Multi-instrumentalist Andy LeMaster proved he could write songs with his first two albums under the name Now It's Overhead. On the third, Dark Light Daybreak (Saddle Creek), he shows off his skills as a recording engineer and music theorist, constructing tracks like the softly hammering "Estranged," which combines a complex melody line with a densely layered arrangement. A lot of the record comes across as overthought, but LeMaster bears following so long as he delivers songs as exciting and mercurial as "Walls," a blend of early-'80s prog and post-punk, topped with an amazing drum sound… B
For the follow-up to 2004's wiggy The Heat Can Melt Your Brain, Portland husband/wife, drums/guitar duo Viva Voce gets heavier and more abstract. Get Yr Blood Sucked Out (Barsuk) trots out poppy post-Pixies coo and rumble, mainly as a frame for Anita Robinson's chunky, wavy guitar solos. This record is more about atmosphere than songcraft, and is at its best on the cinematic half-instrumental "How To Nurse A Bruised Ego" and the chugging "From The Devil Himself," which is about how to pass a happy day with demons… B
Baltimore duo Ecstatic Sunshine combines the work of two guitar virtuosos, Matthew Papich and Dustin Wong; on the album Freckle Wars (Carpark), they deploy way-out fretwork and inhumanly rapid strumming in service of experimental compositions that only occasionally burst with melody. The album is too raw and undisciplined—by design, surely—but when Papich and Wong find a sudden surf hook halfway through "Ramontana," or a pretty riff to kick off "Tuscan," the clarity justifies the surrounding haze… B
Also from Baltimore, emo-folk quartet Page France presents the songs of bandleader Michael Nau in low-key settings that evolve into Danielson-style marches, complete with bells and tambourines. The band's debut album, Hello, Dear Wind—newly reissued by Suicide Squeeze—features striking sing-alongs like "Jesus" and "Trampoline," which sound like a church-group meeting spiked with a little smart-ass adolescent angst. Collectivist indie-rock must be the new religion… B+
And speaking of religion, avant-garde folk-rock spiritualist Wooden Wand (a.k.a. James Toth) returns with his umpteenth album, Second Attention (Kill Rock Stars). Toth's work has generally ranged from likeably mystical to hopelessly self-indulgent, but this record finds a new mode: accessible. Songs like "Hot Death" and "The Bleeder" recall Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Neil Young, though the Christian critique of "Crucifixion, Pt. II"—with its final line, "At last accept blame for what's done in your name"—is pure Wooden Wand. B