Conan

English sludge/doom metal band Conan are back with a new brutal, sonic assault to pummel your head into oblivion and stomp your bones into dust.  "Blood Eagle" is out soon on Napalm Records, but in the meantime, watch the video for the blistering "Foehammer" below.

Poemss

Somewhere between the sonic tinkerings of Wendy Carlos, the atmospheric electronics of Brian Eno, and pure symphonic pop bliss lies Toronto's Poemss, the project of producers/musicians Joanne Pollack and Aaron Funk.  The duo craft experimental synth pop that could soundtrack your sleepytime dream travels.  Oh yeah.  Listen to "Moviescapes" below and get the self-titled album from Planet Mu.

Young Widows

Louisville metal act Young Widows are seemingly described as post-hardcore, an apt description i suppose.  To me they kind of sound like Helmet as sifted through a Joy Division filter.  It's dark.  It's noisy.  There's a lot of echo.  It makes me want to dance and head bang simultaneously.  Well done.  Listen to "Kerosene Girl" below and be on the lookout for new album "Easy Pain" in May on Temporary Residence.

Eagulls

Leeds band Eagulls are prepping their raucous and rambunctious self-titled debut for release next week on Partisan Records.  The album blends punk rock, post-punk, and shoegaze together in perfect, noisy, harmonic bliss.  Listen to "Possessed" below.

RIP Harold Ramis

RIP Harold Ramis.  "Ghostbusters" will always be one of my favorite movies.  This sucks.

Small Black

Synth pop act Small Black return in April with new EP "Real People" on Jagjaguwar.  "Lines of Latitude" is the first taste from said EP, and it's a smooth and sexy R&B jam featuring a guest vocal assist from Frankie Rose.  Good stuff.  Listen below.

The Body

The Body is Lee Buford and Chip King.  The duo sound like the darkest spectrum of the Wax Trax catalog filtered through Scott Walker's deepest, most insane nightmares.  It's strange, and intense, and honestly, really fucking awesome.  Their latest album "I Shall Die Here" finds the experimental electronic noise meddlers trading shots with Bobby Krlic, aka Haxan Cloak.  This is ominous, scary music at its very best.  Get the album next month from RVNG and listen to "Hail to thee, Everlasting Pain" below.

New Bums

Here's some dusty, psych-tinged Americana folk from New Bums, a new project from Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance, Rangda, Comets on Fire).  "Voices in a Rented Room" is a hushed, acoustic affair, music to watch the sun set over the desert to.  Get it from Drag City and listen to "Black Bough" below.

Perfect Pussy

Of all the bands who will be coming through Austin during SXSW, i'm pretty damn excited about the excellently named girl-post-punk-noise-rock assault of Perfect Pussy.  The band's forthcoming LP, "Say Yes to Love" comes out in March on Captured Tracks, but go ahead and listen to cacophony of "Driver" below.

King Dude and Chelsea Wolfe

Last year King Dude and Chelsea Wolfe released a split 7" for Record Store Day.  In March, the two are releasing a new 7", this time teaming together like some sort of Gothic-folk version of Nancy and Lee.  I wholeheartedly approve of this duo's endeavor and would like to encourage more of it in the future.  Listen to "Be Free" below and look for the "Sing More Songs Together..." 7" on Not Just Religious Music next month.

Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks

Animal Collective's Avey Tare has assembled a "super group" of sorts for his latest offshoot project Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks.  Working along side members of The Dirty Projectors (meh) and Ponytail, the band create a dreamy worldly brand of psych-pop.  It's lovely.  "Enter the Slasher House" is due in April on Domino, but you can listen to first single "Little Fang" below now.  Hooray!

Cabaal

Montreal's Cabaal create slow, sweeping music awash in electronic vibrations and ambient drone.  It's the sound of flying quietly over a frozen landscape, the white ice and gray rock spanning as far as the eye can see until they just fade into the sky.  Their latest "Apex" EP is available here for name-your-price.  I advise you get on that.  Listen to album closer "Altar/Ascent" below.

Thee Oh Sees - Penetrating Eye

Late last year, San Francisco garage rock titans Thee Oh Sees announced that they would be going on hiatus...and now we have word of a new album, "Drop," due in April on Castle Face.  Go figure.  Listen to "Penetrating Eye" below.

New music from Pure X

Austin's Pure X have a new album of their particular brand of shoegazey, Americana dreampop.  "Angel" was recorded at the historic, 100-year old Wied Hall in central Texas and will be out on Fat Possum in April.  Listen to first single "Starlight" below.

