Konono No. 1: "Ditshe Tshiekutala"

When Konono No. 1's Bazombo trance music is blown through a self-made sound system the result may remind some of experimental/psyche rock bands or German electronic band Kraftwerk. For listeners who don't listen to African music there are reference points. It recalls the mechanical DIY and freakout-ness of Silver Apples. Percussion, likembes (thumb pianos), whistles and homemade microphones create dense, distorted grooves unlike anything heard on these shores. This track isn't on Konono No. 1's recently released Congotronics Vol. 1, but it's very similar and should give you a good indication why the band and album has received rave reviews. The band is currently on their first U.S. tour and will play three shows in New York next week (one at Joe's Pub, two at SOB's).

(MP3 link via The Suburbs Are Killing Us, long a champion of Konono No. 1)

The Bronx: "Heart Attack American"

There's nothing new about the song or this band. The Bronx's debut album was one of Coolfer's favorites of 2003, a sharp blast of loud, screaming rock 'n' roll. Seriously raw power. They're on tour with Dilinger Escape Plan and according to the band's website they were in the studio over the summer recording a new album.

The Morning After Girls: "Hi-Skies"

Was it the movie "Dig!" or was it inevitable that listeners and labels would be paying such heed to bands that owe greatly to the methodone-fed psychedelic rock that the Brian Jonestown Massacre has championed since the mid-'90s? The one-sheet has the requisite references to all the key names one mentions when describing fuzzed out, droning, multi-guitar rock music -- Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Spiritualized, Spaceman 3 -- and even Primal Scream (pre-"Come Together" maybe) and The Psychedelic Furs (there's a band that should be mentioned in reviews of half of NYC's rock bands). But this trend, this sound, is really about Anton Newcombe and his merry band of BJM pranksters. The name-dropping would be for nothing if the band wasn't good, and the Morning After Girls' Prelude EP 1 & 2 (Rainbow Quartz) lives up to the name-dropping as well as anybody.