J.Cole, KOD (Interscope); Grouper, Grid of Points (Kranky); Speedy Ortiz, Twerp Verse (Carpark); Paul White, Rejuvenate (R&S); Forth Wanderers, Forth Wanderers (Sub Pop); Half Waif, Lavender (Cascine); Willie Nelson, Last Man Standing (Sony); Dylan Carlson, Conquistador (Sargent House); Kid Koala, Floor Kids (Arts & Crafts); Post Malone, Beerbongs & Bentleys (Republic); Twin Shadow, Caer (Reprise); Joey DeFrancesco/Van Morrison, You're Driving Me Crazy (Sony); Jean Grae/Chris Quelle, Everything's Fine (Mello Music Group); Okkervil River, In the Rainbow Rain (ATO); Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog, YRU Still Here? (Northern Spy); Aquaserge, Déjà-Vous? (Crammed Discs); Nocturnal Projections, Complete Studio Recordings (Dais).