Back in my college radio days, I discovered indie rock. Before then & in high school, I listened exclusively to punk music, and I generally scoffed at anything off-genre. Forced to play 80% of my radio show from the station's general rotation (which was updated weekly and held anything from gospel to hiphop to noise metal), I discovered tons of great music, which goes to show niche programming isn't going to encourage diversity. Had I lived then in the world we do now, I might have only read punk blogs, heard punk Internet radio stations, chatted on punk forums, kept dying my hair red or pink or blue; I would have discovered new music, but all within the small scope of what I already liked. As it was, most of my friends had similar musical tastes. It took several listens, albeit begrudgingly at first, to introduce me to nearly all my mainstay staples (aka The Big 5). I quickly went on to profess a love of The Explosion, Denali, Iron & Wine, The Black Heart Procession, Pedro the Lion, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Fugazi, Lightning Bolt, half the rosters of indie labels Saddle Creek and Polyvinyl, and one talented group from Seattle: Death Cab for Cutie.

Yeah, I know. If you're like me, Plans left a bad taste in your mouth. It's not that I don't like the album; I bought it the day it hit stores. It's not that it's on a major label; I don't assume more money and better production will lead to a bad record. It's not even that it's so full of sugary-sweet pop sentiment I sometimes want to follow up each listen with a good, cleansing dose of pure grindcore ala Discordance Axis. Nor, like the cries of so many hipsters and critics (often one and the same people), did I think it was a surprising direction for the band - it just wasn't the sound I liked. Their originality, that Death Cab sound, that blend of tight bass/heavy drums/fuzzy guitar/lo-fi production they did so well. It was instead piano & pop, love songs full of hope. What made their former bleak greyness in a Seattle summer disappear? What about those no longer cynical lyrics? It was barely human, a Chris Walla production masterpiece, but it also had sleek mass appeal. And Death Cab got the fame they deserved. They earned it, after all.

This year, the stage is set for new chances and a new album, Narrow Stairs (Atlantic, 05.13.08). If you've been paying any attention, you already know what the critics think of it. And old fans like me? It's damn good. It's got teeth, edges. It's got songs to remind you of nearly all their best: We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes (Big Sur tribute "Bixby Canyon Bridge", softly-spacey but hard-hearted "The Ice is Getting Thinner"), Photo Album (great bass and rhythm on "Cath...", echoing the pulse of "We Laugh Indoors"), Transatlanticism ("Talking Bird" pairs the same sagging slowness of that 2003 album with Plans' "Your Heart is an Empty Room"), and plenty of new originals to remind you why you thought this band great in the first place ("You Can Do Better Than Me" is a waltzy gem; "Grapevine Fires" vividly paints a nightmare in lyrics). Moreover, this is a band staring down fandom and daring to make mistakes. It's indie rock, and it gets better with each listen.

Speaking of good getting better, Portishead's back after nearly a decade with their third full-length, thusly titled Third. It's a wounded sparrow in the palm of your hand - Beth Gibbons' tense and trembling vocals paired with some seriously wicked sonic dissonance and more than one drum machine. My coworker Jimmy Lavelle did us all a favor bringing in his copy of the album; we play it nonstop! My heart skipped a beat when I read of its release back in January. Well worth the wait.

And since you've been so kind as to read this far, here's a treat from my newest favorite band, Canandian folk-rockers Plants & Animals (that's my favorite track, likable to the extreme; also check out "Faerie Dance"). Not surprisingly, they're on Secret City Records, the fabulous label-home of two other Amafavs: Miracle Fortress & Patrick Watson. The Canada Music Fund strikes again! What does it say about us when we subsidize corn but not art?

Thanks and image copyright to Andy Reitz: http://redefine.dyndns.org/~andyr/blog/