Weekend Roundup.

Instead of the usual pair of featured albums, today we'll look at 5 discs in quick-hitting fashion:

Happy Ashtray-Seventy Miles. This Chicago band features a melodic, lo-fi style in the vein of Guided by Voices but with a slight touch of Americana and heartland rock. The title track and "I Don't Know What Her Mind is Made Of" also recall Being There-era Wilco.

CD Baby | iTunes



Readymade Breakup-Classic Single. Here's the latest EP from the New Jersey band we've featured here before. If you enjoyed their previous releases, you'll want this 4-track rocking EP. "Convince Me" is the top track here, sounding like it could have been a big hit in the 80s.

Bandcamp

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Ballard-Bucky. Ballard (real name: Darren Riley) is a singer-songwriter from Bolton, England who's been quite prolific of late, releasing several EPs and singles of his fine 60s-style lo-fi guitar pop, and Bucky is the full-length culmination of these releases. There's a Ray Davies/Kinks feel to Ballard's tunes, complete with character sketches and a song about Buckminster Fuller. Good stuff.

Bandcamp



Dan Miraldi-The Freewheelin' Dan Miraldi. The album title and the cover are an obvious homage to the Bob Dylan classic, and here Miraldi goes Dylan-in-reverse by trading in his electric guitar for an acoustic one. Despite the acoustic shift, he retains the rock-and-roll arrangements on these tracks so they still have a bite to them. There are two new tracks here, with 4 acoustic versions of his previous tunes, including my personal favorite "The Holy Roller Stone Revival". A must if you liked his previous releases.

CD Baby | iTunes



David Ellis-The Boy Who Cried Wolf. This UK singer-songwriter has crafted an enjoyable and melodic collection of 10 tracks that recall Elliott Smith at times. Top tracks here are "Smoke", "Down" and the true standout, "Wake Up Smiling", which recalls XO-era Smith.

CD Baby | iTunes

Weekend Roundup.

Dropkick-Paper Trails. Death, taxes and Dropkick. Three things you can count on as this Scottish band releases an album a year like clockwork, and 2012's entry is Paper Trails. They specialize in the melodic pop of bands like Teenage Fanclub and Cosmic Rough Riders with a touch of alt-country, suffused with Pernice Brothers-like harmonies, and the standouts this time around are the Summerteeth-era Wilco-esque numbers "Words Best Left" and the title track, the jaunty "Another Day" and the irresistibly jangly "Annabelle". Always great stuff, and we'll see them again in 2013.

iTunes



Dan Miraldi-Sugar & Adrenaline. When you think about it, "Sugar & Adrenaline" might be the perfect title for a power pop album. Ohio's Dan Miraldi does his level best to live up to the title with tracks like "Few Rock Harder", a great Butch Walker-type tune complete with "uh-huh"s in the chorus, the punchy pop of "The Runaround", and the charming retro rock of "Record Collection". But Miraldi succeeds with the slower and mid-tempo tunes as well with "Yonder St. Sebastian" and "The Many Shades of Blue".

CD Baby | iTunes