YOUNG WIDOWS

Old Wounds

(Temporary Residence)

It didn’t seem like too many people had a lot of hope for Young Widows when the band was born in 2005. The band formed, for lack of a better term, when singer Steven Sindoni quit Louisville, Ky.’s Breather Resist, leaving the remaining three members the choice of finding another singer or forging on as a three piece. The band chose the latter, and bassist Evan Patterson stepped up to the vocal spot. The music the three made was so different than the blazing hardcore of Breather Resist – blending the ambling bass lines of the Jesus Lizard with angular guitar, reminiscent of D.C. bands like Regulator Watts – that a clean cut with the past seemed logical, and Young Widows was born.

“Old Wounds,” the band’s sophomore effort, doesn’t so much pick up where the first LP, “Settle Down City,” left off, as it does take an exponential leap ahead of that album. Recorded by legend-to-be Kurt Ballou, the record is a hodgepodge of live and studio tracks, artfully spliced together to make a record that showcases both Young Widows’ balls-out on-stage prowess as well as its artistry in the more structured creative setting of a studio.

NO AGE 

Nouns 

(Sub Pop) 

No Age demands an answer to the question “What is punk?” The duo, drummer/vocalist Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall, are fixtures in the Los Angeles DIY scene and seem to view their music and lives as one giant, interwoven performance art piece. Challenging the idea that a low-fi, two-piece band can’t be melodic or powerful, No Age pulls out all the stops on “Nouns,” its first proper full-length and debut album for Sub Pop. It’s a noise- and feedback-drenched aural attack, accompanied by a full-color booklet of random photos, video captures and vast swatches of bright colors. How appropriate.

PYGMY LUSH

Mount Hope 

(Lovitt Records) 

You’d never know the members of Pygmy Lush made their bones playing in some of Virginia’s best-known hardcore bands. “Mount Hope,” the band’s second album, is a dense and ethereal mix of moody guitars and wispy vocals. Songs from “Mount Hope” would be right at home alongside Ester Drang and Slowdive in a nice rainy-day mix. As beautiful as it is haunting, “Mount Hope” is a wonderful addition to a sadly under-populated genre.