The Joy Formidable: "Cholla"

People who claim that "there's no good music coming out nowadays" typically seem to have that attitude because they want music to remain frozen in amber circa whatever era they graduated high school.

Well if you grew up in the 90's there's really no excuse to be sleeping on bands like Metric or The Joy Formidable. Hell, the latter has even been on a major label (Atlantic) since their first - and, so far, only - album, 2011's The Big Roar. The follow up, Wolf's Law, isn't expected until January but recently the band gifted us an advance in the form of "Cholla", a hook-soaked anthem that would have saturated alt rock radio if Garbage had recorded it back in the mid-90's.

Toadies: "Summer of the Strange"

I hate to say it, but I've often considered Todd Lewis a bit of a squandered talent. After unleashing one of the greatest mainstream rock records of the 90's (Toadies' Rubberneck), Lewis and company had their follow up album straight up rejected by their record label, which resulted in a seven year wait for the underwhelming Hell Below/Stars Above (which stubbornly rehashed most of the shit that had been rejected in the first place; in 2010 Lewis actually had the gall to re-record that rejected LP - Feeler - when the label opted to spare the citizens of Earth by not releasing the old master tapes).

Superheavy: "Miracle Worker"

This is what it sounds like when Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Damian Marley, and Dave Stewart get together in 2011.  Is this the inevitable result of aging stars attempting to remain relevant in the MP3 era?  Getting together with younger stars (of questionable relevance themselves) and attempting to one up Santana at his own collabo game?  "Miracle Worker" is exactly the sort of studio-concocted, cookie cutter fluff you expect it to be.  Shit makes Chickenfoot look as authentic as Pavement.