Whew! After a much-needed holiday hiatus, your Music Discovery Podcast is back, and boy do we have a lot of catching up to do. We’ve got ten tracks for you this week from albums released in the early part of December. Next week we’ll be back with more from late December and early January.

Cloud Cult / “Help” from Minnesota Beatle Project, Vol. 3 (Buy at CD Baby)
For the third year in a row, Vega Productions has assembled an incredible collection of bands and musicians to cover Beatles songs with album sale proceeds benefiting music education programs around Minnesota. This version of “Help” by Cloud Cult is a standout on an album of standout tracks. When you buy from CD Baby, we’ll contribute half of our proceeds to Vega Productions as well!

Porcelain Teeth / “War Mouth” from Underbite (Buy at CD Baby)
Well, we tried. This band or individual is completely ungoogleable. But these songs are great — some pretty ambient, yet a bit out there sounds. Reminds us of a slightly more adventurous Album Leaf. Whether intentionally obscurist or merely accidentally hard-to-find, we’re glad we stumbled across it.

Jeffrey Foucault / “Real Love” from Real Love – Single (Buy at CD Baby)
Fast on the heels of this year’s excellent Horse Latitudes comes this new single from the prolific Massachusetts-based singer/songwriter. Perhaps signaling a slight change in direction from his previously somewhat mellow material, this is a stomper.

Toby Goodshank / “The Battle of Ron LaPierre (Feat. The Heat Whispers)” from Preston Spurlock / Toby Goodshank Split (Buy at CD Baby)
One third of an incredibly great collaboration by some of New York City’s most important avant/low-fi art luminaries. Preston Spurlock (animator and illustrator extraordinaire) and Toby Goodshank (of Moldy Peaches) have teamed up on this 3 song 7″. We’ve got a few copies on pink vinyl — get yours while you can!

Wizdom & Epidemmik / “Funnel of Love” from Unearthed (Buy at CD Baby)
The lead single from Seattle MC Wizdom’s new full-length is called, appropriately enough, “Patience.” He’s been at it since 1997, paying his dues and making a name for himself in what has quickly become one of the hottest underground hip-hop scenes in the country. With it’s twisted Wanda Jackson sample and storytelling like you haven’t heard since the best parts of the 90s, this track had us hooked instantly.

The Magnolias / “Torture Yours” from Pop the Lock (Buy at CD Baby)
One of the most prolific bands signed to the legendary Twin/Tone records in the 80s and 90s, The Magnolias sprung from the same Twin Cities scene that spawned the Replacements, Soul Asylum, Hüsker Dü and others, and released 5 albums between 1986 and 1996, when they disbanded. Since then, they have reformed, realigned and reconfigured more times than we have room for here, but those interested in their “complicated” history (their words) can read more on their website. To us, it’s enough that this album rocks hard and delivers hook after hook.

Heywood / “The Weight” from Skills for the Long Emergency (Buy at CD Baby)
Ben Heywood is something of a man about town in Los Angeles, fronting the long-running Summer Darling, and playing in numerous other projects. He’s also married to Heather Heywood, of all-girl rock group Kissing Cousins. Although Skills for the Long Emergency is his first solo effort, he doesn’t miss a beat — crafting sharp and catchy pop songs around lyrics that sneak up on you with their poesy and moments of bombast that sneak up on you like a velociraptor.

Hearts + Horses / “Delta + Dawn” from The Hearts + Horses Method (Buy at CD Baby)
This Sacramento wife and husband duo (plus super talented third-wheel drummer) create fascinating bubbly acid jazz that would feel equally at home in a smoky bebop club or a futuristic dance party. The musicianship is stunning, especially when you consider that much of what you’re hearing is improvised.

Medicine Hat / “Ships”from Medicine Hat (Buy at CD Baby)
Sometimes you can’t say it better than the band themselves: “Medicine Hat is the sound of falling in love: magical, uncompromising, and a bit ridiculous. Born in a cold basement after folk songstress Nabi Loney and her young lover Tyler Bersche realized that they had written enough songs about each other to make a record, Medicine Hat became the soundtrack to the first of hopefully many love stories.”

