Grieving Sonic Youth fans are suffering no dearth of releases to keep their ears occupied while the band rests in (possibly permanent) hiatus.

Day two of CMJ was crammed with notable bands. The problem with the festival is that it’s spread around the lower east side and Brooklyn, and you can’t be everywhere at the same time (yet, anyway). With that in mind, I ended up catching sets from The History of Apple Pie, StaG, Little Daylight, and Rebeka.

Experimental pop outfit Poliça returns with the unsettling Shulamith, replete with grisly cover art and the video for “Tiff,” which indulges in a twisted self-torture scene with singer Channy Leaneagh.

Regardless of whether one already has all of The Clash’s albums, the immersive experience of sinking into the lovingly detailed Sound System will serve as a reminder of why fans agreed with their label’s slogan, “The Only Band That Matters.”

12 Years a Slave grabs the audience by the neck, dragging it through the mosquito-infested swamps of America’s greatest mistake.

They would eventually become the Beat Generation, but before “Howl,” Naked Lunch, or On The Road, they’d find themselves accessories to murder.

New finds Paul McCartney no closer to resting on his golden laurels than he was 40 years ago. After last year’s album of standards, Kisses on the Bottom, New is his first collection of new material since 2007’s Memory Almost Full, and judging by the tone of the album’s liner notes, he sounds downright buzzed about sharing the experience and its outcome.

After frontman Daniel Blumberg’s bombshell departure from the band earlier this year, the remaining members of Yuck—drummer Jonny Rogoff, bassist Mariko Doi, and guitarist-turned-frontman Max Bloom—have a lot to prove.

Polvo is still doing what they do best, 20 years after giving us the gift of Today’s Active Lifestyles. Which is to A) say whatever the fuck they want and B) explode your mind with inventive guitar work.