Mike Gintz of Clawjob: “Last Five Records I Listened To”

1_ The Fire Show, Saint the Fire Show [Perishable]

2_ Caribou, Andorra [Merge]

3_ Liars [Mute]

4_ Clark, Throttle Furniture [Warp]

5_ Neil Young, Tonight’s the Night [Reprise]

Oh, right, punk rock: we'd almost forgot it existed. Not like this’ll change the world, but Spitzz are really good at it: guitars that slop but also roar like airplane engines, the way the Pistols and Sham 69 did; frazzled Johnny Thunders' leads; shock-treatment sneers.

We don't have time to give you a big hoo-raw on how unbelievably fucking great New Bomb Turks were -- if you don't already know, then 1) you're an idiot, and 2) that's what Google's for. The quick: Ohio garage-punk legends, Crypt Records, Drunk on Cock, Epitaph, kaput. They played the kind of sloppy punk rock associated with total morons and degenerate drug addicts, but they used it to turn puns like "Born Toulouse Lautrec," thereby confounding most and pissing off not a few.

DOWNLOAD: The Silver Lining, “Cemented Steps” (mp3)

It’s rare to hear a debut album that sounds as fully-realized as the the Silver Lining’s note-perfect, Tony Goddess-produced Well Dressed Blues, which already already has folks describing them as the US’s answer to Magic Numbers.

Anyone who’s listened to Dinosaur Jr.’s latter-day albums (or was around to see the pre-Dino hardcore group Deep Wound) knows that alt-rock guitar hero J Mascis is also a pretty decent drummer. Following last year’s Dinosaur reunion tour, he got back behind the kit with WITCH, his new band with long-time pal Dave Sweetapple and Kyle Thomas and Asa Irons from the Vermont-based, Devendra Banhart–collaborating avant-folkies Feathers.

When Thurston Moore signed a deal with Universal to distribute his Ecstatic Peace label, veteran bullroarers BLACK HELICOPTER found themselves -- alongside labelmates Sunburned Hand of the Man -- as Boston's newest, and most unlikely, major-label artists. It couldn't happen to a cooler bunch of guys.

DRIVE LIKE JULY's hyperactive-lunatic frontman, Silas Copathic, began his musical career as a mild-mannered trombonist in the Duxbury High School marching band. But as he came out of his shell and became more psy-chopathic (get it?) over the years, he started writing minor-key-melody-driven punk-metal tunes, perfected his scream, and put a band together.

The GENDERS grew up studying American rock and roll, absorbing the sound and stance of bands like the Stooges and the Velvet Underground. And in that tradition, they sing about what they know: sex, drugs, and, uh, the Arab-Israeli conflict. See, the Genders hail from Tel Aviv, a relatively peaceful city in Israel -- emphasis on "relatively" -- and days before they started recording their new Rockin' in Ramallah (AMP), a coffee shop down the street from their studio was bombed.