Seznec Bros / “Mother’s Last Word to Her Son” from Jagged Land (Buy at CD Baby)
Jagged Land, the just-released sophomore album from Franco-American brothers Cory and Yann Seznec, has a perfectly descriptive title. Over these 11 tracks they range from fairly straightforward folk/americana to funk, jazz, and world-influenced sounds. Jagged, and disjointed it may be, but never off-putting.

Paste Magazine has released it’s yearly list of the best “new” bands of 2011 and CD Baby artists are well represented to say the least.

Up-and-coming Denver band The Lumineers land at #20. With their catchy Americana sound, and beautiful harmonies, they’ve been charming audiences around the country. They recently landed their first TV placement, on the CW’s Hart of Dixie, and have seen sales of their debut EP spike. You can get a copy from CD Baby here.

Although they’ve been together since 2007, this has definitely been a breakout year for Nashville’s Kopecky Family Band, coming in at #15. They’ve also taken the country by storm on the strength of only a debut EP, touring with CD Baby alums and recent Glassnote signees Givers as well as Gomez.

Frequenters of the Music Discovery Blog will have surely read about the #7 band on the list, Seryn. Hailing from Denton, TX, Seryn released their debut album early this year on Velvet Blue/Spune Music and CD Baby. Since then, they’ve had an avalanche of national attention, including continued championing from Paste and others.

Also notable on the list are CD Baby alums The Head and the Heart — now of Sub Pop. Congratulations to them and all the bands on the list.

We’re back after a Thanksgiving break and we’ve got 6 tracks for you to gobble up like turkey leftovers.

Goldini Bagwell / “Wmn Vs. Wrk” from Chainsmoke (Buy at CD Baby)
CD Baby’s own Goldini Bagwell — Gold to his friends — is releasing his debut solo album this week. For years he’s rocked mics with Portland’s legendary Sandpeople crew, and is fresh off a fall tour with World Rap Champions Illmaculate and Thesaurus. While he may live the rap life at night, by day Gold is a mild-mannered digital distribution specialist, editing albums for delivery to digital retailers and ensuring CD Baby’s catalog always looks tight.

Underground System Afrobeat / “B.O.B.” from The B.O.B. EP (Buy at CD Baby)
Putting their original Brooklynized stamp on the classic afrobeat style, Underground System Afrobeat is a huge band with a huge sound. 4 horns and 7 rhythm players armed and ready to whip any space into a massive dance party. The ensemble was born in early 2010 as the brainchild of guitarist Peter Matson who fell in love with the music and story of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti while playing in a group directed by members of the seminal Afrobeat group Antibalas. Having learned the style and gaining inspiration from the best players around it was time to continue playing and creating the music with his peers. USA was born, aiming first to progress but also to pay homage to the amazing sounds that were emanating from Nigeria and the rest of West Africa in the 70′s.

Arma Secreta / “Leotards” from Dependent Lividity (Buy at CD Baby)
Four years after the demise of post-punk band Staynless, guitarist/singer Christopher Wark returns to rock music. After assembling a crack squad of instrumentalists: drummer/singer Bradley Bean, and Bassist Michael Brandon, Christopher has feverishly and methodically pieced together his monolith from a brain catalog of fragmented sounds. The Memphis, TN band’s self-produced full-length album “A Century’s Remains” was recorded in multiple sessions and locations over the last year.

Samantha Ronson & The Undertakers / “Until It’s Yesterday” from Chasing The Reds (Buy at CD Baby)
While you might know Samantha Ronson as “über hip DJ”, or “celebrity gossip magnet”, or “daughter of guitar god”, or “brother of super-producer”, you might not yet know her as “elegant songwriter, and gentle-voiced pop crooner.” Not until now, that is. Chasing the Reds is a surprisingly nuanced yet guileless collection of pop songs with enough hooks to keep you listening, but enough quirks to make it interesting.

