This is probably my favorite week of music going up on Epitonic ever. Sonic Youth has been one of my favorite bands since I was 15 years old, when I was first baffled by the sounds emitted from my Sister cassette. Thanks to our friends at Geffen Records, we are fortunate enough to be able to promote the new album and offer songs from Sister and Goo. They made me pick my two favorite songs from their entire catalogue to post, impossible. These songs are two great ones though and they define two of their more pivotal records, although it was hard not to include anything off of Daydream Nation or EVOL or umm, well don't get me started...

Then a band that i fell in love with about 1992, Guided by Voices, is finally on Epitonic. I sat on my porch with a friend last night trying to explain why I like GBV so much, as we listened to the new album. He doesn't like them at all, it is always a love or hate thing with that band and I'm not sure why. Perhaps the genius is a bit buried beneath the accessibility of such pop, it tends to instantly turn some underground music listeners off. I actually tend to dislike their albums for a few listens, then they soon become some of my favorites. That happens pretty much every time, it's weird. Robert Pollard said this album is "Isolation Drills meets Alien Lanes," and those are probably my two favorite GBV records ever. I don't know if he's completely accurate with this synopsis, but they were definitely thinking in that direction and the album is fantastic.

Several other new features this week are just amazing. Consonant's track "Buckets of Flowers, Porno Mags" gives me that funny feeling in my stomach, that just doesn't happen much anymore. And Consonant member Chris Brokaw's solo album is astounding, he's one of my favorite guitarists of all time. I wish Matador Records would give us a Come track -- hint hint. And finally New Terror Class and Erase Errata are great punk bands, glad to have some new Troubleman Unlimited music up. Mike Simonetti has been promising us newer Troubleman CDs for a long time now and keeps flaking out on me. So if you read this and have been wondering why all of those albums haven't been posted. Send him a snippy email on my behalf -- he he.

Enjoy...