Recommendations for the masses, and that includes you.

You know about the show tonight, right? At The Note? See you there? Good. Also, tomorrow at The Pontiac, Team Band saves the day and pulls through at the last second for another band that regrettably had to cancel their show. Expect raucous life-affirming rock and/or roll from both events. Do not expect to see Tankboy getting sloshed and/or into fights at either.

Speaking of raucous life-affirming rock and/or roll, I think it's time for another installment of Five Albums Totally Kicking My Ass That I Can't Stop Listening To™, don’t you think? Yes, I do think. So, without further ado:

Five Albums Totally Kicking My Ass That I Can’t Stop Listening To™
The Hold Steady: Boys & Girls In America – This is the one that's going to break them. It has to be. Craig Finn's Bruce Springsteen thing has blossomed into a flower of such blinding brilliance that The Boss's own body of work ends up looking like a monochromatic print from the 1930s dustbowl. Couple this lyrical brilliance with rock and/or roll that rolls like a steamroller and rocks like one of those "flab-away" electronic belts and the ecstatic jiggling just won't, can’t won't stop. This has thrust to the lead for my own personal album of the year. At least this week.

The Changes: Today Is Tonight – It was only a matter of time before the more polite undercurrent of the neu-New Wave trend hit Chicago. The Changes write tight little pop tunes with sunny choruses and float-away vocals. I’m listening to this a lot, but I'll be honest … the jury is still out on these guys. They’ve gotten a lot of buzz, seem super-nice, and have put together a nice opening foray of a debut, but I'm not sure if what they’ve put together is actually great, or if it’s just refreshing. I'll have an actual review on this closer to it's release date, but until then it’s certainly doing me no harm to listen to it over and over and over again. The same can't be said for the equally buzzed about debut by Catfish Haven. But this isn't about them, this is about stuff I like right now.

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: Sinner – Seriously, between Joan Jett and Mission Of Burma, younger rockers should be ashamed of themselves. This is possibly (well, almost certainly) the best, strongest album in Jett's career. She rips, she snarls, she sashays and she absolutely slays. From the evisceration of our current political situation in the lead-off track through the tender power of the closing "Bad Time" Jett proves conclusively that she is one of the (again, if not the) coolest woman in rock and/or roll.

Teddybears: Soft Machine – I've written enough about these guys already. Let's just say they’ve taken Lily Allen’s place as my guilty summer pleasure.

Snowden: Anti-Anti – This one has been a grower. I've read lots about them over the last year but had never really given them a listen, figuring they were just yet another NYC band that probably sounded like every other NYC band that girls in tight shirts, short skirts, and a passel of band buttons on their handbag were championing this season. My bad, there. The band delivers a woozier take on the whole neu-New Wave thing that relies more upon interesting sonic textures than it does gimmickry. Singer Jordan Jeffares' voice is what you might think a sedated Robert Smith would sound like after a spate of singing lessons to cure any nervous tics. My personal draw, though, are the skittering guitars that poke around the songs and keep them from falling into anything resembling a cliché.

So there you have it. Some new music to check out now / look forward to as well as the heads-up about two great shows in Chicago this weekend. What more could you ask for?

Don’t answer that.