My girlfriend just asked me the name of this band — I told her, and she said, “Oh, shut up.” I was like, “Seriously,” and she was like, “These guys are really good,” and I was like, “Yeah, I know — they’re Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. How could a band with such a name not be profound and prolific? Get with it.” From there on out, we listened together to the melodies of Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott from Detroit. You can tell they’re from Detroit before they tell you, because in the new video for single “Nothing But Our Love,” they sit in an empty Jacuzzi in an abandoned mansion. And we all know those are easy to find in Michigan.

You will like Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. You will like their music and their faces and their hair. They look good and make rainbow sounds, they cover “God Only Knows,” which was one of the few good The Beach Boys hits anyone ever heard, and they walk on clouds like mythic centurions. It all adds up as follows: good hair + rainbow sounds + The Beach Boy’s best hit ever + the study of mythology + a resulting understanding of the forces possessed by a centaur = the solid Horse Power EP. Half-man/ half-centaur and Florida Panhandle surfing star Sterling Spencer would love it.

There are a number of bands moving back to super drawn-out vocal compositions with a heavy dose of high octaves while still keeping a serious face. They may sound like girls, but they’re not. These are serious, rugged men with a rare talent to make you feel a little sweet, even though you look like old leather and sandpaper. Just give in and try something new everybody — you only have one life to live, and it should be riddled with miniature smiles.

In all of the glorious bullshit above, you should gather one message: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. has created a fantastic EP that sits among and surpasses the high rungs set by recent ensembles with immense talent. Please see the following equation to sum up Horse Power: cathedral haze + precise direction = fantasy giggles and good music. By Will Tunstall

Colorado-based DJ Derek Vincent Smith is the mastermind behind Pretty Lights, and along with live drummer Cory Eberhard, the pair compose a slick and versatile style of breakbeat electro on their free EP Spilling Over Every Side, which is their third release so far in 2010.

A meld of DJ Shadow and MSTRKRFT comes to mind when listening to Pretty Lights — from the cruisy, chimey breakbeat style to the chunky, club-bouncing chomp, there’s an innovative mix of electro genres that flows effortlessly in an organic fashion. Each track progresses seamlessly through the various sub-genres in electronic music, and on “High School Art Class” and “Forever Lost,” Smith creates tracks that feel like they should have been on your iPod already. “A Million Tomorrows” and “Let The World Hurry By” saunter in a way that can’t help but make one’s head bob, while “Hot Like Dimes” is a hip-hop influenced banger that will surely find its way into a few clubs.

With a world tour prepped and even a stop at the fame-inducing Coachella Festival, Pretty Lights will take their beats on the road this fall and winter, presenting their fresh take on electronic mash-ups. While Spilling Over Every Side is only an EP, there’s a lot of content and change-ups and it’ll be interesting to see what these guys can do on a full-length release… let’s hope it’s not just a compilation of the EPs, because that trend is weak. By Peter Viele

Visit www.PrettyLightsMusic.com to download Spilling Over Every Side for free, along with several of the band’s other releases

Los Angeles MC Shawn Jackson takes a big gamble on his second solo album, Brand New Old Me. After 2008’s much-hyped and introspective First Of All… put Jackson on underground hip-hop’s radar, the smooth-rapping Southern Californian has chosen to keep up with the times by employing more electro-heavy production and radio-ready R&B hooks. But dropping his commercial curveball in July was a smart move by Shawn and label Tres Records — opening cuts like the easygoing title track and its follow-up “Lil Big Man” both boast enough sparkling strings, suave drum beats, and charming female backing vocals to soundtrack a summer’s worth of head-nodding car rides.

“Lah City” is the first track that veers from Shawn Jackson’s straightforward past, and although its glitzy production doesn’t scream “hip-hop,” Shawn and guest MCs Co$$ and Young De do a good job turning it into another high-life west coast anthem. Luckily, “Izichu” reverts back to rootsy snare crashes, grounding Brand New Old Me in jazzy territory, before “T!lt” goes all bare-bones and comes out sounding like a stoned-out street-corner rhyme battle. Impressive percussion samples enhance “Change’s” meandering structure, while “Bay Bwoy,” “Make It Reign,” and “Starget Practice” all surprisingly hearken back to hip-hop’s Golden Era.

After that, Brand New Old Me begins to sag, perhaps under the weight of too many tracks. “Fruit Salad” is an innovative simile-and-metaphor exercise, but Shawn Jackson’s lyrics get lost underneath a host of production layers, which also happens on the over-cluttered “Victory Lap.” What’s most interesting about Brand New Old Me is that Jackson packs his electro-exploratory and modern-sounding tracks near the front of the album, leaving the back end to recall his earlier, more feel-good hip-hop material. Maybe he wanted to make a fresh statement without totally crossing over to the trendy, commercial dark side? No matter his intentions — or his California origins, which we East Coasters love to disparage — Shawn Jackson is an adept rapper you don’t want to sleep on. By Nick McGregor

The way Microtia physically releases their albums is cool. They use old cigarette boxes and beer case cardboard to fashion their records and merchandise — 1,650 beers and 2,500 cigarettes for Spacemaker alone — they supposedly make their own instruments, they present themselves really well visually, and they would seemingly be up to the challenge of making a power play with Spacemaker. Unfortunately, this Portland quartet falls just short.

Microtia’s intentions are good, as they self-describe their creation story as “pump[ing] Björk with 400 CCs of testosterone and put[ting] her in a rough-edged rock band,” but their attempt to move far from the soft and defining sound of the Pacific Northwest has left the band placing upon us a release that sounds more like a late ‘90s Nickelback album or Creed torture session, not a palatable prog-rock album.

The name Microtia is possibly derived from a congenital deformity that messes up one’s ear, to put it lightly. If this is the case, then I get it, because ears and loud music and shit getting damaged makes sense. But I wouldn’t have been the first of the band members to jump on board and start chanting the name out of excitement. There were probably a couple of guys in the group who sat back when the name came up and said to themselves in a hushed grumble, “Man, I’m in another band named after a disease.”

I agree with a lot of what seems to buzz around Spacemaker. The instrumental talent from keyboardist Dan Roberts, bassist Oliver Merson, and drummer Tim Steiner is a tidal bore of power, but Eric Leskovar’s vocals drown out his raw guitar and the heavy, well-played drum and bass lines that would be otherwise enjoyable. “Pocket Full Of Bee Stings” is the one song I found on Spacemaker that allowed Leskovar’s incredible guitar work to cut through his vocal wake. Microtia earns high marks for sustainable creativity and DIY awesomeness, but barely passes on the strength of their music alone. By Will Tunstall