Avail
Front Porch Stories
Fat Wreck Chords
What more can you say about Avail? No one this side of Fugazi has stayed truer to their ethics while continuing to put out quality records. Lots of fourteen year old kids who live with their parents cried sellout when they signed to Fat Wreck, but you’d be hard pressed to say anything legitimately bad about the boys from Richmond. This record won’t give them any ammo either. Front Porch Stories is Avail’s best record since 1998’s Over The James. Pissed off lyrics? Got em. Big catchy singalong choruses? Check. Questionable studio fiddling and slide guitar? That’s here too, but this record is about as good as you’re going to get this side of the Dillinger Four. Yankee naysayers watch your backs: the South is rising again and Avail is leading the charge.

Digger
Keystone
Hopeless Records
I saw Digger put on a decent set to an indifferent room at this past year’s South By Southwest. I pretty unmoved, as frankly I wanted to see the Weakerthans like the rest of the crowd. Other than a song about wanting a hat back from an ex-girlfriend, I wrote them off as Blink 182 with more street cred. Hearing Keystone, I’m going to have to give them another chance. No new ground being broken here, there are all the earmarks of the indie pop-punk that you might expect: Fat Ed Rose-y production, the odd analog keyboard in the background, and lots and lots of hooks. If you like the Get Up Kids and No Knife, but wish they were a little more punk and a little less new wave, these Keystone kids are your boys.

Q and Not U
Different Damage
Dischord Records
Argue as you may, but the Dismemberment Plan put DC rock back on the map. Fugazi are an evergreen, but there was little new under the sun. The D-Plan reminded everyone that just because Ian Svenonious is an insufferable prat you shouldn’t write off the new generation of DC bands. Q And Not U got a big buzz off their first single, then went atomic after signing to Dischord and having notoriously discriminating label head Ian MacKaye produce their debut personally. He’s back in the chair again this time around and he had great material to work with. Different Damage should do for Q and Not U what Emergency And I did for the D-Plan. It’s an intelligent rock record that doesn’t get bogged down in faux jazz chin scratching or math rock bombast. It’s amazing to think that they have lost a member and are now only a three piece. My only complaint is that they repeat the two songs from their interim EP as the first two songs on the record. If you’re interested in the new school of DC rock but found the D-Plan and their electronics too overwhelming, check out Q and Not U and their Different Damage.

8 Mile
Original Movie Soundtrack
Interscope Records
You can’t keep Marshall Mathers down. The box office success of 8 Mile has made the man that America loves to hate a movie star and given the hottest record of the year with the soundtrack. Not too shabby, Slim. Em’s been making power moves recently, doing his own production and signing a crew of heavy hitters to his Shady imprint. Frankly, signing Queens own 50 Cent was the coup of the century. Add Detroit homeboy Obie Trice and new joints by Gang Starr, Nas and Rakim and you’ve got a record that will be the Purple Rain for today’s hip hop set. There is not bad track on this sucker. If you don’t like this record, you are far too backpack for your own good and should question if you actually like hip hop at all.