Anis Mojgani / “Four Stars” from The World: Before & After (Buy at CD Baby)
What happens when thirteen of the nation’s most renowned poets, including the likes of Buddy Wakefield, Danny Sherrard, Anis Mojgani (heard here) and Matt Gano, collaborate on an album set to a score by award-winning musician and producer Steven Clough is nothing short of genius. In an album destined to be unlike anything you’ve heard before, The World: Before & After features poems inspired by the artists’ views on a range of worldly topics. All royalties from sales of this album will be donated to support community-based arts programs. From multiple International and National Slam Poetry champions, to internationally touring artists, an internationally traveling Cultural Envoy of the Arts for the U.S., to a poet invited to the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama and the man called a “rock star” of the poetry world by The Boston Globe, The World: Before & After is a collaboration between some of the world’s best poets.

Joe Pug / “Nation of Heat” from Live at Lincoln Hall (Buy at CD Baby)
CD Baby Music Discovery favorite Joe Pug has just released an incredible document. Recorded live in his adoptive hometown of Chicago, these 17 tracks capture what makes Joe Pug a special artist — his intimate connection with his fans, his beguilingly simple delivery, his big heart. His rise has been meteoric as of late — from giving away his music for free to anyone who asked for it, to releasing his newest albums with Lightning Rod records (home of James McMurtry) and selling out shows all over the country. We’re pleased to team up on this live album, showcasing his immense talent in it’s native habitat.

With just a couple weeks until the holiday season kicks into full gear, we’ve got an entire metric crap ton of new music for you this week. But quantity doesn’t mean a lack of quality — check out all these awesome tracks from albums dropping this week!

Hey Marseilles / “Elegy” from Elegy (Vinyl) (Buy at CD Baby)
Hey Marseilles’ Elegy is their first offering since their album To Travels & Trunks debuted nationally in June of last year. The Seattle-based orchestral pop outfit has toured nationally for the last year and earned comparisons to Beirut & Devotchka. We’ve got a limited supply of the vinyl for this single, so snatch yours up!

Will Martina / “Instant This” from The Dam Levels (Buy at CD Baby)
Prolific Australia-via-NYC cellist Will Martina has been playing with seemingly everyone over the last few years, including New York’s soul-jazz-hip hop carnival Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber (who also have a brand new album out on CD Baby). This newest release finds him re-exploring his native Australia through a series of pieces inspired by the drought of 2006.

Escort / “Cocaine Blues” from Escort (Buy at CD Baby)
Escort has been setting dance floors ablaze with their disco-infused beats, irresistibly catchy hooks and seductive live show since releasing a series of 12” singles in 2006. The seventeen-member “disco orchestra”, founded by producers Eugene Cho and Dan Balis, and fronted by lead singer Adeline Michèle, features an incredible cast of musicians who have played with everyone from indie-rock titans Arcade Fire to avant-classical luminaries Alarm Will Sound. Steeped in the venerable tradition of club-land’s holy trinity, New York, Chicago, and Detroit, Escort’s self-titled new album pays homage to mutant-pop luminaries such as Kid Creole and the Coconuts & Ian Dury.

The Color Bars / “Mustached Messiah” from Prosopopoeia (Buy at CD Baby)
Brooklyn’s prolific pop act The Color Bars are releasing their 4th album this week. Their official bio reads like some kind of Dadaist Mad Lib (“Their fans, a disloyal and untrustworthy flock of methodone-dependent sandhill cranes, became a threat to the band’s virginity, and they had to resort to becoming mothers just to keep from rusting.”) so perhaps I’ll sum them up thusly: fans of pop music, especially fans of the somewhat bizarre strains that tend to issue from the Elephant 6 Collective, will be fans of The Color Bars.

