Two Miles High Music

Work is the third full-length from Sweden's Shout Out Louds. Produced by Phil Ek (Fleet Foxes, The Shins), Work strips away all of the bells and whistles of previous efforts to showcase the band doing what they do best, writing and playing pop music that is "nostalgic and angst-ridden, but ultimately life-affirming. Shout Out Louds have found a winning formula." (Amazon.com)

Debut album from the Swedish five piece rock band.

More evidence that there is actually a garage rock factory in Sweden--the U.S. debut from this perfectly formed, retro-rock quintet bustles with handclaps, keyboard-driven pop melodies and a potent new-wave punch. There's a drop-dead gorgeous blonde like the Ravonettes and a shaggy-haired front man like the Hives (plus someone that inexplicably looks like Moby) but Shout Out Louds otherwise offer up their own variation of the genre using crisp go-go rhythms on "Hurry Up Let's Go" and a woozy southern drawl on the bittersweet "Please Please Please." Fans of the Wannadies will certainly not want to look the other way. --Aidin Vaziri

OneRepublic considers its music to be influenced by everyone from the Beatles to U2, and anything in between. "We're no respector of genre," says frontman Ryan Tedder, "If it's a good song or a good artist whether rock, pop, indie or hip hop, they've probably influenced us on some level...nothing's new under the sun, we're a sum of a bunch of parts." They aspire to move their listeners the way Bono does onstage. "You go to a U2 concert and it's like church," Tedder says. "I'd love to make people feel like that. I don't want someone to just say, `Oh, nice voice, nice song.' I want that person to walk away and feel like he or she has had a religious experience; we want them to feel moved." The band was formed in Colorado by Tedder and high school classmate Zach Filkins. The pair moved to Los Angeles, where they picked up fellow Coloradan, guitarist/keyboardist Drew Brown and drummer Eddie Fisher. The band's most recent inductee, Brent Kutzle, plays bass and adds something extra to live shows with his classical cello. In addition to his work with his own band, Tedder is a Grammy nominated writer & has written & produced tracks with/for various other artists, including Natasha Bedingfield, Jennifer Lopez, Lil' Jon, Paul Oakenfold, t.A.T.u., Bubba Sparxxx, Tupac and uber-producer Timbaland. A remix of OneRepublic's song "Apologize" is featured on Timbaland's album, Shock Value. The song "Apologize" explores the personal pain of multiple relationships gone awry and the necessity of moving on, while "Stop and Stare" describes the common frustration of getting to a place in life where you think, "How in the world did I end up here, this isn't where I wanted to be, watching what I wanted pass me by." "The lyrics have shades of melancholy, and there is a definite emotional undercurrent running through them," says the band. "If you can't tap into emotion, you're just selling catchy tunes."

If, like most of the pop-listening public, you heard Timbaland's chart-topping remix of OneRepublic's single "Apologize" before you heard the original, you may be mildly confused about what kind of music the band makes. Timabaland's signature electronic swizzles and "eh-eh-eh"s leave the impression that OneRepublic is a style-heavy outfit a la Maroon 5, but frontman Ryan Tedder's plaintive words and woebegone themes don't fall far from forerunners Keane, Coldplay, and the Fray. Dreaming Out Loud chisels away at the dichotomy. "Apologize," stripped of its swizzles, is a gorgeous modern rock song made all the more gorgeous by the urgency in Tedder's striking, unscuffed voice, and a lot of the songs on this record stack up similarly. Which is to say that, although tracks like "Tyrant" and opener "Say (All I Need)" wrap themselves around some seriously stylish production, substance is really this band's thing. A piano played by turns ferociously and tenderly drives the point home, and so do some choice lyrics; if you are inclined to choke up at feelings laid bare, check out "Goodbye, Apathy" and "Come Home" at your own risk. --Tammy La Gorce

The Swedish band's sophomore effort and Merge debut is the follow-up to 2005's critically acclaimed "Howl Howl Gaff Gaff" on Capitol. "Our Ill Wills" is a collaborative effort between the group and producer Bjorn Yttling (of Peter, Bjorn and John). This band is all about the rush, the emotion, and the infectious melodies that along with youth, good hair, and the endless pursuit of love, make up the foundation of all great pop music.

