You've probably said it before: (insert band) is just one of those that you have to see live. While their 2007 debut The Storm did well to encapsulate the lyrical and melodic strengths of country rockers the New Familiars, it takes a live album to portray the sheer vitality that this quartet is capable of bringing.

Whatever happened to storytelling in hip-hop music? The focus of the rap game these days is more on big money bravado and inane club mantras than the narrative expertise of names like Guru and Ghostface Killah. The problem is that most don't really want to think about hip hop, as a summer lacking a definitive rap album would indicate.

How exactly do you classify Greensboro band Brighter Days (www.myspace.com/brighterdaysnc) (formerly Hip-Hip-Hello)? Prog-pop might be an oxymoron in theory, but it's the closest that you can come to describing the sound on their new EP Love.Like.War.

Brooklyn indie-acoustic duo Benyaros selftitled debut is what youd call a strong example of the genre, but its a stretch to call it indicative of the Brooklyn music scene as a whole. While the free-wheeling, DIY ethos is alive and well in their hometown, Benyaro takes a more clearcut path in creating thoughtful acoustic music.

Athens, Ga.-based garage punks Mother Jackson (www.motherjackson.com) were pretty cavalier about their collective sobriety during the creation of their debut album Suck On This,.

When funk music is good, you might wonder why it ever fell out of the mainstream listening public's favor. When it's just average, however, it can get really boring really quickly. Nashville's retro ensemble Charles Walker the Dynamites (www. myspace.

It already seems as though they've been around for eternity, but the self-titled debut album of Greensboro indie-boppers Jonas Sees in Color (www.myspace.com/jonasseesincolor) hits shelves on Sept.

Things get really interesting with "Friends & Lovers," a faintly countryfolk-inflected track driven by Schwartz's longing falsetto that stands out as one of the strongest songs on the album and the shadowy contrast found there is carried forward by the hard bass walk of "Annie Oakley."

They might come from rather rag-tag, humble musical beginnings, but the Midtown Dickens (www.myspace.com/midtowndickens) have traipsed along to turn out a uniquely personable hybrid of old-time, anti-folk and naturalismo that is built upon their charismatic exploration of the everyday and ordinary.

The 2007 additions of Chris Frame (Son Volt) on guitar and Jen Gunderman (the Jayhawks) on keyboards was a boon to Nashville alt-rockers the Coal Men (www.thecoalmen.