Andrea Gibson / “Staircase” from Flower Boy (Buy at CD Baby)
Andrea Gibson is not gentle with her truths. Flower Boy, her 5th full length release, continues to be a rally cry for action and a welcome mat at the door of the heart’s most compassionate room. The first winner of the Women’s World Poetry Slam, Gibson has been featured on NPR, BBC Air Amercia, C-SPAN and Free Speech TV. In 2010, a Utah state representative read a poem of hers on the floor of the House in lieu of their morning prayer. Flower Boy features music of Chris Pureka, Nervous but Excited and more.

Canines / “Dry Land” from Canines (Buy at CD Baby)
This band proved to be completely ungoogleable. Unless they are a rescue shelter or a pet shop masquerading as a band playing fairly epic indie/folk, I was unable to find anything about them on the internet. But really, what do you need to know? You can get the album from us, and it’s good, rumbly, vocal-driven aggressive pop music. Recommended if you like: Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes, Suckers.

Control / “The Facts” from Grabhorn, C. (Buy at CD Baby)
Grabhorn, C., named for artist, Craig Grabhorn, is the first installment in collaborative project between Control and three visual artists from the Madison area. Each artist creates a 12 inch screen print to accompany 4 Control songs, and the EP comes as a digital download with the print. Prints and cassettes available at Science of Sound. Or get the download direct from CD Baby

Pert Near Sandstone / “Solid Gone” from Paradise Hop (Buy at CD Baby)
With the release of their fourth album, Paradise Hop, Pert Near Sandstone has managed to harness the raw energy of their famed live shows and inject it into 12 tracks of original material and a couple of originally arranged traditional songs sprinkled on top. The band’s trials and tribulations, encountered during life on the road as a Modern American Stringband, spill out in vivid detail. Paradise Hop is a celebration of life in all of its glorious peaks and torturously painful valleys that leaves listeners with an acute sense of what it’s like to step into the beautifully twisted world of Pert Near Sandstone.

Hey it’s Ben — I’m back with five quick tracks from our favorite albums released on CD Baby this week. Be sure to support these artists by buying their albums direct from CD Baby, where the artists make more than any other store on the web.

A good friend thanked me today for always sharing music with her. I told her that there is nothing I enjoy more than sharing music I love with people I love. It’s the truth. So thank you all, listeners and artists, for allowing me the opportunity to do that! You’re the best.

Bear & Moose / “Bear & Moose” from Bear & Moose (Buy at CD Baby)
These guys are a relatively new Portland two-piece, playing a kind of beat-heavy, slightly mathy jangle rock that has become something of a staple here in the Rose City. Will appeal to fans of Blitzen Trapper, the Joggers, or Helio Sequence. They’re celebrating the release of this excellent double-album somewhat belatedly on January 5th of next year–for those of you in Portland, stop by the Doug Fir!

Cypress String Quartet / “Two Sketches Based on Indian Themes – I. Lento e mesto” (Griffes) from The American Album (Buy at CD Baby)
I don’t know too much about classical music, so I won’t embarrass myself by pretending I do. But I like this album of chamber music from this long-running and well-regarded string quartet from San Francisco. This piece was especially interesting to me for the backstory:

Charles Tomlinson Griffes’ Two Sketches is based on two Native American songs. The members of the Cypress String Quartet have done a great deal of research on which songs Griffes used in his concert work. They spoke with an elder of the Chippewa tribe, and found that the first sketch is based on the “Chippewa Farewell Song,” and the second is part of a Hopi festival. Cypress cellist Jennifer Kloetzel explains further, “The farewell song may have been sung by the tribe’s warriors as they walked to war, and then sung by the tribe’s women and children as they walked back to the village from the battlefield.”

Hiro Kone / “Knives” from Hiro Kone (Buy at CD Baby)
I’ve never really known what to call it when one person calls themselves a band-like name. Is that a band? Solo project? Should I call the person that name? A friend suggested the term “bandle,” as a portmanteau of “band” and “handle.” Works for me. Anyways, Hiro Kone is the bandle of Brooklynite Nicky Mao, who makes spacy, slightly gothy soundscapes above which she lofts her Björk-esque voice. As Village Voice says, “For all the electronics at work, the word that best describes Hiro Kone’s music is earthy.”