Helms Alee

Crunchy, triumphant, stoner, math metal from the Pacific Northwest.  If any part of that last sentence fragment piqued your interest, then have i got a band for you.  The latest album from Washington trio Helms Alee is a monster.  Just look at that album cover.  "Sleepwalking Sailors" is full of banging drums and doom, smoky bass lines and wailing riffs, and screaming harmony.  Get it from Sargent House and let "Tumescence" pummel your face for a couple of minutes.

New Spiritualized

Spiritualized has a new song available called "Always Forgetting with You (The Bridge Song)," recorded under the name Mississippi Space Program for a pretty bitchin' upcoming Record Store Day release.  The song comes from "Space Project," a compilation of 7" records dedicated to different bodies of the galaxy and using actual space field recordings from the Voyager space probes.  Awesome stuff.  Listen below and look for it from Lefse on April 19th.

Ben Warfield

I know we listen to a lot of hypnotic electronic music to score the movement of the cosmos to around here, but Philadelphia's Ben Warfield really nails it on his latest release "Songs of Light and Dust."  It's like meeting the space baby face to face.  Listen to "Echoes Down the Corridors of Time" below and get the album from Data Garden.

Sky Ferreira

This has been out for a little while, but Sky Ferreira's "You're not the One" from her "Night Time, My Time" album has been stuck in my head for days.  I feel like a 13 year old girl dancing around my bedroom listening to it, and i'm not ashamed to admit that.  Get the album from Capital Records and watch the video below.

Yumi Zouma

Yumi Zouma's upcoming debut self-titled 10" EP is a little collection of winsome and airy pop songs.  They're kind of folky, kind of day dreamy, and pure bubble gum.  And she looks like someone we all would have gone to camp with back in the early 80's.  Get it from Cascine Records and listen to "The Brae" below.

Mas Ysa

Here's some experimental and arty synth pop from Thomas Arseneault, aka Mas Ysa.  "Shame" is glorious and uplifting and wonky.  Listen below and get the "Worth" EP from Downtown Records.

Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen's new album "Burn Your Fire for No Witness" is a stripped down, solemn affair, a collection of dark and reflective folk songs.  They're moody, slow burning, and sad, but they stick with you.  Listen to "White Fire" below and get the album later this month on Jagjaguwar.

Marissa Nadler

I love how the lines between folk music, goth, drone, and black metal are getting more and more blurred.  On dark folk songstress Marissa Nadler's latest "July" LP, producer Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Wolves in the Throne Room) mans the boards to wondrous effect.  The album is dark, somber, and haunting and ideal grey, gloomy day music.  Listen to "Was it a Dream" below and get the record from Sacred Bones.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - Produce mixtape

Cheekily named synth pop duo Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. have offered up a free mixtape online called "Produce," in which the two take their sunshine pop and dance aesthetic and mesh it with a number of different rappers.  It's delightful.  Download it for free here and listen to "Rush into Love" featuring Slim and Chuck Inglish below.

Have a Nice Life

Aside from having an excellent name, Connecticut post punk kids Have a Nice Life carry a gloomy, noisy, and propulsive sound with them, like the thump and croak of Joy Division with the reverb and feedback all the way up.  This is noise.  This is beauty.  This is your new favorite band.  Listen to "Defenestration Song" below and get "The Unnatural World" LP from The Flenser.

Dean Wareham

Dean Wareham of Galaxie 500/Luna/Dean and Britta fame is set to release his first solo album in March on Sonic Cathedral.  The self-titled record was produced by Jim James, and if first single "Holding Pattern" is any indication, it should be a wonderful little indie art-rock nugget.  Listen below.

The Hills Have Eyes

After last year's excellent reissue of "Last House on the Left," One Way Static Records is at it again, releasing a soundtrack to another classic Wes Craven joint, Don Peake's score to 1977's "The Hills Have Eyes."  The horror soundtrack revival continues!  Hooray!  Listen to a small sampling of the score below.

Chad VanGaalen

Canadian warped and fuzzy pop artist Chad VanGaalen is back with a new album, "Shrink Dust," on Sub Pop in April.  Listen to the noisy, reverb-psych siren call of "Where Are You?" below.

RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman

RIP Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Heroin sucks.

Sunn O))) and Ulver

What happens when you combine the talents and sounds of two heavy weight ambient-drone-progressive-black metal bands like Sunn O))) and Ulver?  Magic.  Pure bliss.  A creeping, hypnotic journey to the darkened nether worlds.  Or...just a really bitchin' record.  "Terrestrials" will be out next week via Southern Lord Records.  Listen to a sample from "Eternal Return" below and go grab the album from the bands here.

New Cloud Nothings

"I'm Not Part of Me" is the newest jam from Cloud Nothings, taken from the group's upcoming "Here and Nowhere Else" LP due on Carpark in April.  There's a real Replacements thing going on here.  I like it.