The Fiery Furnaces have pinballed between indie rock brilliance and experimental bewilderment over the course of eight albums, but their latest, I’m Going Away, finds the brother-sister duo returning to their fairly uncomplicated roots. Of course, for the Friedbergers, that means creating music rooted in the spirit of 1970s TV theme songs for shows like Taxi. But none of that deep thinking matters upon hearing I’m Going Away’s jittery opening title track, which finds Eleanor Friedberger spouting resistant declarations to her man over offbeat percussion by guest drummer Robert D’Amico. Eleanor’s brother Matt brings the band back to Earth with his suave piano work on slow-burning R&B number “Drive To Dallas.” Even in simplicity, though, The Fiery Furnaces still inject bristly patches of guitar and sped-up melody lines into the song.

“The End Is Near” and “Keep Me In Dark” both follow a similar ‘70s soft-rock template, but I’m Going Away really takes off when the jumpy abstractions of “Charmaine Champagne” take flight. “Cut The Cake” hearkens back even further, sounding like a fractured amalgamation of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Velvet Underground, while the glistening Americana sheen of “Even In The Rain” and “Ray Bouvier” would sound right at home on a Wilco album. And “Staring At The Steeple” creeps along on a slightly menacing blues backbeat, counteracting the rest of I’m Going Away’s mostly hopeful instrumentation. Even at their most “normal,” The Fiery Furnaces are still a complex and challenging band that twists straight pop songcraft into something distinctive; when you hear Eleanor Friedberger’s glamorous vocals over her brother Matt’s incessant piano, you instantly know who you’re listening to. The fact that they’ve been able to challenge fans and critics alike over the course of a decade is no small feat in today’s homogenous indie rock world. –NM

San Francisco psychedelic folk duo The Skygreen Leopards don’t seem to take themselves too seriously. That’s evident by the artwork adorning the cover of their sixth album, Gorgeous Johnny; like the five that came before, the pastoral colors and crayola quality hint at the playfulness of the music contained within. And then there’s the album title and the press kit explanation, which describes Johnny as a “phony and self-confessed dandy” who often “quotes Coco Chanel’s views on Modernism” in an “affected British accent.” Fact, fiction, or filler?

Well, if you’re looking for California psych folk that jingles as well as it jangles, Glenn Donaldson and Donovan Quinn’s latest creation is right up your alley, phoniness, dandiness, and all. Opener “Johnny’s Theme” could serve as a long-lost track from classic The Byrds nugget Ballad Of Easy Rider, while “Margery” has a sugar-dipped summertime feeling, surely appropriated from Gorgeous Johnny collaborator Jason Quever of Papercuts. “Dixie Cups In The Dead Grass” will dredge up melancholy feelings of parties past, while “Goodnight Anna’s” tender guitars, breathy vocals, and clattering percussion stands as the highlight of the album. Everything that follows is in the same vein: choogling organs, off-key vocal harmonies, distant tambourines, jammy guitars... listening to The Skygreen Leopards is like eating a gourmet marijuana truffle on a sunny day perched atop Hippie Hill in San Francisco. If you’ve been there, you know it certainly isn’t the worst thing in the world. –NM

In advance of Recess Records re-releasing five of their seminal early garage-punk albums, East Bay supergroup Pinhead Gunpowder assembled the greatest hits collection Kick Over The Traces. Why the supergroup tag, you ask? Well, Pinhead’s main guitar player/singer is none other than Billie Joe Armstrong (of Green Day fame), while Cometbus punk zine head honcho Aaron Cometbus provides drums, Bill Schneider (Green Day tour manager) plays bass, and Jason White (Chino Horde founder/Green Day’s second guitarist) offers up backing guitars.

The group has played together since 1990, when original Pinhead member Mike Kirsch first collaborated with Schneider at Cometbus’ infamous House-O-Toast in Berkeley. As the other members pursued their main projects, the band floundered, but in 2008 they reconvened for a string of west coast shows and unveiled three brand new songs — “West Side Highway,” “On The Ave.,” and “Anniversary Song” — all of which are thankfully included on Kick Over The Traces. “West Side Highway” in particular rumbles and roars, contrasting Pinhead’s early fervor with Billie’s ironic look at midlife complacency, while “Find My Place” echoes punk rock’s obsession with society’s conformist tendencies. Overall, Kick Over The Traces is jam-packed with so many solid two-minute Pinhead Gunpowder singles, you’ll be swimming in a short-attention-span ‘90s revival in no time. –NM

When you hear the term “Latin jazz,” you might think of suave señors dancing the tango with ravishing women in red cocktail dresses, or even the upbeat Cuban-flavored rhythms of supergroups like Buena Vista Social Club. But the three Latinos from Los Angeles that formed Triorganico have chosen a different tack, opting to record minimalist bossa nova steeped in 1950s Brazilian nostalgia on their debut album Convivencia. With all recording sessions done over dinner in saxophonist Pablo Calogero’s garage, the band’s earthy name was a given.

So you won’t find any loud, shrieking horns, feverish conga rhythms, or fast-paced dance music on Convivencia — think the perfect backing soundtrack to a romantic dinner, or a philosophical conversation at your local coffeehouse. Fabiano do Nascimento’s sparse guitar lines serve mostly as backing tracks for Calogero’s subtle saxophone and flute, while percussion provided by Ricardo Pasillas evokes the pitter-patter of Beat poetry nights held many moons ago. It’s hard to discern individual tracks among the breezy instrumental atmospherics of Convivencia, but “Kathy” and “Tempo De Amor” both stand out for their languid pace and finger-snapping simplicity. If you’re in need of some fresh tunes for that next rest and relaxation session, Triorganico has just the warm and jazzy album for you. –NM