Brownbird Rudy Relic / “I’ve Given Up” from I Am the Juke! (Buy at CD Baby)
See how handy that term is? Brownbird Rudy Relic doens’t use his government name, going by his bandle in his ventures as a street performer in New York City and as a prolific vegan blogger. He calls his music “holler blues,” hearkening back to the field songs of the early south.

Lonesome Wyatt and the Holy Spooks / “Long, Long Ago” from Heartsick (Buy at CD Baby)
Lonesome Wyatt and his Holy Spooks aren’t really so lonesome — they’re in good company in the world of gothic folk, joining the likes of Black Heart Procession and Dead Man’s Bones in the creepier corner of the new Americana.

We’ve got seven tracks for you this week — all from fresh albums just released on CD Baby. With the exception of the Embers track, which is actually creepy as hell, there’s not really a Halloween theme.

Ancient Heat / “Oh . . . You Bad” from Oh . . . You Bad (Buy at CD Baby)
Portland electro-disco group kicks out hot dance beats. The EP features two remixes of the title track, as well as a B side.

Jupe Jupe / “Olympic Garden” from Reduction in Drag (Buy at CD Baby)
Jupe Jupe might remind you a bit of Pulp at first listen. But if you listen again, they’ll probably REALLY remind you of Pulp. And that’s fine by me.

Find the Others / “Farewell to Winter” from Find the Others (Buy at CD Baby)
Find the Others is the project of Toronto guitarist Andy Sheppard, collaborating with visual artists. One might feel a little ripped off only hearing the music and not seeing the associated visuals, except that the music itself is so beautiful on its own.

Dangerflow / “Shocker” fromn Win Lose or Die (Buy at CD Baby)
Hailing from Miami, Dangerflow mix afro-cuban rhythms with club bangers and hip-hop vocals.

Embers / “Insecticide” from Lichtzwart (Buy at CD Baby)
A Belgian noise duo about whom there is not much available in English. Their press kit seems to be the following, which works for me::

No more white lies
No more hiding behind
funny nicknames
The deathtrain has simply crashed
into the railway station

Limbs are twitching
Embers are glowing

For God’s sake:
Lettuce prey…

With Lions / “To Be” from Touch the Sound (Buy at CD Baby)
The first of four EPs to be released this year by this ambitious duo — huge sounds. They’re also performing one, meticulously rehearsed show for each EP in the cycle.

Moving Castles / “Heroin” from Twin Daggers (Buy at CD Baby)
Moving Castles play rock music. These days, with the proliferation of micro-genres so specific there are often only 2 or 3 bands committed to the style, it’s a little refreshing. Big guitars, big choruses, and a big final chord.

It’s not too often professional athletes successfully cross over into the music world (no, The Big Aristotle doesn’t count. And think of the failed albums of Allen Iverson, Ron Artest, and countless others). But perhaps bull riding has a more natural affiliation to country music than rap has to basketball.

Colby Yates has been riding professionally for 11 years now, so he knows his way around a bull. But it turns out music is in his blood — his Grandmother sang with the Chuck Wagon Gang — a popular gospel group in the 30s. So it’s no surprise, I suppose, that his debut album is seeing great success. While he doesn’t sing about bull riding all the time, his day job does lend an authentic feel to his songs. When he sings about a cowboy with broken ribs, he’s not just blowing smoke — he’s been there!

Download the album, entitled Right Amount of Renegade right here and don’t forget to root for Colby as he rides for the championship this weekend!

Your host was knocked out by a nasty sinus infection last week, but Ben is back with a double stuffed episode this week. 8 tracks from hot new albums dropping these last two weeks.