In a sense, after a slew of EPs, singles, and 2005's Howl Howl Gaff Gaff (the U.S. version of which was reorganized and augmented with various tracks from said EPs and singles), this is Shout Out Louds' first proper full-length, and the incessant touring seems to have aged their sound like a fine wine. While Howl Howl Gaff Gaff reaped much of its flavor from twee indie pop and sheer ebullience, Our Ill Wills dives headlong into the new wave influences that previously lay beneath the surface. The inspiration is immediately apparent--Brit classics like The Cure, The Modern Lovers, The Smiths (one song--not a cover--is even titled "Meat is Murder"), et al. OK, the accent's different, but the upbeat-but-melancholy hop is undeniable. The pop perfection here is due in no small part to the man behind the boards, Björn Yttling (he of the sandwich-acronymed Peter, Björn and John). Simple string arrangements and washes of texture are draped over each song. Percussion by Yttling's bandmate, John Eriksson, perfectly augments most songs (further solidifying those Head on the Door era Cure comparisons). Witness the woodpecker woodblocks on "Impossible," or the the samba-esque a gogo bells of the first single, "Tonight I Have to Leave It," cleverly decorating its dour sing-song. "You Are Dreaming" is a slinky, tom-driven, lost-love rocker. Later in the album, playful but gut-wrenching naïve pop songs recall Moe Tucker's vocal on the Velvet Underground's "I'm Sticking with You," like "Blue Headlights," with keyboardist Bebban's cracking question, "We are good people, aren't we?," and "Meat is Murder," a simple tearjerker with acoustic guitar, bells, and Adam Olenius' wistful tale. "Hard Rain" closes the album, its Cars keyboard lead no indicator of the upcoming noise jam to complete the album. Say what you will about influences on sleeves, this is pop music at its best: nostalgic and angst-ridden, but ultimately life-affirming. Shout Out Louds have found a winning formula. --Jason Pace

Stomp is a rhythmic, musical extravaganza that has stunned audiences across the globe. If you weren't lucky enough to catch them in your hometown (or you did and you crave more), now there's Stomp Out Loud, a special HBO performance that will bring the unusual musical feats right into your living room. You might just find yourself grabbing a broom or even your remote control to keep time. "It's comedy, it's theater, it's very physical, it's energetic, it's occasionally quite terrifying," says one performer. Taking their show from the theater to the streets, this astonishing troupe can make music out of just about anything and just about anywhere. The opening sequence shows them dangling by harnesses across the back of a Manhattan billboard drumming on hubcaps, pipes, street signs, and plastic garbage pails, all the while swaying and keeping in perfect time. You know how you like to groove along to the radio while driving? Stomp doesn't need a radio--they use their hands to make their own music while cruising the streets of New York. Using just basketballs in a steamy alleyway, the troop creates an incredibly intricate dance and sound with the street, brick walls, and Dumpsters. Included in the program are the push broom, garbage can, and pole dances, just a few of their best-known sequences. Stomp Out Loud showcases the performers in the theater, out about town, and in short humorous vignettes (love the recurring card game!). All in all, they amaze. This well-produced video also includes a trailer and a special behind-the-scenes look at the making of Stomp Out Loud. --Dana Van Nest

Guaranteed to work or your money back - PLEASE NOTE ALL MONIES FROM THIS SALE GO TO A 501 (C)3 NO KILL ANIMAL SHELTER

Trace Adkins is deservedly one of country's brightest young stars of the late 1990s, a new-school traditionalist with a strong voice that prowls the octaves, and songs that empathize with country's working-man roots. Most importantly, though, he has an excellent sense of humor--Adkins's songs delight in clever wordplay, double entendres, and smart, funny lines that might make even non-country fans smile. The highlight here is the country hit "I Left Something Turned on at Home," which as you might suspect, isn't the iron, but rather his wife. Elsewhere he hits all the traditional themes: tough guys falling in love, cheatin' spouses, and odes to Texas. --David Daley

"Communist, Eastern European countries... may have come up with Karl Marx," punk entrepreneur Brett Gurewitz once said, "and they may have come up with Trotsky, but they'll never come up with Chuck Berry." The 1950s' rock revolution, this four-CD box is designed to remind us, led to more than just Happy Days and Grease; it was part and parcel of the movement for social change in racial and sexual terms that, like the music, was impossible to stop. Of course, it sounded great, too. ("That ain't no freight train that you hear rollin' down the railroad tracks," the Coasters remind us near the end of disc one. "That's a country-born piano man playin' in between the cracks.") Loud, Fast & Out of Control offers its share of the usual oldies-radio fodder, but also tosses in countless little-heard gems, from Gene Vincent's "B-I-Bickey-Bi, Bo-Bo-Go" (with Cliff Gallup serving up several of rockabilly's most inspired, unhinged guitar solos) and several Johnny Burnette Trio singles to Little Richard's towering title song for The Girl Can't Help It, the Johnny Otis Show's "Crazy Country Hop," and Carl Perkins's "Put Your Cat Clothes On." --Rickey Wright