THE LEG UP / Stephen M. Deusner

SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY

Getting a leg up on impending new stuff.

Back for more? Here are three upcoming releases you should know, and one you can blow off. You... are... almost... savvy.

Broken Social Scene Presents Brendan Canning: Something for All of Us (Arts & Crafts, July 22)

The Broken Social Scene reproduces asexually, producing buds that eventually separate when mature. Already, the Toronto outfit has spawned solo debuts from Emily Haines, Feist, Kevin Drew, Amy Millan, Jason Collett, and now Brendan Canning. Canning was one of the Scene’s founding members, so it’s no surprise that the songs on Something for All of Us retain that band’s low, forward thrust and its patient cacophonic crawl. “Chameleon” buzzes with synths, gradually building but never peaking. Instead, it gives way to the guitar duel of “Hit the Wall” and the errant folk of “Snowballs and Icicles.” Hell, if you close your eyes, you might think it’s the new Scene album. Nothing wrong with that.

On repeat: “Something for All of Us”

Andre Williams: Can You Deal with It? (Bloodshot, July 29)

The man who wrote “Shake a Tail Feather” returns to Bloodshot after nearly a decade, this time with the New Orleans Hellhounds in tow. On the talking-blues “Hear Ya Dance,” the seventy-two-year-old can still sing so low and lewd you can only hear him in your gut, but he spends most of this short album speak-singing with gravel in his mouth, still animated and raunchy and cartoonishly threatening on “If You Leave Me.” The Hellhounds don’t have the range or refinement of The Sadies (who backed Williams on his ’99 Bloodshot album Red Dirt), but maybe that’s for the best: With cult-legendary Crescent City organist Mr. Quintron, the group craft a sloppy garage-punk sound that matches Williams’ loose delivery and lascivious lyrics, drawing out his ruffian tendencies. They can deal with it.

On repeat: “Pray for Your Daughter”

Taylor Hollingsworth: Bad Little Kitty (Self-release, July 29)

Taylor Hollingsworth’s in-jokes—like launching your third album with the most obnoxious rock-dork introduction you could imagine—can get a little annoying. But get past the shit-eating-grin persona and you’ll find a strong blues-punk album that combines the brattiness of the Black Lips with the southern-rock jams of old-school Molly Hatchet. The Birmingham-born rabble-rouser, who has played with 13ghosts, Maria Taylor, and Conor Oberst, writes riffs like dirty jokes, but these songs have real wit. “Damn Boy (What’s Wrong with You),” which has the inevitably of a theme song, slyly rewrites the Georgia Satellites’ “Keep Your Hands to Yourself” as a loser’s anthem that’s even more sordid and surly. And “TNT & Dynamite” is the running-naked-in-the-yard bastard child of Southern Culture on the Skids and Jon Spencer. But “You Don’t Treat Me Like a Man” cuts through the humor to find a kernel of real heartache, and “Christmas Blues” manages to sound actually kinda pretty. For God’s sake, though, skip that introduction and just delete “Bad Little Kitty,” whose pop-metal rave-up doesn’t make up for the full-minute of Hollingsworth repeating the album title and distorting his voice. Dork.

On repeat: “Damn Boy (What’s Wrong with You)”

Here’s dud in your eye:

Ratatat: LP3 (XL, July 8)

This duo made a big noise a few years ago with their self-titled album, but all I hear now are crickets.

On repeat: something else.

Stephen M. Deusner is a freelance music journalist based in Washington, DC. Don't ask him about Norwegian pop or house rabbits, unless you have a few hours.