Katie Kate / “Hunting” from Flatland (Buy at CD Baby)
Debut release from Seattle’s Katie Kate. Bold, innovative beats layered with slick raps, catchy pop hooks and equal parts humor and pain.

State Champion / “The First Day” from Deep Shit (Buy at CD Baby)
Kansas rockers deliver bombast and hooks, sloppy and sweet. I don’t know if it’s the early nineties, Pavement-meets-Replacements vibe, or the casual but insightful lyrics or what exactly, but this is one of my favorite things I’ve heard in a while.

Ryan Horne / “Palm of Your Hand” from The Whistler & The Majestic (Buy at CD Baby)
Nashville singer-songwriter’s 6th album delivers rich instrumentation and always arresting songwriting.

Mr. Gnome / “Winter” from Madness in Miniature (Buy at CD Baby)
Two-piece from Cleveland makes strikingly original music for fans of having their ear-drums alternately thrashed and massaged.

The Western States Motel / “All the Stars” from Freeway Freeway Riverbed (Buy at CD Baby)
Los Angeles has plenty of bouncy pop bands, and the Western States Motel are certainly one of them. But that’s not to say they’re unoriginal — focused instrumentation highlights snare-drum-tight songwriting and makes for a very cohesive sound.

The Graves / “Say It In a Song” from The Graves – EP (Buy at CD Baby)
Inevitable Jonas Brothers comparisons aside, these three brothers have put together a handful of songs that are velcro-catchy and honey-sweet.

Mindy Gledhill / “Little Soldier” from Winter Moon (Buy at CD Baby)
Her last album, Anchor, still feels fresh, and it may be only October, but the Utah singer-songwriter is back with a full album of holiday season music. Don’t worry — fans of Ingrid Michaelson or Regina Spektor will have no complaints about the pop surplus.

The Curtis Brothers / “Protestor” from Completion of Proof (Buy at CD Baby)
New York jazz scene heavyweight brothers unite for their second album and deliver some next level modern latin-jazz.

Your intrepid host is home sick these last couple of days, but will return later this week with a podcast highlighting this week’s best new music from CD Baby — in the mean time, check this out:

Patrice Pike: Live and Then Some! from Pride Wright on Vimeo.

Long-time CD Baby artist Patrice Pike just released an EP of bonus tracks from her second volume of live recordings from the Brushwood Lounge series. Today she has a new video up from her release party for that album, and it’s well worth watching. Brushwood Lounge curator Pride Wright explains:

Rolling Stone magazine said of Patrice Pike, “She’s Tina Turner, Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, and Robert Plant all rolled up into a tiny but explosive package.” Her repeat visits to the bucolic town of Murphys in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California over the past eight years have yielded a deep connection with place, a host of friends and fans, and an ongoing stream of fruitful creative collaborations. “Live and Then Some: Brushwood Lounge Volume 2″, released this summer, and the follow-up five song EP “Live at the Brushwood Lounge, Volume 2.5″ offer further evidence of Pike’s movement in the direction of R&B. In this six song video, her soulful performance ranges from smoldering to combustible. Her EP is specially priced at $3.49 for the remainder of the month, and it’s an excellent introduction to one of the finest live performers on the scene today.

Music Discovery alums Icarus Himself are featured on one of our favorite MP3 blogs, Said the Gramophone. If you’re not familiar with Said the Gramophone, you should be. It’s one of the first MP3 blogs, but far from a traditional MP3 blog — rather than reviews they usually write stories that are kind of emotionally tied to the songs. This story is about a floating head babysitter:

Arnold and Tommy were brothers and their babysitter was a floating head. Arnold was 6 and Tommy was 4, they had talked about getting married, they only talked of that in whispers, and their babysitter was a floating head. They shared reused gum, they had a shared collection of homemade kiln-fired figurines that looked like beige blobs with arms, and their babysitter was a floating head.

Read the rest here, and pick up Icarus Himself’s brand new album Career Culture right here at CD Baby.